co2libri: conceptual collaboration – living borderless research interaction

As postcolonial, decolonial, and other critics have long argued, the dominance of
conceptual and institutional Eurocentrism in global academia and knowledge production
needs to be overcome. However, progress on this front has been slow. Indeed, the larger
project of rewriting the humanities and social sciences by integrating key references and
contributors from the global South (and minority perspectives in the North) has only just
begun. The pathway there consists in collaborative efforts, seeking to move beyond the
dichotomies of north/south and center/periphery by exploring the generative possibilities of
genuine ‘conceptual collaboration’. This refers to foundational dialogical engagements
which require diverse kinds of disciplinary, linguistic, and regional expertise.
This project assembles an interdisciplinary, transregional-oriented group of BUA- and
Berlin based researchers, who have already long pursued an inclusive and pluralizing
intellectual agenda alongside their academic partners in many world regions. Some of us
have come to Berlin from the South. Building on these experiences, we seek to contribute
to the project of decentering and decolonizing the social sciences and humanities and
diversifying their starting points.
Moreover, different political developments, such as funding cuts for critical scholarship, a
rise in (neo)populism and authoritarianism, growing mistrust in science and governments,
have threatened academic freedom in many places. There is an urgent need to create
inclusive spaces and collaborative formats that enable dialogue and mutual exchange
between academics, critical thinkers and activists based in the global North and South.
“co2libri: conceptual collaboration – living borderless research interaction”
The name of our initiative underscores that conceptual collaboration stands for our
foundational dialogical approach. In this way, co2libri pursues three main objectives: a)
reconsider/rethink theory (in terms of alternative conceptual frameworks and baselines), b)
develop and cultivate visions of more fair and adequate research practices globally in the
light of southern perspectives, and c) explore the potentials of genuine conceptual
collaboration across disciplines, locations and positionalities.