Dip Kapoor

Area of Study / Keywords

Social Justice & International Studies in Education

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About

Dip received his PhD from the Faculty of Education at the U of A and subsequently took up a tenure track position at McGill University in Montreal before returning to the U of A as a professor in International Education in 2006. He is a voluntary Research Associate and Honorary Board member (since 2006) of the Center for Research and Development Solidarity (CRDS), an Adivasi (original dweller) and Dalit (“downtrodden” out-castes) small/landless peasant and forest-dweller popular research organization in Orissa, India and was President and founding member (1995-2017) of a voluntary social action organization that has worked with land, forest and food sovereignty struggles/movements in India. https://www.farmlandgrab.org/30716,

Against Colonization & Rural Dispossession: Local Resistance in South & East Asia, the Pacific and Africa (Kapoor, D., Ed., 2017, London & NY:Zed) and Research, Political Engagement & Dispossession: Indigenous, Peasant and Urban Poor Activisms in the Americas and Asia (Kapoor, D., & Jordan, S., Eds., 2019, London & NY:Zed) are recent contributions to the literature on neo/colonial racial capital, development dispossession, resistance and learning in social action in contexts of Indigenous, small peasant and migrant worker struggles in the neo/colonies.

Against Colonization & Rural Dispossession: Local Resistance in South & East Asia, the Pacific and Africa (Kapoor, D., ed., 2017)

Selected by the Bretton Woods Project [Critical Voices on the World Bank and IMF] in their top 10 recommended book/resource list for 2017: resource on https://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2018/01/recommended-resources-world-bank-imf-2017/

'Peasants, indigenous people, and fisherfolk confound capitalism's best efforts to control them. This book shares the strategies that some of the planet's most inspirational groups use to stand their ground. A terrific compilation of rousing resistance for a post-capitalist world.' Raj Patel, University of Texas at Austin

'An impressive collection of engaged researchers from around the world take us deep into some of the most important frontline struggles of our time, providing critical insights for anyone active in resisting colonization and land grabs.' Devlin Kuyek, GRAIN

'Addressing the accelerating dispossession of cultures, this timely collection reveals colonial continuities in new forms of grassroots resistance. It is a powerful cross-regional set of essays foregrounding local politics in an era of global extractivism.' Philip McMichael, author of Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective, Cornell University

'An indispensable contribution to a non-Eurocentric world-view. Richly documenting the genocidal and ecocidal history of (neo)colonialism, and even more importantly the fightback, this book reveals a new social order emerging at the cutting edge of struggle.' Robert Biel, author of The Entropy of Capitalism, School of Oriental and African Studies & Birkbeck College

'A smart and theoretically innovative book that belongs on the bookshelves of anyone interested in anti-colonial, indigenous scholarship on rural resistance as central to the political economy of capitalist development.' Chandra Talpade Mohanty, author of Feminism without Borders, Syracuse University

'A wide-ranging, comprehensive and insightful account of dispossession and resistance from the global south ... a much-nuanced and sophisticated analysis in comparison to those who treat the land question merely as another instance of market imperfection and institutional failure.' Journal of Asian and African Studies

'The diverse analytical frameworks used in the collection, from Marxist political economy to postcolonial theory, will undoubtedly enrich the debates and contribute to the vibrant fields of critical development studies and critical agrarian studies, as well as social movement theories.' Canadian Journal of Development Studies

'An empirically rich and theoretically stimulating collection of essays on the long-term and ongoing practices and forms of rural resistance to capitalist-driven and state-enforced land enclosures in the Global South.' Community Development Journal

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Research

AREAS OF RESEARCH, SUPERVISION, TEACHING AND PUBLIC SERVICE

[Political-Sociology of Adult/Education & International Development Education]

• Colonial/racial capitalist development, globalization & education (anti-colonial, anti-capitalist & Neo/Marxist perspectives)
• Dispossession/resistance & learning in Indigenous, peasant & migrant worker/labor social movements [Asia, Africa, Americas/Caribbean ]
• Critical sociology of education 
• Critical social and educational research methodologies (critical case study; critical ethnography; and participatory/action research)

PROGRAM OF RESEARCH AND RELATED PROJECTS

Research endeavours to date have been built around a program of interdisciplinary (political-sociology of development & critical adult education) engaged research with the Center for Research and Development Solidarity (CRDS) and related social movement constituencies addressing: (a) critical explorations in to the politics of state-market-civil society led development-displacement and dispossession, exploitation and marginalization (pauperization) of Indigenous (Adivasi) Peoples, small/landless Dalit peasants/forest-dwellers and migrant labour; and (b) political learning and popular education work with/in Adivasi-Dalit-rural poor social movements. 

 Research projects addressing this program of research undertaken with CRDS and other social movement organizations in the region include:

1.Adivasi/Dalit/small & landless peasant & NGO-social movement politics and learning in neoliberal contexts of development dispossession (1995-current; non-funded) 

2.Learning in Adivasi (original dweller) social movements in India (Principal Investigator, Standard Research Grant, Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada) (2006-2009, $81,308)

3.Untouchability, casteism and schooling in rural India: Exploring local response and resistance (Principal Investigator, Insight Grant, Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada) (2013-2019, $268,386) [recipient of SAS grant funding, Faculty of Education & Bridge Funding from the Provost's Office, University of Alberta, 2011-12, $15,000]

4.Learning in Precarious Migrant Worker (PMW) Organizing: Global Trails to Canada (Principal Investigator, Insight Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Co-Applicants: Dr. Gerardo Otero (Simon Fraser) and Dr. Steven Jordan (McGill) (2022-27, $300,799). [recipient of SAS grant funding, Faculty of Education & Bridge Funding from the Provost's Office, University of Alberta, 2020-21, $14,000]

5.Food sovereignty education (FSE) in Canada: Learning from social movements and agrarian advocacy in the Global South (KIAS/Faculty of Education Undergraduate Student Research Award, 2022 May-August, $5000)

Thesis students seeking supervision can generally expect to do research guided by assumptions defining critical methodologies informed by and contributing towards neo/anti-colonial, anti-capitalist and neo/Marxist perspectives pertaining to themes and topics including:

(1) International development and/or education in the Americas/Caribbean, Africa and/or Asia (e.g. NGOs & development/education)

(2) Indigenous, peasant/landless and migrant worker/labor social movements addressing capitalist neo/colonization, dispossession and displacement pertaining to territories/sovereignty, land & food, forests, water, subterranean resources, ecology, labor exploitation, cultural-knowledge-representational & educational imperialism and learning/popular education with/in these social movements (Americas/Caribbean, Africa and/or Asia)

(3) Racialized precarious migrant work/ers and education/learning in trans/national organizing/advocacy

(4) Critical sociology of education (schooling) in Canada (e.g. schooling and the reproduction of colonialism, capitalism/class, race, gender & associated resistances)

NOTE: To date (2022) graduate/supervision-related engagements have included: 13 PhDs; 14 MEd/thesis; 16 supervisory committees; external/internal examiner for 26 candidates; and programme advising for 33 students. 

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Teaching

UNDER/GRADUATE COURSES (University of Alberta)

EDPS 506: Critical Sociologies and Participatory Action Research

EDPS 520: Adult Education, Popular Movements & NGOs in the Global South (graduate elective)

EDPS 525: Globalization, Global Education & Social Change (graduate elective)

EDPS 526: Race, Racialization & Education (graduate elective)

EDPS 591: Foundations of Education: International Perspectives & Issues (SJI graduate core)

EDPS 425: Global Education (elective)

EDPS 422: International Development Education (elective)

EDPS 360: Society & Education (elective)

UNDER/GRADUATE COURSES (McGill University, 2003-2006)

EDER 600: Globalization, Education & Change (graduate elective)

EDER 609: Educational Implications of Social Theory (graduate core)

EDER 639: Education & Development (graduate elective)

EDER 643: Gender, Education & Development (graduate elective)

EDEC 301: Global Education (undergraduate elective)

 

 



EDPS 360 - Society and Education

The changing function and structures of education, with special reference to contemporary Canadian society.

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EDPS 520 - Adult Education, Popular Movements and NGOs in the Global South

This course will examine the role and nature of adult education and learning processes in social change initiatives being undertaken by development non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and by popular subaltern social movements of pastoralists, peasants, indigenous peoples, rural women and urban poor (shack dwellers) social groups in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean (Global South). These initiatives will be explored in terms of a critical contextual appreciation of the inter/national development project and neoliberal globalization.

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EDPS 591 - Foundations of Education: Perspectives on International Issues

Critically examines the role of education in the problems and prospects of international development. As an inclusive construct, development comprises enhancements in the economic, social, political, cultural and technological well-being of people's lives. Examines contemporary societal issues that influence and/or are influenced by educational policies and programs. Perspectives from regions and groups such as Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Oceania-Pacific, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and communities indigenous to different parts of the world will be included.

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Browse more courses taught by Dip Kapoor

Dip Kapoor & Steven Jordan

2019 November;

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Dip Kapoor

2017 August;

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Dominique Caouette & Dip Kapoor

2015 December;

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Aziz Choudry & Dip Kapoor

2013 July;

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Dip Kapoor, Bijoy Barua & Al-Karim Datoo

2012 September;

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Dip Kapoor

2011 March;

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Aziz Choudry & Dip Kapoor

2010 October;

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Dip Kapoor & Edward Shizha

2010 October;

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Dip Kapoor & Steven Jordan

2009 September;

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Dip Kapoor

2009 April;

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Ali Abdi & Dip Kapoor

2009 January;