What Challenges for Global Development Research are Posed by a More Decolonial Approach? Colonial Genealogies and Responses

The increasing appetite for decolonial approaches in development research challenges conventional methodologies rooted in colonial legacies. While the relationship between colonialism and development is well documented, the colonial underpinnings of key research methods, such as surveys and big data, have received less attention. This paper critically examines how these methods, as tools of colonial governance, continue to predominate in development research and reduce the space for decolonial alternatives. It highlights the continuities between colonial-era data practices, such as population censuses, and contemporary methods like big data, arguing that they can perpetuate power asymmetries and “data colonialism”. In contrast, decolonial methodologies emphasise reflexivity, relationality, and the active participation of indigenous communities. However, there is potential for these methods to be co-opted or instrumentalized within the global development research ecosystem, if they are adopted without a critical understanding of the relationship between power and knowledge. This paper evaluates emerging decolonial alternatives, including methodologies grounded in indigenous knowledge systems and ethical frameworks such as Ubuntu and relationality, assessing their potential to resist such co-option. The paper concludes by arguing that while decolonial research offers a more holistic and ethically grounded alternative to conventional methods, its influence is limited by the persistence of deeper structural inequities. These include the dominance of Northern epistemologies and the commodification of research methods and expertise within academia. Future development research must not only adopt decolonial approaches but also actively deconstruct the existing power dynamics within the field to create equitable and inclusive knowledge systems.