Overview

This monthly series stems from the shared desire to intersect and discuss the diverse research produced at the Centre for Social Studies with an emphasis on the diseases we have, the health we want and the science we do. Bringing together researchers and paths, the intention is to mobilise a study group that reinforces the conceptual, theoretical and methodological links that anchor us in the programmatic matrix of the Epistemologies of the South and other critical approaches that supply the work conducted at CES.

Against the monoculture of knowledge and underlining the ontological and epistemic diversity of the world, the Epistemologies of the South propose to bring into discussion and activate an Ecology of Knowledges, where the South is a metaphor for the abundance of experiences, forms of knowledge and agency emerging from bodies, communities, places and realities ignored and excluded under the violence of a monolithic science designed by capitalism, colonialism and patriarchy.

Going towards the "wasted experiences" under this "abyssal line", a "sociology of absences and emergences" is imposed, reducing exclusions, doing science with and for the community(ies), focused on their urgencies, needs and claims, learning from their forms of struggle and resistance, working for the common good, creating knowledge for a more dignified existence.

In health issues, it brings into discussion those who live with, treat and investigate illness, seeking well-being, learning from the experiences, concepts and representations of patients, caregivers, families and communities, but also therapists, researchers and activists, from a geographical, geopolitical and epistemic South, allowing us to rethink care and resistance, seeking broader concepts and more inclusive actions.

Coordinators: Susana de Noronha and Tiago Pires Marques