question re epistemic violence (fwd)

Gert, i forwarded your question to Azfar. I think the meaning of
"epistemic violence" is clear. It means economic, cultural and political
violence in the third world. In any case, what i understood from his post,
Azfar was referring to a specific case. he was talking about "epistemic
violence" done to _Bangali_ people by the international garment
industry, multinationals and Bangali upper-middle class. By making use of
Lenin, and then Gayatri Spivak at the level of literary theory, Azfar's
post was a critical reexamination of the political economy of 
neo-imperialism..


Mine


   

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 21:23:39 -0500
From: g kohler <gkohler@accglobal.net>
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: question re epistemic violence

The recent post from India, forwarded by Mine, mentions "epistemic
violence". Is that the same as "cultural violence" (a term used, e.g., by
Galtung and Senghaas)? As I understand "cultural violence", it refers to the
violent effects in the cultural domain -- e.g., the culture of a dominant
group may be repressing (and may lead to physical violence against) an
underdog group with a different culture. Portraying blond women in
advertising may be cultural violence against non-blond women, etc. -- Or,
does "epistemic violence" mean something else?
Gert Kohler