In this post, I will talk about some reflections that arose out of reading Escobar's work (2016) titled: Thinking-Feeling with the Earth: Territorial Struggles and the Ontological Dimension of the Epistemologies of the South
This is not a paper review, but rather a process of learning and integrating into my worldview, a few things that stood out to me in Escobar's paper. I find myself referring back to Escobar's work time and time again. In the decolonial context, I found Escobar's discussion and references to overarching themes and concepts enlightened me on some of the reasons why the colonial and hegemonic are - more often than not - oppressive.
In aforementioned article published in 2016, Escobar talks about Epistemologies of the South as "inspiration of pluriverse: a world where many worlds fit", and how the knowledge they provide is much deeper for the context of social transformation than what usually originates from academia (Escobar, 2016). One of the key terms Escobar talks about is that of the One-World World (OWW) (adopted from Law, 2015). The OWW represents the hegemonic mechanisms of the "Global North" and the worldview it holds that excludes other world views. In light of this OWW, the Epistemologies of the South encompass local struggles that "attempt to re/establish some degree of symmetry to the partial connections that the mangrove-worlds maintain with the OWW.” (Escobar, 2016, pg. 19) Embedded in these attempts, Escobar identifies the potential for imagining the "pluriverse".
I thought Escobar's discussion an essential one to engage with in order to move towards authentic inter-cultural practices. Allowing multiplicity and varying world views is how we can start treating cultures with respect and equality. The issue is not about choosing the best one, or creating a "universal" universe. In fact, a significant issue lies with the mechanisms that try fit things to one point of view – or one-world – of the spectrum: that is the problem in itself. We might think that if something is causing us problems then that’s a reason to go to the opposite things/method/philosophy. This is often not the case. The mechanisms that lead us somewhere undesirable are often themselves the problem, such as those of exclusion, exclusivity, and “the point of view that represents itself as being without a point of view” (Grosfoguel, 2007). The solutions include opening up our worldview so that they allow the existence of others. It is here like the age old dichotomies; object/subject, theory/practice, embodiment/abstraction (as we see in Nadarajah’s (2016) piece). These dichotomies are constructed; it is not a question of either or, it is a matter of “yes, and in addition” or “on another aspect of the matter” and so on. In fact, as Escobar discusses, perhaps one of the most central elements of the OWW project was two "twofold ontological divide" (Escobar, 2016, pp.21); the separation of humans from nature, and the distinction of those within the OWW (the colonial) and those outside of it (those to be colonised).
Escobar's article traces an unravelling of the OWW that fosters questions of both social theory and political activism. It requires asking questions such as 'How did the One-World World' become so powerful? How is it made? What are the systems that uphold it? How is it unmade? How do we move towards a de-colonial and recover the pluriversal world?
“(“From Africa we arrived with an ancestral legacy; the world’s memory we need to recuperate”). Far from an intransigent attachment to the past, ancestrality stems from a living memory that orients itself to the ability to envision a different future –a sort of “futurality” that imagines, and struggles for, the conditions that will allow them to persevere as a distinct world.” (Escobar, 2016, pg. 19)
References
Escobar, A. (2016) 'Thinking-feeling with the Earth: Territorial Struggles and the Ontological Dimension of the Epistemologies of the South', Revista de antropología iberoamericana, 11(1), pp. 11-32.
Grosfoguel, R. (2007) 'The epistemic decolonial turn: Beyond political-economy paradigms', Cultural studies (London, England), 21(2-3), pp. 211-223.
Law, J. (2015) 'What's wrong with a one-world world?', Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 16(1), pp. 126-139
Nadarajah, Y. (2016) 'Doing Fieldwork in Disaster Areas – Nurturing the Embodied for Analytical Insight', Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 2(1), pp. 28-56.
Comments