Arturo Escobar

Culture sits in places: reflections on globalism and subaltern strategies of localization

The last few years have seen a resurgence of interest in the concept of place in anthropology, geography, and political ecology. “Place” — or, more accurately, the defense of constructions of place — has also become an important object of struggle in the strategies of social movements. This paper is situated at the intersection of conversations in the disciplines about globalization and place, on the one hand, and conversation in social movements about place and political strategy, on the other. By arguing against a certain globalocentrism in the disciplines that tends to effect an erasure of place, the paper suggests ways in which the defense of place by social movements might be constituted as a rallying point for both theory construction and political action. The paper proposes that place-based struggles might be seen as multi-scale, network-oriented subaltern strategies of localization. The argument is illustrated with the case of the social movement of black communities of the Pacific rainforest region of Colombia.

LATIN AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS

This paper examines the socio-economic, political, and cultural transformations that have been taking place in South America during the past ten years, particularly in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia. Whereas at the level of the states the transformations do not seem to venture beyond alternative forms of modernization, the discourses and strategies of some social movements suggest radical possibilities towards post-liberal, post-developmentalist, and post-capitalist social forms. To entertain such a possibility requires that the transformations in question be seen in terms of a double conjuncture: the crisis of the neoliberal project of the past three decades; and the crisis of the project of bringing about modernity to the continent since the Conquest. At stake in many cultural-political mobilizations in Latin America, it is further argued, is the political activation of relational ontologies, such as those of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendents, which differ from the dualist ontologies of liberal modernity. Al maestro Orlando Fals Borda, luchador incansable, In Memoriam, por su honestidadintelectual y su compromiso político con América Latina, con la vida y con el mundo.

Discourse and Power in Development: Michel Foucault and the Relevance of His Work to the Third World*

There is a sense in which rapid economic progress is impossible without painfut adiustments. Ancient philosophies have ta be scrapped; old social institutions have fo disintegrate; bonds of casre, creed and race have to burst; and large numbers of persons who cannot keep up with pro,qress have to have rheir expectations of a conlfortable life fiustrated. Very few communities are willing to pay the full price of economic progress. -United Nations, Department of Economic Affairs, Memures for the Economic Development of Underdeveloped Countries, May 19S1

Beyond the Third World: imperial globality, global coloniality and anti-globalisation social movements

The increasing realisation that there are modern problems for which there are no modern solutions points towards the need to move beyond the paradigm of modernity and, hence, beyond the Third World. Imagining after the Third World takes place against the backdrop of two major processes: first, the rise of a new US-based form of imperial globality, an economic–military– ideological order that subordinates regions, peoples and economies world-wide. Imperial globality has its underside in what could be called, following a group of Latin American researchers, global coloniality, meaning by this the heightened marginalisation and suppression of the knowledge and culture of subaltern groups. The second social process is the emergence of self-organising social movement networks, which operate under a new logic, fostering forms of counter-hegemonic globalisation. It is argued that, to the extent that they engage with the politics of difference, particularly through place-based yet transnationalised political strategies, these movements represent the best hope for reworking imperial globality and global coloniality in ways that make imagining after the Third World, and beyond modernity, a viable project.

Worlds and knowledges otherwise : The Latin American modernity/ coloniality research program

Cruzando Fronteras , the timely organizing theme for the 2002 CEISAL Congress celebrated in Amsterdam on 3 6 July, sought to signal, and rethink, the ever increasing relevance of ‘borders’ to the construction of political, social, and cultural imaginaries from, and about, Latin America at the dawn of the new millennium. The present paper focuses on a ‘border’ that is gaining salience in recent years, particularly as a result of the work of an increasingly interconnected group of researchers in Latin America and the United States, with smaller branches elsewhere. I am referring to the concepts of ‘border thinking’ and ‘border epistemologies’ associated with a larger effort that I will call here ‘the modernity/coloniality research program’. I am using the concept of research program loosely (not in a strict Lakatosian sense) to refer to what seems to be an emergent but already significantly cohesive perspective that is fueling a series of researches, meetings, publications, and so forth around a shared even if course contested set of concepts. In keeping with the spirit of the group, I would argue that this body of work, still relatively unknown in the English speaking world for reasons that go beyond language and that speak to the heart of the program, constitutes a novel perspective from Latin America but not only for Latin America but for the world of the social and human sciences as a whole. By this I do not mean that the work of this group is just of interest to allegedly universal social and human sciences, but that that the group seeks to make a decisive intervention into the very discursivity of the modern sciences in order to craft another space for the production of knowledge an other way of thinking, un paradigma otro , the very possibility of talking about ‘worlds and knowledges otherwise’. What this group suggests is that an other thought, an other knowledge (and another world, in the spirit of Porto Alegre’s World Social Forum), are indeed possible. A proper contextualization and genealogy of the modernity/coloniality research program (MC from now on) would have to await future studies. It suffices to say, for now, that there are a number of factors that could plausibly enter into the genealogy of this group’s thinking, including: liberation theology from the 1960s and 1970s; debates in Latin American philosophy and social

Construction nature: Elements for a post-structuralist political ecology

Abstract This paper argues for the development of a poststructuralist political ecology. While political ecology studies the relationships between society and nature in contexts of power—particularly from the perspective of political economy—this study, it is proposed, must include a consideration of the discourses and practices through which nature is historically produced and known. The paper examines the complex cultural and discursive articulations between natural and social systems established by capital and technoscience, particularly through discourses of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. The paper concludes with the implications of the analysis for imagining alternative productive rationalities in conjunction with social movements.

‘Other Anthropologies and Anthropology Otherwise’: Steps to a World Anthropologies Framework

This article seeks to complicate the picture of a simple anthropological tradition emanating from the West that defines anthropology as a modern form of expert knowledge. It introduces a broader frame - ‘world anthropologies’ - that allows us to think about the discipline in terms of a multiple space where ‘other anthropologies’ and ‘anthropology otherwise’ may become newly visible. ‘World anthropologies’ involves a critical awareness of both the larger epistemic and political field in which anthropology emerged and continues to function, and of the micropractices and relations of power within and across different anthropological locations and traditions. The article revisits the critiques of the discipline developed within the dominant locations, proposes a larger framework of inquiry, and ends by suggesting a few first steps towards the positive project of imagining a plural landscape of world anthropologies.

Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: a preliminary conversation

This paper seeks to initiate a conversation between degrowth (DG) and postdevelopment (PD) frameworks by placing them within the larger field of discourses for ecological and civilizational transitions and by bridging proposals emerging from the North with those from the Global South. Not only can this dialogue, it is argued, be mutually enriching for both movements but perhaps essential for an effective politics of transformation. Part I of the paper presents a brief panorama of transition discourses (TDs), particularly in the North. Part II discusses succinctly the main postdevelopment trends in Latin America, including Buen Vivir (BV), the rights of Nature, civilizational crisis, and the concept of ‘alternatives to development’. With these elements in hand, Part III attempts a preliminary dialogue between degrowth and postdevelopment, identifying points of convergence and tension; whereas they originate in somewhat different intellectual traditions and operate through different epistemic and political practices, they share closely connected imaginaries, goals, and predicaments, chiefly, a radical questioning of the core assumption of growth and economism, a vision of alternative worlds based on ecological integrity and social justice, and the ever present risk of cooptation. Important tensions remain, for instance, around the critique of modernity and the scope for dematerialization. This part ends by outlining areas of research on PD that could be of particular interest to degrowth scholars. The conclusion, finally, envisions the dissolution of the very binary of ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’ by adopting a pluriversal perspective.

ECONOMICS AND THE SPACE OF MODERNITY: : Tales of Market, Production and Labour

This text was the original second chapter of the authors doctoral dissertation (Escobar 1987); this chapter was never included in the book that eventually grew from the dissertation (Escobar 1995). Although the chapters contribution to debates on the economy are largely synthetic and certainly not original, the author wanted to publish it for a number of reasons. First, the alleged triumph of neo-liberal ideologies and the increase in depth and scope of market cultures at present make even more important the task of cultural analysis of economics and the economy. This paper was an effort in this direction, particularly to mapping the genealogies of what in the paper is called ‘the Western economy’. Second, there have been some recent claims that the cultural analysis of economics and the economy has hardly been broached. References to Polanyis foundational role in this respect are, of course, de rigueur, but one only needs to point at the pioneering work of Stephen Gudeman since the 1980s to dispute this claim. Third, the same cultural analysis is experiencing a much needed surge, with several groups today fully engaged with it from various – some times overlapping – perspectives. Finally, the impetus for this piece also comes from the creative efforts by a number of social movements in the world – such as some of the autonomistas in Argentina – to go even beyond ‘rethinking’ the economy to propose that what is needed is a new invention altogether.

Anthropology and the future: New technologies and the reinvention of culture

Abstract Computer, information and biological technologies are bringing about a fundamental transformation in the structure and meaning of modern society and culture. Not only is this transformation clearly susceptible to anthropological inquiry but it constitutes perhaps a privileged arena for advancing anthropologys project of understanding human societies from the vantage points of biology, language, history and culture. This article reviews the types of cultural analyses that are being conducted today in the social nature, impact, and use of new technologies and suggests additional contexts and steps toward the articulation of an ‘anthropology of cyberculture’.