Ecofeminist-inspired Reflections on Scholarly Reciprocity to Avoid Academic Extractivism
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Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Abstract
Ecofeminism has made visible the damage caused by capitalistic extractive forces to the environment. In this commentary, inspired by this school of thought, in conversation with decolonial perspectives, we contribute to advance the understanding of how knowledge creation is also rooted in colonial, extractivist structures and the establishment of epistemic authoritarian systems that define the boundaries that designate what/who should and should not be seen. Departing from our position of feminist scholars based in Chile and Sweden and conducting research within the fields of education and geography, we meddle with the gray areas beyond the usual axis of academic extractivism between the Global North and the Global South. We outline the manifestations of academic extractivism and how they can be averted by moving toward decolonial dialogs and reflections within the university. We put forward a set of questions that interrogate and complicate research practices, so that colleagues can do the conscious and reflexive work of building a less extractivist academia. By exemplifying how we can resist the harmful, colonial, exclusionary practices that permeate academia, we argue that exercising reciprocity, grounded in ecofeminist care, is central to decolonizing current neoliberal academia and to open a dialogue about knowledge extraction and harm.
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Keywords
Extractivism, Ecofeminism, Decolonization, Reciprocity, Neoliberal academia