Academic Cooperation from the Souths: Geopolitics of the Gaze, Cognitive and Epistemic Justices

Abstract

In this article I reflect on academic and scientific cooperation among institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, the misnamed "Global South": the Souths, and in Europe and the United States, from a decolonial perspective articulated around the geopolitics of the gaze, cognitive justice, and epistemic justice. I approach cooperation not as a technical matter, but as a political-epistemic field traversed by power relations and structural inequalities. Drawing on Latin American thought -including contributions from feminism, Indigenous and Afrodescendant communities, and social movements- and in dialogue with African, Asian, and critical Northern traditions, I problematize three dimensions: interinstitutionality, interdisciplinarity, and intersectorality. I also reflect on the challenges of cooperation in contexts of authoritarianism, anti-rights movements, and funding constraints, emphasizing the need to strengthen South-South networks and inter-epistemic dialogues. A cooperation with a decolonial vocation requires a situated social science, committed to equity, social justice, human rights, and democratic and plural forms of governance.