Contemporary transformations in African societies highlight the limitations of dominant epistemological frameworks in understanding reality and in developing appropriate responses to societal challenges[1]. In this context, the Laboratory for Epistemic Plurality and Reality (LPER) is part of an initiative aimed at broadening the scope of knowledge that enables a better understanding of the dynamics of African societies. This involves recognising and articulating the diversity of modes of knowledge and approaches to reality that exist within these societies. The laboratory’s perspective is that of ‘post-abyssal’ research[2], which focuses primarily on forms of knowledge that empower individuals and contribute to improving their living conditions.
The Laboratory’s work is based on the premise that the plurality of forms of knowledge constitutes not only an anthropological fact, but also an epistemic and practical resource for the well-being, dignity and empowerment of individuals and communities.
The Laboratory for Epistemic Plurality and the Real is conceived as a transdisciplinary space for knowledge production. Its work is based on the idea of epistemic plurality, understood as the coexistence and interaction of multiple forms of knowledge (scientific, endogenous, experiential, embodied, tacit and explicit).
In contrast to a hierarchical conception of knowledge, it aims to create a space for dialogue, interaction and complementarity between different forms of knowledge in order to produce practical knowledge capable of influencing reality and fostering transformative social practices.
The LPER supervises research projects (dissertations, theses, articles, monographs) that fall within the programme’s thematic areas. These contribute to the laboratory’s conceptual output. Two doctoral theses are currently in progress, bridging the gap between the African Pluriversity of Knowledge and the Senegalese academic community (philosophy, and legal and political science). Each of these theses addresses a theoretical question raised by the laboratory, namely the issue of trans-epistemology and that of a metric for public policies grounded in dignity. Thus, the first doctoral thesis involves designing a sustainable framework for a ‘space’ of dialogue between forms of knowledge, based on a respectful and equitable approach, aimed at valuing and conferring equal dignity upon all forms of knowledge, whether academic, traditional or emerging. The second thesis addresses the operationalisation of the capabilities approach in the implementation of public policies (in the field of health), with the ultimate aim of rethinking them in the light of alternative metrics such as freedom, well-being and dignity.
[1] Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2018) – Epistemic Freedom in Africa: Deprovincialisation and Decolonisation. Routledge [2] Boaventura De Sousa Santos, “Epistemologies of the South”, 2014, Routledge.
Felwine Sarr is a Senegalese academic and writer. He is the Anne-Marie Bryan Distinguished Professor of Romance Studies and African and African-American Studies at Duke University in North Carolina, and Full Professor and Associate Professor of Economics at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal. His academic work focuses on economics, epistemology and contemporary African philosophy. He co-founded the Ateliers de la Pensée with Achille Mbembé and founded the African Pluriversity of Knowledge, where he heads the research department. He is the author of several books, including *Dahij* (Gallimard, 2009), *Afrotopia* (Philippe Rey, 2016), *Habiter le Monde* (Mémoire d’Encrier, 2017), *Ecrire l’Afrique-monde* (a collective work co-edited with Achille Mbembe, Philippe Rey/Jimsaan, 2017), *Restoring African Heritage* (Philippe Rey/Seuil, 2018) with Bénédicte Savoy, *Traces* (Actes Sud, 2021; Wolof translation *Watit*, 2023, published by EJO), *The Economy to Come* (Les liens qui Libèrent, 2021) with Gaël Giraud, *The Places Where My Dreams Dwell* (Gallimard, 2022), *La Fabrique du Présent* (Philippe Rey/Jimsaan, 2026).
Muhammad BA is a lecturer and researcher in economics at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis. He teaches courses on development theory and epistemology in the Department of Economics. His research interests link issues in the philosophy of economics (well-being, social choice, rationality, distributive justice, etc.) to the field of development economics. In addition to the research he began in his doctoral thesis, Muhammad BA is interested in studying the economic aspects of African societies through the economics of life, the bioeconomy and the charismatic economy of Christian monasteries in Africa. Together with Felwine Sarr, he co-directs the Epistemic Plurality and Reality Laboratory at the African Pluriversity of Knowledge.
Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux is a philosopher, associate researcher at the Laboratory for Studies and Research on Contemporary Logics in Philosophy at the University of Paris 8, and a lecturer at Sciences Po Paris. She is the author of *Devenir vivants* (Philippe Rey, 2021), *Philosophies africaines* (Présence africaine, 2013), winner of the Louis Marin Prize from the Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer, and co-edited the volume *Droit et colonisation* (Bruylant, 2005). In 2022, she published *Pour un monde en commun* (Actes Sud) with Achille Mbembe and Rémy Rioux. Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux also heads the ‘Economy of Life’ Research Unit at the Fabrique de Suza in Cameroon and is deputy director of the ‘Epistemic Plurality’ Research Unit at the African Pluriversity of Knowledge. She is also a journalist for *Le Monde*.
Cheikh Abdoul Ahad Mbacké Ba is a tenured senior lecturer in human geography at the Institute of Territorial Governance and Local Development at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (UCAD), Senegal. His research lies at the intersection of critical geography, political ecology, the production of space, urban studies, the right to the city, studies on governmentality, and science and technology studies (STS). Adopting a resolutely critical intellectual stance, Cheikh Abdoul Ahad Mbacké Ba draws on decolonial and interdisciplinary approaches. He is part of a dual movement towards unlearning dominant frameworks of thought (Lawhon, 2020) and the provincialisation of Eurocentric knowledge (Chakrabarty, 2007), calling for a profound renewal of contemporary social sciences.He is currently leading a research project centred on urban subjectivities and spatial justice in the processes of the production of space and in the exercise of the right to the city, as formulated by Henri Lefebvre (1967). This work examines the links between politicisation and collective everyday practices in urban contexts, highlighting how social dynamics produce, exchange and mobilise resources — and even skills — in the service of collective action and urban resistance. Cheikh works at the Laboratory of Epistemic Plurality and the Real.
El Hadji Ibrahima Kady SARR is a researcher with ten years’ experience in project management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in social and economic administration, a master’s degree in political science from the University of Paris XIII Villetaneuse and a postgraduate diploma in political science from Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis; he previously worked as a junior consultant at Innovation in Health Systems in Africa (ISSA) and served as a programme assistant for the Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus project. Currently a PhD student in political science at UCAD, SARR is researching administration, public policy and public management in Senegal and is developing his ideas within the Laboratory of Epistemic Plurality and Reality.
Simel Sarr is a PhD student in philosophy at UCAD, a lecturer and a consultant specialising in strategic communication, digital marketing and knowledge management. His work focuses on African knowledge, epistemic infrastructures, development communication and the promotion of research. He conducts his research within the Laboratory for Epistemic Plurality and Reality. In addition, he advises institutions, NGOs, universities and development projects on their communication and knowledge-generation strategies.
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