From Connell, R. (2013). Using Southern Theory: Decolonizing Social Thought in Theory, Research and Application. Planning Theory, 13(2): 210-­‐223:

“To make neoliberal ranking exercises work, authorities must assume there is a homogeneous domain of knowledge on which the measuring operations may be performed.”

“The role of the periphery is to supply data, and later to apply knowledge in the form of technology and method. The role of the metropole, as well as producing data, is to collate and process data, producing theory (including methodology), and developing applications which are later exported to the periphery. Within this structure, Hountondji argues, the attitude of intellectuals in the periphery is one of “extraversion,” i.e. being oriented to sources of authority outside of their own society.”

In our research, who is on the periphery? In what ways are we (or not) the metropole? How can we be more like an peripheral intellectual with orientations towards our own contexts/communities?