Event overview
Activism and Social Movements Research Group | Reading Group Meeting - Indigenous Cosmopolitics in the Andes
牛牛资源' Activism and Social Movements Research Group hosts a monthly, cross-departmental reading group, which collectively explores issues related to the study of activism, civil society, alternative politics, social movements and other topics in an informal setting. The research group is part of the interdisciplinary Centre for the 牛牛资源 of Global Media and Democracy.
This month we'll discuss a text which raises questions about the role of indigenous knowledges and non-anthropocentric perspectives in social movements research, see abstract below.
Please email - a.scharenberg@gold.ac.uk to register your interest.
Cadena, M. (2010) Indigenous Cosmopolitics In The Andes - Conceptual Refections beyond "Politics"
Abstract
In Latin America indigenous politics has been branded as鈥渆thnicpolitics.鈥滻ts activism is interpreted as a quest to make cultural rights prevail. Yet, what if 鈥渃ulture鈥� is insufficient, even an inadequate notion, to think the challenge that indigenous politics represents? Drawing inspiration from recent political events in Peru鈥攁nd to a lesser extent in Ecuador and Bolivia鈥攚here the indigenous鈥損opular movement has conjured sentient entities (mountains, water, and soil鈥攚hat we call 鈥渘ature鈥�) into the public political arena, the argument in this essay is threefold. First, indigeneity, as a historical formation, exceeds the notion of politics as usual, that is, an arena populated by rational human beings disputing the power to represent others vis-a`-vis the state. Second, indigeneity鈥檚 current political emergence鈥攊n oppositional antimining movements in Peru and Ecuador, but also in celebratory events in Bolivia鈥攃hallenges the separation of nature and culture that underpins the prevalent notion of politics and its according social contract. Third, beyond 鈥渆thnic politics鈥� current indigenous movements, propose a different political practice, plural not because of its enactment by bodies marked by gender, race, ethnicity or sexuality (as multiculturalism would have it), but because they conjure nonhumans as actors in the political arena.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 15 May 2018 | 6:00pm - 7:00pm |
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