Afro-Belgian activist resistances to research procedures: Reflections on epistemic extractivism and decolonial interventions in sociological research

Abstract

This article examines Afro-Belgian resistance to sociological research procedures and in particular, the way in which demands for compensation and citation policies have recently emerged as a sine qua non activist condition for participation in academic devices. Grounded on a long-term ethnography conducted within Afro-Belgian anti-racist circles (2011–2019), the article argues that activist resistances, whether or not they give rise to political claims, have something to do with the colonial engagement of sociology and more generally of science. Building on postcolonial/black/feminist studies and decolonial indigenous research, the article explores to what extent, academic politics of citation and compensation of anti-racist activists could then be considered as decolonial interventions. Against the background of research involving groups whose activism is intrinsically linked to a political and epistemic domination, the paradigm of ‘protection’ of the ‘researched’ (through procedures of anonymization) is not only insufficient but problematic. Decolonial intervention should not only be addressed under the lens of knowledge co-production (participative/decolonial/anti-racist research) but also in terms of co-ownership policies of data/knowledges.