PSYCHOLOGY, ORGANISATIONS AND WORK FROM A SOCIAL AND (DEC)COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

In this text, we begin with the issue of knowledge production in psychology, organisations, and work, historically referenced by Eurocentric hegemonies and the coloniality of knowledge and being, associated with the centrality of the market, from the liberal reading to its neoliberal perspective, currently unfolding in the dynamics of rentier and digital capitalism. These productions: (i) Naturalise the experience of countries located in the Global North as universal; (ii) Make situated knowledge and other epistemologies invisible, analysed from the perspective of what diverges from the dominant epistemology; (iii) Link human value to productivity and employment, situating subjective productions to adapted behaviours; (iv) Transform psychology and organisational science into technologies of adaptation and persuasion at the service of market logic; (v) Weaken place, belonging and territorialised ways of life in the face of globalisation. Thus, it is appropriate to raise the discussion on how the field reproduces epistemic hierarchies in the face of social classification processes and contemporary work organisation dynamics, associated with functional subjective configurations and instrumental forms of socialisation, stifling plural theoretical and practical alternatives that expand protagonism and produce health and well-being in various work contexts. The objective of this editorial, therefore, is to present a critical reflection on the field, through: (i) questioning the universality of hegemonic scientific narratives, which produce comprehensive and explanatory linearities; (ii) valuing knowledge and the production of territorialised social work practices, recognising the historically associated marginalised and peripheral dimension; (iii) reviewing the role of the researcher in the context of knowledge production on psychology, organisations, and work; (iv) reintroducing the subject, the collective, and the territory, integrated and referenced in their historical, political, and cultural perspectives, as inseparable from the production of situated knowledge to make argumentative advances on the interfaces of psychology with organisations and work in contemporary times.