Decolonizing Community-Based Research and Practice in the Indonesian Context: Refuting Superiority, Foregrounding Solidarity

Drawing on our experiences as community psychologists located in the Indonesian higher education system, we discuss the meanings and implications of employing decolonial perspectives in community-based research and practice in the Indonesian context. We particularly focus on the understanding of decoloniality as a process of recognizing how coloniality has imposed a hierarchy of being in our society and how as academics we may have unintentionally contributed to maintaining this hierarchy through our community-based research and practice. We present our arguments by first outlining the history and current structure of Indonesian higher education systems and how community-based research and practice within these systems have contributed to reproducing a colonial hierarchy in our society. Central to our argument is a concern about the patronizing approach to practice and knowledge production that has become the predominant way for university-based academics and experts to relate to local communities outside university settings. Reflecting on our practice, we argue that decoloniality is about fostering connections that are built upon a shared sense of our common humanity.