Political activims and epistemic resistances

Abstract

In this essay I propose to establish a dialogue between the notion of epistemic injustice, based on the homonymous work by Miranda Fricker (2007), together with that of activism and epistemic resistance by José Medina (2018). In particular, I suggest a reading of the elements, scope and dimensioning of one of the types of injustice that the author defines as hermeneutical injustice, keyed to understanding that the existing gap in hermeneutical resources not only has negative epistemic consequences on the speaker (such as subject of knowledge), but also a collective hermeneutic impoverishment.
In order to analyze the epistemic, ethical and political problems that it produces, I will now recover the implications and affectations that hermeneutic injustice produces in socially situated contexts. Here I pay attention, on the one hand, to the theoretical considerations of Donna Haraway (1986, 2004),Gloria Anzaldúa (2016) y val flores (2013) to rethink the complex framework that is woven in the epistemological relationship. And on the other, to the discussions impelled from Trans* Studies towards one of the circuits and practices of specific knowledge production such as academics. For this, I will nourish my reflections with the contributions of Blas Radi (2014; 2020), Mauro Cabral (2013), and Shiobhan Guerrero Mc Manus and Leah Muñoz Contreras (2018).
To reflect on this, I built an analytical scaffolding based on: i) the shared epistemic and agency responsibility of the agents, according to the facilitator model; ii) in the opportunities of epistemic resistance to destabilize oppressive normative structures and the complacent cognitive-affective functioning that sustains it and; iii) in the role of epistemic activism in favor of mitigating epistemic injustices -based on the use of certain collective and supportive resources, tools and skills-, promoting new forms of sensitivity and facilitating social justice (Medina, 2018).