Epistemologies of the South and Decolonisation of Human Rights
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v16i1p160Keywords:
Human Rights, Legal Pluralism, Subaltern CosmopolitanismAbstract
Being characterised by a variety of normative systems and systems of knowledge, contemporary societies are said to be pluralistic. Yet, some expressions of epistemic and legal pluralism are still ignored and rejected, due to the cognitive hegemony and legal centralism of Western modernity. The issue has been explored from different perspectives in the field of human and social sciences, having been investigated within the framework of Latin American neo-Marxist dependency theory, English post-colonial studies, world-systems theory, the theories of the Modernity/Coloniality group, and the Epistemologies of the South. Such approaches seem to be particularly effective when carrying out a comprehensive analysis of human rights, as global social justice cannot be achieved without global cognitive justice (de Sousa Santos 2007). Other languages can be used to talk about human dignity, with epistemic and legal pluralism making the various grammar rules of fundamental rights intelligible. Such an approach has been adopted by decolonial theory, which is experimenting with a new legal common sense. In this paper, reference will be made to the Epistemologies of the South, theorised by Portuguese sociologist of law Boaventura de Sousa Santos.References
Bobbio N. (1990), L’età dei diritti, Einaudi, Torino
Cassano F. (1996), Il pensiero meridiano, Bari: Laterza.
Cassese A. (2005), I diritti umani oggi, Laterza, Bari - Roma
Castro Gomèz S. and Grosfoguel R. (2005), La hybris del punto cero: ciencia, raza e ilustración en la Nueva Granada (1750-1816), Bogotà: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Editorial.
De Sousa Santos B. (2003), La caída del Angelus Novus: ensayos para una nueva teoría social y una nueva práctica política, Bogotà: Editor C. A. Rodríguez.
De Sousa Santos B. (2003), Democratizzare la democrazia. I percorsi della democrazia partecipativa, Troina (En): Città aperta.
De Sousa Santos B. (2003), Il forum sociale mondiale-verso una globalizzazione antiegemonica, Troina (En): Città aperta.
De Sousa Santos B. (2005), Produrre per vivere. Le vie della produzione non capitalistica, Troina (En): Città aperta.
De Sousa Santos B. (2006), “La Sociologia de las Ausencias y las Sociologia de las Emergencias: para una ecologia de saberes”, in Renovar la teoria critica y reinventar la emancipacion social, Buenos Aires: CLACSO, pp.13-41.
De Sousa Santos B. (ed.) (2007), Cognitive Justice in a Global World: Prudent Knowledge for a Decent Life, Lanham: Lexington.
De Sousa Santos B. (2008), Diritto ed emancipazione sociale, Troina (En): Città aperta.
De Sousa Santos B. (2009a), “Más allá del pensamiento abismal: de las líneas globales a una ecología de saberes”, in L. Tapia Mealla (ed.), Pluralismo epistemológico, La Paz: CLACSO – Muela del Diablo Editores – Comunas – CideUmsa, pp.31-84.
De Sousa Santos B. (2009), “Toward a multicultural conception of human rights”, in F. G. Isa and K. Feyter (eds.), International Human Rights Law in a Global Context, Bilbao: University of Deusto, pp. 97-121.
De Sousa Santos B. (2009b), Una epistemologia del Sur, Buenos Aires: Clacso.
De Sousa Santos B. (2009c), Sociologia Juridica Critica, Madrid: Editorial Trotta.
De Sousa Santos B. (2014), Derechos humanos, democracia y desarrollo, Bogotá: Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad, Dejusticia.
De Sousa Santos B. (2015), If God Were a Human Rights Activist, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
De Sousa Santos B. (2016), “Nos falta imaginación para pensar alternativas”, in Envío (http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/5279).
De Sousa Santos B. (2018), The End of the Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age of Epistemologies of the South, Durham and London: Duke University Press.
De Sousa Santos B. and Sena Martins B. (eds.) (2019), El pluriverso de los derechos humanos. La diversidad de las luchas por la dignidad.
De Sousa Santos B. (2020), “The Alternative to Utopia Is Myopia”, in Politics & Society, 48(4): 567-584.
Grosfoguel R. (2017), Rompere la colonialità. Razzismo, islamofobia, migrazioni nella prospettiva decoloniale, Milano: Mimesis.
Grosfoguel R. (2005), “The Implications of Subaltern Epistemologies for Global Capitalism: Transmodernity, Border Thinking and Global Coloniality”, in R. P. Appelbaum and W. I. Robinson (eds.), Critical Globalization Studies, New York /London: Routledge.
Grosfoguel R. and Castro Gomez S. (2005), Giro decolonial, teoria critica y pensamiento heterarchico, Red de Antropologías del Mundo – World Anthropologies Network (www.ram-wan.net).
Grosfoguel R. (2007), “The Epistemic Decolonial Turn”, in Cultural Studies, 21(2-3): 211-223
Melossi D., (2002), Stato, controllo sociale, devianza, Milano: Mondadori
Mignolo W. (2000), Local histories/global designs. Essay on the coloniality of power, subaltern knowledges and border thinking, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Panikkar R. (1984), “The Destiny of Technological Civilization. An Ancient Buddhist Legend Romavisaya”, in «Alternatives», New York-Delhi, x, 2, pp. 237-253.
Quijano A. (2000), “Colonialidad del poder y clasificación social”, in Journal of World-Systems Research, 6(2): 342-386.
Quijano A. (1999), “Colonialidad y Modernidad/Racionalidad”, in Perù Indigena, 29: 11-21.
Teti V. (2022), La restanza, Torino: Einaudi.
Rouland N. (1992), Antropologia giuridica, Milano: Giuffrè.
Schiva V. (1995), Monoculture della mente. Biodiversità, biotecnologia e agricoltura scientifica, Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.
Zaffaroni E. R. (2011), La Pachamama y el humano, Buenos Aires: Ediciones Madres de Plaza de Mayo.
Zaffaroni E. R. (2012), “Pachamama, Sumak Kawsay y constituciones”, in Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo, 2.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with PACO agree to the Creative Commons Attribution-Non commercial-Share alike 4.0 Italian License
Copyrights of each article are hold by the University of Salento.
PACO allows author(s) to retain publishing rights under permission of the Editorial Staff. But Authors are requested to always indicate that the first version of the article has been published in "Partecipazione e conflitto".
