Using Complexity to Unlock Emergent-Decolonial Development

dc.contributor.authorChikane, Rekgotsofetse
dc.date.accessioned2025-03-04T13:12:27Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionA research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree to the Master of Philosophy to the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management, Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023
dc.description.abstractThis thesis argues the need for a theoretical and philosophical understanding of emergent-decolonial development within development studies and decolonial thinking to formulate the notion of decolonisation within both fields as an ongoing developmental practice. As both a theoretical and philosophical framework, emergent-decolonial development functions as an economic, policy and philosophical analytic exercise to unravel the complex nature of the entanglement of political and economic notions of decolonisation that create an epistemological quagmire within developmental discourse, currently understood as coloniality. This quagmire is the result of the continued use of the dialectical relationship between the ideal and the non-ideal in the framing of development and decolonial thinking that has resulted in development viewing the idea of decolonisation as only the process of self-determination and limiting decolonial thinking to focusing on the epistemological and ontological expression of peripheral voices. This limitation allows for an understanding of coloniality and colonialism but denies researchers the ability to tackle both through continuous public policy interventions. The thesis argues the importance of untangling this relationship in a manner that would allow for the emergence of a new humanism in a manner that is replicable through policy interventions which would challenge the emergent nature of modernity/coloniality. In order to achieve the above, the thesis utilised a combination of two methodologies: an integrative literature review and a documentary analysis. The integrative literature review critically appraises the core theories of development, decolonial thinking and complexity to form the theoretical and philosophical framing of emergent-decolonial development. Thereafter, through the use of both thematic and content analysis of four liberatory texts from India, Tanzania, South Africa and Ecuador, respectively, the results were utilised to augment the framework where necessary. The results of the thesis indicate that the limitations of both development and decolonial studies inhibit decolonisation from being explored as an ongoing process meant to counteract coloniality and instead view coloniality as an emergent property of modernist approaches to development and decolonial thinking. Furthermore, the thesis found that development and decoloniality can be retooled through complexity science as emergent properties within complex adaptive systems that directly contend with the influence of coloniality. The colonial situation experienced by ‘the wretch’ has created an exceedingly complex and nuanced understanding of the coloniser and the colonised in the 21st century. As a result, the need to devise an approach to understanding decolonisation in this new world has become increasingly important. This framework provides the means to begin the resurgence of decolonisation and decolonial thought as an active public policy tool that others can adopt
dc.description.submitterMM2025
dc.facultyFaculty of Commerce, Law and Management
dc.identifierhttps://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-2052-9393
dc.identifier.citationChikane, Rekgotsofetse. (2023). Using Complexity to Unlock Emergent-Decolonial Development [PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg].WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/44084
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/44084
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
dc.rights© 2025 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
dc.rights.holderUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
dc.schoolWITS Business School
dc.subjectUCTD
dc.subjectComplexity
dc.subjectDecolonial Thought
dc.subjectDecoloniality
dc.subjectColoniality
dc.subjectDevelopment
dc.subject.otherSDG-8: Decent work and economic growth
dc.titleUsing Complexity to Unlock Emergent-Decolonial Development
dc.typeThesis

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