scholarly journals A Lacanian understanding of the southern planning theorists’ identification under the hegemony of western philosophy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Mohammadzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Global South ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
Planning Theory ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
The Core ◽  
Lacanian Theory

As a planning theorist who has studied and taught planning theory in the Global South and North, I grapple with the question – “What does planning theory mean in the Global South?” To answer this question, I ontologically investigate the meaning of Southern planning theory based on a Lacanian approach. Drawing on the Lacanian theory of human subjectivity, this article explains how planning theorists’ identities are constituted through their interactions within academia. Lacanian discourse theory assists in exploring how most Southern planning theorists adopt, internalise, and use hegemonic Western philosophy, ideas, and discourses as the only accepted mechanism of truth. Consequently, this process profoundly alienates Southern planning theorists from their local context, as they often devalue, overlook, and neglect non-Western beliefs, ideas, knowledge, and philosophy. I argue that although the number of Southern planning theorists has increased during the last decades, non-Western philosophy is seldom utilised as the core of their critical studies. Based on the Lacanian discourse theory, I show that they mostly remain in the hegemonic mechanism of knowledge production that is embedded in the colonial era.

Moving Global IR Forward—A Road Map

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 830-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maiken Gelardi
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Global South ◽  
Local Context ◽  
The Core ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Key Issues

Abstract Many disciplinary analyses have exposed international realtions (IR) as a Western-centric discipline, unaware of or unconcerned with its own ethnocentric outlook. A growing consensus in the global IR framework argues that it is time to move beyond disciplinary critique, but scholars disagree on how to proceed. Three key issues are still being debated: who can speak, how to go local, and how to make the local global. This article confronts these questions by offering three interlinked contributions. First, it develops a typology of scholarly profiles by combining the typically isolated debates on scholarly origin, embeddedness within local context, and location. Second, the article identifies three main strategies for discovering and developing theories outside the core. Third, it offers four different avenues for applying local theories to the larger global canvas, underlining that Global South theories should not necessarily be limited to their “own” regions. Together these three contributions constitute a comprehensive roadmap for how to advance global IR's research agenda. The article provides examples focused on Latin America, highlighting the benefits of the roadmap while also giving agency to regional theoretical debates that are often overlooked in the Global IR debate.

scholarly journals Family multilingualism from a southern perspective: Language ideologies and practices of Brazilian parents in Norway

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Lomeu Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Global South ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
Epistemic Justice ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
Race Ethnicity

AbstractThis article derives from a three-year ethnographic project carried out in Norway focusing on language practices of Brazilian families raising their children multilingually. Analyses of interview data with two Brazilian parents demonstrate the relevance of examining intersectionally the participants’ orientation to categorisations such as social class, gender, and race/ethnicity. Additionally, I explore how parents make sense of their transnational, multilingual experiences, and the extent to which these experiences inform the language-related decisions they make in the home. Advancing family multilingualism research in a novel direction, I employ a southern perspective as an analytical position that: (i) assumes the situatedness of knowledge production; (ii) aims at increasing social and epistemic justice; (iii) opposes the dominance of Western-centric epistemologies; and (iv) sees the global South as a political location, not necessarily geographic, but with many overlaps. Finally, I draw on the notions of intercultural translation and equivocation to discuss the intercultural encounters parents reported. The overarching argument of this article is that forging a southern perspective from which to analyse parental language practices and beliefs offers a theoretical framework that can better address the issues engendered by parents engaged in South–North transnational, multilingual practices.

A critical appraisal of diversity in digital knowledge production: Segregated inclusion on YouTube

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110348
Author(s):  
Kaiping Chen ◽  
June Jeon ◽  
Yanxi Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
The Core ◽  
Inclusion Phenomenon ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Digital Knowledge

Diversity in knowledge production is a core challenge facing science communication. Despite extensive works showing how diversity has been undermined in science communication, little is known about to what extent social media augments or hinders diversity for science communication. This article addresses this gap by examining the profile and network diversities of knowledge producers on a popular social media platform—YouTube. We revealed the pattern of the juxtaposition of inclusiveness and segregation in this digital platform, which we define as “segregated inclusion.” We found that diverse profiles are presented in digital knowledge production. However, the network among these knowledge producers reveals the rich-get-richer effect. At the intersection of profile and network diversities, we found a decrease in the overall profile diversity when we moved toward the center of the core producers. This segregated inclusion phenomenon questions how inequalities in science communication are replicated and amplified in relation to digital platforms.

scholarly journals Decolonizing regional planning from the Global South: Active geographies and social struggles in Northeastern Brazil

2021 ◽  
pp. 026377582110246
Author(s):  
Federico Ferretti
Keyword(s):  
Regional Planning ◽  
Global South ◽  
Northeastern Brazil ◽  
Planning Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Literature ◽  
The South ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Colonial Histories ◽  
Resisting Oppression

This paper addresses the engagement of critical geographers from Northeastern Brazil with regional planning, aiming at transforming society by acting on their region’s spaces. Extending and putting in relation literature on planning theory in the Global South and geographical scholarship on decoloniality, I explore new archives showing how the planning work that these geographers performed from 1957 to 1964 was an example of the ‘South’ re-elaborating and putting into practice notions arising from ‘international’ literature, such as that of ‘active geography’, and pioneering critical uses of instruments, such as mappings and statistics, that have often been associated with technocracy and political conservatism. Connected with peasants’ struggles and with a theoretical framework that is cognisant of the colonial histories and insurgent Black and indigenous traditions in the Northeast, these geographers’ works show that there is no ‘Southern Theory’ without a concrete engagement of scholars with social and political problems, one which is not limited to ‘participation’, but aims at challenging the political powers in place. Although not devoid of contradictions that are analysed here, the experiences of these Southern geographers acting in and for the South can provide precious insights into current (Northern or Southern) scholarly programmes aimed at resisting oppression.

Displacement and ethnic reintegration in Ituri, DR Congo: challenges ahead

2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Pottier
Keyword(s):  
Local Context ◽  
Dr Congo ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Complex Emergency ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
Contested Terrain

ABSTRACTThis article examines the ethnic character of Ituri's complex emergency. It considers the local context in which the IDP predicament has unfolded, asking questions about the prospect of, and responsibilities for, post-conflict reintegration. As militia disarmament and peace are linked but not coterminous, it is argued that militant ethnic agendas at the core of the conflict must be scrutinised for their ongoing significance. Revealing the past to be a contested terrain, these agendas call for an apartheid-style solution along lines of segregation first envisaged by Belgian colonialists. To move towards ethnic reintegration, Iturians face the challenge that they must create a common history freed from the stranglehold of extremist interpretations.

Geographies of transport III

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Schwanen
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Global South ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Heuristic Classification

This third report in the series reviews recent research on the geographies of transport in Africa, Asia and Latin America to reflect on the spatialities of knowledge production and the question as to whether a post/decolonial turn is occurring in geographical scholarship on transport. A simple and heuristic classification scheme is developed and deployed to demonstrate that predominantly western worldviews, theories, concepts, methods and research practices continue to prevail in geographical scholarship on transport in the Global South. It is also shown that this hegemony is being reworked and resisted in various ways, and the report concludes with suggestions about how geographical scholarship on transport can be worlded and ultimately decolonized further.

scholarly journals What Is Religion in Africa? Relational Dynamics in an Entangled World

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 156-181
Author(s):  
Birgit Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Relational Dynamics ◽  
Colonial Era

Abstract Addressing the implications of the introduction of the concept of religion to Africa in the colonial era, this essay approaches religion from a relational angle that takes into account the connections between Africa and Europe. Much can be learned about the complexity and power dynamics of these connections by studying religion not simply in but also from Africa. Referring to historical and current materials from my research in Ghana by way of example, my concern is to show how a focus on religion can serve as a productive entry point into the longstanding relational dynamics through which Africa and Europe are entangled. This is a necessary step in decolonizing scholarly knowledge production about religion in Africa, and in religious studies at large.

scholarly journals Encounters with borders

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Priya Dixit
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Global South ◽  
Research Opportunities ◽  
Academic Subject ◽  
Visa Application ◽  
Global North ◽  
Limit Access

This article examines (im)obility in the global visa regime through the experiences of a Global South academic working in the Global North. Drawing on an autoethnographic account of a visa application, this article outlines the ways in which the global visa regime negatively affects a Global South academic’s life. Visa regulations constitute a particular Global South academic subject in the Global North, one whose academic career is characterised by uncertainty and anxiety, as visas can limit access to promotions and to fieldwork and research opportunities. Visa experiences can thus contribute to alienation and non-belonging of Global South scholars in academia, while impacting knowledge production and teaching.

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