Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking : Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking

This book is an extended argument on the "coloniality" of power by one of the most innovative scholars of Latin American studies. In a shrinking world where sharp dichotomies, such as East/West and developing/developed, blur and shift, Walter Mignolo points to the inadequacy of current practice in the social sciences and area studies. He introduces the crucial notion of "colonial difference" into study of the modern colonial world. He also traces the emergence of new forms of knowledge, which he calls "border thinking." Further, he expands the horizons of those debates already under way in postcolonial studies of Asia and Africa by dwelling in the genealogy of thoughts of South/Central America, the Caribbean, and Latino/as in the United States. His concept of "border gnosis," or what is known from the perspective of an empire's borderlands, counters the tendency of occidentalist perspectives to dominate, and thus limit, understanding. The book is divided into three parts: the first chapter deals with epistemology and postcoloniality; the next three chapters deal with the geopolitics of knowledge; the last three deal with the languages and cultures of scholarship. Here the author reintroduces the analysis of civilization from the perspective of globalization and argues that, rather than one "civilizing" process dominated by the West, the continually emerging subaltern voices break down the dichotomies characteristic of any cultural imperialism. By underscoring the fractures between globalization and mundializacion, Mignolo shows the locations of emerging border epistemologies, and of post-occidental reason. In a new preface that discusses Local Histories/Global Designs as a dialogue with Hegel’s Philosophy of History, Mignolo connects his argument with the unfolding of history in the first decade of the twenty-first century. "Walter Mignolo, one of America's most eminent postcolonialists, presents a challenging new paradigm for understanding the realities of a planetary 'coloniality of power,' and the limits of area studies in the United States. Local History/Global Designs is one of the most important books in the historical humanities to have emerged since the end of the Cold War University. This is vintage Mignolo: packed with insights, breadth, and intellectual zeal."--José David Saldívar, University of California, Berkeley

Local Histories/Global Designs is an extended argument about the "coloniality" of power by one of the most innovative Latin American and Latino scholars. In a shrinking world where sharp dichotomies, such as East/West and developing/developed, blur and shift, Walter Mignolo points to the inadequacy of current practices in the social sciences and area studies. He explores the crucial notion of "colonial difference" in the study of the modern colonial world and traces the emergence of an epistemic shift, which he calls "border thinking." Further, he expands the horizons of those debates already under way in postcolonial studies of Asia and Africa by dwelling in the genealogy of thoughts of South/Central America, the Caribbean, and Latino/as in the United States. His concept of "border gnosis," or sensing and knowing by dwelling in imperial/colonial borderlands, counters the tendency of occidentalist perspectives to manage, and thus limit, understanding.

In a new preface that discusses Local Histories/Global Designs as a dialogue with Hegel's Philosophy of History, Mignolo connects his argument with the unfolding of history in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction On Gnosis and the Imaginary of the Modern/Colonial World System PART ONE: IN SEARCH OF AN OTHER LOGIC 1. Border Thinking and the Colonial Difference PART TWO: I AM WHERE I THINK: THE GEOPOLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE AND COLONIAL EPISTEMIC DIFFERENCES 2. Post-Occidental Reason: The Crisis of Occidentalism and the Emergenc(y)e of Border Thinking 3. Human Understanding and Local Interests: Occidentalism and the (Latin) American Argument 4. Are Subaltern Studies Postmodern or Postcolonial? The Politics and Sensibilities of Geohistorical Locations PART THREE: SUBALTERNITY AND THE COLONIAL DIFFERENCE: LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND KNOWLEDGES 5. "An Other Tongue": Linguistics Maps, Literary Geographies, Cultural Landscapes 6. Bilanguaging Love: Thinking in between Languages 7. Globalization/Mundializacion: Civilizing Processes and the Relocation of Languages and Knowledges Afterword: An Other Tongue, An Other Thinking, An Other Logic Bibliography Index This book is an extended argument about the “coloniality” of power. In a shrinking world where sharp dichotomies, such as East/West and developing/developed, blur and shift, this book points to the inadequacy of current practices in the social sciences and area studies. It explores the crucial notion of “colonial difference” in the study of the modern colonial world and traces the emergence of an epistemic shift, which the book calls “border thinking.” Further, the book expands the horizons of those debates already under way in postcolonial studies of Asia and Africa by dwelling on the genealogy of thoughts of South/Central America, the Caribbean, and Latino/as in the United States. The book's concept of “border gnosis,” or sensing and knowing by dwelling in imperial/colonial borderlands, counters the tendency of occidentalist perspectives to manage, and thus limit, understanding. A new preface discusses this book as a dialogue with Hegel's __Philosophy of History__. Explores the crucial notion of "colonial difference" in the study of the modern colonial world and traces the emergence of an epistemic shift, which author calls "border thinking". This title expands the horizons of debates under way in postcolonial studies of Asia and Africa by dwelling in the genealogy of thoughts of South/Central America.