ABSTRACT
Some recent work has taken postcolonial theory and its connection with knowledge in new directions that I want to discuss in this chapter. I will focus on the idea of the “ecologies of knowledges” championed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos which seems to offer a possible solution to the issues of relativism and incommensurability in a context of different epistemic systems, and therefore may help us to develop a rationale for OA and epistemic openness in a constructionist paradigm. His work has been used to frame critiques of many models of OA emanating from HICs, like APCs, and as a possible basis for reformative intervention (Albornoz et al., 2020). I will focus on two of his most influential books, Epistemologies of the South (2016) and The End of the Cognitive Empire (2018). I am going to argue that the “ecologies of knowledges” idea offers important insights, but despite that, it still leaves us with unresolved relativist and incommensurability dilemmas. That in turn means we still do not have a clear basis for establishing the validity or value of scientific knowledge, or a compelling rationale for sharing it.
