Knowledge and emancipation
From epistemic injustice to digital and epistemic sovereignty in Latin America
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v6i3.33244Keywords:
Epistemic Sovereignty, Epistemic Injustice, Latin America and the Caribbean, Higher Education, DigitalizationAbstract
This essay explores Latin America's struggle for epistemic independence against dominant Global North informational flows in science and technology. It addresses the impact of knowledge production domination on the region, including epistemic injustice and academic imperialism, proposing strategies for bolstering science through epistemic sovereignty. It emphasizes higher education's pivotal role in a nation's sovereignty by fostering knowledge production, global citizenship, and intellectual leadership. However, in today's multipolar world, universities in less developed countries often serve as conduits for Global North knowledge, perpetuating their agendas. The consolidation of digital environments and globalization further exacerbates this issue, leading to an anglophone bias in scientific knowledge production, diminishing the visibility and relevance of Latin American scientific contributions—a form of epistemic injustice. The essay contextualizes the concept of epistemic sovereignty, highlighting ongoing resistance efforts in Latin American higher education against knowledge production dominance and instances of epistemic injustice.
References
Alatas, S. F. (2003). Academic dependence and the global division of labor in the social sciences. Current Sociology, 51(6), 599-613. https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921030516003
Alatas, S. H. (1969). Academic imperialism. Lecture given at the History Society of the University of Singapore, 26.
Alatas, S. H. (2000). Intellectual imperialism: definition, characteristics and problems. Asian Journal of Social Sciences, 28(1), 23-45.
Albala, A. (2016). Latin American political elites: an open research agenda. Colombia International, (87), 13-18.
Albuquerque, A., & de Oliveira, T. (2021). Thinking the Recolonial in Communication Studies: reflections from Latin America. Communication, Media and Consumption, 18(51), 82-103. https://doi.org/10.18568/CMC.V18I51.2521
Albuquerque, A., & Lycarião, D. (2018). Winds of Change? BRICS as a perspective in international media research. International Journal of Communication, 12, 20.
Almiron, N., Boykoff, M., Narberhaus, M., & Heras, F. (2020). Dominant counter-frames in influential, anti-climate European think tanks. Climate Change, 162(4), 2003-2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02820-4
Amiel, T., Saraiva, F., da Cruz, L. R., & Gonsales, P. (2023). Mapping Surveillance Capitalism in South American Higher Education. Latin American Journal of Educational Technology-RELATEC, 22(1), 221-239. https://doi.org/10.17398/1695-288X.22.1.221
Azevedo Junior, A. D. C. A. (2020). Zeitgeist on the right: the neoliberal bias of conservative movements and their influence on the definition of public policies. Revista Mídia e Cotidiano, 14(3), 8-30.
Azerrad, R., & Rossler, G. (2018). Creative tensions between entrepreneurship and association: theoretical paths on self-management and associations in Latin America. Economic Sciences: Publication of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the National University of the Litoral, 2(15), 117-134.
Bhakuni, H., & Abimbola, S. (2021). Epistemic injustice in academic global health. The Lancet Global Health, 9(10), e1465-e1470. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00301-6
Becerril-García, A., Aguado-López, E., Batthyány, K., Melero, R., Beigel, F., Vélez Cuartas, G., ... & Torres, J. (2018). AmeliCA: A sustainable, community-driven framework for Open Knowledge in Latin America and the Global South.
Beigel, F. (2003). The itinerary and the compass: the aesthetic-political avant-garde of José Carlos Mariátegui. Biblos Publisher.
Beigel, F. (2006). Life, death and resurrection of “dependency theories”. Criticism and theory in Latin American social thought, 287-326.
Beigel, F. (2014). Introduction: Current tensions and trends in the World Scientific System. Current Sociology, 62(5), 617-625. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392114548640
Beigel, F. (2017). Peripheral scientists, between Ariel and Caliban. Institutional knowledge and consecration circuits in Argentina: publications by Conicet researchers. Data, 60, 825-865. http://doi.org/10.1590/001152582017136
Beigel, M. F. (2013). Centers and peripheries in the international circulation of knowledge; New Society Forum Foundation; New Society; 245; 5-2013; 110-123.
Beigel, F., & Patel, S. (2010). Dependency Theory: The Creation of a New Social Theory in Latin America. The International Handbook on Diverse Sociological Traditions, 188-200.
Buckner, E. (2019). The internationalization of higher education: national interpretations of a global model. Comparative Education Review, 63(3), 315-336. https://doi.org/10.1086/703794
Calandra, B. (2011). The Ford Foundation and the “Cultural Cold War” in Latin America: (1959-1973). Americanía: Journal of Latin American Studies, (1), 8-25.
Castillo-Esparcia, A., Almansa-Martínez, A., & Smolak-Lozano, E. (2015). East European think tanks in social media – towards the evaluation model of effective communication/PR strategies: case study analysis. Catalan Journal of Communication and Cultural Studies, 7(2), 231-250. http://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs.7.2.231_1
Codato, A. (2015). The New State in Brazil: A Study of the Dynamics of Region. DADOS: Revista de Ciencias Sociais,, 58, 305-330. https://doi.org/10.1590/00115258201545
Cook, V. (1999). Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33(2), 185-209. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587717
Contra, M., Phillipson, R., Skutnabb-Kangas, T., & Varady, T. (1999). Conceptualizing and implementing linguistic human rights. Language: A Right and a Resource, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789633865217-006
Cueto, M. (1994). Missionaries of Science: The Rockefeller Foundation and Latin America. Indiana University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/369638
Dewey, M. (2007). English as a lingua franca and globalization: an interconnected perspective. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 17(3), 332. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2007.00177.x
Dos Santos, T. (2020). Dependency theory: balance and perspectives. Books. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12560
Dos Santos, Theotonio (1986), Imperialism and Dependence, Mexico, Edições Era.
Faria, L., & Costa, M. C. D. (2006). Cooperação científica internacional: estilos de atuação da Fundação Rockefeller e da Fundação Ford. Dados, 49, 159-191. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0011-52582006000100007
Feldman, Z., & Sandoval, M. (2018). Metric power and the academic self: neoliberalism, knowledge and resistance in the British university. TripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Criticism, 16(1), 214-233. http://doi.org/10.31269/vol16iss1pp214-233.
Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice: power and the ethics of knowledge. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198237907.001.0001
Fricker, M. (2017). Evolving concepts of epistemic injustice. In: Kidd, I. J., Medina, J., & Pohlhaus Jr, G. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice. Routledge Handbooks of Philosophy. Routledge.
García, F. V. (2016). The Island Caribbean: between reality and epistemic subversion. Journal of Studies and Research on the Americas, 10(2).
Goggin, G., & McLelland, M. (2010). Internationalizing Internet Studies: Beyond Anglophone Paradigms. In Internationalizing Internet Studies (pp. 15-29). Routledge.
Gohn, M. (2008). Civil associations and popular social movements in São Paulo. Unisinos Social Sciences, 44(2), 130-138.
Goyanes, M., & Demeter, M. (2020). How the geographic diversity of editorial boards affects what is published in communication journals classified by the JCR. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 97(4), 1123-1148. http://doi.org/10.1177/1077699020904169
Goyanes, M. (2020). Editorial boards in communication science journals: plurality or standardization?. Journal of International Communication, 82(4), 342-364. https://doi.org/10.1177/174804851882532
Grofoguel, R. (2018). Developmentalism, modernity and dependency theory in Latin America. Revista Epistemologias do Sul, 2(1), 10-43.
Guzmán-Valenzuela, C. (2017). The geopolitics of research in teaching and learning at universities in Latin America. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, 1(1), 4-18. https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v1i1.10
Hazelkorn, E., & Gibson, A. (2017). Global science, national research and the question of university rankings. Palgrave Communications, 3(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-017-0011-6
Hicks, D., Wouters, P., Waltman, L., De Rijcke, S., & Rafols, I. (2015). Bibliometrics: the Leiden Manifesto for research metrics. Nature, 520(7548), 429-431. http://doi.org/10.1038/520429a
Jacques, P. J., Dunlap, R. E., & Freeman, M. (2008). The organization of denial: conservative think tanks and environmental skepticism. Environmental Policy, 17(3), 349-385. http://doi.org/10.1080/09644010802055576
Jaguar, H. (1967). Political models and national development in Latin America. International Forum, 7(4), 331-355.
Jang, D., Bechara, J., & Bottom, W. P. (2022). Ways and Means: How Think Tanks Use Social Media to Influence Public Policy. In Volume I Contemporary Trends in Conflict and Communication (pp. 9-28). De Gruyter. http://doi.org/10.1515/9783110687262-002
Jenkins, J. (2018). The internationalization of higher education: but what about its lingua franca?. In secondary English education from an English as a lingua franca perspective (pp. 15-31). Routledge.
Lander, E. (2005). Social sciences: colonial and Eurocentric knowledge. The coloniality of knowledge: Eurocentrism and social sciences. Latin American perspectives. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 8-23.
Larivière, V., Haustein, S., & Mongeon, P. (2015). The oligopoly of academic publishers in the digital age. PloS one, 10(6), e012. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502.
Larrosa, J. (2008). "Experience". Brazilian Journal of Education, 19, 20-28.
Leung, C. (2005). Language and content in bilingual education. Linguistics and Education, 16(2), 238-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2006.01.004
Litfin, K. T. (1999). The status of the statistical state: Satellites and the diffusion of epistemic sovereignty. Global Society, 13(1), 95–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600829908443180
Machado, L. T. (1999). A teoria da dependência na América Latina. Estudos avançados, 13, 199-215.https://doi.org/10.1590/s0103-40141999000100018
Magalhães Bambirra, F. (2017). Sovereignty Revisited: Historical-Philosophical Construction and Approximation between Human Rights and Sovereignty through the Dialectic of Recognition. Brazilian Journal Political Studies, 114, 161.
Marini, R. M. (2000). Dialectic of capitalist development in Brazil. Dialectic of dependence: An anthology of the work of Rui Mauro Marini. Petrópolis: Voices/Public Policy Laboratory (LPP)
Marinho, M. G. S. M. C. (2004). The Rockefeller Foundation and teaching and research institutions in São Paulo. Procedures, practices and characters in the biomedical field: a preliminary analysis (1916-1952). Horizontes, Bragança Paulista, 22(2), 151-8.
Mendizábal, E. (2014). What is a think tank? Defining label limits. In reflection groups, 22.
Miceli, S. (2016). Intellectuals and the Nation in Early 20th-Century Brazil. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.289
Mignolo, W. (2007). “Decoupling”. Cultural Studies: 451.
Mignolo, W. D. (2011). The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options. Durham, North Carolina: Duke UniversityPress. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394501.
Mirowski, P. (2018). The future(s) of open science. Social Studies of Science, 48(2), 171-203. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312718772086
Mori, K. O. C., & Bardales, J. M. D. (2020). Gestión del talento humano en el desempeño laboral. Ciencia Latina Revista Científica Multidisciplinar, 4(2), 684-703. https://doi.org/10.37811/cl_rcm.v4i2.107
Mugnaini, R., Digiampietri, L. A., & Mena-Chalco, J. P. (2014). Comunicação científica no Brasil (1998-2012): infraestrutura nacional e internacionalização. In . La Habana: Escola de Comunicações e Artes, Universidade de São Paulo.
Nunes, J. A. (2009). Rescuing epistemology. RCCS Annual Review. A selection from the Portuguese journal Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, (1). https://doi.org/10.4000/rccsar.165.
Oliveira, T. (2019). As políticas científicas na era do conhecimento: uma análise de conjuntura sobre o ecossistema científico global. Perspectivas em Ciência da Informação, 24, 191-215. https://doi.org/10.1590/1981-5344/3520
Oliveira, T. M., Marques, F. P. J., Veloso Leão, A., de Albuquerque, A., Prado, J. L. A., Grohmann, R., ... & Guazina, L. S. (2021). Towards an inclusive open science agenda for communication research: a Latin American approach. Journal of Communication, 71(5), 785-802. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab025.
Parakrama, A. (1995). De-hegemonizing linguistic patterns: Learning from (post)colonial English people about English. Springer.
Pereira dos Santos, C. (2022). Latin American Sociology and Intellectual Neocolonialism. Revista Espaço Livre, 12 (23), 58–67.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford University Press. http://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0718.pub2
Poell, T., Nieborg, D., & van Dijck, J. (2020). Platformization. Revista Fronteiras, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.4013/fem.2020.221.01.
Plehwe, D. (2021). The development of neoliberal competitiveness measures. Global Studies, 155. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839457474-007.
Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism and Latin America. South Views: 544. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580900015002005.
Quijano, A. (2007). Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality. Cultural Studies Vol. 21 - Edition 2-3: Globalization a. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502380601164353.
Ribeiro, L. N. (2022).Think Tanks ultraliberais: o caso do discurso do Instituto Mises Brasil sobre a pandemia do Covid-19 (2021). Geografia em Atos (Online), 6(2), 152-180. https://doi.org/10.35416/geoatos.2022.9134.
Sánchez-Tarragó, N., Fernández-Molina, J. C., & Caballero-Rivero, A. (2012). Reflections on open access to information in the Cuban context: the case of the Health sector. Information and Society, 22(2).
Santos, B. de S., & Meneses, M. P. (2010). Southern epistemologies. In: Southern Epistemologies. p. 637-637. https://doi.org/10.4000/rccs.681.
Schäfer, M. S. (2015). Digital public sphere. The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication, 15, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc087.
Schwartzman, S. (1996). Latin America: universities in transition (Vol. 6). Washington: Organization of American States.
Schwartzman, S. (2005). Brazil’s leading university: between intelligentsia, world standards and social inclusion. Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e Sociedade, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2004). “Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education.” The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Spivak, G. C. (2015). Can the subaltern speak? In Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory (pp. 66-111). Routledge.
Sousa, J. V. de, Almeida, M. de L. P. de, & Perske, K. E. Implications of OECD recommendations for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Sér.-Estud., Campo Grande, v. 28, no. 62, p. 77-100, Jan. 2023. https://doi.org/10.20435/serieestudos.v28i62.1761.
Suzina, A. C. (2021). English as a lingua franca. Or the sterilization of scientific work. Media, Culture and Society, 43(1), 171-179. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720957906.
Thiengo, L. C., Almeida, M. D. L. P. D., & Bianchetti, L. (2019). World Class University in the Latin American and Caribbean context: what the International Organizations say. Educar em Revista, 35, 259-278. https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-4060.65341
Torres, C. A., & Schugurensky, D. (2002). The political economy of higher education in the era of neoliberal globalization: Latin America in comparative perspective. Higher Education, 43, 429-455. http://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015292413037
UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (2021). Pandemic-related disruptions to schooling and impacts on learning proficiency indicators: A focus on early grades. http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/covid‐19_interruptions_to_learning_‐_final.pdf
Van Dijck, J. (2021). Seeing the forest for the trees: visualizing platformization and its governance. New Media and Society, 23(9), 2801-2819. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820940293.
Velez-Quartas, G., Moreira De Oliveira, T., Uribe-Tirado, A., Collazo, F., Mugnaini, R., & Cheap, G. (2022, September). Metrics of academic production: evaluation of research from Latin America and the Caribbean. Of course.
Vessuri, H., Guédon, J. C., & Cetto, A. M. (2014). Excellence or quality? Impact of the current competition regime on science and scientific publishing in Latin America and its implications for development. Current Sociology, 62(5), 647-665. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392113512839.
Wallerstein, I. (2020). World Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822399018.
Walter D. Mignolo (2000). Local Histories/Global Drawings: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledge and Border Thought. [SL]: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-4283-4 and the De-Colonial Option: 168-178. Consulted on November 30, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4000/nuevomundo.357.
Whitehead, L. (2022). The politics of expertise in Latin America: Antecedents and actualities. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, 20, 212-224. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572000-1067.
Woodcock, J. (2018). Digital Labour at university: understanding the transformations of academic work in the United Kingdom. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Criticism. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 16(1), 129-142. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v16i1.880.
Wouters, P., Thelwall, M., Kousha, K., Waltman, L., de Rijcke, S., Rushforth, A., ... & Wouters, P. (2015). The metric tide. Literature review. Complementary report I to the independent review of the role of metrics in the evaluation and management of research. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.5066.3520.
Wisly, J., et al. The Era of the Sovereignty of Peoples: Latin American-Afro-Caribbean Perspectives. (2023). Master's Thesis.
Zuboff, S. (January 2019). Surveillance capitalism and the challenge of collective action. In New Labor Forum (Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 10-29). Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/1095796018819461.
World Bank. (2010). Achieving World Class Education in Brazil: The Next Agenda.
World Bank. (2017). A fair adjustment - Analysis of the efficiency and equity of public spending in Brazil.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Thaiane Oliveira, Tatiane Mendes Pinto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
