Epistemological Manifest: For a Counter-hegemonic Writing

Abstract

The scenario of the production of scientific knowledge and research in the social sciences of yesterday and today was/is shaped by hegemonic values ​​such as universality, impartiality and neutrality. In the opposite direction, also in the past and today, we find, among so many resistant voices, those belonging to feminist epistemologists, who have sought to denounce traditional academic work and propose, in its place, a theoretical contribution of a revolutionary nature, that raises criticism and the researcher's political and ethical position. To contribute and stimulate criticism of the hegemonic thinking that circulates in the field of ​​architecture and urbanism, the purpose of this paper is to elaborate an analytical approach to one of the influences of counter-hegemonic research: feminist epistemology. The goal is also to collaborate in the review of some of the existing analytical categories and to rethink delimitations of methods, procedures and the role of the researcher, with a view to the possibility of a more democratic way of thinking. Therefore, the proposed methodological path was the elaboration of a survey of bibliographical references which sought to address the themes of the “decolonial turn” and feminist epistemologies. As a result, we present a manifest that propagates another project of production of scientific knowledge, constituting itself as a methodological-political-ethical project, which has methodological tools that enable the construction of situated, partial, responsible knowledge and, therefore, compromised both politically and ethically.