The institution of global techniques and the destitution of local knowledge

the expression of the Monocultures of Mind before the Relational Ontology

Abstract

In a context of advancing globalization, marked by an increased urbanization, lifestyles have become increasingly homogeneous. The local peculiarities of each territory have lost ground in the face of the global dynamics of industry, capital and its techniques and work instruments (Santos, 2006; Wilkinson; Goodman; Sorj, 2008). Concomitantly with the homogenization of the place, agricultural monoculture also establishes a dominant way of thinking (Shiva, 2003) marked by the disappearance of the place, evidencing an ongoing transformation in the lifestyle of the local population, through the Monocultures of Mind (Escobar, 2015; Shiva, 2003). From this, the article discusses the homogenization of local knowledge, derived from an industrial/urban logic established throughout the 20th century and advancing into the 21st century (Santos, 2006), and the opposition to global techniques, through the concept of Relational Ontology, by Escobar (2015). The authors studied will be Santos (2006), Wilkinson, Goodman and Sorj (2008), Schultz (1965), as well as other decolonial authors, such as Escobar (2005, 2015) and Porto-Gonçalves (2002, 2006, 2015). We propose some discussions about the global and local world in juxtaposition, contributing to the understandings of the Latin American historical process.