Decolonizing Knowledge in Hegemonic Psychological Science

The authors describe three approaches evident in a collection of papers about “decolonizing psychological science” that they co-edited for the Journal of Social and Political Psychology. In the indigenous resistance approach, psychologists draw upon local knowledge to modify hegemonic practice and to produce psychologies that better resonate with local realities. In the accompaniment approach, global experts from hegemonic centers work alongside inhabitants of marginalized communities in struggles for social justice. In the denaturalization approach, psychologists draw upon local knowledge of marginalized communities to illuminate and resist the epistemic violence inherent in standard forms of hegemonic psychology. Together, these approaches extend consideration beyond the production of local psychologies attuned to the conditions of particular communities and illuminate decolonial versions of global psychology for general application.