Production of Knowledge and Methodologies in Conflict Induced Displacement and Forced Migration

Abstract

Knowledge is power that begins with the self and interaction with others (Idemudia-Elabor, Chap. Nine: Identity, Representation and Knowledge Production. In Indigenous Philosophies and Critical Education: A READER, Counterpoints, vol. 379, 142–156. New York: Peter Lang, 2011). The process of knowledge production flows along with the levels of interaction one has with one’s own self and with others. If we attempt to closely look at the processes of knowledge production, especially in the contemporary times, we observe that these processes have hitherto been dominated by the Western philosophical thought and viewpoints. It is stated that ‘the dynamics of identity and social difference (race/ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality, etc.) that significantly mediate how knowledge creation experts and practitioners come to produce and validate the use of “knowledge’” about marginalised communities and groups have left highly unaddressed’ (ibid. 2011: 142). It is further argued that the ‘authority and role of the experts (mostly of whom is dominated by the West) is often looked at as “having dubious value” in the eyes of the marginalised communities’ (Heron, Co-operative Inquiry: Research into the Human Conditions. London: Sage, 1996: 4).