Introduction to Foucault and Coloniality

Introducción a Foucault y la colonialidad

The articles collected in this special issue of Tabula Rasa arise from the conference entitled "Foucault and coloniality" held at the University of La Coruña in Galicia on May 26 and 27, 2011. The event was inspired by the essay by Santiago Castro -Gómez entitled "Foucault and the coloniality of power" (Tabula Rasa number 6: 153-172, January-June 2007). Motivated by the statements made by Castro-Gómez in this essay, we decided to hold a meeting that would try to put Foucault's contributions in a critical dialogue with the contributions of the various authors from the "coloniality of power" perspective. The idea was to explore the fruits of a debate and a critical dialogue between both perspectives. What resulted from the dialogue was a heterogeneity of perspectives. Some tried to negotiate a positive fusion between Foucault's perspective and the coloniality perspective, others maintained a more favorable position to Foucault, while others criticized Foucault from the coloniality perspective. This heterogeneity of positions is reflected in the trials included in this issue. We do not intend to exhaust the debate with this number. We hope that this number will contribute to open a debate and a fruitful dialogue between both perspectives and stimulate the organization of future meetings in this direction. We thank the Office of Gender Equality of the University of La Coruña, the nomadic university (Madrid) and the invisible university (in Coruña) for their support in organizing the conference. In particular, we want to thank Professor José Angel Brandariz García for his generous support in the realization of this event.