Contradicting Contradiction. Knowledge Production and the Pluriversal Turn

Dr. Deborah Nyangulu (RTG Contradiction Studies)

01/23/2024 2:30 pm 4:00 pm

U Bremen GRA 2 0030 & online

In my presentation I will draw on different examples to show how contradiction is a plural noun and a polysemous word. I will argue that rejecting the pluralism of contradiction functions (i) as a strategy gatekeep knowledge and (ii) as a means by those who desire dominance to enforce conformity. I will conclude by showing the implications of my argument on knowledge production at a time when decolonial thininkers, notably from the Latin American school of thought, are using the concept of the pluriverse to explore the co-existence of multiple worlds and realities.

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driver

“Contradictions are an important driver of scientific practice and knowledge.”

Norman Sieroka
diversity and plurality

“Join us to create more diversity and plurality in knowledge production.”

Gisela Febel
sustained engagement

“The history of Western philosophy can be understood as a sustained engagement with contradiction.”

Norman Sieroka
Bhabha on enlightenment and coloniality

“Homi Bhabha says about the contradiction between the ideals of the enlightenment, claims to democracy and solidarity and simultaneous colonization and ongoing coloniality: ‘That ideological tension, visible in the history of the West as a despotic power, at the very moment of the birth of democracy and modernity, has not been adequately written in a contradictory and contrapuntal discourse of tradition.’”

Kerstin Knopf
decolonial scholarship

“Creating decentralizing and decolonizing scholarship on contradiction, contradictory phenomena, and contradicting processes is a challenging task.”

Kerstin Knopf