Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge

Images Outside the Mirror?: Mozambique and Portugal in World History

Maria Paula Meneses — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:54 PDT

The author, speaking as a Mozambican researcher living and working in Portugal, examines the different types of knowledge about the history of the colonial relationship and the independence movement produced in the two countries. The colonial project entailed the construction of (at least) two divergent narratives on the meanings of the Portuguese presence in Mozambique, narratives that render difficult any possibility of mutual recognition. Colonialism involved much forgetting and silencing; the dominant Eurocentric perspective on colonial history needs to be questioned and problematized. This is not contradictory with a critical questioning of the official post-colonial narrative of the independent Mozambican state, whose nationbuilding function caused it to silence the diversity of memories generated by the interaction between colonizers and colonized and to justify the repression of those who questioned the official version of history. Public narratives, official or otherwise, that construct or reconstruct memories are inevitably in competition with each other and reflect power relations. But the full plurality of memory does not receive public attention; it must be dug out by activist researchers who are able to distinguish subject and object and to produce knowledge in full understanding of the complex relations created by historical legacies.

Places To Think With, Books To Think About: Words, Experience and the Decolonization of Knowledge in the Bolivian Andes

Anders Burman — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:53 PDT

Drawing on his anthropological field work in Bolivia in the midst of profound social and political change, the author examines the attitudes of various interlocutors toward knowledge, and in particular the important differences between “hegemonic theories of knowledge and indigenous epistemologies, between propositional and non-propositional knowledge, between knowledge of the world and knowledge from within the world, or between representationalist and relational ways of knowing.” He stresses that there is “no absolute dividing line,” no “clear-cut dichotomies after almost 500 years of asymmetric and colonial intermingling of epistemologies and knowledge systems from different traditions.” Relational ways of knowing and indigenous traditions of thought continue to be systematically treated as inferior but they are still present and are currently making themselves felt at the university.

The Crisis of the University in the Context of Neoapartheid: A View from Ethnic Studies

Nelson Maldonado-Torres — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:52 PDT

This paper is a decolonial intervention in the crisis of the Humanities today. It shows the colonial limits of its scope and the challenges posed by subaltern subjects and knowledges to its future. The essay is rich in examples of how the Westernized University works to reduce or neutralize the impact of Ethnic Studies and other forms of subaltern knowledge production that represent a challenge to the eurocentric/westerncentric Humanities as they exist today.

The Dilemmas of Ethnic Studies in the United States: Between Liberal Multiculturalism, Identity Politics, Disciplinary Colonization, and Decolonial Epistemologies

Ramón Grosfoguel — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:51 PDT

This paper is an analysis of the Westernized university and its Eurocentric fundamentalism in relation to the subaltern struggles of racialized groups in America and its impact on the formation of ethnic studies in the university's epistemic structure. The paper goes on to discuss questions of epistemic racism/sexism and the dilemmas that ethnic studies programs confront today in particular forms of disciplinary colonization, liberal multiculturalism and identity politics.

Slavery, Colonialism and their Legacy in the Eurocentric University: The Case of Britain and the Netherlands

Stephen Small — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:50 PDT

Drawing inspiration from the critique by Patricia Hill Collins of the “Eurocentric, masculinist knowledge-validation process,” the author examines various ways in which universities, both in Britain and the U.S., have long suppressed critical inquiry into the history of empire, slavery and the slave trade. Parallel to this critique, he examines museums and other memorial sites devoted to slavery in Britain and the U.S., including a small number of initiatives that challenge hegemonic accounts and draw attention to the agency and the resistance of the enslaved. He further draws attention to initiatives within academic institutions in the U.S., Britain and other parts of Europe to challenge dominant accounts of slavery and its legacy.

Decolonizing the Mind: The Case of the Netherlands

Sandew Hira — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:49 PDT

In a militant context, the author examines certain dominant historical narratives regarding slavery and abolition produced and disseminated in the Dutch university and Dutch governmental institutions. He denounces their ideological and non-scientific approaches and in particular their strong tendency to understate or deny the oppressive character of slavery and the responsibility of Dutch ruling classes in its promotion and in mystifying the historical factors that explain abolition.

About Them, But Without Them: Race and Ethnic Relations Studies in Dutch Universities

Kwame Nimako — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:48 PDT

On the basis of direct experience in the Dutch university system, the author analyses the ways in which knowledge about ethnic minorities—so-called “minority research”—has been hegemonized by dominant elites who view minorities as problem populations and seek to manage minority problems in such a way as to minimize them and never question their own domination nor the historical heritage of colonialism and slavery. He describes several initiatives undertaken—mainly outside the university—by minority groups to re-examine race and ethnic relations and the history of slavery and abolition, including the National Platform on the Legacy of Slavery, the National Institute for the study of Dutch slavery and its Legacy (NiNsee), and the Black Europe Summer School.

‘Epistemic Coyotismo’ and Transnational Collaboration: Decolonizing the Danish University

Julia Suárez-Krabbe — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:47 PDT

In the Danish university, outlooks on the countries of the South and issues of development are strongly conditioned by hegemonic perspectives marked by coloniality. Although, in an era of neoliberal university reform, decolonial critique of dominant forms and institutions of knowledge is a marginal pursuit, the author draws on the experience of the collective Andar Descolonizando, based at Roskilde University, to suggest some ways in which decolonizing critique can be trained on the university institution itself and its “position within global articulations of power.” Such critical work, aiming in particular at epistemic racism, can be accomplished through what the author calls, with Nelson Maldonado-Torres, “epistemic coyotismo,” that is, introducing into the discussion theories and perspectives that are generally excluded from academia—thereby causing them to be recognized at least, if not openly accepted, in pursuit of decolonizing forms of collaboration with social movements in the South.

Catching Up with the (New) West: The German “Excellence Initiative,” Area Studies, and the Re-Production of Inequality

Manuela Boatcã — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:46 PDT

In the context of the Bologna Process of neoliberal European university reform, the German authorities have recently promoted an “Excellence Initiative” which has defined as one key objective the promotion of area studies. To the extent that such initiatives constitute a more modestly funded imitation of existing U.S. programs and share their affinity with evolutionist modernization theories and their instrumental function in orienting elite strategy, they operate as a vector of “re-Westernization” of the German university. However, these initiatives may also in some cases open up new spaces for the development of critical approaches to migration studies and ethnic and racial studies, from a more subaltern perspective, with openings to critical gender studies and attention to minority politics.

The University at a Crossroads

Boaventura de Sousa Santos — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:45 PDT

Finding the university as a whole at a significant historical and global crossroads, the author formulates a series of twelve “strong questions” about the contemporary university in the context of the European Bologna Process—named after the Bologna Declaration organized by the European Union education ministers in 1999 aimed at reforming higher education in Europe and creating the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The questions addressed “go to the roots of the historical identity and vocation of the university in order to question… whether the university, as we know it, indeed has a future” (author). The questions aim to determine, for example: whether the university can successfully reinvent itself as a center of knowledge in a globalizing society with many other centers; whether there will be room for “critical, heterodox, non-marketable knowledge,” respectful of cultural diversity, in the university of the future; whether the scenario of a growing gap between “central” and “peripheral” universities can be avoided; whether market imperatives can be relativized as a criterion for successful research and the needs of society—in particular those not reducible to market needs—be taken sufficiently into account; and, whether the university can become the site of the refounding of “a new idea of universalism on a new, intercultural basis.” More than a decade after the beginning of the Bologna Process in Europe, the author observes that these strong questions have received only weak answers to date but he imagines a future scenario in which stronger answers can be provided and the university can “rebuild its humanistic ideal in a new internationalist, solidary and intercultural way” (author).

Introduction: From University to Pluriversity: A Decolonial Approach to the Present Crisis of Western Universities

Capucine Boidin et al. — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:44 PDT

This is a co-editors’ introduction to the 2011 special issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, entitled “Decolonizing the University, Practicing Pluriversity,” including papers that were presented at the conference entitled Quelles universités et quels universalismes demain en Europe? un dialogue avec les Amériques (Which University and Universalism for Europe Tomorrow? A Dialogue with the Americas) organized by the Institute des Hautes d’Etudes de l’Amerique Latine (IHEAL) with the support of the Université de Cergy-Pontoise and the Maison des Science de l’Homme (MSH) in Paris on June 10-11, 2010. The aim of the conference was to think about what it could mean to decolonize the Westernized university and its Eurocentric knowledge structures. The articles in this volume are, in one way or another, decolonial interventions in the rethinking and decolonization of academic knowledge production and Western university structures.

Editor’s Note: To Be of But Not in the University

Mohammad H. Tamdgidi — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:54:43 PDT

This is the journal editor’s note to the winter 2012 issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, entitled “Decolonizing the University, Practicing Pluriversity,” including papers that were presented at the conference entitled "Quelles universités et quels universalismes demain en Europe? un dialogue avec les Amériques" ("Which University and Universalism for Europe Tomorrow? A Dialogue with the Americas") organized by the Institute des Hautes d’Etudes de l’Amerique Latine (IHEAL) with the support of the Université de Cergy-Pontoise and the Maison des Science de l’Homme (MSH) in Paris on June 10-11, 2010. Addressing the significant themes and findings of the studies included in the proceedings, the editor asks whether it is possible to decolonize the Westernized university solely from within its existing structures and through the agency of its own critical, yet still vested, actors. Is the European, as well as broader Westernized global, university system confronted with a binary crossroads, or can the posing of the problem as such in terms of a duality, at the expense of exclusion of alternative efforts outside the Westernized university, be itself a factor in determining the outcome of the journey? The editor argues that based on his own experience, it would be self-defeating to depend solely on the agencies operating within the carceral structures of existing university systems to seek a way out in favor of utopystic outcomes. As Anders Burman argues in the collection, and does so drawing on non-Western ways of knowing, the way one thinks (and thereby seeks solutions) is intricately and organically dependent on the place one thinks with—and this should necessarily include the Westernized university itself—including its dominant epistemic standpoints, disciplinary structures, organizational frameworks, and procedures. The editor concludes with a brief comment on his recent decision, partly inspired by the works in this collection itself, to retire early in the near future from his tenured university position in favor of more autonomous and utopystic, pluriversal outcomes.

Representation of Africa and the African Diaspora in European Museums

Artwell Cain — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:19:42 PDT

Museums in Europe have a tradition of marginalizing the image and narrative of persons from the African Diaspora. This is often evident in the frequency of appearances and the quality of these scarce productions. Another point of interest is the manner in which these productions are presented. On the one hand, several questions arise regarding the representation of the African after the abolishment of chattel slavery right up to this present age of emancipation. Who gathers and presents these cultural artifacts? Which criteria are applied during the gathering and production of these presentations? Which sorts of museums are inclined to present the African Diaspora in their productions? On the other hand, the participation of persons from the African Diaspora in museums in Europe is problematic. Persons of African Diaspora are not by definition employed as administrators, curators and other stakeholders in these museums. Interest in Europe about Africa and the African Diaspora has always been partial, distorted or deficient. In the cases where attention has been paid to the African Diaspora, it has been by and large of a negative nature. A central point of inquiry is why this state of affairs has been perpetuated for such long a period of time? In this paper, the author focuses on several aspects of representation of the African Diaspora in European museums in relation to power construction, which goes hand in hand with racism and social exclusion. The main points of departure in this paper are the articulation and location of representation of the African Diaspora especially from the 19th century to the present day. Additionally, the author raises questions about the ways in which NiNsee (The National Institute of Dutch Slavery Past and Legacy) is developing its own distinctive image of the Dutch slavery past and its heritage and how it is attempting at the same time to foster an alternative representation of the African Diaspora.

Slavery, Colonialism and Museums Representations in Great Britain: Old and New Circuits of Migration

Stephen Small — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:19:42 PDT

One of the consequences of British colonialism across the world was the appropriation of cultural artifacts, sacred and precious objects; and one of the legacies is their display in British museums. For more than one hundred years the museums of Great Britain have functioned to bolster national (white) pride and glorify British culture by showcasing a wide array of artifacts plundered and looted during European slavery and colonialism. One of the most significant legacies of British colonialism is the migration of minorities to the metropolis, their permanent settlement there and the growth of local-born populations. These groups have mobilized successful challenges to the hegemonic representations of British glory prevalent in museums. At present, dramatic and irreversible transformations in the representations and discourses of colonialism are under way in long-established museums across the nation. And new exhibits, galleries and museums projecting markedly different representations and discourses, and questioning the very foundation of museum principles, knowledge and functions have also emerged in recent decades. None of these developments are conceivable, or their dynamics understandable, outside the framework of international migration and settlement. And at the same time, new circuits of international migration, fuelled by inequalities of wealth and the ravages of war, all in the maelstrom of globalization, have led to the recent arrival of new migrants—and permanent settlers—new artifacts, new debates, and the potential for new transformations.

Immigrant Communities, Cultural Institutions and Political Space: The Success of the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, Australia

Ilham Boumankhar — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:19:41 PDT

This article explores the concept of immigration as it is processed by the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, Australia, through the analysis of an investigation that was conducted on public museum, and the presentation of several interviews with the manager of Immigration museum, the senior curator and the manager of the Community Exhibitions. It examines how the relationship between the museum, immigrant communities and the political context establish the Australian immigration museum as a recognized social actor.

“Indépendance!”: The Belgo-Congolese Dispute in the Tervuren Museum

Véronique Bragard — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:19:41 PDT

50 years after Congolese Independence was declared on June 30th 1960 with Joseph Kasa-Vubu as President and Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister, the Tervuren Museum of Central Africa (Brussels), originally built as the “Musée du Congo” by Léopold II, inaugurated the exhibition “Indépendance! Congolese Tell Their Stories of 50 Years of Independence.” This article examines how this event offers a sharp contrast to many Belgian museographic approaches to Belgium’s colonial past and emerges as a groundbreaking step for Belgium in recognizing the devastating effects of its colonial past. The study first analyzes the past of denial experienced by the Congolese community of Belgium to contextualize the Belgo-Congolese dispute and then further analyzes the “Indépendance!” exhibition as a response to the need of museums to embrace non-fixed and creative memory. The exhibit accordingly becomes this contact site in Clifford’s sense, i.e., a place where Belgians, Congolese and Belgo-Congolese people and memories are brought together, and where new meanings can be imaginatively shaped.

The Challenge of Cultural Diversity in Europe: (Re)designing Cultural Heritages through Intercultural Dialogue

Estela Rodríguez García — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:19:40 PDT

Western societies have constructed their collective imaginaries through the recuperation of objects and traditions that define them best. Europe mythically shaped its self-definition by “whitening” it, denying any recognition whatsoever of the cultural diversity of the people who inhabited the region for centuries. Since the 15th and 16th centuries, with the Renaissance, the invention of a common past involved emphasizing the Greek and Latin past, disconnected from any type of relationship with other cultures, religions or skin colors. The white marble of Roman sculptures, which many farmers found while tilling their land, became the desired color, the symbol of a Europe that nullified any presence of cultural and religious difference. Within this chosen definition, the chromatic spectrum of the others and their everyday objects were first defined as the war booty of dominant aristocracies, and later, as objects fit for ethnological museums. Today we have diversity in our streets and not just in our museums. When we walk through our cities, new strokes, colors and styles of clothing take us by surprise–those of foreigners from outside the European community, those who remain outside the Europe of their dreams and do not enjoy the citizenship rights of inhabitants of the European Union’s member states.

Danishness, Nordic Amnesia and Immigrant Museums

Lia Paula Rodrigues — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:19:39 PDT

Museums’ images and narratives play an active role in the construction of collective memories. Since collective memories are integral to the politics of social and group identity, most of the controversy surrounding museums’ representational practices depart from the question of who “owns” memory and what form of remembrance ought to be presented (Prosise 2003). Through an exploration of the Danish Immigration Museum’s website, in this article the author discusses the dynamics existent between DIM’s representational practices and its politics of exhibiting other cultures. In order to render intelligible such dynamics, the politics of remembrance (of particular cultural elements) and oblivion (of other elements) within the museum’s system of representation are scrutinized. Methodologically this means that questions concerning the “semiotics” of meaning production—how the museum classifies, categorizes, and represents other cultures—are not dissociated from the “politics” of meaning production—how the museum construct, through the objects it chooses to display and the narratives it chooses to tell, master narratives about itself. Accordingly, the representations of other cultures invariably involve the presentation of self-portraits, in that those who are observed are possibly eclipsed by the observer. The article’s goal is to address how colonial legacies—with their epistemic and ontological violence—continue to inform, implicitly, current dynamics of representations in Danish museums.

African, Chinese and Mexican National Museums in the United States: Did You Say “National”?

Cristina Castellano — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:19:39 PDT

This article explores how the model of the US cultural policies allows the creation of minority, racial and ethnic museums. It shows the difference between mainstreams museum and the community museums situated in peripheral neighborhoods in Illinois. It shows how the diaspora’s recent museums in Chicago are questioning the imagined nations and how nomadic subjects are grounded and practicing a self-representation in US territory. The text places at the center of its analysis the case of National Museum of Mexican Art of Chicago and the contradiction of the assimilation of Mexican culture by the American hegemony. This article was originally presented in an international workshop about Migration and Museum in Paris, at the EHESS in 2009. The reader will find references to the French context throughout the text. This comparison is important because the French model of cultural policies doesn’t allow a self-representation of minorities.

Museum and Migration: An Introduction

Ramon Grosfoguel et al. — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:19:38 PDT

This is a co-editors’ introduction to the Fall 2011 issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, entitled “Contesting Memory: Museumizations of Migration in Comparative Global Context,” including papers that were presented at a conference on “Museums and Migration” held on June 25-26, 2010, at the Maison des Science de l’Homme (MSH) in Paris. The co-editors were able to organize this event thanks to the support of MSH Director and President of the International Sociological Association, Michel Wieviorka. The focus of the present collection is on questions of representation and social agency of both migrants and museum officials. The purpose is to explore in a comparative perspective the complex and conflictive articulation between how migrants are represented by themselves and by museum institutions. The topic of migrants as social actors is one of the key issues explored in this collection. Migrants are not passive toward their lives and representations. They are social agents actively involved in their communities and socially vigilant of the way they are treated, perceived and represented by the host society. They produce also their own narratives and representations that are many times in conflict with Western hegemonic perceptions of their cultures and identities. Their strong presence in global cities and metropolitan societies today confronts the dominant society with issues of racial/ethnic discrimination and historical memory otherwise ignored by the hegemonic views in the mainstream of Western societies. Museums dealing with the history of slavery, the history of migration and the colonial history emerged as spaces of contestation. Moreover, the term “migrant” itself has been contested by “minority” groups that happen to have a long colonial history in the metropolitan society and are today formal metropolitan citizens born and raised in the metropoles but still perceived as “foreigners” and “immigrants."