Diversal

By Francois Schneider (Research & Degrowth Cerbère)

Is degrowth about defending a new type of hegemony? In relation to the concept of buen-vivir, degrowth gives the space to different cultures. In this line we present here the concept of diversality.

We are haunted by the existence of hegemonies that are functioning the same way: the hegemony and its opposition the counter-hegemony. With the idea of “diversal”, the idea is here to build a plural reality.

What the diversel?

The diversel is a universalism which is built by taking into account of all particularisms. It builds another reality through dialogue, away from capitalist hegemonies (or others like the ones promoting state intervention overall), and away from closed or conquering particularisms. The diversel is not defined in opposition and does not create a single truth.

Where does this idea come from?

The idea of diversal comes from the Caribbean archipelago. It was developed by Aimé Césaire, and disseminated by Edouard Glissant,  Ramon Grosfoguel and Walter Mignolo. It is clear that the mixing of culture that is the reality of the Caribbean islands were conducive to reflection about universalism and particularisms.

" Provincialism? Absolutely not. I’m not going to confine myself to some narrow particularism. But nor do I intend lose myself in a disembodied universalism. There are two ways to lose oneself: through walled-in segregation in the particular, or through dissolution into the “universal.” My idea of the universal is that of a universal rich with all that is particular, rich with all particulars, the deepening and coexistence of all particulars. "[1]

The concrete universalism of Césaire is the result of a horizontal process of critical dialogue between people who consider themselves equal.

What challenges the diversal?

First it challenge the fact that modern rationality is unequivocal. The diversel challenges “conquering universalisms”, those who say that a single rationalities like the capitalist, centralized communist or utilitarian ones should rule the world. These UNI-versalisms produce some forms of externality enabling to dominate what is not part of the norm.

The diversal also challenges conquering or closed particularisms such as those advocated by the extreme-right who want to create “diversity” by creating homogeneous clusters. They start from a critique of universalism to arrive at divisions & identity closure, up to such notions as ethnic separatism. In the critique of abstract/conquering universalism of the far right, cosmopolitanism is seen as problematic.

What is the relation to post-colonialism?

The diversel recognizes the contributions of post-colonialism, including the rejection of eurocentrism that is clearly identified as some type of hegemonic fundamentalism which can easily impose its dominance in the global system. However the diversal places itself into a decolonial framework rejecting ALSO Third World fundamentalisms. The diversal places itself in the context of an epistemological diversity not rejecting thinkers in relation to their origins nor Western philosophies, neither others. In this sense it approaches the Dussel transmodernity (Dussel 1992). It also rejects the veneration of postmodernist critical thinkers continuing to support hegemonic thinking, moreover euro-centric, as are Gramsci and his disciples (Mouffe, Laclau).

Relation to the idea of consensus

Diversel is about open societal consensus building, but whose outcome is of course not planned in advance. It does not negate conflict per se as it is often part of contructive processes. The consensus we are talking about is of course nothing to do with the social consensus around a dominating universalism, that we should rather call "false consensus", or social consensus because it implies a de facto agreement without debate. The prospect of diversel is a truly universal decolonial perspective which cannot be based on an abstract universal (which is in fact a particularism designed into a global / imperial universal), but is the result of a critical dialogue between various projects / policy perspectives - diverse in terms epistemic / ethical / cosmological - that aim to build a pluriversel transmodern world, as opposed to a universal one (Grosvoguel 2012).

Compared to the dialectics

The concrete universalism of Hegel and Marx referred to these rich concepts of multiple determinations but it is contained in a single cosmology and epistomology (in this case, Western), in which the dialectic movement suppresses all otherness assimilating them, and excludes some actors.

Cross-border thinking

One of many possible solutions to the dilemma between Eurocentric fundamentalism lies in what Walter Mignolo calls the "critical border thinking" or “critical cosmopolitanism” (Mignolo 2000). Critical border thinking is the epistemic response of the subalterns facing the euro-centered modernity project. Instead of rejecting modernity to retreat into a fundamentalist absolutism, border epistemologies redefine the emancipatory rhetoric of modernity using the cosmologies and epistemologies located in the oppressed and exploited pole of colonial difference, to bring it serving a decolonial liberation struggle to build a world beyond the Euro-centric modernity. The border thinking thus produces a redefinition of citizenship, democracy, human rights, humanity, economic relations while rejecting narrow definitions imposed by European modernity. Border thinking is not an anti-modern fundamentalism. It is a transmodern decolonizing answer in front of the euro-centered modernity (Grosvoguel 2012).

Criticism of postmodernity

Postmodernism is a Euro-centered critique of Eurocentrism, and as such it reproduces all the problems inherent to modernity and colonialism. According to Laclau and Mouffe (2009), the hegemony consists in unifying particularisms around a given subject against a common enemy. Instead of incorporating every particularism, the counter-hegemony proposed by Laclau or Mouffe dissolves them in a new “abstract universal” that opposes the hegemony. The slogan "Viva Perón" is an example of counter-hegemonic process (Laclau 2005). This acclamation - through which the oppressed are supposed to identify with each other - removes all specific claims in an abstract universal, in this case favouring the Peronist movement through the signifier "Perón", supposedly uniting all particularisms against a common enemy. This "avant-garde" approach renders impossible the emergence of a new universal from negotiations between individuals. In general the epistemic alterity, particularly from non-European people, is not sufficiently taken into account in the work of Laclau and Mouffe.

Proposal of an “Arrière-garde” movement

The Zapatistas do not define themselves as a party but as a movement. They have no predefined program, "they move by questioning" and "command by obeying". This approach, based on native American culture is at the opposite of the Judeo-Christian idea of "moving on by preaching", as reproduced by the Marxists, the Conservatives and the Liberals. The Zapatistas are not based on an abstract universal (Socialism, Communism, Democracy, the nation, as many empty or evolving signifiers) and then preach and convince Mexicans of the merits of their vision. Conversely, they start from the idea of "moving on by questioning," where their program is a “concrete universal” resulting of a critical transmodern dialogue that includes both the epistemic diversality and the particular demands of all the oppressed of Mexico. This diversal is very different from the abstract universal and "empty signifiers" that characterize the hegemonic process described by Laclau and Mouffe, the "subordinates" of Gramsci or the "multitudes" of Negri and Hardt. The decolonization of Western Euro-centric design of universality is a crucial step in the implementation of Zapatista slogan that calls to build "a world where all worlds are possible".

Degrowth & diversel

Degrowth is also a movement, it does not have the one solution, but develops and links proposals through debates. For instance it is a space for dialogue where different types of ideals: democracy, justice, ecology, bio-economy, friendliness, good living, justice (the sources of degrowth) - come together to form some kind of theoretical and practical nowtopia. The notion of diversality can appear for many aspects as it involves a dialogue with different sources, scales, limits, strategies, actors…

Grosfoguel, Latin American Colloquium on Rural Education: Coloniality of Power and Alternative Latin American Perspectives,” National Pedagogical University, Centro Regional Valle de Tenza, Sutatenza, Boyacá, Colombia (21 September 2006).

Dussel, Enrique. Filosofía de la liberación. Ciudad de México: Edicol, 1977. . 1492: El encubrimiento del Otro: hacia el origen del “mito de la modernidad”. La Paz: Plural Editores, 1994.

Mignolo, Walter. The Many Faces of Cosmo-polis: Border Thinking and Critical Cosmopolitanism. Public Culture Fall 2000 12(3): 721-748