“Decolonization” As a Metaphor, Not a Movement, in Communication Studies: A Critical Thematic Meta-Analysis of the Discipline

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this essay, we theorize how terms like “decolonization” and “decoloniality” have entered into the vernacular of the discipline of Communication Studies and remained largely as metaphors. We connect to a conversation among scholars in Indigenous Studies, Cultural Studies, and others who have turned attention to “decolonial” critiques in academic environments, and how they remain detached from their activist origins. We begin with a discussion of metaphor and the cultural and political implications for adopting and misattributing a term like decolonization. Moreover, this study develops a critical method to make sense of the rapid and vast uptake of the term decolonization as a harmful metaphor in the discipline’s most widely read journals. Our critical thematic meta-analysis is driven by a quantifying tool – we turn our research lens to the body of literature written by the collective of scholars in the discipline who refer to or rely on decolonization in their research to reveal the way in which the term is connoted over the last decade. Our analysis reveals “decolonization” is often used as a liberal abstract concept divorced from material contexts. We critique this reductionism, noting how decolonization becomes a buzzword for institutional change without genuine engagement with anti-colonial movements. We end by inviting scholars to reconsider the study of colonization and those materially resisting it with new energies and orientations.