Dirty research: a call towards decolonial urban knowledge production

Tanzil Shafique

City, 2025, vol. 29, issue 3-4, 502-515

Abstract: The conventional view of research emphasizes the systematic investigation to produce knowledge with an objective undertone, often emanating a sense of purity of the research process/methods. However, this piece calls for a reexamination of urban knowledge production, particularly its processual aspects and the implications of conducting it in relation to urban communities, where I suggest this purity is fictitious. The enquiry here arises from a decolonial critique of tokenistic engagement in urban research and an ontological critique of knowledge production as a good in itself. Instead, the concept of Dirty research presented here positions knowledge production as an embedded process within the creation of new worlds through entwining theory and action. I argue that the ways we conduct research—and the actions (or inactions) of researchers—are intricately connected to structural injustices, epistemic violence, and the perpetuation of coloniality. The proposed framework illustrates how urban research can be approached differently by adopting an ethos of reciprocity that 1) ensures parity in the knowledge produced, 2) fosters the co-production of research inquiries, and 3) cultivates empathetic allyship. By focusing on these interlinked processes, Dirty research conceptually challenges extractivist paradigms in urban knowledge production and charts pathways towards decolonial urban futures.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2024.2447687

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