South-South as an epistemological space: Circulations and Frictions in a multipolar world

 

In this research area, we comprehend of the Global South as an epistemological space. We aim to engage with Southern epistemic constellations, and investigate its various material, historical and social conditions in terms of South-South exchanges as well as their interventions in global knowledge production. We are interested in past and future imaginaries of this this epistemological space that envision a multipolar world, in which alliances and solidarities develop across regions.

These different forms of allyship and solidarities can result in shared aspirations, initiatives and movements on continental belonging. We consider model spaces of experience of the Global South and take up discussions of transnational movements, civic and independent ones “from below” (i.e. social movements, organized networks in the cultural field, or the recent Milk Tea Alliance in South East Asia), exile, forced and deliberate migration as well as state organized alliances (e.g. in the form of different Pan-movements, Pan-Africanism, Pan- Americanism, or the Non-aligned movement). One key question in this endeavour is to what extent these movements suggest a utopian potential that goes beyond or challenges the “colonial matrix of power” (A. Quijano), the terms of postcolonial global relationalities with the Global North.