On ‘necrolocutors’ in political ecology: A response from Yaoundé

Journal article : Comment

I consider Gibson's notion of the ‘necrolocutor’: a racialised, gendered subject mediating institutional engagements with power, knowledge, and death, who reveals and embodies the neoliberal academy's reliance on co-opted ‘local’ voices for legitimacy. I argue that these extractive dynamics of research collaboration echo historical colonial, corporate, and militarised formations, wherein participation functioned as consent, and the ‘native informant’ was instrumentalised to validate imperial narratives. Extending these critiques, my commentary examines the economic and epistemic inequalities shaping global knowledge production, highlighting ‘racialised localwashing’, the ongoing commodification of intellectual labour, and the rejections of superficial inclusivity in favour of reciprocal, anti-imperial scholarship. I draw from Marxist and decolonial insights that acknowledge the im/possibilities and transformative potentials of academic collaborations in necropolitical environments.

Authors: Murrey, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Journal: Dialogues in Human Geography
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 171-175
• Article number: 20438206251335330
• Publication date: 2025-05-04
• DOI: 10.1177/20438206251335330
• EISSN: 2043-8214
• ISSN: 2043-8206
• Language: English
• Keywords: participation; native informant; necropolitics; Interlocutor; neoliberal university
• Subtype: Comment