Skip to main content

Decolonial Methodology as a Framework for Localization and Social Justice Study in Resource-Mismanaged Context

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
User Localization Strategies in the Face of Technological Breakdown

Abstract

This chapter turns to and proposes the use of decolonial methodology and its accompanying methods of grounded theory and rhetorical–cultural analysis. Decolonial methodology seeks to recover the lost identities of colonized people by championing self-determination, empowerment, decolonization, and social justice. The author sees decolonial methodology as the appropriate approach to conduct research that seeks to advance user localization strategies for two reasons: (1) users’ ways of knowing have been marginalized and colonized by discourses that favor designers. This means we need to recover the lost voices of users; and (2) the context of study, Ghana, is a colonized context so it is necessary to use an approach which will help to demystify colonialism. Because decolonial is a flexible methodology, the author combines it with grounded theory method.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • Acharya, K. R. (2019). Usability for social justice: Exploring the implementation of localization usability in Global North technology in the context of a Global South’s country. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 49(1), 6–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047281617735842.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agboka, G. Y. (2012). Liberating intercultural technical communication from “large culture” ideologies: Constructing culture discursively. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 42(2), 159–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agboka, G. Y. (2014). Decolonial methodologies: Social justice perspectives in intercultural technical communication research. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 44(3), 297–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, A., & Charmaz, K. (2007). Introduction grounded theory research: Methods and practices (A. Bryant & K. Charmaz, Eds., Paperback ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comaroff, J., & Comaroff, J. (1991). Of revelation and revolution. In Christianity, colonialism, and consciousness in South Africa (Vol. 1). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ding, H. (2014). Rhetoric of a global epidemic: Transcultural communication about SARS. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ding, H., & Savage, G. (2013). Guest editors’ introduction: New directions in intercultural professional communication. Technical Communication Quarterly, 22(1), 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dorpenyo, I. K. (2016). “Unblackboxing” technology through the rhetoric of technical communication: Biometric technology and Ghana’s 2012 election. Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (2011). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes (2nd ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gonzales, L. (2018). Sites of translation: What multilinguals can teach us about digital writing and rhetoric. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gonzales, L., & Zantjer, R. (2015). Translation as a user-localization practice. Technical Communication, 62(4), 271–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodall, H. L. J. (2000). Writing the new ethnography. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harding, S. G. (1991). Whose science? Whose knowledge? Thinking from women’s lives. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, R. P., & Daughton, S. M. (2005). Modern rhetorical criticism (3rd ed.). New York, USA: Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, R. (1998). User centered technology: A rhetorical theory for computers and other mundane artifacts. Albany: State University of New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, N. N. (2014). Methods and meanings: Reflections on reflexivity and flexibility in an intercultural ethnographic study of an activist organization. Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization, 5(1), 14–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller, E. F. (1996). Feminism and science. In E. F. Keller & H. E. Longino (Eds.), Feminism and science (pp. 28–39). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindlof, T. R., & Taylor, B. C. (2011). Qualitative communication research methods (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovitt, C. R., & Goswami, D. (1999). Exploring the rhetoric of international professional communication: An agenda for teachers and researchers. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2005). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Saldana, J. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seigel, M. (2013). The rhetoric of pregnancy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, B. (2012). Reading and writing in the global workplace: Gender, literacy, and outsourcing in Ghana. Lanham: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, P., & Porter, J. E. (1997). Opening spaces: Writing technologies and critical research practices. Greenwich: Greenwood Publishing Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun, H. (2004). Expanding the scope of localization: A cultural usability perspective on mobile text messaging use in American and Chinese contexts. Troy, NY: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun, H. (2006). The triumph of users: Achieving cultural usability goals with user localization. Technical Communication Quarterly, 15(4), 457–481. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15427625tcq1504_3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun, H. (2009). Toward a rhetoric of locale: Localizing mobile messaging technology into everyday life. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 39(3), 245–261. https://doi.org/10.2190/TW.39.3.c.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun, H. (2012). Cross-cultural technology design: Creating culture-sensitive technology for local users. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thatcher, B. (2010). Editor introduction: Eight needed developments and eight critical contexts for global inquiry. Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization, 1(1), 1–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thatcher, B. (2011). Intercultural rhetoric and professional communication: Technological advances and organizational behavior. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thrush, E. A. (1993). Bridging the gaps: Technical communication in an international and multicultural society. Technical Communication Quarterly, 2(3), 271–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tracy, S. J. (2010). Qualitative quality: Eight “big-tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(10), 837–851.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walton, R. (2014). Editor’s introduction to the special edition on methodology. Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization, 5(1), 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, I. M. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Isidore Kafui Dorpenyo .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Dorpenyo, I.K. (2020). Decolonial Methodology as a Framework for Localization and Social Justice Study in Resource-Mismanaged Context. In: User Localization Strategies in the Face of Technological Breakdown. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26399-7_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26399-7_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-26398-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-26399-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics