Glossary.

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A-C

  • Binary oppositions refer to fundamental pairs of contrasting ideas, concepts, or phenomena that help us produce meaning. For example, we understand day because it contrasts with night; right because it’s defined against wrong; big in relation to small, and so on.

    In media and cultural narratives, these oppositions are often intentionally constructed to reinforce hierarchies or inflict symbolic violence* on particular groups, ideas, or ways of being. For instance, Whiteness is positioned as superior to Blackness; speed is valued over slowness; men over women; logic over intuition. These pairings often do more than describe difference; they encode power.

  • As defined by Peter Van Ham, branding is the process of attaching ideas, thoughts, feelings and concepts to products, places, people, events and more.

  • Coloniality refers to the ongoing structures, attitudes, and ways of thinking that stem from colonialism. While colonisation is the act of domination through war, enslavement, or occupation, coloniality describes how its logic and effects persist in culture, institutions, aesthetics, and ways of seeing the world. Something colonial supports, affirms, or mirrors aspects of colonisation.

  • Coloniality refers to the ongoing structures, attitudes, and ways of thinking that stem from colonialism. While colonisation is the act of domination through war, enslavement, or occupation, coloniality describes how its logic and effects persist in culture, institutions, aesthetics, and ways of seeing the world. Something colonial supports, affirms, or mirrors aspects of colonisation.

  • Culture makers are individuals or groups who shape, influence, or reflect culture through their creative or communicative work. They include artists, writers, musicians, designers, filmmakers, performers, and others who contribute to how society expresses ideas, values, and identities.

  • Cultural Production refers to the creation, expression, and circulation of ideas, art, media, practices, and knowledge within a society. It includes everything from literature, music, and visual arts to rituals, performances, and digital content, shaping how people understand, represent, and engage with culture and social values.

D-F

  • Decoloniality is an approach that resists and withdraws from colonial ideologies, systems, cultural influences, religion, and ways of being. It actively supports and drives the process of decolonisation, particularly in contexts shaped by neo-colonial or neo-imperial structures.

  • An approach to branding that considers the symbolic harm inflicted on marginalised groups, identities, ideas, and ways of being by colonial actors and their narratives. It seeks to contribute to the healing of those harms through branding that restores dignity to those groups, identities, ideas. Decolonial branding challenges dominant narratives and promotes more just and plural ways of seeing and being.

    See definition of branding for a fuller understanding.

  • Decolonisation is the process of reclaiming autonomy and self-determination after colonial rule. It involves gaining independence, restoring control over land, culture, and identity, and reviving traditions, knowledge, and ways of being that were suppressed or erased.

  • Discourse shapes how we talk and think about a topic, influencing what is considered sayable or thinkable. It is made up of recurring ideas, unspoken rules, images, and practices, showing how popular framing guides our understanding and communication.

  • Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) examines texts or forms of communication—spoken, written, visual, or multimodal—to uncover hidden, implied, or connotative meanings. Using a critical lens, it situates these meanings within their social, political, and historical contexts, exploring how power, ideology, and inequality shape meaning.

  • Item description

  • Epistemic violence refers to the act of categorising certain knowledge systems or ways of knowing as inferior to dominant, often Western, frameworks.

    This can include dismissing knowledge that falls outside of Western scientific paradigms as “unreliable” or “woo,” or invalidating lived experience and testimonial evidence when it challenges dominant narratives or the context of established data. It is a form of symbolic harm that reinforces power imbalances by delegitimising alternative ways of knowing.

G-Z

  • If branding is the process of associating ideas, thoughts, and feelings with products, services, places, or people, marketing is the strategic communication and promotion of these associations to reach, influence, and engage an audience—often to persuade them to adopt, support, or purchase what is being offered.

  • Neo-colonialism literally means “new colonialism.” It refers to renewed or ongoing forms of colonisation that persist after the end of formal political rule. For example, practices such as international development, trade policies, or economic dependency can function as mechanisms of control and influence over formerly colonised countries or peoples.

  • Neo-imperialism literally means “new imperialism.” It refers to the ways imperialism—the methods by which a colonising power justifies, drives, and maintains control through politics, ideologies, culture, and media—operates in modern forms. Instead of direct territorial conquest, neo-imperialism uses these tools to dominate and influence groups of people in contemporary contexts.

  • Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and how they communicate meaning beyond the literal message. This includes verbal and non-verbal elements such as color, sound, texture, space, and body language. Semiotics helps us understand how meaning is created and conveyed in texts, films, performances, and everyday communication, and is often used in critical discourse analysis to decode underlying messages.

  • Item descriThe ability to shape perception, define reality, and influence meaning through language, imagery, representation, and cultural norms. Often subtle and invisible, symbolic power reinforces social hierarchies by making certain ways of being, knowing, or appearing seem natural, valuable, or true. It’s the power to constitute reality.ption

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  • Racism is the combination of racial prejudice—judging or devaluing someone based on their ethnicity—and the social, economic, or political power to enforce oppression. It operates through systems that privilege some groups over others, often linked to class, wealth, or proximity to whiteness, and reproduces inequality and marginalisation.

  • A narrative used to justify colonialism by positioning the white, Western, and masculine world as inherently superior, and framing colonised peoples as needing guidance or “civilisation.” This discourse masks domination as moral duty, obscuring exploitation and violence while reinforcing hierarchical worldviews.