Moral Geographies of Re-Existence - Projects of the Cluster
Abstract
- Abstract
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Our research project sheds light on the ways in which Afro-descendant communities resist and re-exist in postcolonial and post-slavery Latin America. We focus on Salvador da Bahia (Brazil) and Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), two major arrival ports of the transatlantic slave trade. These traumatic places of enslavement and colonization are still marked by racial discrimination and socio-spatial exclusion. At the same time, their colonial city centres are recognised as UNESCO World Heritage, attracting thousands of tourists every year. In this ambivalent context, we focus on peri-urban neighbourhoods which tend to be ‘off the map’ of many tourists, researchers and political actors. In the face of violence and poverty, their dwellers are often stigmatised across-the-board as if they were morally inferior and incapable of fostering a peaceful social transformation. In contrast, we assume that their self-organised socio-cultural projects may not only (re)valorise Afro-descendant identities and life-worlds, but also change people’s strong evaluations of what is right and good, altering their visions of a good life.
Presented by Prof. Dr. Rothfuß
#geography #brazil #philosophy #postcolonialism #moralities #unibayreuth #universityofbayreuth
Origins & context
- Title
- Moral Geographies of Re-Existence - Projects of the Cluster
- Language
- English
- YouTube playlist
- Presenting The Cluster Projects
- Date
- April 27, 2022
Identifiers & sources
Full text
- Transcript
- [Music] hello my name is i'm a social geographer at the geographic institute at the university of byroid and i'm a member of the research section moralities the project is called moral geographies of re-existence day life practices and the good life in two afro-descendant neighborhoods in savador bahia brazil and cartagena de indias colombia and this project started in december to 19 and will last for four years our project deals with the urban life of two marginalized neighborhoods of afro-descendant communities one in sabara bahia the quarter is called uruguay and the other quarter is called barrio chino in cartagena india and therefore we are interested in understanding how former slaves who live there kind of precarious marginalized life in these neighborhoods of two very unequal societies brazil and colombia how these african communities live their lives what kind of moral topographies they develop through inequalities who they are forced through racism marginalization and exclusion uh the topic is therefore quite interesting as we have the cluster of excellence african multiple and uh this topic deals with the multiple africa and this is africa the african diaspora in south america and therefore this uh shows the multiplicity of african life worlds not just on the continent but in the diaspora and about 200 million uh people in south america are of african origin and therefore it's a very important societal aspect at least in countries where population is quite numerous like brazil and colombia in this project we want to understand local life worlds how the people perceive inequalities how they are forced in these unequal lives and therefore we try to understand harmoniously the local people and that means we work ethnographically with the documentary methods reconstructing the meaning of the practices of the people of the intentions in their lives and we want to integrate participatory action research to integrate a shared understanding of knowledge production so it's a matter of co-production of knowledge through participatory action research which we want to integrate as a very important part of the research methodology of our project in these times it is quite uh very critical to talk already about empirical um outcomes of the project but luckily as the phd valerie gruber is very busy already doing ethnographic reacher research virtually she worked the last year quite intensively with local activists artists community leaders in both communities via online meetings and what crucial outcome we can say already that due to this specific methodology participatory action research where the local groups are integrated in the process of knowledge production we we see clear evidence that the people have a strong moral topography of their lives they evaluate their lives emancipatorially in these unequal societies we can get clear a clear picture already out of their strategies out of the practices how to deal with inequalities how they produce own identities in their neighborhoods how they struggle again against exclusion how the people struggle against racism and so on and so forth so therefore we are in the middle of interpreting this first virtual ethnographical data um but can show that people have a strong moral uh topography of topography of their lives let's start with the concept of reflexivity as we have chosen this specific participatory methodology we reflect our own positionality as researchers from the global north and gets in dialogue with the people from the global south and due to this co-production of knowledge we reflect power differentials we reflect our knowledge production in general and try to overcome blind spots of of uh yeah of research due to this specific methodology therefore we address the issue of graphic reflexivity [Music] the second important concept relationality we address at least threefold the first issue is that through this south south comparison yeah it is about africa in latin america therefore the people have a strong relation to their home country even through hundreds of years ago when the slaves were deported to south america so therefore there is relationality of memory there is a relationality of belonging so on the south level we have this relational trans area or transcontinental perspective and on the transnational level so we compare brazil and colombia compare their two marginalized urban quarters neighborhoods and have there a strong relational comparative approach and in itself as an unequal society produce produces uh marginalization the people who are who are affected through racism and marginalization they relate their relational embedded in these power structures and that is why the people react very strong on this uh hegemonial power of the powerful of the the government of the better off of the white people who have a kind of subtle invisible opaque oppression and therefore these concepts of the moral topography of inequality of being afro-descendant is relational in itself too and the third i would say quite very complex concept multiplicity we address through an approach which is called a multi-territorial daddy multi-territoriality which is a theoretical approach from um brazilian geographer so we knew we used the concept of the global south to address the multiplicity of spaces so that people belong to a former space in africa they belong to marginalized space they have a imagination of imagined space of a better world of a better future of the good life um to overcome inequality to overcome discrimination to overcome exclusion so therefore our multiplicity perspective is uh researched through the concept of multi-territoriality project of moral geographies of re-existence fits quite very well into i would say the best research section in the cluster the research section moralities and therefore i'm really in favor to get first empirical data discussed with my colleagues in the research section with the young scholars with my colleagues pi's like if hp's or martina drescher that we have really now and we are already in the middle of discussing moral issues of doing ethics that is the main focus of the research and sexual moralities so that we gain together shared knowledge and multiple knowledge through our discussions in the research section moralities you