Decolonization in Latin America and plurinational states

• Grant number: 11/23602-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: June 01, 2012
• End date: May 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Vivian Grace Fernández-Dávila Urquidi
• Grantee: Vivian Grace Fernández-Dávila Urquidi
• Host Investigator: Boaventura Sousa Santos
• Host Institution: Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade de Coimbra (UC), Portugal

Abstract

This research project aims to analyze the processes of contemporary Latin American politicization of ethnic issues, which the most extreme experiences are Plurinational State of Bolivia and Ecuador. We aim to develop a knowledge about the main points that drive these experiences, particularly the decolonization of the state and the society, and the indigenous autonomies. The politicization of ethnicity is a phenomenon that occurs with more intensity in the 90's, driven by the indigenous movements and the recognition of ethnic rights, but that begins is in previous decades. We refer to the period when an important process for the production of theoretical knowledge and political practices has spread to Latin America, especially since the 60's, and that, even though he was interrupted by dictatorships or the paradigm crisis that followed the failure of real socialism, it was accumulated in the experience of grassroots organizing and politics, as well as in theory. The work presented here, thus, focuses on the analysis of theoretical and political experiences of that moment in the time that gave content to current experiences of the Plurinational States. We will analyze the Latin American social thought focused on the national question, and we will focus the Bolivians an Ecuadorians authors, including the Indianist, which produced a locally situated knowledge. The research, to be held over one year at the Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, seeks to facilitate a plan of cooperation between universities and consolidate a line of research at the University of São Paulo, and within the Interdisciplinary Watch for Public Policy, where a study group under my coordination works since 2007, with the theme of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America. The proposal is presented to FAPESP, in the line of Overseas Research, and it will be developed in the postdoctoral program of the CSS/Coimbra under the supervision of Prof. Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Finally, this work is the first step of a larger research project which is also presented to FAPESP for Individual Projects, and wich will be completed in two years. (AU)