Glossary
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Peripheral Model
A flexible approach proposed by Lucila Fernandez Uriarte as a means of decolonization in design. This model acknowledges that modern design in non-western nations is not merely a one-size-fits-all and their development is dependent on the specific historical exchange of culture.
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Chi’xi
A model proposed by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui for living in a post-colonial modern society, from the aymara word for “grey”, that argues for the ability for coexistence between different cultures living amongst each other without a need for making it hybrid/blended
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Relational Urbanism
A new theory by Fernando Luiz Lara, jumping off Viveiros de Castros’ Amerindian Perspectivism, in order to amend the exclusion of indigenous ingenuity in architecture. Lara poses that relational knowledge systems must be present, emphasizing the interconnectedness and respect between indigenous cultures and nature.
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Autopoiesis
Autopoiesis, a term coined by Chilean biologists and philosophers Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela in the 1970s, refers to the self-generating and self-sustaining nature of living systems, emphasizing how organisms continuously reproduce and maintain themselves through internal processes. The term, derived from the Greek words auto (self) and poiesis (creation or production), signifies the ability of a system to define and regulate itself independently, rather than being shaped solely by external forces. In decolonial and design theory, thinkers like Arturo Escobar extend this concept to social and cultural systems, particularly in relation to autonomous design and communal world-making. Escobar argues that communities, much like living organisms, engage in autopoiesis by…
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Hubris of Zero Degrees
The Hubris of Zero Degrees is a concept introduced by Walter Mignolo, a prominent decolonial theorist, to describe the illusion of objectivity and neutrality in Western knowledge production. It refers to the assumption that modern European science, philosophy, and historiography represent a universal, detached, and neutral perspective, rather than a historically and geopolitically situated way of knowing. This concept critiques the idea that European epistemologies are superior to all others and that they emerge from a “zero-point” perspective, free from bias or cultural particularity. Mignolo argues that this hubris was central to the colonial expansion of European knowledge, which presented itself as universal while simultaneously marginalizing indigenous, African, and other…
