A contrapuntal epistemology for social work: An Afrocentric perspective

Abstract

The experiences of diverse people present challenges and opportunities for knowledge production. The knowledge base undergirding social work has been found to be dominated by Anglo-American cultural values assumed to be universally applicable. The relevant texts on social work knowledge were examined. The analysis revealed that culture is the cornerstone of any society’s response to social problems, that the hegemony of Eurocentric paradigms remain intact, that there is complicity with the coloniality of power in knowledge production resulting in epistemic injustice, and that decolonisation and indigenisation are critical imperatives towards the achievement of global cognitive justice. A contrapuntal epistemology of social work is recommended.

The Role of Social Work Education in Fostering Empowerment of People of African Descent: The Significance of the History of Slavery and Colonialism

“…Sen believes that political and economic freedoms are both significant for our society but that civil and political freedom is essential to fulfill economic needs. The racism that initiated and legitimated slavery curtailed the freedom of many people of African descent and still does so today [29][30][31][32], confining many among African descent to remain socio-economically disempowered and poor due to local and global neoliberal policies [2,19].…”

“…These conceptions of empowerment against the processes that have and continue to characterize interactions between the people of European descent and those of Africa as well as the westernization of social work noted in the literature [18,19,23], reveal that there is higher probability for social work education and practice in Africa and with African descendant to disempower, rather than empower them. According to Lee and Hudson [33], "social work at it best is an empowerment profession" (p. 143).…”

“…This seed continues to germinate and shape Africa and Africans' interactions with the rest of the world. Even in education including social work education and practice in Africa, and with the people of African descent, themes of colonization, coloniality, and western imperialism dominate [6,[17][18][19]. Thus, Africa and people of African descent remain marginalized and are impacted by the legacy of slavery and colonialism [2,8,10].…”

Geographical inequity in social work research: A snapshot of research publications from the global South

“…Connell’s (2007b, 2014) work stresses these problematic global dynamics of knowledge production, highlighting a power imbalance in the social sciences, which are dominated by the perspectives of men, capitalists, the educated and wealthy who are geographically located in the global North. Social work’s knowledge base is dominated by Anglo-American values, perspectives and epistemologies, which largely ignore the contextual realities of the global South, within a system of Northern paradigms that define and validate social work knowledge (Mathebane and Sekudu, 2017).…”

“…Pressure to publish further legitimises research in the global North (Keim, 2011), while frequently the global periphery exports data and imports applied science, maintaining the centre of theory and methodology in the global North (Connell, 2014). Article production is dominated by the global North, despite significant development throughout the global South, particularly in Asia and Latin America (Estrada, 2017), amounting to an international division of scientific labour, where academics in the global South hold marginalised positions in international knowledge production (Estrada, 2017; Mathebane and Sekudu, 2017). If this dynamic continues, knowledge will continue to be interpreted through Northern theories, and perpetuate current knowledge bias (Thomas, 2018).…”