151
Indigenous tribes, such as Brazil’s
Kayapó, understand the properties of
healing plants. Western pharmaceutical
companies exploit this knowledge, but
fail to reward the tribes adequately.
See also: Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Immanuel Wallerstein 144–45 ■
Roland Robertson 146–47 ■ Arjun Appadurai 166–69 ■ Antonio Gramsci 178–79
LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD
system, he has extended the idea
to what he says is the cultural
battle created by globalization. He
claims the world is divided into an
uneven conflict between dominant
(“hegemonic”) groups, states,
and ideologies on one side, and
dominated (“counter-hegemonic”)
groups, collectives, and ideas on
the other. The battle takes place
at a number of levels, including the
economy, technology, and politics.
Culture and power
De Sousa Santos says that the
cultures of the world—and the
knowledge embedded within
them—are hierarchically arranged
and unevenly accessible, in line
with wider capitalist power
relations. Referring to the
philosophical term “epistemology”
(from episteme, “knowledge”), he
argues that the marginalization
of some nations by others on the
world stage is intimately related to
epistemological exclusion. Because
the dominant models of social
research are those imposed by the
global North, he refers to different
agendas from the peripheral states
as “epistemologies of the South.”
In his work, de Sousa Santos
acknowledges that his goal is to
end these hierarchies of exclusion,
because “there is no social justice
without global cognitive justice.”
He maintains that the cultural
diversity of the world is matched
by its epistemological diversity;
recognition of this has to be at
the core of any global effort to
eradicate current inequalities.
The biggest obstacle to this,
argues de Sousa Santos, is that the
scientific knowledge of the global
North is “hegemonic” within the
social hierarchy of knowledge.Technological dominance
The capitalist and imperial order
imposed on the global South by the
global North has an epistemological
foundation. Western powers have
developed the capacity to dominate
many parts of the world, not least
by elevating modern science to
the status of a form of universal
knowledge, superior to all other
types of knowledge. Other non-
scientific forms of knowledge, and
the cultural and social practices of
different social groups informed by
these knowledges, are suppressed
in the name of modern science.
Modern science has colonized our
thinking to such an extent that
diverging from it is classified as
irrational thought. An example
of this is the Western media’s
portrayal of Middle Eastern culture
as irrational and excessively
emotionally charged, which has
“destructive consequences.”
Instead, de Sousa Santos is
keen to develop a transnational
cultural dialogue that will result inplurality: an “emancipatory, non-
relativistic cosmopolitan ecology
of knowledges,” which will have
at their heart the recognition
of difference, and of the right to
difference and coexistence.
Only by these means, says de
Sousa Santos, can we achieve
a truly global understanding of
how societies work. This vision
informs the efforts of groups
such as The World Social Forum,
which seeks to bring about social
and economic justice using
alternatives to capitalism. ■Boaventura de
Sousa SantosBoaventura de Sousa Santos is
a professor at the University of
Coimbra, Portugal. He earned
his doctorate in the US, at
Yale, and is a visiting professor
at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison. He is a defender
of strong social and civic
movements, which he regards
as essential for the realization
of participative democracy.
In 2001 de Sousa Santos
founded The World Social
Forum as a meeting place
for organizations opposed to
forms of globalization led by
neoliberal economic policy
and transnational corporate
capitalism. He has published
widely on globalization,
sociology of law and the state,
democracy, and human rights.Key works2006 The Rise of the Global
Left: The World Social Forum
and Beyond
2007 Cognitive Justice in
a Global World: Prudent
Knowledges for a Decent Life
2014 Epistemologies of the
South