Interculturalidad, decolonialidad y representaciones sociales

Abstract

Interculturality is a political-epistemic tool that questions and challenges Eurocentric universalism, being an alternative conducive to symmetrical dialogue between cultures, arising from the tensions with Western modernity. By virtue of the above, the purpose of the research was to analyze the relationship between critical interculturality, decoloniality and social representations. Methodologically, we resorted to the qualitative paradigm and the application of the documentary exploration method. Among the main findings, the critique of functional interculturality, which reproduces colonial hierarchies, was highlighted, while critical interculturality, a political and epistemic project that promotes dialogue between different social actors, questioning the foundations of the instrumental rationality of modernity, was explored in depth. Within this discussion, social representations emerge as non-neutral constructions that challenge the folkloric vision of interculturality, vindicating the role of alternative narratives in contemporaneity. It was concluded that interculturality implies processes of resistance and social transformation, of recognition of vulnerable sectors. Its raison d'être lies not only in philosophy or in the educational act, but in alternative proposals to decolonize knowledge and deconstruct power.