Decolonising spaces of knowledge production
Mpala research centre in Laikipia County, Kenya
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4922017 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mark Griffiths (0000-0002-2284-4533, Newcastle University, corresponding author), Fridah Mueni (Zoological Society of London (Kenya), Mtito Andei, Tsavo, Kenya), Kate Baker (0000-0003-2986-0584), Kate C Baker (0000-0002-5518-2994, University of Exeter), Surshti Patel (0000-0001-9419-8182, Zoological Society of London) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 2340-2357 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning E Nature and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2514-8486 • E-ISSN: 2514-8494 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/25148486231156728 |
| OpenAlex | W4320730534 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 50 |
In this article we discuss Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia County, Kenya as a distinctly colonial space. Drawing on historical materials, fieldwork observations and in-depth interviews, we build an account of British colonial expropriation of land, European and American modes of enclosure, and the development of a prominent site of knowledge production in the fields of ecology, conservation and evolutionary biology. Mpala is product and productive of colonial relations, ones where land use serves mainly Western interests in ways that sustain and entrench categories of coloniser/colonised. We support this claim by identifying three ways in which colonial legacies endure at Mpala in terms of (i) ontology, or the particular ways in which land is made landscape; (ii) race and the organisation of space and labour and (iii) silence (and silencing) as a mechanism that sustains colonial power relations. We further argue that turning to such a nameable site of contemporary academic extraction enables a shift from postcolonial critique to decolonial praxis. By naming Mpala in specific terms, the possibility of politics opens out from critical analysis towards a project of undoing the epistemological and material legacies of colonialism
Colonialism · Decolonization · Environmental ethics · Political science · Politics · Praxis · Sociology · Undoing · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law
Moving the Maasai
Colonising Egypt
Imposing Wilderness
The Politics of Education
Conservation Refugees
Decoloniality and anti-oppressive practices for a more ethical ecology
Descolonitzar la ment
Smallholder farmers' use of mobile phone services in central Kenya
Silence, Silencing, and (In)Visibility
Decolonisation and Wildlife Conservation in Kenya, 1958–68
At home in the postcolony
Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism
Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa
Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire
Colonial Lives of Property
For speaking against silence
Prospect, Perspective and the Evolution of the Landscape Idea
Black and Minority Ethnic ( BME ) student and staff in contemporary British Geography
A day in the life of a Geographer
Decolonising geographical knowledges
Decolonising the spaces of geographical knowledge production
The 2017 RGS‐IBG chair's theme
The Problem of Speaking for Others
From heterogeneous worlds
The 'White Highlands' of Kenya
Decolonial learnings, askings and musings
Slash-and-burn ecology
The Elephant in the Room
A Critique of Postcolonial Reason
Decolonizing Methodologies
Landscape after genocide
Fuck Nuance
Silence as Resistance before the Subject, or Could the Subaltern Remain Silent
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |