CES em Cena

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CES em CENA 63

Editorial

Democracy, Justice and Human Rights

We are witnessing and experiencing particularly challenging times that pose direct threats to forms of knowledge production that are engaged with the struggles of historically oppressed groups. These threats are associated with the naturalization of violence, the destruction of nature for profit, the attacks to human dignity, the escalation of populism and the disenfranchisement of social sciences and humanities. Simultaneously, as a direct result of social demands and collective action, there has never been a larger investment in education, communication, emotional literacy and mental health, leading to more knowledge and potentially better awareness about different needs and expectations across the globe, and the development of measures to address systems of oppression and create alternative life worlds.

In this context, it comes as no surprise that academic institutions are the core of these political struggles, becoming ever more central in political debates around democracy, justice and human rights. As spaces of privilege, academic institutions are often concurring for and replicating inequality, while increasing sectors of scholars are contributing to the dismantling of oppression and advancing radical transformation.

The work being developed at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) by researchers of the Thematic Line Democracy, Justice and Human Rights (DemoJUST) has been framed around two main objectives: on the one hand, to analyse the persistence of systems of oppression that are intertwined in the structures of racism, cis-heteropatriarchy and capitalism; on the other hand, to examine the socio-legal, socio-political and socio-cultural resistances that, in the framework of the modern State and beyond, characterize current anti-discrimination policies and the constitution of alternative grammars of dignity.

In line with these aims, we ascribe much value to ongoing critical debates, methodologies and initiatives that push academia out of its most traditional comfort zones and appreciate the dialogues and co-learning processes with a variety of stakeholders, cherishing empirically-based research and forms of communication and dissemination that can become resources for community-based organizations, among other grassroots movements. We are specifically focused on contributing to the internal critical reflection about the social and political impact of the scientific research produced at CES. Using academia as a platform, we are attentive to the ways in which our work can contribute to the advancement of human dignity and justice, with a particular concern for the South-South debates.

Ana Cristina Santos, Bruno Sena Martins and Silvia Maeso
Coordinators of the Thematic Line Democracy, Justice and Human Rights (DemoJUST)

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