The Decolonial Debate
Abstract
The understanding that Modernity and Coloniality form an indissoluble theoretical pair is the basis of the so-called decolonial thinking, which examines and denounces the domination structures of central countries over the peoples of the Global South, which remained in force in the former colonies even after the end of the colonization period until today. The anchor of the Western, patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist Modern/Colonial project is the concept of race, which grants the white, Christian, heterosexual, rational man governed by science the right to dominate all non-whites, who would be part of the nature, with no scientific knowledge and no historical legitimacy, and may, therefore, be subalternized and have their history and knowledge silenced.
The twenty-sixth edition of the V!RUS journal aims to bring together scientific articles and critical essays that question the hegemony of the North Atlantic notion of modernity in its several formulations, and situate the decolonial debate from different knowledge areas on the local, regional, national, and global scales. We are interested in works that take a critical position on the dissemination and global imposition of the European-USA conception of knowledge and its many derivations and applications, which contaminate the very idea of knowledge, its forms of production, dissemination, circulation, and legitimation, disqualifying other knowledge and critical voices and reiterating the imperial/colonial/patriarchal projects that rule the modern/colonial world-system, characterized by Aníbal Quijano and Immanuel Wallerstein.
Unpublished scientific articles and critical essays that make explicit in their theme, in the abstract and in the body of the text, clear and unequivocal relationships between the research presented and the decolonial debate will be accepted for evaluation.
We hope, therefore, to expand the scope of critical and grounded reflections that contribute to the decolonial debate in the Global South, produced in the various areas of knowledge, especially architecture, urbanism, arts, cinema, communication, design, law, philosophy, social, environmental, and political sciences, anthropology, cultural studies, history, geography, among others, dealing in particular – but not only – with the following topics and their intersectionality:
+ Concepts and references: the critique of notions of modernity, coloniality, decoloniality, hegemony, counter-hegemony, subordination, among others, and subjectivities;
+ International tensions: the (new) world order, the notions of multilateralism, globalization, internationalization, imperialism and globalization, BRICS and emerging powers, transnational migrations;
+ South-South dialogues, transmodernity, intercultural dialogues: principles, theoretical background, strategies, and modes of implementation;
+ Decolonization, cultural diversity, and intersectionalities: gender and ethnic identity, multiculturalism, native peoples, blackness and Afro-diasporic culture, cultural policies, transnational cultures, subaltern feminisms;
+ Decoloniality and artistic expressions: visual arts, photography, music, audio-visualities, indigenous art, Afro-diasporic expressions, digital art;
+ Audiovisual and the decolonial construction of knowledge: documentary films, collaborative projects, cinema, urban readings;
+ Decolonizing history: revisions, characters, events and deletions, new epistemological genealogies, the rescue of knowledge historically made invisible, critique of the official history;
+ Coloniality of labor relations: precariousness, platform workers, labor and intersectionalities of race, gender, and social class;
+ Decolonizing the university: teaching, research and university extension, mission and institutional models, curricular frameworks, disciplinary compartmentalization and transdisciplinarity, research networks and academic dialogue, international quality rankings, journals’ evaluation rankings, productivism;
+ Decolonial research and references of the South: revision of concepts and analytical categories, rethinking objectives, field delimitations, methods, and procedures, decolonizing the researcher's role;
+ Decoloniality and metatheories: systemic thinking, complexity, cybernetics, communication ecology, transdisciplinarity;
+ Cities of the South: Africa, Asia, Latin America and new paradigms of urban development, management models and city production, city-country tensions, peri-urbanities, intra-urban inequalities, metropolises, intermediate cities;
+ Decolonizing the environmental issue: North-South and South-South relations, sustainable development, metropolitanization, environment preservation, agro-industrial models, climate change;
+ Insurgent economies: decolonial social and solidarity economy, globalization and decoloniality, new economies of sustainability, greenwashing, substantive economy and other models of development, buen vivir and other economies in the Global South, the idea of degrowth;
+ Modern architecture and decoloniality: the universality of the modern model, the dualism of nature and culture, the modern North Atlantic model as an instrument of domination, the disqualification of local and traditional concepts;
+ Decolonizing ways of building: local building knowledge, low-carbon architecture, alternative systems, materials and production arrangements, innovative technologies and spatialities, the construction site, design and class, race and gender hierarchies;
+ New formal paradigms and the decolonial perspective: complex geometry architectures, parametric modeling, digital fabrication, digital design and production processes, the computer programs issue;
+ Non-Eurocentric ways of living: housing modalities, dwelling and contemporary ways of life, review of design and production processes, spontaneous and traditional living spaces;
+ Decolonial design: teaching, research, production, innovation, consumption, design and vulnerable populations, revision of models, new demands, ancestry;
+ The city in dispute: decolonial insurgencies, social movements, cyber activism, cyberspace, and the public scene, counter-hegemonic urban thinking and the right to the city, social urbanism;
+ Participatory design, construction, and city management processes: bottom-up citizen actions, online digital platforms as a locus of participation, solidarity networks, models of representativeness;
+ Decolonization and Artificial Intelligence: AI and new colonialism, algorithmic domination, colonialist data extractivism, AI and impacts on everyday life, AI and racism, data feminism;
+ Decolonization and digital culture: technopolitics, digital citizenship, free and open source software policies, social networks, computer applications as tools of control;
+ Valuing the memory and heritage of social minorities, invisible heritage, inclusive decision-making processes on architecture, urban places and monuments preservation, architectural design, and retrospective construction techniques.
In addition to text and graphic images, we welcome photo essays, videos, short films, animations and gifs, sound and musical pieces, and testimonials in audio files, art installation projects, architectural, urban studies, and building projects and criticism, slide shows and further digital languages considering Nomads.usp's interest in exploring the potential of digital media use on the Internet for academic communication.
Contributions in ENGLISH, PORTUGUESE, OR SPANISH will be received on the journal website between May 6 and August 6, 2023, according to the guidelines for authors available at the submissions page (www.nomads.usp.br/virus). The issue will be released in December 2023.
IMPORTANT DATES
May 6th, 2023: Beginning of the period for receiving articles
August 6th, 2023: Submissions deadline
From October 9th: Notification to authors on the editorial decision
November 6th: Deadline to receive the authors' adjustments
November 27th: Deadline to receive English, Spanish or Portuguese version
December 2023: Release of V!RUS 26
