Thinking with the South: Reframing Research Collaboration amid Decolonial Imperatives and Challenges

This volume brings together a series of discussions by scholars from a range of disciplinary, (trans)regional and epistemic perspectives that came out of the Berlin-based "co²libri" networking initiative, with longstanding collaborative partners based in the global South. "Co²libri" stands for "conceptual collaboration: living borderless research interaction". As an interdisciplinary and transregional oriented initiative, co²libri envisages a multicentric perspective that integrates neglected positions of Southern theory and praxis into the heart of academic conversations. Co²libri's collaborative endeavor builds on long-standing active connections with partners in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Instead of setting an agenda from the North, it proposes to figure out ways forward through collaborative engagement, building on relationships of mutual trust. Using formats that facilitate substantial and open-ended discussion, we are re-thinking theory and method, academic practices, and research ethics, while keeping material inequalities in view.

Contributors to this edited volume are working toward the implementation of various innovative activities, research perspectives and collaboration formats which all subscribe to the principle of dialogue on equal footing with scholars and activists based in divergent positionalities along and beyond the Global North-South divide. In different ways, the authors work toward the goal of producing more adequate, and more sensitive, critical knowledge, and applying a fresh view to approach, methods, and ethical standards. Overall, the volume works, sometimes in exploratory ways, with alternative frames of reference while it presents diverse theorizations of lived experiences.