Modernity Coloniality and Visibility: The Politics of Time

Abstract

This paper presents the problem of the mediation between modernity and coloniality; and it explores the usefulness of the question of time to address this mediation. How can we think the simulation of modernity together with the oblivion of coloniality? The text brings the critique of time to the centre of the modernity/ coloniality debate. It shows that chronology, chronological narratives are at the heart of the modern/ colonial systems of oppression; and that the movements of resistance against ‘hegemonic globalization’ are not only questioning the material structures of oppression, but also the universality of the modern idea of time. It is an invitation to think about the politics of time that are at play in modernity/ coloniality. Here, the modernity/ coloniality tandem is seen as the institution of a politics of time that is geared towards the production of specific economic and political practices oriented to sever the oppressed from their past, their memory. The ensuing temporal discrimination makes invisible all that does not belong to modern temporality. Under this light, it is possible to see how the practices of resistance to the modernity/ coloniality project embody a different politics of time, one that rescues memory as a site of struggle, one that involves the possibility of inhabiting and rescuing the past. These practices of resistance are thus seen as fights against temporal discrimination: fights against invisibility. By addressing the imposition of modern time we can better understand the widespread injustice and violence of modernity/ coloniality. Furthermore, the question of time can help us to bridge the gap between the simulacra of modernity and the oblivion of coloniality.

Becoming invisible: The ethics and politics of imperceptibility

“…If to be invisible is often understood as being powerless and marginalised, then some political action therefore seeks to expose the processes through which invisibility has occurred and to force others to recognise what has gone unseen or ignored. For example, Vázquez (2009) argues that the Zapatista movement uses the symbolism of invisibility to expose their subjugation by colonial powers, sometimes withdrawing into the Lacandon Jungle for long periods. For Zapatismo, the wearing of the balaclava symbolises their marginalisation and their tactics '[w]e are without face, without word, without voice' (Vázquez, 2009, n.p.).…”

Social Struggles as Epistemic Struggles

“…In order to distinguish our understanding of social struggle from the chronology of the processes of neoliberal globalization and global governmentality we need to acknowledge the unexpected events that break with 11. On oblivion and the politics of time, see Vázquez (2009). the continuity of the processes of domination.…”

Introduction: Translation and the Challenge of Interdisciplinarity

“…If moving beyond the boundaries of nation-state centred social science has implications for the boundaries of disciplines, it would seem to follow that how knowledge production is located in time and space (who is recognised as a producer of knowledge and which sites are privileged?) is also a crucial matter when addressing interdisciplinarity (see Bhambra 2007b;Taylor 2000;Vazquez 2009). For example, "globalisation" has a history as old as modernity and, indeed, is a condition of modernity.…”