THinking Alternative WoRlds Across Sudanese Revolution – THAWRA_SuR

The project aims to study the ongoing multidimensional changes in revolutionary Sudan within a dynamic context of (practical and conceptual) production of social alternative models inspired by a shared and multiform quest for equality and justice. Its methodology is based on intensive ethnographies, research training, participatory dimension with civil society’s actors. Grounded in the research on contemporary Sudan, an interdisciplinary team (anthropology, sociology, geography, political science, history, linguistics, law) benefits from an international consortium, as French institutions (LAVUE, PRODIG) work in synergy with 2 institutions in the country of inquiry (University of Khartoum and CEDEJ). The project’s is original at different scales : the specific Sudanese case study, the regional frame of an Arab-Muslim area whose scientific interest is enhanced by the recent international conjuncture, a wider comparative reflection on socio-political protest movements in contemporary world. At the theoretical level, the case of the Third Sudanese Revolution started in 2018, is chosen as a laboratory for a grounded theory which, first, nourishes recent approaches on inequalities and discriminations, and, second, challenges the encounter between two sides of the debate on decolonisation (the one on new imperialism and the “recolonization” of the Global South and the other on “decoloniality” looking at the intersection of race, gender, ethnicity, autochthony). The project team work by means of a twofold organisation, with the aim of crossing various empirical and analytical dimensions and merging academic approach, research training and coproduction. An articulation into 3 Transversal Issues (Gender, Environment, Citizenship) intermingles with a structure in 3 Task Forces (Socio-environmental injustices and commons rebuilding; Reshaping political arenas through inclusive citizenship; Cultural circulations, memories, imaginations). The team will be involved in three main activities: personal fieldworks (rural and urban); a Doctoral School on inequalities in situations of radical change; Workshops of knowledge co-production with civil society’s actors. The elaboration of a Participatory Digital Platform “Landscapes of the Sudanese Revolution” with 2 focuses (Mapping and Dictionary) is both a tool and a product of the project. The main team is formed by 9 researchers (6 senior and 3 PhDs) with solid experience of fieldwork in Sudan and other Middle East or African contexts. They work in coordination with 8 researchers of the University of Khartoum and will integrate members of 5 selected Sudanese civil society associations. A joint coordination is led by two researchers (Anthropologist and Geographer) with a strong background in scientific and pedagogic collaboration with Sudanese academic institutions and international partners. The deliverables of the project are: a collective volume (French, English, Arabic); an International Conference for the diffusion of scientific results; the creation of a French-Sudanese training pole extending the Doctoral School’s experience; the open access to the Digital Platform as an innovative tool for knowledge transmission; the elaboration of a Horizon Europe project on Inequalities, Revolutions and Fairer Futures. Its scientific impacts will be the contribution to debates on socio-spatial and environmental inequalities and injustices, and on socio-political protest movements in a global world, together with a reflection on theory/fieldwork dialectics. At the societal level impacts will concern the understanding of forms and imaginations for rethinking “fairer futures”, and of patterns “from below” for coping with inequalities and injustices to face governance, ecological and migration crises, together with the bridging of the gap between academic, civil and democratic training.