Sociocentered democratic experimentations

theoretical foundations and analytical perspectives

Abstract

This article aims to recover and valorize political knowledges and practices emerging from the Global South by deepening the concept of “sociocentered democratic experimentations” (SDE), grounded in a decolonized onto-epistemic perspective. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to the construction of an analytical framework capable of interpreting and recognizing such experiences across different contexts. They are classified into three types: traditional peoples and communities, popular struggles and social movements, and contemporary collectives. To this end, the article revisits the notion of the onto-epistemic expansion of politics, elucidating its meaning through five structuring categories: community, everyday life, alterity, integrality, and self-management. In a second moment, it examines the articulation between public inquiry and public experience, a central dimension for understanding the political practices analyzed. These reflections ultimately converge in the consolidation of the concept of SDE, supporting the hypothesis that this framework broadens our analytical reach, including beyond the Latin American context. The article is theoretical in nature and is developed through processes of literature search, review, and interpretation. As a result, we argue that SDE constitute expressions of collective autonomy in relation to the State and the market; promote a radical critique of hegemonic forms of representative democracy; articulate everyday life with politics, destabilizing traditional dichotomies; share a common commitment to democratic transformation from the margins; and, finally, contribute to redefining the meaning and potential value of “peripheral subjects” in contemporary societies by keeping open the space of possible futures.