Decolonising communication studies: Advancing the discipline through fermenting participation studies

Abstract

In this chapter we engage with the so-called ‘ferment in the field’ debate that has shaped much of the discourse around the direction, disciplinary, epistemological and methodological grounding of the broader media and communications field since the 1980s. This debate is ultimately about strengthening and advancing media and communications scholarship. That said, it continues to overlook developments in epistemology as well as methodology in and from an African context. As such, the discipline, epistemologies and methodologies that underpin scholarly research have remained lodged in the global North and isolated from scholarship of the South. To advance the discipline as a whole, the ferment in the field debate will have to take account of scholarship from locations other than the global North; in particular, scholarship that is grounded in quintessentially African philosophical insights, as well as converging on notions of participation studies.