Cartography of Southern Feminisms: Contributions of decolonial feminisms and community feminisms

Abstract

This work is based on a theoretical research study on Southern Feminisms and Social Intervention developed at the National University of Mar del Plata, Argentina. The South is understood as a metaphor for human suffering systematically caused by the oppression and domination of an imperialist, capitalist, colonial and patriarchal North. It is a very powerful geo-corporate-political and epistemological metaphor because it reveals and problematises the devices used for oppression and domination. This article uses cartography as a methodology to make explicit the analytical and interpretative matrices present in decolonial feminisms and community feminisms. It also makes explicit the criticisms that these feminisms make of hegemonic-academic-Western feminism. Contributions from feminist experiences in Australia and New Zealand are included and the specific contributions of Southern Feminisms to the theory and practice of social work are made explicit.

Decolonial Feminism and Practices of Resistance to Sustain Life: Experiences of Women Social Workers Implementing Mental Health Programmes in Chile

“…The Acompañamiento Psicosocial en Salud (Psychosocial Support in Health) programme, designed and funded by the Ministry of Health, has been implemented by the Municipalities (local governments) since 2016. According to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health (2018), it aims to promote the right to health by providing psychosocial accompaniment to women who, living under the poverty line, experience postpartum depression, have attempted suicide, and/or who have been victims of violence (themselves or their children under 18). The main tasks of the social workers are to link the women with Primary Health Care services by facilitating access to psychiatric care appointments in the public health service, monitoring their adherence to treatment and supporting the strengthening of their family and/or community ties.…”

“…Discussions on feminism in Latin America, as in other regions, have many nuances (Martínez & Agüero, 2021). Despite the different currents, we can find some common threads where perspectives from indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities dialogue to elaborate a shared critique of the hegemony of 'white feminism' -'white' not in terms of skin colour, but white in the sense of the 'unassumed geopolitical privilege' that is associated with what comes from Europe or Anglo-America (Espinosa et al, 2014).…”

“…Claudia challenges the power of male psychiatric doctors by questioning the dehumanised, standardised, and cold treatment of mental health care, and the implicit discrimination against impoverished and racialised women. This is a form of explicit resistance (Baines, 2017;Strier & Bershtling, 2016;Weinberg & Banks, 2019), a challenge to the heart of the system from their own professional position, which questions the biomedical logic that has underpinned social work since its beginnings as a profession in 1925 (Duarte, 2013;Illanes, 2007;Martínez & Agüero, 2021). This liminal space, where shared experiences lead to a blurring of the boundaries between professional and client, opens up the professional bond, 'making it vulnerable' to being affected, as we have said, and thus humanising it (Motta, 2012).…”

“…Thus, the silence around the contributions of either feminism or decolonial thought in the social work literature produced in Chile in its almost one hundred years of history is not surprising, unlike the prolific feminist productions in other schools in the Latin American region and other parts of the world (Martínez & Agüero, 2021). In Chile, the incorporation of feminist approaches in social work has only taken place in the last ten years (Duarte, 2013), very possibly thanks to the strength of feminist movements that in the recent period have installed a powerful critique of the precariousness of life as a result of the neoliberal, patriarchal and colonial capitalism of the Chilean model (Palacios-Valladares, 2022;Perry & Borzutzky, 2022;Vivaldi & Sepúlveda, 2021).…”

Anti-Asian Violence and Abolition Feminism as Asian American Feminist Praxis

“…Abolition feminism critiques and connects the multiple forms of violence that is produced and punished by colonial state institutions seeks for social transformation rather than the reform of oppressive institutions. Decolonial feminisms offer critiques of Western hegemonic feminisms and an epidemic disobedience to coloniality (Martinez and Aguero 2021). For instance, feminist philosopher and activist Maria Lugones offers the possibility of change and liberation at the tension of colonial difference.…”