Signposts to decolonial futures in understanding and addressing our present crises

Abstract

We introduce the special issue "Our Present Crises: Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss, and Social Inequality" by highlighting how histories of the social and behavioral sciences can contribute to a multifaceted understanding of the links among the climate crisis, massive biodiversity loss, and social and economic inequities of nearly every kind. We propose that although the epistemological and ontological bases of these disciplines are themselves entangled with modernity/coloniality, there are, nonetheless, critical insights to be gained by exposing these entanglements.These insights may help generate visions of decolonial futures which eschew destructive dualisms in favor of relational ontologies which honor the living ecosystem of the earth.climate crisis and modernity, crisis histories in the social and behavioral sciences, decolonial turn in history, progress and crises, technology and technoscienceThe origin of the call for this special issue was our shared alarm over the ecological crisis that continues to grow more intense and widespread. As coeditors, we are trained in different disciplines-Human Geography (Graham) and Psychology (Wade)-but share a deep belief that the social and behavioral sciences have insight and responsibility to address this crisis. For a number of years, we have seen growing links among climate change, massive biodiversity loss, and inequities of nearly every kind-racial, health, income, housing, wealth, and so forth. These problems, both individually and collectively, pose an existential threat to social, political, and biological systems, both currently and with increasing impact over the next half-century and beyond. Given that behavioral, political, and economic processes are directly linked to our current state of climate emergency, what can historical analyses of these processes-including the role of the social sciences in shaping them-contribute to our understanding, and how can they inform our responses?

Decoloniality as a social issue for psychological study

“…Indeed, some of the most provocative work on mental decolonization has come from the perspectives of Black or African‐centered psychology (Nobles, 2013), Native American psychology (Duran & Duran, 1995), Asian‐American psychology (Okazaki, 2018), or multicultural counseling more generally. Scholars working from the perspectives of critical and theoretical psychology have increasingly adopted a decolonial lens (Beshara, 2019; Fisher, 2019; Pickren & Pickren, 2021; Segalo & Fine, 2020). Finally, various approaches to community psychology have emerged as a leading site of decolonial efforts in psychology (Boonzaier & van Niekerk, 2019; Carolissen & Duckett, 2018; Seedat & Suffla, 2017), especially approaches related to various perspectives of liberation psychology (e.g., Enriquez, 1993; Martín‐Baró, 1994; Montero & Sonn, 2009).…”