Esquisitar pontes: Possíveis diálogos entre feministas queer chicanas e brasileiras para uma crítica literária de margem / Esquisiting Bridges: Possible dialogues between queer feminist Chicanas and Brazilians for a literary criticism from the margins

Resumo: A proposta deste artigo é esquisitar pontes e aproximar os feminismos contra- hegemônicos da América Latina, mais especificamente do Brasil, dos pensamentos produzidos pelas Chicanas, na fronteira entre os EUA e o México. Através dessa aproximação, buscamos potencializar a crítica literária feminista brasileira ao considerar processos de produção de conhecimento advindos de posicionamentos marginalizados. Enquanto a conceituação do esquisito vem do trabalho da pesquisadora brasileira Eliana Ávila (2015), a construção de pontes entre distintos grupos marginalizados emerge do pensamento fronteiriço de Gloria Anzaldúa e Cherríe Moraga (1981). Os trabalhos de Lélia Gonzalez (1984, 1988) e Larissa Pelúcio (2012) também se entrelaçam aos de autoras Chicanas para questionar relações de poder a apagamentos culturais históricos. Ao esquisitar pontes, desenvolve-se diálogos e articulações a partir de uma visão conscientemente parcial capazes de encontrar as potencialidades políticas para construções epistemológicas que levam em consideração os saberes localizados. É desse posicionamento que reforçamos a proposta de um queer esquisito e questionamos as relações geográficas de poder a partir de uma perspectiva brasileira.Palavras-chave: pontes; esquisito; queer; chicana; geopolítica; feminismo.Abstract: The objective of this article is to esquisitar (queer, in a free translation) bridges and to bring closer counter-hegemonic feminisms from Latin-America, more specifically from Brazil, and those developed by the Chicanas, in the borders between the USA and Mexico. Through this dialogue, we intend to potentialize the Brazilian feminist literary criticism by considering processes of knowledge production from marginalized positions. While the concept of esquisito comes from the works of the Brazilian researcher Eliana Ávila (2015), the construction of bridges between distinct groups emerges from the border thinking of Gloria Anzaldúa e Cherríe Moraga (1981). The works of Lélia Gonzalez (1984; 1988) and Larissa Pelúcio (2012) are also intertwined to the ones from Chicana authors to question power relations and historical cultural invisibilities. By esquisiting bridges, it is possible to develop political potentialities and epistemological constructions that take into consideration situated knowledges. From this perspective, we reinforce the proposal of an esquisito queer and question the geopolitics from a Brazilian point of view.Keywords: bridges; esquisito; queer; chicana; geopolitics; feminism.

Structures within structures: Examining alternative cultures of learning in the institution

This article explores the possibilities of using critical pedagogy inside and outside the art school to counter the effects of neoliberalism. Developed from an initial transcript of a conversation between three graduates of the Royal College of Art (United Kingdom) about our education-as-art projects, it takes the form of a constructed dialogue that mirrors our approach to working collectively. We discuss particular issues that arose for us whilst studying, as we experienced how the neo-liberal art school conceptualized a form of education and arts practice that promoted individualized paths and set competitive dynamics between students. We are interested in how art practices characterized as being social, collaborative and democratic can resist the neo-liberal art school. Advocating for process-based methods that facilitate learning between groups of students, we aim to open up space for embodied and situated knowledges. Bringing critical pedagogical approaches to the inside of the university creates a porosity with the alternatives we experienced outside. Through re-practicing historically radical methods and creating supportive structures, we challenge the dominant ways of communicating and managing the student-body. We argue that students and artists can organize their own cultures of learning in opposition to those that the university-as-business wants to promote, whilst creating supportive models that take students’ needs into account.

Acción política frente a la violencia feminicida en México. Experiencias de una Investigación Activista Feminista

Uno de los problemas sociales más graves que se presentan actualmente en México es el de la violencia feminicida, por lo que es un tema con el cual estamos obligadas a comprometernos. Este texto parte de un trabajo en el que hemos realizado conocimientos situados y seguido algunos pasos de la Investigación Activista Feminista. El trabajo se centró en recoger las experiencias de familiares y activistas que luchan pro frenar la violencia feminicida en una región del centro de México. El artículo explica cómo se construyó la investigación desde los planteamientos feministas y muestra cómo tejer los datos recogidos como diálogo de saberes y no un análisis jerarquizado. La idea es seguir aportando a la creación de una comunidad científica feminista.One of the most relevant social problems in Mexico is femicide violence. That is the reason why we need to think about solutions. This paper is based on a work in which we have carried out situated knowledges and followed some principles of the Feminist Activist Research. The work focused on collecting the experiences of relatives and activists who fight to stop femicide violence in a region of central Mexico. The article explains how research was constructed from feminist approaches and shows how to weave the collected data as a dialogue of knowledge and not a hierarchical analysis. The idea is to continue contributing to the creation of a feminist scientific community.

Relational revolution and relationality in IR: New conversations

There is a multifaceted relational revolution afoot in International Relations (IR) and in the social sciences more widely. This article suggests, via engagement with varied forms of relational thought and practice in IR, but in particular via engagement with ‘relational cosmology’ associated with the ‘natural’ as well as the ‘social’ sciences, that there are important reasons for relational thought and practice in IR and around it to be more attentive to dialogues on relationality across natural and social sciences. If relational thought in IR has challenged the colonial and bifurcated ontologies of the field, relational cosmology too assists in shifting ‘modern’ understandings of science and the cosmos by facilitating engagement with situated knowledges and deep-going relationalities across ‘nature’ and ‘society’, ‘human’ and ‘non-human’ communities. Relational cosmology may be productive in joining, and perhaps even in facilitating, conversations across multiple relationalities emerging from different parts of the world and in different fields of inquiry, and yet – reflecting its relational and pluriversal orientations – it is not proposed here as a new ‘meta-‘ or ‘grand-’ narrative for relational theorising or IR.

Pluriversal planning scholarship: Embracing multiplicity and situated knowledges in community-based approaches

In recent years, emerging work from the “southern” and “south/eastern” contexts has widened the theoretical discussion and the geographical focus of the contemporary planning debate. Inspired by Arturo Escobar’s notion of the “Pluriverse,” this article proposes a “pluriversal planning scholarship,” to articulate the theoretical and community-based contributions of an evolving stream of planning research that embraces multiplicity, coexistence, and critical thinking. Through a review of over 300 publications in top planning journals, we suggest that pluriversal scholars engage in creative methodologies to do community-based work. They contribute to extending planning theory by drawing from other fields, such as Black feminism, decolonial thought, and Indigenous studies to highlight the everyday experiences and resistances of residents despite a state that is failing them. Additionally, they actively contribute to community-based work through reciprocal theory development with community members, capacity building, and visibilizing residents’ stories when appropriate.

Learning to Read Equine Agency: Sense and Sensitivity at the Intersection of Scientific, Tacit and Situated Knowledges

The aim of this essay is to address the challenges and problems in communicating with horses and interpreting their communication in everyday handling and training situations. We seek ways to learn more about equine communication and agency in the prevention of cruelty against animals and in enhancing animal welfare. We ask how it would be possible to learn to read the subtle signs of equine communication and agency in a sensible, sensitive, and ethical way to increase the health and wellbeing of horses that humans interact with. We have placed this theoretical examination in a multidisciplinary framework that consists of humananimal studies, feminist posthumanities, cultural and literary studies, and equine social science, as well as applied insights from, for example, discussions on power, ethics, and politics. Our emphasis is on the need for situated knowledges, among scientific and tacit knowledges, in order to ‘become with’ a horse in a relationship based on mutual communication and trust. These different types of knowledges are central to an ‘animal politics’ that is organised politically on behalf of animals and motivated by an ethics of care and responsibility, echoing recent requests for a relational ethics in interactions with animals in multispecies societies and more-than-human worlds.

Revisión y limitaciones de la Investigación Militante en el estudio de los movimientos sociales

Los movimientos sociales de base asamblearia promueven, en muchas ocasiones, la defensa y aplicación de procesos participativos. Esta correlación también se ha incorporado al estudio de los movimientos sociales, concretamente al campo de la investigación comprometida con las transformaciones sociales. Términos epistemológicos como «conocimiento situado» (Haraway, 1995) han motivado a que desde la Investigación Militante se cuestione el mantra de la objetividad científica y, de este modo, se articulen metodologías junto y con los movimientos sociales. El presente artículo pretende seguir dicho paradigma, enmarcándose en un trabajo etnográfico sobre el movimiento antidesahucios (España). Nos haremos valer de reflexiones aplicadas en relación a la polémica triangulación militancia-academia-investigación. Entre otras cuestiones nos preguntamos: ¿es suficiente una etnografía implicada con la acción colectiva para generar un espacio de sinergia entre el conocimiento académico y los movimientos sociales?, ¿a qué limitaciones nos enfrentamos? En esta línea se realiza un ejercicio retrospectivo y (auto)crítico a partir de diferentes experiencias que tuvieron lugar durante el desarrollo del trabajo de campo. En consecuencia, se concluye que no es suficiente con la predisposición y la voluntad de generar un proyecto de investigación militante, tenemos la responsabilidad de revelar los sesgos academicistas que debilitan la articulación de prácticas epistemológicas implicadas con la acción colectiva.The social movements assembly usually promote the defence and application of participatory processes. This correlation has also been incorporated to the study of social movements, specifically to the field of research that is committed to social transformations. Epistemological terms like «Situated Knowledges » (Haraway, 1991) have motivated the Militant Research to discuss scientific objectivity. And thanks to this, they have articulated methodologies together and with the social movements. This article pretends to follow such an above mentioned paradigm within an ethnographic work on the evictions movement in Spain. We will use theoretical reflections applied all in relation to the controversial triangulation: militancy-academy-investigation. Among other questions we ask ourselves: Do we have enough with an ethnography involved with the collective action to generate a space of synergy among the academic knowledge and the social movements?, which limitations are we facing? Following this, a retrospective and critical exercise is made from different experiences which took place during the development of the work of field. In consequence, we conclude by saying that it is not enough with the predisposition and the will to generate a project of Militant Research, we should also have the responsibility to reveal those academic bias that weaken the articulation of epistemological practices involved with the collective action.