Facing our whiteness in doing Ubuntu research. Finding spatial justice for the researcher

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Authors

Muller, Julian C.
Trahar, Sheila

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

AOSIS Open Journals

Abstract

In this article, the two authors, academics from different contexts and both aware of their whiteness, focus on their own vulnerable selves. The aim is to reflect on their specific agency in this project1 and to create awareness for subjectivity in research. What are the challenges of two white academics – the one from a first world country with a baggage of colonialism, and the other from South Africa with the apartheid baggage? On the one hand, they are not ‘vulnerable’ selves but indeed very privileged selves. On the other hand, there is an awareness of the fact that this very privilege puts researchers in a vulnerable situation, especially in doing research on Ubuntu in an African context.

Description

This article is part of the Special Collection titled ‘Spatial Justice and Reconciliation’, sub-edited by Stephan de Beer, of the Department of Practical Theology and the Centre for Contextual Ministry, University of Pretoria.

Keywords

Ubuntu, Academics, Whiteness, Colonialism, Justice, South Africa

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Müller, J. & Trahar, S., 2016, ‘Facing our whiteness in doing Ubuntu research. Finding spatial justice for the researcher’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 72(1), a3510. http://dx.DOI. org/ 10.4102/hts.v72i1.3510.