Capturing postcoloniality in action: RAND, rationality, and subaltern encounters during the “Vietnam War”

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on a series of RAND interviews with Vietnamese prisoners during the Vietnam War, the paper aims to analyze the role of colonizer–colonized in the production of postcolonial representations (postcoloniality) and the role of the Western corporation in the processes of postcoloniality.

Design/methodology/approach

Selected RAND interviews are analyzed using a postcolonial lens and explored through the method of critical hermeneutics.

Findings

The analysis supports the contention that Western othering of Third World people is neither completely successful nor one-sided. It is argued that while the Western corporation is an important site for understanding hybridity and postcoloniality, analysis needs to go beyond focusing on the symbolic and the textual to take account of the material conditions in which interactions between colonizer–colonized occur. Finally, there is support for further study of the socio-political character of methods of research in the study of international business.

Research limitations/implications

The case suggests further study of colonizer–colonized interactions outside of the context of an on-going war, which may have heightened some forms of resistance and voice.

Social implications

The paper draws attention to the continuing problem of Western othering of formerly colonized people through military and commercial engagements that are framed by neo-colonial viewpoints embedded in theories of globalization and research methods.

Originality/value

The paper provides rare glimpses into interactions between colonizing and colonized people, and also the under-research study of the role of the Western corporation in the production of postcoloniality.

Citation

Krysa, I., Le, K.T., Helms Mills, J. and Mills, A.J. (2016), "Capturing postcoloniality in action: RAND, rationality, and subaltern encounters during the “Vietnam War”", Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 259-281. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-05-2015-0025