It is now widely recognized that responding to the planetary polycrisis could require what scholars and activists are calling pluriversal knowledge. This is because their epistemologies focus on the balance between humans and nature and are rooted in local ecologies, setting them apart from, and in terms of ‘sustainability’, superior to capitalist systems of production.

Capitalist systems have disrupted these production systems significantly, eliciting two kinds of responses. One entails these knowledge systems mirroring the dominant one, and the other entails incorporating new technologies of production and distribution, while trying to to retain their epistemological distinctiveness.

This event will discuss findings of a study of specific initiatives in India, exploring the second of the two options. It will examine how this response faces both external challenges (from the capitalist system) and internal challenges (from deep social and economic hierarchies like caste and gender, endemic to the societies in which these knowledge systems are practiced.) However, retaining their distinctive epistemologies need not necessitate retaining these hierarchies. The event will explore how democratization of the practices of these knowledge systems offers more equitable and just responses to the polycrisis.

• Speaker: Dr. Madhulika Banerjee, Professor of Political Science, Delhi University
• Moderator: Basav Sen, Climate Policy Director, Institute for Policy Studies

This will be a hybrid event with the option to participate either in person or via Zoom.