The End of the Cognitive Empire by Santos Boaventura de Sousa

The End of the Cognitive Empire by Santos Boaventura de Sousa

Author:Santos, Boaventura de Sousa [Santos, Boaventura de Sousa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 2018-07-15T16:00:00+00:00


Part III

POSTABYSSAL PEDAGOGIES

10

GANDHI, AN ARCHIVIST OF THE FUTURE

On the Need for Intercultural and Interpolitical Translation

Intercultural translation has a central role to play in the epistemologies of the South, as I discuss in chapter 1 . It is a crucial tool for reciprocal learning among the different oppressed social groups that, in different regions and at different times, resist and fight against the different forms of domination of which they are victims. Intercultural translation is always interpolitical translation. As such, it is nothing new. Throughout the ages, social groups fighting oppression and domination have always tried to find out as best they could about the fighting experiences of other social groups, either to avoid making the same mistakes or to find ideas about which paths are best to take. Eurocentric critical thinking has never valorized this work of mutual and permanent learning. Such learning processes occurred in contexts that were not considered contexts of intellectual production, where oral knowledges considered unintelligible and relating to unknown life experiences abounded and were shared by individuals and collectivities not certified to produce true knowledge. Moreover, and as I have been arguing, Eurocentric critical thinking has always assumed that it has the monopoly on objective and rigorous knowledge concerning social emancipation. Intercultural translation could not, therefore, but be viewed as a dangerous lack of rigor.

In the last decades, intercultural translation has gained a new visibility in light of globalization. What is usually called globalization is a very complex phenomenon, not only because it hides localization processes but also, and mainly, because it includes contradictory forms of globalization. In Santos (1995) I identify two kinds of globalization: hegemonic neoliberal globalization and counterhegemonic globalization—the globalization of the social movements fighting against neoliberalism, colonialism, and patriarchy. Concerning counterhegemonic globalization, the first meetings of the World Social Forum (WSF ) that took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001 turned out to be a potent and surprising demonstration of the new emerging articulations among different struggles and social movements; such new articulations were the result of the new opportunities for interknowledge and intercommunication. As such, they called for intercultural translation. 1

Bearing in mind this chapter’s analytical objectives, three observations are in order. The first one is that interknowledge among the different movements and organizations from different regions of the world has expanded considerably since 2001. Such interknowledge led to an intercontinental articulation of struggles among movements fighting against the common forms of domination. This is the case, for instance, with Via Campesina, which articulates peasant movements from seventy-three countries; with the World March of Women, which brings together feminist movements from the global North and South; and with several intercontinental coalitions of indigenous peoples that have gathered together movements from different continents. All these articulations have allowed the movements and organizations to define common agendas for political action, whether at the level of the countries in question or at the international level. These aggregates and articulations implied, in practice, much intercultural translation among the involved peoples, movements, and organizations,



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