The sustainability of life from a decolonial feminist perspective

A collective storytelling by Latin-American migrant women.

Title (eng)
The sustainability of life from a decolonial feminist perspective
A collective storytelling by Latin-American migrant women.
Author
Andrea Fernanda Nieto Tapia
Advisor
Michaela Gindl
Advisor
Ana Viseu
Description (eng)
To be a Coatlicue, a borderland between realities, to be on the margins of the othering has become – or has always been – a place for confabulation, an embodied complex reality (Sultana, 2022), a source of knowledge (Curiel, 2023). Today we speak from migration, we convey our stories into an archive that goes by the name of Huerto de Traspatio. This thesis explores the experiences of migrant women from Latin America in Europe, foregrounding such narratives as a source of knowledge production and a foundation for decolonial interventions in the face of civilizational crisis. We argue that dominant sustainability agendas often reinforce modern coloniality and racial capitalism. We as an entanglement of lived realities take a standpoint drawing on a feminist-decolonial theoretical and methodological approach and through a process of systemic and reflexive analysis of storytelling otherwise, we trace the migratory path, it´s intersection with the matrix of oppression, and the challenges within institutional structures, working conditions, and societal encounters marked by xenophobia and sexism. This research goes beyond traditional sustainability frameworks by constructing a counter-narrative that explains the sustainability of life from the experiences of migrant women. This research acknowledges limitations due to time and resource constraints, which prevented a larger, transdisciplinary study. However, it paves the way for future co-creation processes aimed at strengthening communities and developing socially robust solutions. Given the potentially sensitive nature of the data, a feminist decolonial methodology was employed. This approach prioritized participant selection based on established trust and transparency, minimizing power imbalances within the research process. The researcher's own positionality as a subject of "two worlds" (Espinosa Miñoso, 2019) was acknowledged, ensuring that both research questions and interpretations were grounded within a specific context. We highlight insights that can foster collective action. These insights emerge from practices of community building, political mobilization, and the creation of care networks. We propose to refocus our efforts on co-constructing borderland communities as a political commitment to the sustainability of life / comunidades fronterizas como apuesta politica para la sostenibilidad de la vida. This project emphasizes pluriversal sentipensares, embracing multiplicity and diverse ways of knowing that create space for both joy and mourning. The importance of popular education and horizontal pedagogies is highlighted, enabling knowledge exchange built on difference and fostering futures shaped by decolonial radical imagination (Sandoval & Davis, 2008). These envisioned futures are inherently fronterizos (border-related), emphasizing the power of collective action.
Keywords (eng)
Migrationsustainability of lifedecolonial feminismsborderland communitiespluriversal sentipensares
Type (eng)
Master theses
Language
[eng]
Persistent identifier
https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/o:5247
Date created
2024
License
All rights reserved