Science and feminism from the body-territory

in socio-environmental studies

Abstract

The scientific endeavors face more challenges all the time upon facing the different edges of the complex socio environmental reality. The social, indigenous, peasant, ecologist and feminist movements from the Global South
have revitalized, and from their place of political enunciation and epistemology show us ways to do socially engaged and critical research. In this paper we speak from the body-territory, recognizing ourselves as women from the territories of Abya Yala on which the colonization structure, capitalism, and patriarchy have wreaked havoc on personal, collective and socio-environmental dynamics by considering us as objects and not political subjects, neither as women nor as peoples and communities. We claim the creative potential that our bodies-territories add to critical thinking in favor of autonomy and emancipation; therefore, we approach it as an epistemological, methodological, and political commitment. We return to it from our reflections and collective experiences, particularly during the last five years, as feminist activists, students, and researchers involved in socio-environmental processes. We have been discussing how scientific knowledge is constructed, identifying the power relations that underlie and affect us, accompanying and arranging with colleagues from different disciplines to contribute to a critical view in the academic field, in which we recognize the persistence of biases and power relations that reproduces such a structure of oppressions.