Epistemic injustice and structural marginalization of social sciences and humanities research in Jordan: a Participatory Action research study

Global research systems reflect a structural privileging of STEM over the social sciences and the humanities (SSH), a trend most evident in Global South contexts. Using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) framework, this paper analyzes the epistemic and structural marginalization of SSH-oriented research in Jordanian higher education. Drawing upon 124 SSH academics from national universities in Jordan’s north, south and central provinces through four regional cycles of workshop sessions, the project surfaces systemic impediments, such as STEM-based financing mechanisms, bibliometric assessment structures that disadvantage Arabic-language scholarship, fractured SSH governance and poor institutional research infrastructure. To this end, this study draws on Fricker’s theory of epistemic injustice and Santos’ epistemologies of the South, and then on Connell’s Southern Theory, to analyze the results as reflections of an underlying epistemic and structural order that renders SSH knowledge invisible within national research hierarchies. At the same time, participants underscored emerging opportunities such as inter-disciplinary research pools, increasing policy-oriented interest in SSH expertise, and the 2023 National SSH Research Strategy. In summary, the study provides 5 interrelated recommendations that together call for a national SSH research council, revising evaluation criteria, ring-fencing SSH funding, enhancing inter-institutional collaboration and refocusing research impact assessments on societal benefit. This study adds to the literature on research equity, epistemic justice and higher education governance in the Global South.