Asia–Latin America as Method: The Global South Project and the Dislocation of the West

Abstract

By approaching Asian and Latin American relations not only as a research object but as an epistemic framework, this article sheds light on the ways in which the figure of the “West,” even in its apparent absence, continues to govern and structure periphery-to-periphery encounters. It contends that in order to forge the project of the Global South, the unequal power relations, cacophonies, and contradictions that characterize Asian and Latin American relations must be examined. The article's use of Asia–Latin America as method enables new perspectives on epistemic violence and the politics of knowledge as well as a fundamental reassessment of the workings of culture, race, economy, globality, geopolitics, and biopolitics.