Geography, complexity, and epistemological constructions in Latin America

Abstract

The relation between geography and complexity highlights spatial differentiations as strategies to think new epistemological constructions. This relation evinces scientific understandings that support decolonial discourse, the production of new knowledges based on the local, the differences and the traditions of places. The article correlates understandings of complexity, decoloniality, and the discourses of modernity, using the spatial contribution and the meaning of spatial differentiation as referents. The reflection shows convergences and complementarities between the proposals of complexity and decolonial discourse, such as the critique of Eurocentric universalism, the emphasis non differences, multiplicity, and domestic-local mechanisms, subjectivity in the production of knowledge, and the focus on places to think about the meaning of progress. These considerations underscore the role of geography in the production of knowledge based on the roots and traditions of places, and, therefore, in constructing an epistemology corresponding to the identity and place of those who construct it.