Abstract

This paper proposes a South-South dialogue around some of the challenges currently encountered in the political sphere. In addition to its coordinators Joice Barbosa Becerra and Moira Pérez, the round table gathers Silvana Tapia Tapia from Ecuador, Abdourahmane Seck from Senegal and Verónica Figueroa Huencho from Wellmapu (Chile). These scholars work both in academia and in the social field through political and/or community activism, from which they produce collective, situated knowledge. The conversation addresses issues such as the expression of contemporary forms of neo-conservatism and authoritarianism, the disputes of social movements with institutionality, their tensions with a state prone to co-optation which nevertheless maintains its deep capitalist and colonial loyalties, and the possibilities and experiences of alternative forms of collective and community organisation. Furthermore, participants explore what is -and what could be- the role of the academy and those who work in it in this scenario, in the tension between institutional commitments and radical politics.