Coordinators: Boaventura de Sousa Santos and António Sousa Ribeiro

Although it is the European country which has had the greatest contact over the longest period of time with the largest number of non-European societies, post-colonial studies scarcely exist in Portugal. Moreover, the post-colonial studies that proliferate in other European countries and in the USA take Anglo-Saxon colonialism almost exclusively as their reference point, and fail to consider Iberian colonialism and the early form of Western modernity that it produced. This means that, even in countries which experienced Portuguese colonialism, emerging post-colonial studies have adopted British colonialism as their reference point, although it is, as we know, substantially different in economic, political, social and cultural terms.

Both neoliberal globalisation and the resistance to it, which is nowadays defining an alternative, counter-hegemonic form of globalisation, have come to demand, by opposite routes, a more profound consideration of the issue of post-colonialism. On the one hand, neoliberal globalisation is now beginning to be seen, even by UN institutions, as a new form of colonialism. In addition, the movements which constitute an alternative globalisation are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that resistance to neoliberal globalisation has to be understood as the construction of a post-colonial paradigm , in which economic and social dimensions are analysed within the much broader context of history, culture, the arts, literature and the epistemology of the peoples who, from very unequal standpoints, once shared the colonial arena .

The epistemological horizons of this programme involve discussion of the possibilities of constructing a new form of knowledge which is broader, plural and hybrid and reflects its multiple origins. Without denying the importance of modern science, the challenge posed by this course focuses on the bid to create a contextualised form of knowledge based on solidarity which enables endogenous paradigms to be developed that are capable of expressing heterogeneous forms of knowledge. This will be the key to sustainable development , enabling both cognitive injustice to be overcome and solid and just alliances to be forged between researchers in the "North" and the "South". The programme aims to focus on two key moments: the hegemonic relationship between experiences, and that which exists beyond this relationship. It is within this duality that social experiences become open to relationships based on mutual understanding that cannot be reduced to the cannibalisation of one by the other. Hence the central position of the concept of translation, both in terms of knowledge and practices (and agents).

Seminars

Post-colonial Studies in the Portuguese-speaking Community

Knowledges, Sustainability and Cognitive Justice

Alternative Globalisations and the Reinvention of Social Emancipation

New Global Social Movements

Research Seminar

CES Seminar – Thinking and Imagining Knowledge