Glossary of terms

Communities of Practice

A group of people who “share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (E. and B. Wenger-Trayner, 2020). Source: Introduction to communities of practice

Decolonization

"the pursuit of liberation, reclaiming mind and heart from the legacy of colonialism, i.e. personal, interpersonal, and institutional domination over people and the natural world. This process demands that we acknowledge historic and ongoing traumas from colonization, genocide, white supremacy, and systemic racism.  It requires actions accountable to people of color by creating and securing structural changes that insure equity and right relationship". Source: The Work that Reconnects network, Evolving edges .

"Decolonization may be defined as the active resistance against colonial powers, and a shifting of power towards political, economic, educational, cultural, psychic independence and power that originate from a colonized nation’s own indigenous culture. This process occurs politically and also applies to personal and societal psychic, cultural, political, agricultural, and educational deconstruction of colonial oppression.

Per Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang: “Decolonization doesn’t have a synonym”; it is not a substitute for ‘human rights’ or ‘social justice’, though undoubtedly, they are connected in various ways. Decolonization demands an Indigenous framework and a centering of Indigenous land, Indigenous sovereignty, and Indigenous ways of thinking." Sources: 1. The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), “Glossary.”2. Eric Ritskes, “What Is Decolonization and Why Does It Matter?” on Racial Equity Tools website.

Intersectionality

A term coined by popularized by law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and drawing on research and activism of women of colour. In her 1991 article “Mapping the Margins,” she explained how people who are “both women and people of color” are marginalized by “discourses that are shaped to respond to one [identity] or the other,” rather than both.

"Exposing [one’s] multiple identities can help clarify the ways in which a person can simultaneously experience privilege and oppression. For example, a Black woman in America does not experience gender inequalities in exactly the same way as a white woman, nor racial oppression identical to that experienced by a Black man. Each race and gender intersection produces a qualitatively distinct life.

Per Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw: Intersectionality is simply a prism to see the interactive effects of various forms of discrimination and disempowerment. It looks at the way that racism, many times, interacts with patriarchy, heterosexism, classism, xenophobia — seeing that the overlapping vulnerabilities created by these systems actually create specific kinds of challenges. “Intersectionality 102,” then, is to say that these distinct problems create challenges for movements that are only organized around these problems as separate and individual. So when racial justice doesn’t have a critique of patriarchy and homophobia, the particular way that racism is experienced and exacerbated by heterosexism, classism etc., falls outside of our political organizing. It means that significant numbers of people in our communities aren’t being served by social justice frames because they don’t address the particular ways that they’re experiencing discrimination." Sources: Intergroup Resources, “Intersectionality” (2012); Otamere Guobadia, “Kimberlé Crenshaw and Lady Phyll Talk Intersectionality, Solidarity, and Self-Care” (2018) on the Racial equity tools website.

Teal organisation

Teal is a term describing organisational approaches using colours to classify organisations from red (authoritarian) to self-managing (teal). It is from the book ‘Reinventing organisations’ by Frederic Laloux. The main teal concepts are Self-Management, Wholeness, and Evolutionary Purpose. 

“Teal Organizations are built on a foundation of mutual trust. Workers and employees are seen as reasonable people that want to do good work and can be trusted to do the right thing. With that premise, very few rules and control mechanisms are needed. And employees are energized to make extraordinary things happen.” Source: Reinventing organisations wiki.