Displacing Theory Through the Global South: (29 Cultural Inquiry)

Displacing Theory Through the Global South calls for reflection on the historical and geopolitical inequalities that have shaped theorization. It asserts that what appears 'universal' often involves generalizations that flatten the particular. Critiquing the colonialist, imperialist, and Eurocentric perspectives that have historically impacted theorization in general and, more specifically, knowledge production about the so-called Global South, this volume seeks a different form of engagement that moves beyond such strictures. Featuring essays that unsettle distinctions between the general and the particular, it proposes a commitment to expanding notions of universality, making theorization not only relevant and generative, but ultimately, transformative.

Review :
Displacing Theory Through the Global South first and foremost scrutinizes the very positionality of the scholarly work on the Global South being done in the Global North, and reveals the fault lines of knowledge production from its very site of production. The authors ask the kinds of questions that are vital to truly 'decolonize' knowledge and its production, revealing its possibilities and limitations, as well as its exigence. - Burcu Alkan, Co-Editor of Turkish Literature as World Literature The Global South is not a place but a project; a project aimed at a decolonial futurity. This excellent volume suggests a set of engagements that are committed to transhemispheric conversations which resist binaries and the pitfalls of polemics. Working with the idea of an always already entangled space of global intellection, the wide ranging and thoughtful essays take us from Europe to Africa and South America and across a range of themes, from art and pedagogy to history and psychiatry. These young scholars show us the way forward for a true theorizing from the Global South against the lure of hitchhiking on existing narratives. An outstanding volume. - Dilip M. Menon, editor of Changing Theory: Concepts from the Global South Displacing Theory Through the Global South offers an impressive array of contributions on the power relations involved in knowledge production. It tackles the delicate issue of freeing oneself from Eurocentric theories without falling into the traps of ethnocentrism. The book does not merely question the very meanings of 'theorizing' and 'Global South', it offers useful readings in specific topics, and also in the philosophical implications of decolonial theorization at large. Displacing Theory presents a variety of methodologies and approaches that shows how both theory and method need to work together to foster plurality. Thus, 'displacing' here is not a total removal of theory, but a movement through methods and practices that theorizes beyond the imperial centre. - Massimiliano Lacertosa, author of From Metaphysical Representations to Aesthetic Life Concerned with the meanings and ambiguities of both the concepts of 'theory' and 'Global South', Iracema Dulley and Özgün Eylül İşcen have edited a toolbox built upon encounters between scholars, which happened in contemporary Berlin. They were mostly immigrants thinking together - making questions and confronting their answers - collectively elaborating on power, knowledge, and 'the relational and processual nature of intellectual work'. What we find, reading their texts, is a relevant scope of debate that instigates and transforms the possibilities of our own productions. - Lucas Ferraço Nassif, psychoanalyst, experimental filmmaker, and researcher at NOVA Institute of Philosophy The editors reframe the so-called Global South not merely as a geographical location, but as a catalyst for decolonization. This compelling volume interrogates power imbalances and hierarchies inherent in the construction of intellectual traditions, drawing attention to the need to disrupt dichotomies between the North and South, theory and practice, and the general and the particular beyond an Eurocentric gaze. Through nuanced case studies and critical analyses, Displacing Theory Through the Global South emerges as a stimulating resource for scholars and practitioners seeking to navigate the situatedness of knowledge and the intersectionality of social positionalities in increasingly globalized spaces of theory production. - Jamille Pinheiro Dias, Director of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of London's School of Advanced Study