Colloque international « Global South »

As far as theory is concerned, the categories of “North” and “South” seem to be understudied. However, insisting on the specific travels between (or within) these two vast and imprecise entities seems to help to understand the global logic of contemporary intellectual exchanges. This comparative study thus aims to assess the diverse adaptations, interpretations and difficulties that arose during the travel of the central concepts, as well as key authors, of critical theories in these particular spaces. These processes of acculturations (some would say “indigenization”) are indeed unavoidable: they need therefore to be fully understood.

Tackling the examples of the “Southern countries” furnish some important insights in the relations of power specific to the realm of theory. These receptions raise indeed the vexed issues of theoretical neo-dependence, highlighting the processes of “going through” and the role of “filter” that the North plays, in some cases, towards the South. Scrutinizing those processes would indeed make us think about the relevant means, if possible, to “overcome the epistemological injustice of colonialism”, as Rajeev Bhargava coined it (in Global Policy, Volume 4, Issue 4, November 2013).

But our reflexion is not only about North-South relations and the intellectual after-effects of decolonization: it will also give us the opportunity to consider the contribution of Southern critical theories to Northern political thought (in the case of Latin American thinkers and the European Left for example) or to assess the various and under-examined South-South theoretical exchanges, which constitute in some fields the core aspect of global research. Through this decentring movement, we would like to understand the conditions of possibility (or impossibility) of an authentic scientific autonomy in our common global context.

Programme :

Jeudi 17 novembre 2016 16h30-19h

Columbia Global Center – Reid Hall
Salle 315, 4 rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris

Quelle autonomie scientifique des « Suds » ? /What kind of scholarly independence for the « Souths » ?

16h30 Table-ronde introductive en partenariat avec le séminaire « Généalogies du Mondial » / Introductory roundtable in association with research seminar « Genealogies of the Global » TransCrit – EA 1569 – Université Paris 8

Intervenants / Speakers :

Maria-Benedita Basto – Université Paris Sorbonne

François Cusset – Université Paris Nanterre

Claire Joubert – Université Paris 8

Matthieu Renault – Université Paris 8

Clemens Zobel – Université Paris 8

18h30 Pot / Drinks



Vendredi 18 novembre 2016 9h-19h

Université Paris Nanterre -   Salle 2, Rdc, Bâtiment W « Max Weber »

Repenser la modernité. Perspectives contre-hégémoniques depuis le monde postcolonial / Re-conceptualizing Modernity. Counter-hegemonic perspectives from the postcolonial world.

9h Accueil des participants / Welcoming remarks

9h30 Shalini Randeria Institute for Human Sciences, Wien – Austria

« Entangled Modernities and Academic Knowledge Production »

10h30 Gurminder K. Bhambra University of Warwick, Coventry – United Kingdom

« Modernity, Multiple Modernities, and the Difference ‘Others’ Make »

11h30 Pause / Coffee break

12h Fernando Resende Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói – Brazil

« Narrative territoriality and North/South relations: power disputes and knowledge production »

15h Leyla Dakhli Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin – Germany

« Youth, Spring, Democracy? Wording the revolutions of our times »

16h Pause / Coffee break

16h30 Panel conclusif / Conclusive roundtable

« Modernities and Globalisation in Latin America »

Intervenants / Speakers :

Sergio Costa Freie Universität Berlin – Germany

« The Research on Modernity in Latin America: Lineages and Dilemmas »

Geoffrey Pleyers Université Catholique de Louvain – Belgium

« The new Meanings of « Global ».
How Environmental Movements have shaped the « global » in the early 21st Century »

Discutant / Moderator : Stéphane Dufoix Université Paris Nanterre

18h30 Pot de clôture / Drinks

Comité scientifique :

François Cusset CREA – Université Paris Nanterre

Stéphane Dufoix SOPHIAPOL – Université Paris Nanterre

Claire Joubert TransCrit– Université Paris 8

Simon Tabet CREA & SOPHIAPOL – Université Paris Nanterre

Retrouvez le programme en pièce jointe