Welche Praxis nach der postkolonialen Kritik? Human- und physisch-geographische Feldforschung aus übersetzungstheoretischer Perspektive

Abstract

Zusammenfassung. After the postcolonial critique, dealing with the power of speaking and self-reflexivity belong to the great challenges of academic work. In this article, we derive the necessity to accept these challenges from our own projects and discuss their practical consequences as well as the difficulties of integrating them in development studies of human and physical geography. We argue that the propositions of postcolonial theory cannot be transferred in practice without contradictions. Therefore, we try to grasp these contradictions with the concept of translation. From the point of view of Translation Studies, contradictions do not necessarily lead to failure, but they have the potential to create new knowledge and give voice to new perspectives.

Introduction to the special issue “Contested urban territories: decolonized perspectives”

“…We draw on postcolonial and decolonized perspectives to study the ways in which such power asymmetries in the production of territory are rooted in historical differences (e.g., Quijano, 2000;Lugones, 2010;Dhawan and Castro Varela, 2016). This opens up important links to current debates on the right to territory involving subaltern activist perspectives on contested indigenous and afro-descendant territories (e.g., Offen, 2003;Escobar, 2008Escobar, , 2015Saquet and Sposito, 2009; Rivera Cusicanqui, 2012; Colectivo de Geografía Crítica del Ecuador, 2018; Zaragocin, 2018;Halvorsen et al, 2019;Radcliffe, 2019), which are intrinsically linked to questions of difference, affect, and relational power (Clare et al, 2018;Hutta, 2019). In other words, an emphasis on asymmetrical power relations and historical difference makes this approach a hugely promising contribution towards a more decentered perspective on processes of urbanization worldwide.…”