The focus of this Special Section stems from research presented in the 2019 PILAS Conference held at the University of York. The conference theme ‘Communities of Knowledge, Communities of Action’ sought to bridge the gap between scholarly research and Latin American activism. The collegial exchange of ideas between a new generation of engaged and innovative researchers at the conference represented a critical alternative to the traditional isolation of academia – a reality that has since been exacerbated and magnified by the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. This Special Section of the Bulletin of Latin American Research seeks to offer a platform that will advance these new epistemologies and propel the voices of a new generation of engaged scholars.

It is organised around the theme of ‘Intersections of Activism and Academia’. The theme further develops the efforts of the 2019 PILAS Conference in emphasising interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches that will promote new forms of scholarly activism. In turn, this Special Section actively engages with the movement to decolonise academia at research and curriculum level, and across university campuses. Different decolonial approaches are adopted by the contributors. Some are grounded in Latin American scholarship and others materialise the intersection of this approach with global understanding of decolonial methodologies, especially by focusing on the transindigenous dialogue necessary today. Our focus on decolonisation is prompted by the fact that we cannot possibly see our current world as a ‘postcolonial’ one in speaking about social developments even in the twenty-first century. Indeed, while formal colonialism comes to an end, imperial practices do not; they are maintained socio-politically and economically through racial and structural inequalities across the globe. Hence, we engage with the concept of decoloniality as defined by a wide range of authors including Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1992), Quijano (1999), Fanon (2002), Mignolo (2008) and Tuhiwai Smith (2012), among many others to emphasise the necessary processes to decolonise our world not only politically and economically, but also intellectually and culturally.

This Special Section is divided into two main sections. The first considers the intersections between artivism and academic discourse and the second engages with social sciences and historical approaches to activism, policymaking and academia. The first section opens with Jennifer Cooper's article entitled ‘“No Soy un Activista, Soy un Artista”: Representations of the Feminicide at the Intersections of Art and Activism’. It opens crucial discussions, continued throughout the Special Section, to interrogate public spaces and their relationship to artistic interventions by comparing the work of artivist Teresa Margolles with the grassroots activist Voces Sin Eco Cross Campaign and Humberto Macías Martínez's Muralist Movement. Cooper offers an important examination of the creation and techniques of an art display, and how the artivists' subject matters are fused to the social and historic conjecture of neoliberal Mexico.

In Giulia Champion and Jessica Wax-Edwards's article, entitled ‘Decolonising Responses to “Engaged Art”: Disposability and Neoimperialism in Art, Activism and Academia’, the authors explore the limits of ‘engaged art’, seen in two exemplary photoseries – Vik Muniz's Pictures of Garbage (2008, Brazil) and Alejandro Cartagena's Carpoolers (2011–2012, Mexico) – both of which highlight an ongoing need to decolonise the process of artistic creation and the scholarship/viewership that responds to engaged art.

Mariana Perry's article, entitled ‘British Academia's Response to the coup d'état in Chile: The Case of Academics for Chile’, commences part two of this Special Section. Her article focuses on British academic discourse about the 1973 Chilean military coup, which removed President Allende from office. This contribution considers how different academic institutions and funding bodies' interest in the fate of Chilean scholars prompted a wider interest in Latin American studies in British Academia.

The next article is collaboratively authored by Omaira Bolaños Cárdenas, Johana Herrera Arango, Cristiam Guerrero Lovera and Elias Helo Molina and considers the long-lasting alliance between the Afro-Colombian movement, academia and international organisations, which triggered the government's commitment to a nationwide formalisation of collective territories. This group of scholars and practitioners discuss strategies that bridge research and activism in the co-production of knowledge to influence public policy implementation. Entitled ‘Bridging Research and Practice to Influence National Policy: Afro-Colombians Territorial Rights, from Stagnation to Implementation’, this contribution combines Participatory Action Research, cartographic research, historical and legal analysis, and purposeful political advocacy.

‘“Family, God, Brazil, Guns…”: The State of Criminal Governance in Contemporary Brazil’, by Gabriel Funari, mobilises the social science literature on criminal governance groups to reflect on how the extra-legality and official violence of the Bolsonaro administration are creating new modes of authoritarian militancy in Brazil. In combining theory with primary data to tackle an urgent – and constantly evolving – social issue, the author aims to dispel disciplinary rifts between Political Sciences and Criminology that prevent anyone, whether scholar, activist or both, from glimpsing the embedded forms of deviance and extra-legality of institutions of power.

By concluding thus, this Special Section challenges the conception of academia as an ‘ivory tower’ and shows how scholarship engages with crucial past and contemporary issues of the world in which it exists. In making these conceptual challenges, we seek to generate new modes of scholarly engagement, in which long-held assumptions are always questioned and in which elementary forms of exclusion are disputed. With that in mind, we hope to open new pathways of dialogue, empathy and collaboration between scholars and activists to create the possibilities for new ways of understanding complex features of our shared lived realities.

本专题的重点源于在约克大学举行的 2019 年 PILAS 会议上提出的研究。会议主题“知识社区，行动社区”旨在弥合学术研究与拉丁美洲激进主义之间的差距。会议上新一代敬业和创新的研究人员之间的学术交流代表了传统学术界孤立的一个重要替代方案——这一现实已因冠状病毒大流行的影响而加剧和放大。《拉丁美洲研究公报》的这一特殊部分旨在提供一个平台，以推进这些新的认识论并推动新一代敬业学者的声音。

它是围绕“激进主义和学术界的交叉点”的主题组织的。该主题进一步发展了 2019 年 PILAS 会议在强调将促进新形式的学术活动的跨学科和交叉方法方面的努力。反过来，这个特别部门在研究和课程层面以及整个大学校园内积极参与学术界的非殖民化运动。贡献者采用了不同的非殖民化方法。有些以拉丁美洲的学术为基础，而另一些则将这种方法与对非殖民方法的全球理解相结合，特别是通过关注当今必要的跨土著对话。我们之所以关注非殖民化，是因为即使在 21 世纪，在谈论社会发展时，我们也不可能将我们当前的世界视为“后殖民”世界。事实上，虽然形式上的殖民主义结束了，但帝国主义的做法并没有结束。它们通过全球的种族和结构性不平等在社会政治和经济上得以维持。因此，我们参与了由包括 Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o 在内的众多作者定义的非殖民性概念（1992 年）、Quijano（1999 年）、Fanon（2002 年）、Mignolo（2008 年）和 Tuhiwai Smith（2012 年）等，以强调不仅在政治和经济上，而且在智力和文化上使我们的世界非殖民化的必要进程。

这个特殊部分分为两个主要部分。第一个考虑艺术主义和学术话语之间的交叉点，第二个涉及社会科学和激进主义、政策制定和学术界的历史方法。第一部分以詹妮弗·库珀（Jennifer Cooper）题为“No Soy un Activista, Soy un Artista”的文章开头：艺术与行动主义交叉点上杀害女性的表现。它开启了至关重要的讨论，并在整个特别部分继续进行，通过将艺术家 Teresa Margolles 的作品与草根活动家Voces Sin Eco进行比较来询问公共空间及其与艺术干预的关系Cross Campaign 和 Humberto Macías Martínez 的壁画运动。库珀对艺术展览的创作和技术进行了重要检验，以及艺术家的主题如何与新自由主义墨西哥的社会和历史猜想融合在一起。

在 Giulia Champion 和 Jessica Wax-Edwards 题为“对“参与艺术”的非殖民化回应：艺术、激进主义和学术界中的可处置性和新帝国主义”的文章中，作者探索了“参与艺术”的局限性，这在两个典型的照片系列中可见 - Vik Muniz 的Garbage（2008 年，巴西）和 Alejandro Cartagena 的Carpoolers（2011-2012 年，墨西哥）的图片——这两者都强调了对艺术创作过程的非殖民化以及响应参与艺术的奖学金/观众的持续需要。

Mariana Perry 的文章，题为“英国学术界对智利政变的回应：智利学术界的案例”，开始了本特节的第二部分。她的文章侧重于英国关于 1973 年智利军事政变的学术论述，该政变使阿连德总统下台。该贡献考虑了不同学术机构和资助机构对智利学者命运的兴趣如何促使英国学术界对拉丁美洲研究产生更广泛的兴趣。

下一篇文章由 Omaira Bolaños Cárdenas、Johana Herrera Arango、Cristiam Guerrero Lovera 和 Elias Helo Molina 共同撰写，并考虑了非洲裔哥伦比亚运动、学术界和国际组织之间的长期联盟，这引发了政府对全国正规化​​的承诺的集体领土。这组学者和实践者讨论了在知识的共同生产中将研究和行动联系起来以影响公共政策实施的策略。题为“桥接研究和实践以影响国家政策：非洲裔哥伦比亚人的领土权利，从停滞到实施”，这项贡献结合了参与式行动研究、制图研究、历史和法律分析以及有目的的政治宣传。

Gabriel Funari 所著的“家庭、上帝、巴西、枪支……”：当代巴西的刑事治理状况动员有关犯罪治理团体的社会科学文献来反思博尔索纳罗政府的法外行为和官方暴力如何正在巴西创造新的威权战斗模式。在将理论与原始数据相结合以解决一个紧迫且不断发展的社会问题时，作者旨在消除政治学和犯罪学之间的学科分歧，这些分歧阻止任何人，无论是学者、活动家或两者兼而有之，都无法瞥见嵌入的偏差形式和额外的——权力机构的合法性。

通过这样的总结，本特节挑战了学术界作为“象牙塔”的概念，并展示了学术如何与它所在世界的重要过去和当代问题相结合。在提出这些概念性挑战时，我们寻求产生新的学术参与模式，在这种模式中，长期存在的假设总是受到质疑，而排除的基本形式受到质疑。考虑到这一点，我们希望开辟学者和活动家之间对话、同情和合作的新途径，为理解我们共同生活现实的复杂特征的新方法创造可能性。