Epistemicide
Epistemicide is the destruction of knowledge systems, where episteme means knowledge. Epistemicide has been a part of colonialism, in which a coloniser destroys the existing knowledge systems of the colonised, to replace them with knowledge systems controlled by the coloniser.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] It is closely related to epistemic injustice. Cognitive justice seeks to challenge epistemicide.
The concept was developed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos in his 1998 La Globalización del derecho: los nuevos caminos de la regulación y la emancipación.[1]
Ramón Grosfoguel has argued that epistemicide was an important part of European colonialism around the world—including in the Americas—whereby European philosophy had an "epistemic privelege" at the expense of other knowledge systems, becoming a "new foundation of knowledge in the modern/colonial world."[9][8]
The term has been used to describe Israel's destruction of Palestinian knowledge systems, including its attacks on schools and universities.[9] Rebecca Ruth Gould argues that "epistemicide exists in relation to genocide as scholasticide exists in relation to war: it attempts to erase not just educational institutions in their current state, but the very possibility of education in the future, in order to entirely erase the existence of a people from the Earth."[10]
References
- 1 2 Gonçalves, Robson de Andrade; Mucheroni, Marcos L. (2021-11-30). "O que é epistemicídio? Uma introdução ao conceito para a área da Ciência da Informação". Liinc em Revista. 17 (2) e5759. doi:10.18617/liinc.v17i2.5759. ISSN 1808-3536.
- ↑ Comber, Rob; Järdemar, Cecilia; Tsimba, Freddy; Campo Woytuk, Nadia; Murdeshwar, Akshata; Lunyanga, Serge (2025-07-05). "Designing with Decolonial Intent: Towards a Decolonial Archive in Resistance to Epistemicide". Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. Madeira Portugal: ACM: 884–898. doi:10.1145/3715336.3735739. ISBN 979-8-4007-1485-6.
- ↑ Van Milders, Lucas (2024). Unthinking Epistemicide. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5381-7193-6.
- ↑ Bennett, Karen (November 2007). "Epistemicide!: The Tale of a Predatory Discourse". The Translator. 13 (2): 151–169. doi:10.1080/13556509.2007.10799236. ISSN 1355-6509.
- ↑ Hall, Budd L.; Tandon, Rajesh (2017). "Decolonization of knowledge, epistemicide, participatory research and higher education". Research for All. 1 (1). doi:10.18546/RFA.01.1.02. ISSN 2399-8121.
- ↑ Masaka, Dennis (April 2018). "The Prospects of Ending Epistemicide in Africa: Some Thoughts". Journal of Black Studies. 49 (3): 284–301. doi:10.1177/0021934717753731. ISSN 0021-9347.
- ↑ Phiri, Madalitso Z. (2024-01-05), "The Ideology of Epistemicide", Monuments and Memory in Africa, London: Routledge, pp. 12–36, ISBN 978-1-003-43287-6, retrieved 2026-02-12
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)Category:CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN - 1 2 Grosfoguel, Ramón (2015), Araújo, Marta; Maeso, Silvia Rodríguez (eds.), "Epistemic Racism/Sexism, Westernized Universities and the Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long Sixteenth Century", Eurocentrism, Racism and Knowledge, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 23–46, doi:10.1057/9781137292896_2, ISBN 978-1-349-45098-5, retrieved 2026-02-12
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)Category:CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN - 1 2 3 "The Epistemicide of the Palestinians: Israel Destroys Pillars of Knowledge". Institute for Palestine Studies. Retrieved 2026-02-12.
- ↑ Gould, Rebecca Ruth (2025-09-13). "What does free speech have to do with Palestinian liberation? On resisting genocidal epistemicide". Third World Quarterly: 1–21. doi:10.1080/01436597.2025.2547963. ISSN 0143-6597.
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