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Potential Gains in the Use of Indigenous Epistemology for Research on Corruption and Integrity

Global
Corruption
Decision Making
Ethics

Abstract

This paper aims at discussing the challenges and opportunities, advantages and disadvantages of using indigenous epistemology for trying to understand the phenomenon of corruption and integrity. Global debates, research and policy-making discussions about corruption have not been on the global agenda for very long. This is a thematic area that has openly been under discussion for just a few decades, especially over the last 30 years, pushed particularly by multilateral institutions based on the so-called Global North -- such as the World Bank, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the IMF (International Monetary Fund) -- and by international non-government organizations also North-based, such as Transparency International. Oftentimes defined as "abuse of entrusted power for private gain", corruption and research and policy debate on corruption tend to carry a more institutional approach, where somewhat "hard" expressions such as "rule of law" and "enforcement" are ubiquitous. In that sense, indigenous knowledge (IK) could be seen as having elements that deeply oppose the concepts and views around corruption and integrity: IK is, by definition, about locality; it is not about institutions, but about living beings; not about public versus private, but about reciprocity, relationship, mutuality (Wilson, 2018; Cajete, 2000). Although it seems that both worlds would never match, this paper argues that it could be interesting to explore the possibilities to the global stage of using IK to study corruption and integrity, especially in a world that year by year become less Global North centered, with the emergence of countries that have different world views and cultural heritage. Although this paper suggests that IK could bring interesting insights, methods, and findings, potentially widening our understanding about the concepts of corruption and integrity, it is also noted that there are challenges for Western-oriented researchers who would like to use IK epistemology to study corruption, and additional efforts of decolonizing combined with reflexivity techniques should be needed in approaching corruption and integrity with IK lenses.