Decolonisation as Dis-Enclosure: overcoming the dangers of positionality and identity in comparative education

Abstract

ABSTRACT This conceptual paper aims to discuss how to address the dangers emerging from scholars’ proclamations of positionality and identity in debates on decolonisation in comparative education. The approach proposed engages with two ideas that were central to the work of French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy and were further developed by Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe: dis-enclosure and being-in-common. The author argues that these two ideas offer an alternative ontology of decolonisation that challenges the binary logic of identitarian thinking (e.g. western/non-western; white/non-white) in which proclamations of positionality and identity may often be rooted. This argument highlights the theoretical and political advantages of adopting a non-identitarian perspective for decolonisation debates in comparative education. The paper concludes with considering the implications of this alternative ontology of decolonisation in comparative education, with a specific focus on how scholars can foreground a shared responsibility for ‘reparative futures’ in research, writing, and teaching.