Just Let Us Be: Domination, the Postcolonial Condition, and the Global Field of Business Schools

Abstract

We develop a critical exploration of the global field of business schools. We suggest that the postcolonial condition (Bhabha, 1994; Fanon, 1967; Go, 2013; Hook, 2008; Joy & Poonamallee, 2013; Lee, 2013; Özkazanç-Pan, 2008; von Holdt, 2013) is one of the key enablers of the internationalization of this hierarchy, as the identity struggle on which postcolonial subjects historically dwell, enables a disposition to comply with foreign norms that are imposed on them. Regarding this, we focus specifically on the role of local, native intermediaries, who enable foreign domination by promoting the interests of the Western autonomous, dominant pole within their postcolonial business schools. We call these intermediaries local, native doxosophers (or malinchistas), and suggest that any effort to set postcolonial business schools free, requires first the awakening of doxosophers. Thus, we ask, how may local, native doxosophers in postcolonial business schools wake up from their doxa-aligned roles and start enabling heteronomous poles to defend who they are? We explore this question using autoethnographic research done in México.

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