Author: Convivial Thinking

LATIN AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION SERIES: Part I – Body (vs.mind)

by Macarena Montero Lobos

This is PART I of the “Exploring Latin American contributions to education” series. All parts consist of a blog conversation and a video intervention. This part starts off with a conversation between Macarena and Aisling Walsh. 

Aisling was awarded a PhD in Sociology from the University of Galway in 2023 and holds an LLM in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from the Irish Centre for Human Rights and a BA in Sociology, Politics and Spanish in the same university. Her PhD focused on feminist practices of healing justice in Guatemala and was supported by the Andrew Grene Postgraduate Scholarship for Post-Conflict Resolution from the Irish Research Council. She has over 7 years of experience working in communications, advocacy and activism with international development organisations including the UN and INGOs in Ireland, Guatemala, Mexico, Bolivia and Timor Leste. Currently, Aisling is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Limerick on a project exploring alternative pedagogies in Palestine. See her work in: https://aislingwrites.net/

Originating from Ireland, Aisling has lived in Latin America for over 14 years, including Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, and especially Guatemala, where she has been for the past 10 years. It has been interesting to share with her and learn from the perspective of someone who has voluntarily delved into the depths of Abya Yala[1].

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NEW SERIES: Exploring Latin American contributions to education

Mainstream education, rooted in Eurocentric values, frequently neglects the diversity of worldviews and models of well-being, resulting in the homogenisation of populations under the sway of dominant cultures (Samaniego et al., 2004). This series, created by Macarena Montero Lobos, seeks to promote the recognition of Latin American perspectives and their contributions to the field of education through a decolonial approach, thereby fostering an inclusive and endogenous education that is free from discrimination and closely aligned with the genuine needs of the territory. By offering new insights, the series aims to envision alternative forms of development that prioritise quality of life, agency, and cultural identity.

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On Epistemic Violence and Personal Growth

by Rossella Marino

This is a reflection stemming from a particular emotional state, that, considering emotions integral to political inquiry, I did not want or intend to polish in any way.

It is about a game. A game of uttering and reacting. The game of who calls what how. A game of power, realisation, resistance.

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Innocence and Violence: Why it is so hard to talk about Palestine?

by Giti Chandra

The work of violence is to undo what we understand as humanity and civilisation; to counter the need for, and power of, innocence that is foundational to both. It should work, also, as a reminder that requiring that a human being be ‘innocent’ in order not to be a legitimate target of violence is, in and of itself, a fundamentally uncivilised way to be. In the current calamity, over two-thirds of Palestinians killed have been women and children, and the image of the murdered child has dominated  much of the conversation around the crisis. Ideas of innocence and violence are intimately connected, both in our sometimes unacknowledged desire for civilisational innocence, as well as when the image of murdered innocence is weaponised in order to silence, and shut down other narratives. Emotional numbness and intellectual paralysis in the face of such images only serves the further propagation of both physical and discursive violence. How, then, should we wield the powerful responses the murdered child evokes in order to collectively think our way out of the vicious circle that conversations about Palestine have become?

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On Creating Spaces of Unlearning

by Adriana Cancar

Recently I was part of a quite special Summer School and when I look back at it, I especially remember the feeling of trust – trusting each other to listen, to understand as far as possible, to comprehend, to speak, to respond, to feel with each other, to sit in silence together.

Broadly framed by concepts, theories and debates of and around ‘decolonization’ and ‘development critique’ the Summer School was attempting to confront and question hegemonic narratives and naming the most problematic aspects of growth and development imperatives and promises.

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Killing in the name of…

by Aram Ziai

Throughout human history, human beings have been killed with various legitimations: in the name of religion, in the name of nationalism, in the name of justice and freedom. Whatever the legitimation, it boils down to taking lives of others and feeling justified in doing that. After the deadly attacks of Hamas on unarmed Israeli civilians, a number of people subscribing to postcolonial and decolonial perspectives have been appreciating the violence, calling it “a war of liberation” or claiming “This is what decolonization means”. All the while, the mainstream media seem united in describing it as terrorism and in proving once more that some victims of the conflict in Israel and Palestine are more equal than others. So who is right?

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Unpaid labour in the academy: the limits of neoliberal inclusion

published anonymously

After discussing the contents of this post, we agreed with the author that they would remain anonymous. Whilst we feel the issues being raised are of importance to elucidating the nature of the challenges with ‘decolonisation’ agendas, well-meaning as they may be, there is a danger that airing views so frankly puts the author in conflict with their colleagues and employers. We agreed that it was important to share these concerns, but that it was also in the interests of the author to remain anonymous.

Higher Education the world over runs on fumes and the goodwill of people committed to expanding horizons, whether their own or those of their students and contemporaries. The number of superstar academics who are cherry-picked by the Harvards or the Oxfords on salaries to match are vanishingly small. Instead we get too-high percentages of precariously employed colleagues working across teaching, research and professional services, many of whom work to prop up a customer-oriented, neoliberal higher education system that may not offer security, but still feels like the best chance to do work that may, in one way or another, be part of helping the world to save it from itself. Continue reading “Unpaid labour in the academy: the limits of neoliberal inclusion”

Ecocentric pedagogies and green scholarships: Towards green academia

by Sayan Dey

In 2006, the Ministry of Education in Bhutan launched what is officially known as the Green School System. One of the many purposes of introducing this green education system was to counter the mainstream modern/colonial knowledge systems that are anti-ecological, self-profiting and capitalistic in nature, and to build knowledge systems that are centered on the existential and functional values of the natural environment.

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POLYLOGUES AT THE INTERSECTION(S) SERIES: The Construction of Tribal Identity in India

by Vrishali

A tribe in India is an administrative concept. The tribal identity plays an important part in the claims of around 84 million people in India. ‘Tribe’ as a category historically emerged in the colonial period and was used to describe the communities who did not form a apart of the so-called mainstream Hindu caste society and lived in remote, isolated and forested areas with difficult terrain. The tribal identity plays a crucial role in tribal socio-political movements in different parts of India by consolidating and mobilizing people. Organisations representing these communities unite as adivasis (‘first people’) and claim that they are ‘indigenous’ to India.[1]

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