Andrea Fleschenberg - Böcker

Pakistan at Seventy-Five investigates the countrys multi-layered issues in the context of a post-colonial polity marked by diversity, heterogeneity, stratification and volatility. This wide-ranging discourse engages with diverse formal and informal actors as markers of identity, historical events and social conditions, as well as global geo-political and neo-colonial centreperiphery relations that shape narratives about the nation and the constructions of a sense of belonging. The editors and contributors utilise multi-faceted and multi-layered approaches, focusing on (1) identities, and questions of diversity and pluralism; (2) horizontal and vertical technologies and geographies of power related to questions of trust, legitimacy, participation, and governance; and (3) the distribution, deprivation and vulnerability of sociocultural, political, and human resources. Studying Pakistan has been subject to different approaches, including decolonial, indigenous, and feminist perspectives. This volume draws out alternative epistemological and methodological viewpoints: the insideroutsider conundrum, centreperiphery asymmetries, hegemonic discourses, and practices within Pakistans national/international academy. The chapter contributions are the outcome of a unique interdisciplinary research cooperation at Quaid-i-Azam University, focussing on early career researchers. Presenting a multiplicity of voices and trajectories, Pakistan at Seventy-Five provides new input to existing debates and directions for future scholarly endeavour. Contributors: Aftab Nasir, Andrea Fleschenberg, Arslan Waheed, Salman Rafi Sheikh, Sanaa Alimia, Sarah Holz, Sohaib Bodla, Wajeeha Tahir.

This volume brings together a series of discussions by scholars from a range of disciplinary, (trans)regional and epistemic perspectives that came out of the Berlin-based "co2libri" networking initiative, with longstanding collaborative partners based in the global South. "Co2libri" stands for "conceptual collaboration: living borderless research interaction". As an interdisciplinary and transregional oriented initiative, co2libri envisages a multicentric perspective that integrates neglected positions of Southern theory and praxis into the heart of academic conversations. Co2libri’s collaborative endeavor builds on long-standing active connections with partners in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Instead of setting an agenda from the North, it proposes to figure out ways forward through collaborative engagement, building on relationships of mutual trust. Using formats that facilitate substantial and open-ended discussion, we are re-thinking theory and method, academic practices, and research ethics, while keeping material inequalities in view. Contributors to this edited volume are working toward the implementation of various innovative activities, research perspectives and collaboration formats which all subscribe to the principle of dialogue on equal footing with scholars and activists based in divergent positionalities along and beyond the Global North-South divide. In different ways, the authors work toward the goal of producing more adequate, and more sensitive, critical knowledge, and applying a fresh view to approach, methods, and ethical standards. Overall, the volume works, sometimes in exploratory ways, with alternative frames of reference while it presents diverse theorizations of lived experiences.