Creolizating social science methodology : joining the local and the global

Europe and USA have been the cradle of methodology. Consequently most of the contemporary methodological knowledge has been invented by Western academic culture. Throughout the twentieth century this indigenous culture has been transformed into a type of general knowledge, and social science methodology has become one of the most globalized knowledge. However the limits of globalization are evident in many fields, from economy to politics, from marketing to culture and social life. Methodology is not free from these limits. There is an emerging need for finding postcolonial methodologies and making culturally flexible contemporary research methods. The author explores the proposal for a glocal methodology, the possibility of thinking (methodologically) global and acting (methodologically) local, and its ambiguity. Finally, indigenous methodologies and participatory action research are questioned as effective ways out of methodological colonialism.