Abyssal Line Research Articles

Alliances for change: Conversations across the abyssal line

Alliances for change: Conversations across the abyssal line

Europe is not a country: da Europa às europas nos estúdios literário

“Africa is not a Country” is a slogan that opposes reducing the African reality to an overly simplistic narration. Starting from the concept of Orientalism and its homonymous work from Said, I will try to tackle instances that tend to flatten the European reality into the exclusive perception of the colonial legacy. I want to reflect on the borders of the “abyssal line,” showing how Chakrabarty's discourse on provincializing Europe cannot be completed until we abandon this monolithic vision and manage to re-think Europe as europes, uncapitalized and in the plural form, to embrace the whole declination of European possibilities and taking off epistemic privileges from this area of the world and gaining a cultural province of the world-literary landscape.

Assumptions for a Decolonial International Law: A manifesto

Based on the recognition that International (modern) Law is a tool that allows for the construction of coloniality and the maintenance of the abyssal line, this text aims to conduct a transversal dialogue that enables a new understanding of the International Law, presenting it, alternatively, as a tool of social regulation that allows breaking with the exclusions and inequalities. For that, we propose a dialogue between decolonial authors, TWAILers and counter-hegemonic critics, enabling an epistemological encounter to think about alternatives to the Eurocentric rationality of International Law from another locus: the Latin American, therefore presenting the assumptions to consider a decolonial International Law.

A brief overview of the 2030 Agenda, noncommunicable diseases and the challenges of leaving no one behind

This essay provides a theoretical reflection on the challenges of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, considering its motto of "leave no one behind". To exemplify these challenges, we discuss noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), one of the main issues on the global health agenda before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the political and economic dimensions that determine their presence and global spread. After a brief overview of NCDs, the text seeks to answer three questions: In "Leaving no one behind?" we list some themes to reflect on how and who has historically been left behind, delving a little deeper into the examples in "Who has been left behind in the world?" and "Who has been left behind in Brazil?". Using data from the most relevant and recent literature on the subject, we discuss the challenges and some ways to leave no one behind in a world where the mean of production has historically made some social groups vulnerable, especially black and Indigenous populations. In our final remarks, we draw inspiration from the Sankofa ideogram to remember that the answers to the sustainable development we seek may lie somewhere in our most primordial and traditional past. And that it is necessary to invest on building new paths from different worldviews and approaches to epistemology on the other side of the abyssal line.

Resurgence as a Method to Overcome the Abyssal Line: Challenging Notions of Epistemology and Ontology

Resurgence as a Method to Overcome the Abyssal Line: Challenging Notions of Epistemology and Ontology

MOVING BEYOND THE ABYSSAL LINE: THE POSSIBILITY OF EPISTEMIC JUSTICE IN THE ‘POST’- APARTHEID CONSTITUTIONALISM

In this article, I reflect on the idea of a ‘post’-apartheid South Africanconstitutionalism and the related and implicated notion ofTransformative Constitutionalism by emphasising its continued bondageto a colonial and apartheid past. In an effort to critically explore the‘post’-apartheid transformative constitutional framework, I examinethe endurance of colonialism as coloniality in the manner it hasunfolded in the South African context. This exploration involveshighlighting three constitutive elements of this endurance: linearhistoricism as observed in Hobbes’ social contract; the geography ofreason as theorised by Schmitt; and the lines within South Africansociety and knowledge systems as a result of what De Sousa Santos calls‘abyssal thinking’. Although the endurance of historical colonialism ascoloniality can be described in a number of ways, I deal with thesespecific constitutive elements in order to argue that the doctrine of transformation, which includes Transformative Constitutionalism, haslargely been ineffective in its attempt to eradicate coloniality as it hasfailed to achieve epistemic justice for the majority of (South) Africans.I conclude by suggesting that the doctrine of transformation and, assuch, Transformative Constitutionalism has served to further excludeand marginalise the knowledge of indigenous (South) African people inthe ‘post’-apartheid constitutional dispensation. The project oftransformation has sustained the abyssal line as it has been internalisedthrough coloniality. As such, the ‘post’-apartheid South Africandispensation remains divided by this line — essentially discardingindigenous (South) African people and their knowledge systems to theabyss. I further argue that the persistence of coloniality, sustained bythe abyssal line, requires a project of conceptual decolonisation ifcoloniality and epistemic injustice is to be undone. In this sense, a true(South) African dispensation may be disclosed.

“Let Black Girls Be”: The (Insta)poetry of Upile Chisala and its resistance to coloniality of being

ABSTRACT The production and circulation of poetry on social media has gained critical attention over the past decade. Known popularly as Instapoetry, this digital literary phenomenon has been celebrated in the Global North for increased printed poetry sales and changing readership patterns. Little has been written about Instapoetry from the Global South despite its popularity amongst black women readers and sharers, especially in South Africa. By offering a Southern analysis of the poetry and Instagram profile of Malawian storyteller and instapoet Upile Chisala, grounded in decolonial theory, this paper suggests that the oft-cited criticism against Instapoetry as “not poetry” fails to acknowledge its location on “the other side of the line.” Chisala’s poetry is an example of post-abyssality: it draws attention to the abyssal line and seeks to overcome it. The paper argues that Chisala’s call to voice and self-love is a “re-humaning” ethic that is useful for challenging coloniality of being. Her poetry therefore contributes to reimagining the being of black women and girls.

Interrelações das Epistemologias do Sul e o cuidado transcultural nas práticas em saúde e Enfermagem

Abstract Objective to reflect on the interrelationships of transcultural care and the Epistemologies of the South of health and Nursing practices. Method this is a reflective study, based on a narrative review of the literature, highlighting the concepts of abyssal line, ecology of knowledge, and decolonization of knowledge from the framework of the Epistemologies of the South. Results after the reflective analysis of the material, three reflexive axes emerged, namely: Populations south of the abyssal line; Ecology of knowledge and interculturality; and Decolonization of knowledge in health and nursing practices: culturally congruent care. Final considerations and implications for practice the appreciation of the self-care culture of vulnerable population groups south of the abyssal line is essential to create opportunities for visibility and voice removed by the colonization process in the health field, as a result of the overvaluation of biomedical knowledge. There is a need for dialogue between knowledge to build an environment of mutual learning, characterized as the ecology of knowledge. For this, the decolonization process is needed from the perspective of post-abyssal thinking, with the appreciation of popular knowledge, in favor of culturally congruent care. Finally, in nursing, the framework of the Theory of Universality and Diversity of Cultural Care equips nurses to plan and implement sensitive transcultural care.

Disrupted access and success: Students’ transition to university in the time of Covid-19

The transition to university is complex and plays an essential role in determining students’ success in higher education. In South Africa and other global South contexts, students come from diverse backgrounds, and many have to cross what Boaventura de Sousa Santos calls an 'abyssal line'. Students in university in 2020 experienced an abrupt additional transition: to online learning, as universities responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. The current study investigates second-year engineering students' perceptions of the impact of the lockdown on their own studies, and their impressions of how first-year students might have felt this impact, through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. We sought to uncover the particular discourses that students draw on when describing what it was like to experience engineering study within a global pandemic. Throughout the student narratives, we identify a multiplicity of discourses around their identity as university students: as formed through connections with peers, lecturers, the university and the physical campus; as challenged by conflicting demands when studying at home; positioned as able to manage time and work; and vulnerable to threat from failure and the immutable force of online learning. We conclude with implications for universities and student success beyond the pandemic.

Civilising the Ex-Colonisers? Counter-Hegemonic Discourses at Workplaces in Maputo

This article follows the call in decolonial research to recognise other ways of knowing. It explores a specific kind of knowledge: namely, what we describe as ‘counterhegemonic civilising discourses’, or everyday efforts by the ex-colonised to civilise the ex-coloniser. In the article, we analyse Mozambican workers’ discursive attempts to teach what they see as ‘proper’ or ‘moral’ behaviour to Portuguese bosses and managers whom they meet at workplaces in Maputo. We have chosen to discuss this transmission of knowledge as a civilisation process, and we focus on forms of knowledge that concerns knowing how to do, or practical competences. This constitutes a break with the (post-)colonial civilising mission. The ‘white man’s burden’ of civilising the unwilling colonial worker is implicitly turned on its head when Mozambicans describe their strong dislike of uneducated Portuguese people’s behaviour and their own attempts at correcting this. Research on labour relations in colonial Mozambique is extensive and established, but this article moves the focus to contemporary relations of coloniality. It brings up three different sets of counter-hegemonic civilising discourses. The first concerns language and the use of blasphemies; the second has to do with social and moral norms and values in relation to sickness and death; the third concerns civic integration or the compliance with Mozambican rules and regulations. The everyday character of these discourses is important, and we see them as emerging from people’s struggle to challenge the abyssal line separating the epistemologies of the global north and south. The delineation of these inconspicuous discourses of civilisation is our contribution to the field of decolonial studies in lusophone Africa and to post-abyssal research on ‘emergence’.

Hollywood, an American Factory of International Soft Law and Social Order

Even if Hollywood is often represented as a liberal and progressive paradise, the liberal approach showed by the Hollywood star system is not present in the same proportion and degree in Hollywood blockbusters. Apart from some arguable contributions to the cause of minorities, in general, Hollywood tends to reinforce and perpetuate the establishment, the status quo and the structural causes leading to the Abyssal line and thus, it contributes to maintaining the social order. The Abyssal line (a mostly unknown and terrifying area of the ocean) is used by de Sousa Santos as a powerful metaphor to describe our ambivalent world, a world divided into two territories; on the one hand, the Metropolitan side, a world which is home to those human beings “fully human”, where human beings live in a decent world and enjoy rights in a set of social relations and; on the other hand the Colonial side, where human beings are not considered human neither are they subjects of the most fundamental rights. Hollywood does not explicitly show the Abyssal line and the existence of the two sides of the world: Metropolitan and Colonial. However, as this essays shows, many plots of Hollywood movies (both in liberal and neoconservative dystopian narratives) and TV series show in an indirect manner, some of the main features of the Abyssal world. In particular, the most intolerable and hurtful circumstances of today’s society are represented in scenarios and stories which take place in the futuristic, apocalyptic contexts.

European migration to Africa and the coloniality of knowledge: the Portuguese in Maputo

This article is about people living in the Global South who in their daily interactions cross what Boaventura de Sousa Santos calls ‘the abyssal line’. It portrays encounters between Portuguese migrants and Mozambican locals in the capital city of Maputo. The article specifically focuses on their interactions at workplaces and highlights the narratives through which they talk about and practise the transfer of knowledge taking place between them. An absolute fundament in these processes is the coloniality of knowledge or the epistemic dimension of (post)colonial domination. As the author demonstrates, both parties have naturalised the coloniality of knowledge, which implies that Portuguese migrants tend to see it as their inherent and natural right and duty to lecture and train the Mozambicans they work with. The Portuguese’s epistemological approach is intimately tied to their understanding of Mozambicans as human beings – or, in other words, the coloniality of knowledge goes hand in hand with the coloniality of being, or the existential dimension of (post)colonial domination. The author’s analysis revolves around the attitudes of the Portuguese, as described by themselves, but the article ends with a representation of Mozambican discursive attempts to unsettle Portuguese dominant positions and thereby resist the coloniality of being.

The Locus of Enunciation as a Way to Confront Epistemological Racism and Decolonize Scholarly Knowledge

AbstractIn this forum article, we seek to contribute to the discussion initiated by Kubota (in the article entitled ‘Confronting epistemological racism, decolonizing scholarly knowledge: race and gender in applied linguistics’) on how to confront epistemological racism and to decolonize scholarly knowledge. We begin by endorsing Kubota’s three recommendations on how to achieve such goals, as we feel they are an important step to challenge the abyssal line that exists between knowledges that are considered scientific and universal and those that are regarded as peripheral. We then propose a fourth suggestion that we feel is important to complement what is put forth by Kubota: that scholars expose their own loci of enunciation (as well as that of others) in order to localize knowledges that are often taken as global and all-encompassing. By doing so, we argue, academics in applied linguistics and other fields are able to acknowledge the limits of their claims and to present their research in ways that can shift the universality of white Eurocentric knowledge.

Práticas musicais na Licenciatura em Educação do Campo da UFT/Tocantinópolis: um estudo sobre as percepções de docentes e discentes

O objetivo principal deste trabalho foi compreender como professoras e professores de música e estudantes do curso de Licenciatura em Educação do Campo (Leduc), da Universidade Federal do Tocantins (UFT), campus Tocantinópolis, percebem as práticas musicais na formação docente. Para tanto, as(os) estudantes responderam a um questionário, e com os docentes foi realizada uma entrevista. A análise dos dados considerou as expectativas das(os) estudantes e professoras(es), suas práticas musicais e identificação com a proposta da educação do campo a partir da construção de um diálogo, principalmente, com o pensamento de Paulo Freire e Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Este trabalho celebra o protagonismo da Leduc-UFT em propor um curso de formação em Artes-Música para os povos do campo, sendo uma iniciativa única no Brasil. Os resultados levam à compreensão de que as práticas musicais na educação do campo sinalizam para um caminhar metodológico capaz de romper com o paradigma da linha abissal do conhecimento musical tradicional europeu, considerando que há um processo de construção e reconstrução do projeto e dos sujeitos para uma prática musical libertária e pós-abissal.

Decolonizing the civic/ethnic binary

The founding works of nationalism theory identify two overarching categories of nationalism: civic and ethnic. While the former is lauded as liberal, inclusive, and rational, the latter is derided as regressive, restrictive, and exclusionary. More recent work on nationalism has problematized these characterizations, but has largely retained the civic/ethnic binary. This article critiques the civic/ethnic binary from the perspective of postcolonial theory. Drawing on de Sousa Santos’s abyssal line and Fanon’s zones of being and non-being, the article argues that the relationship between metropolis and empire is foundational to the relationship between civic and ethnic nationalism. Yet the category of civic nationalism obscures racialized patterns of exclusion within civic nations, such that the standards of inclusion within a civic nation are constructed on the basis of excluding the nation’s Others. Because civic nationalism is predicated on the creation and denial of Others, presenting civic nationalism as a global ideal is impossible. The article concludes by considering the promise of transnational social movements in the global South as an answer to both civic and ethnic nationalism.

The Resilience of Abyssal Exclusions in Our Societies: Toward a Post-Abyssal Law

At a time in which we are going through the ruins of two models of social transformation – social revolution and social reformism –, I identify a radical division between metropolitan and colonial social relations. I describe and denounce what I call an ‘abyssal line’ between these two realities. The difference between the two sides is that on the metropolitan side we can claim rights, as we are fully human. Conversely, on the colonial side, exclusion is abyssal, people are sub-human, and therefore have no rights. To denounce this abyssal exclusion, we should learn other types of knowledge that allow us to produce radical diagnoses of our societies. We should become more aware of the diversity of social experience in the world, an experience of untold and repugnantly unjust suffering, but also of neglected creativity and innovation. We should develop a law of common goods, democratic pluralism, interculturality, and dignity.

Threats, Monsters and the ‘Refugee Crisis’

Boaventura de Sousa Santos treated Tilburg University to a colorful and rich pallet of topics during his Montesquieu lecture that prompted self-reflection and critical review of the role of law in our western societies. He argued that the way the law functions today leads to the creation of an abyssal line that creates radical exclusions. Although critical of the role of law and the legal regime in western societies, he encourages us, lawyers of the 21st century, to reform and further develop the law in such a way that it is built on democratic pluralism, interculturality and dignity and as such contributes to a more inclusive society. In this short reflection on de Sousa Santos’ Lecture, I highlight some examples and situations that show how rules and procedures of Western societies can have detrimental effects on large groups of refugees and migrants.

Writing International Relations from the invisible side of the abyssal line

AbstractThe article discusses the manner in which the story of the international system and the relationship between violence and civilisation that Andrew Linklater tells inViolence and Civilization in the Western States-Systemsremains on the visible side of the absyssal line. Absyssal thinking refers to the distinctions created between visible and invisible realms and it is Eurocentrism as a system of knowledge that sustains and reproduces this abyssal line. The article will focus on two instances of reproducing this abyssal line. The first will be with respect to the way in which histories of Europe and colonialism are detached from each other. The second will be on where political and moral ‘progress’ is being located within the development of the ‘global civilizing process’.

Towards Decolonising Teacher Education: Criticality, Relationality and Intercultural Understanding

ABSTRACTThis paper critically examines two studies that investigated pre- service teacher learning in contrasting contexts: an international study visit and a local service-learning experience. We argue that it is useful to conceive of these experiences as intercultural, and propose that how ‘intercultural’ is theorised in the western academy is object-based with roots in colonialism. We contrast this with a relational logic described by Burbules [1997. A grammar of difference: some ways of rethinking difference and diversity as educational topics. The Australian educational researcher, 24 (1), 97–116] and Osberg [2008. The logic of emergence: an alternative conceptual space for theorising critical education. Journal of the Canadian association for curriculum studies, 6 (1), 133–161]. Using alternative framings we interrogate teacher–learner relationships, highlighting how they were adversely affected by hegemonic practices. Findings indicate that when an object-based, colonising logic is the dominant frame, pre-service teachers were more likely to use ‘Othering’ discourses. When relational, decolonising pedagogies were used, pre-service teachers were more able to begin to teach otherwise. We conclude by making a case for intercultural education to take on a critical relational stance that counters the hegemonic violences that continue to be caused by a colonial abyssal line.

Independência ou Norte: reflexões sobre a influência do estrangeirismo no campo do conhecimento da administração no Brasil

Resumo Este ensaio teórico levanta os principais aspectos da formação da teoria da administração e realiza uma aproximação com a abordagem de Boaventura de Sousa Santos, que advoga uma epistemologia do Sul. Evidencia-se que a ciência positivista demarcou o que é válido como conhecimento e excluiu o que fica além desse "cânone científico". Em síntese, toda e qualquer produção científica fora dos padrões considerados verdadeiros e aceitos pela academia mundial torna-se inválida. Sob essa perspectiva, a obra de Boaventura de Sousa Santos, particularmente a sociologia das ausências e emergências, destaca a hegemonia dos valores notados no processo de interpretação e condução das pessoas em sociedade sob a óptica hegemônica do Norte. Assim, foi traçada uma linha (invisível) abissal, que demarca como válidas somente as experiências do Norte, produzindo ausências epistemológicas nos demais países que, por condições determinantes de sua história como colônias, importaram teorias. Por meio de um ensaio teórico, apresentamos a influência do estrangeirismo na ciência administrativa e as contribuições de Boaventura de Sousa Santos, as quais podem inspirar a construir um conhecimento emancipatório e interdisciplinar, de modo que a administração também utilize sua ecologia de saberes para superar suas ausências epistemológicas.