Decolonising a business school in context: From theory to practice
A new case report on the BBS Decolonisation Project has been published in collaboration with SAGE, containing an overview into this ongoing three-year project.
The Decolonisation Project has been running at Birmingham Business School since September 2022, led by Caroline Chapain, Emma Surman, Rweyemamu Ndibalema and Anita Lateano. The aim of the project is to recognise where the legacies of colonisation are still present today within BBS programmes, teaching, research and the way the school operates, and to find effective ways to dismantle it, to enable a decolonised reimagining of our business school.
In a new publication, an overview of the approach and activities, as well as learnings and reflections from the three-year project has been shared, with the hopes that the case report acts as a guide for those who are interested in undertaking their own projects in decolonisation. Alongside reflections from the project team, the case report includes insights from academics, industry professionals and students who are undertaking their own work into decolonising the university.
Within the Business school environment, there has been a slow uptake in engaging with the decolonial turn, and there is a gap in the research to understand models and practices that can be used when engaging with decolonial work within the Business School context. Whereas there is much literature around the theoretical arguments on decolonising, far less has been published on how to put this into practice. By centring in on the project’s 5 C’s; conversation, (dis)comfort, context, co-creation, co-producers, the report offers one approach to starting a journey into decolonising.
The case report can be downloaded on SAGE.