The Epistemic Plurality of Territory in the Critique of Urban-Centrism

Abstract

The centrality of city and urban as analytical, normative, and design categories has driven the standardization of models and problems in the field of Architecture and Urbanism, and conditioned spatial thinking to hegemonic and productivist logics. But how can we think about spaces and territories beyond the urban-centric bias and the categories that sustain it as an epistemological and design center? Debating Praxis, Interlocutions, and Confrontations, this paper articulates traditional and critical knowledge of the urban environment, aiming to confront the centrality of the city and the urban as hegemonic categories. The methodology is based on bibliographic review, case studies (Potiguara Indigenous Land and Paratibe Quilombo), and dialogue with dissident epistemologies. The results indicate that these territorialities challenge traditional urbanism by affirming practices based on collectivity, ancestry, and spiritual connection to the land. These experiences demonstrate that overcoming urban hegemonies requires multilateral dialogues between epistemologies, through a territorial praxis that articulates technical and community knowledge. It concludes that confrontations and interlocutions between different territorial rationalities constitute not only a methodological approach, but also a political and epistemic condition for pluralizing the field and confronting the power regimes that structure the coloniality of urban knowledge.