Posthuman feminism and ch’ixi epistemology: Philosophical vocabularies for thinking about the present

Abstract

At what point did the word “crisis” become a commonplace for interpreting the present? What philosophical vocabularies do we have and/or need to create in order to think about the present? In this article, my aim is to propose a dialogue between Rosi Braidotti’s posthuman feminism and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui’s theoretical practice of decolonisation in order to elaborate an affirmative reading of the present based on the vision that these thinkers propose about time, a common problematic in the work of both authors. These are two contemporary perspectives of dense and imaginative political thought and practice that, until now, have not been put in relation to each other. Establishing and developing the conceptual terms in which this conversation can be relevant for the critical analysis of our contemporaneity and for shaping a creative understanding of temporality will be the main contribution of this paper. In order to address this issue, firstly, I will look at the analysis of the contemporary experience of time as the experience of an “endless crisis” and I will ask, with Myriam Revault, about the explanatory capacity of the term “crisis” to account for the present. Secondly, I will present Braidotti’s study of the temporal experience in today’s capitalism and discuss her notion of “synchronisation”. Finally, I will explain the sources and implications of the multiplicity and heterogeneity of times according to Rivera Cusicanqui’s ch’ixi epistemology.