Agenda décolonial pour les études frontalières au Brésil

Abstract

In order to support research on multiple territorialities in Brazilian borders in the south of the country, this paper proposes a review of Border Studies under the light of decolonial thinking. State territory has been a source of unity and dominance employed to build state sovereignty. The Modern State's capitalist project of occupying space legitimated by national identity and materialized on the territory, structures linear borders. Taking into account Africanism, Orientalism, Occidentalism and especially decolonial thinking, we explore situated knowledge of border regions in the South of Brazil, through fieldwork, to examine scale relations and to describe political strategies and territorialities. Thus, we expect to contribute to the construction of a research agenda for geographers in which "coloniality of power'' and ''border thinking'', expressions dear to postcolonial studies, are more than cultural metaphors. Highlighting the different cultures and their geographies and exploring local meanings and uses of the Southern borders of Brazil, we propose a grid of decolonial uses of borderlands which includes border strategies for public services in marginal borders; instrumentalization of nationalist imaginaries, tactical uses of limits and, finally, citizenly management of the border. The arc drawn from the universal propositions of border theory to the rise of local studies has yet to extend further, as to understand boundary practices and dynamics sufficiently legitimate, functional in their context rather than illegal or deviant: in short, as decolonial border practices.

Keywords

• border studies
• border condition
• decolonization
• situated knowledge
• Brazilian Southern Arc
• territoriality