For scholars of the Global South, epistemic struggle happens in the particular, that is, over the course of debates around particular models of reality. To illustrate, I reconstruct debates around an influential model of Philippine politics, arguing that the model is premised on a set of “bad words” and that these bad words have real effects. These bad words produce a prison of misrecognition. Delving into this literature yields a finer-grained picture of epistemic struggle. Specifically, we can discern three kinds of blindnesses: ontological, epistemological, and sociological; two kinds of pain: feeling stuck in a cognitive prison and worse, feeling one deserves to be stuck there; and one kind of agency at stake: not just the capacity for action but also the capacity for subjects to act within the parameters of their own reality.
AlatasSyed Hussein. 2002. “The Development of an Autonomous Social Science Tradition in Asia: Problems and Prospects.” Asian Journal of Social Science30(1):150–57.
2.
AlatasSyed Farid. 2006. Alternative Discourses in Asian Social Science: Responses to Eurocentrism. London, UK: Sage.
3.
AmsdenAlice H.2001. The Rise of “The Rest”: Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
4.
AndersonBenedict. 1988. “Cacique Democracy in the Philippines: Origins and Dreams.” New Left Review1(169):3–31.
AquinoBenigno S.1968. “What’s Wrong with the Philippines?” Foreign Affairs46(4):770–79.
7.
ArendtHannah. [1954] 1994. “Understanding and Politics (the Difficulties of Understanding).” Pp. 307–27 in Essays in Understanding, 1930-1954, edited by KohnJ.New York, NY: Harcourt Brace.
8.
BautistaMaria Cynthia Rose Banzon. 1999. “Images of the Middle Class in Metro Manila.” Public Policy3(4):1–37.
9.
ClaudioLisandro E.2013. Taming People’s Power: The EDSA Revolutions and Their Contradictions. Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
10.
ConnellRaewyn. 2007. Southern Theory: Social Science and the Global Dynamics of Knowledge. London, UK: Routledge.
11.
ConstantinoRenato. 1966. The Filipinos in the Philippines and Other Essays. Quezon City, the Philippines: Filipino Signatures.
12.
ConstantinoRenato. 1970. “The Mis-education of the Filipino.” Journal of Contemporary Asia1(1):20–36.
13.
CorpuzOnofre D.1969. “Cultural Foundations.” Pp. 6–18 in Foundations and Dynamics of Filipino Government and Politics, edited by AbuevaJ. V.de GuzmanR. P.Manila, the Philippines: Bookmark.
14.
CrisolJose M.1973. Towards the Restructuring of Filipino Values. Taguig, Metro Manila: Office of Communications Research, Philippine Army.
15.
CusicanquiSylvia Rivera. 2012. “Ch’ixinakax utxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization.” South Atlantic Quarterly111(1):95–109.
16.
DavidRandolf S.1982. “Sociology and Development Studies in the Philippines.” Philippine Sociological Review30(1/4):15–22.
17.
de DiosEmmanuel S.1990. “A Political Economy of Philippine Policy Making.” Pp. 109–48 in Economic Policy-Making in the Asia-Pacific Region, edited by LangfordJ. W.BrownseyL.Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Institute for Research on Public Policy.
18.
de DiosEmmanuel S.HutchcroftPaul D.2003. “Political Economy.” Pp. 45–76 in The Philippine Economy, edited by BalisacanA.HillH.Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
19.
de Sousa SantosBoaventura. 2018. The End of the Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age of the Epistemologies of the South. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
20.
EvansPeter. 1995. Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
21.
EvansPeter B.RueschemeyerDietrichSkocpolTheda, eds. 1985. Bringing the State Back in. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
22.
FallowsJames. 1987. “A Damaged Culture.” The Atlantic Monthly, November.
23.
FanonFrantz. [1952] 2008. Black Skins, White Masks. New York, NY: Grove Press.
FukuyamaFrancis. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York, NY: Free Press.
26.
GamsonWilliam A.1992. Talking Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
27.
GarridoMarco. 2017. “Why the Poor Support Populism: The Politics of Sincerity in Metro Manila.” American Journal of Sociology123(3):1–39.
28.
GarridoMarco. 2019. The Patchwork City: Class, Space, and Politics in Metro Manila. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
29.
GarridoMarco. 2021. “Disciplining Democracy: How the Upper and Middle Class in Manila Envision Order.” Qualitative Sociology44(3):419–35.
30.
GarridoMarco. 2025. “A Thousand Years of Corruption: A History of Corruption and Anti-corruption in the Philippines since 1946.” Comparative Studies in Society and History67(3):1–27. doi:10.1017/S001041752500009X.
31.
GeertzClifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books.
32.
GloriaGlenda M.1995. “One City, Two Worlds.” Pp. 67–101 in Boss: Five Case Studies of Local Politics in the Philippines, edited by LacabaJ. F.Quezon City, the Philippines: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
33.
GoJulian. 2016. Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
GuillermoRamon. 2023. “‘Pagsasariling Atin’: The Project of an Autonomous Social Science Tradition (ASST) and the Challenge of Scientometrics.” Third World Quarterly. doi:10.1080/01436597.2023.2206013.
36.
GutierrezEric U.1994. The Ties That Bind: A Guide to Family, Business, and Other Interests in the Ninth House of Representatives. Quezon City, the Philippines: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
37.
GutierrezEric U.TorrenteIldefonso C.NarcaNoli G.1992. All in the Family: A Study of Elites and Power Relations in the Philippines. Quezon City, the Philippines: Institute for Popular Democracy.
38.
HedmanEva-Lotta E.2006. In the Name of Civil Society: From Free Election Movements to People Power in the Philippines. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
39.
HillHallBalisacanArsenioDela CruzRussel Matthew. 2021. “Philippine Economic Development, Looking Backwards and Forwards: An Interpretive Essay.” Working Papers in Trade and Development, No. 2021/24. Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Australian National University.
40.
HollnsteinerMary R.1967. “Inner Tondo as a Way of Life.” Saint Louis Quarterly5(1–2):235–45.
41.
HutchcroftPaul D.1991. “Oligarchs and Cronies in the Philippine State: The Politics of Patrimonial Plunder.” World Politics43(3):414–50.
42.
HutchcroftPaul D.1998. Booty Capitalism: The Politics of Banking in the Philippines. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
43.
HutchcroftPaul D.2000. “Colonial Masters, National Politicos, and Provincial Lords: Central Authority and Local Autonomy in the American Philippines, 1900-1913.” Journal of Asian Studies59(2):277–306.
44.
HutchcroftPaul D.2011. “Reflections on a Reverse Image: South Korea under Park Chung Hee and the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos.” Pp. 542–72 in The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea, edited by KimB.-K.VogelE.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
45.
HutchcroftPaul D.RocamoraJoel. 2003. “Strong Demands and Weak Institutions: The Origins and Evolution of the Democratic Deficit in the Philippines.” Journal of East Asian Studies3(2):259–92.
46.
IletoReynaldo C.1979. Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910. Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
47.
IletoReynaldo C.1997. “Outlines of a Nonlinear Emplotment of Philippine History.” Pp. 98–131 in The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital, edited by LoweL.LloydD.Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
48.
IletoReynaldo C.1998. Filipinos and Their Revolution: Event, Discourse, and Historiography. Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
49.
IletoReynaldo C.2001. “Orientalism and the Study of Philippine Politics.” Philippine Political Science Journal22(45):1–32.
50.
IletoReynaldo C.2002. “On Sidel’s Response and Bossism in the Philippines.” Philippine Political Science Journal23(46):151–74.
51.
Institute of Philippine Culture. 2005. The Vote of the Poor: Modernity and Tradition in People’s Views of Leadership and Elections. Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University.
52.
JocanoF. Landa. 1975. Slum as a Way of Life. Diliman: University of the Philippines Press.
53.
KarnowStanley. 1989. In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines. New York, NY: Random House.
54.
KerkvlietBenedict J. Tria. 1991a. Everyday Politics in the Philippines: Class and Status Relations in a Central Luzon Village. Quezon City, the Philippines: New Day Publishers.
55.
KerkvlietBenedict J. Tria. 1991b. “Understanding Politics in a Nueva Ecija Rural Community.” Pp. 226–46 in From Marcos to Aquino: Local Perspectives on Political Transition in the Philippines, edited by KerkvlietB. J.MojaresR. B.Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
56.
KerkvlietBenedict J. Tria. 1995. “Toward a More Comparative Analysis of Philippine Politics: Beyond the Patron-Client Factional Framework.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies26(2):401–19.
57.
KerkvlietBenedict J. Tria. 1996. “Contested Meanings of Elections in the Philippines.” Pp. 136–63 in The Politics of Elections in Southeast Asia, edited by TaylorR. H.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
58.
KusakaWataru. 2017. Moral Politics in the Philippines. Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
59.
LacabaJose, ed. 1995. Boss: Five Case Studies of Local Politics in the Philippines. Quezon City, the Philippines: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
LandéCarl H.1965. Leaders, Factions, and Parties: The Structure of Philippine Politics (Monograph Series No. 6). New Haven, CT: Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University.
62.
LandéCarl H.2002. “Political Clientelism, Developmentalism, and Postcolonial Theory.” Philippine Political Science Journal23(4):119–28.
63.
LipsetSeymour Martin. 1960. Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics. New York, NY: Doubleday and Company.
64.
MannheimKarl. 1936. Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
65.
MbembeAchille. 2021. Out of the Dark Night: Essays on Decolonization. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
66.
McCoyAlfred W. [1993] 2009. An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
67.
MigdalJoel S.1988. Strong Societies and Weak States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
68.
MignoloWalter D.2007. “Delinking: The Rhetoric of Modernity, the Logic of Coloniality, and the Grammar of De-coloniality.” Cultural Studies21(2–3):449–514.
69.
MojaresResil B.2006. “Words That Are Not Moving: Civil Society in the Philippines.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society34(1):33–52.
70.
MojaresResil B. [1993] 2009. “The Dream Goes on and on: Three Generations of the Osmeñas, 1906-1990.” Pp. 311–46 in An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines, edited by McCoyA. W.Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
71.
MooreBarringtonJr.1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
72.
NandyAshis. 1983. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.
PinchesMichael D.1991. “The Working Class Experience of Shame, Inequality, and People Power in Tatalon, Manila.” Pp. 166–86 in From Marcos to Aquino: Local Perspectives on Political Transition in the Philippines, edited by KerkvlietB. J.MojaresR. B.Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
75.
PinchesMichael D.1996. “The Philippines’ New Rich: Capitalist Transformation amidst Economic Gloom.” Pp. 105–36 in The New Rich in Asia: Mobile Phones, McDonalds, and Middle-Class Revolution, edited by RobisonR.GoodmanD. S. G.London, UK: Routledge.
76.
PinchesMichael D.1999. “Entrepreneurship, Consumption, Ethnicity, and National Identity in the Making of the Philippines’ New Rich.” Pp. 275–301 in Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia, edited by PinchesM.London, UK: Routledge.
77.
PinchesMichael D.2010. “The Making of Middle Class Civil Society in the Philippines.” Pp. 284–312 in The Politics of Change in the Philippines, edited by KasuyaY.QuimpoN.Pasig City, the Philippines: Anvil.
78.
PunongbayanJ. C.2023. False Nostalgia: The Marcos “Golden Age” Myths and How to Debunk Them. Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
79.
QuijanoAnibal. 2000. “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America.” Nepantla: Views from the South1(3):533–80.
80.
QuimpoNathan Gilbert. 2005. “Oligarchic Patrimonialism, Bossism, Electoral Clientelism, and Contested Democracy in the Philippines.” Comparative Politics37(2):229–50.
81.
RiveraTemario C.2001. “The Middle Classes and Democratisation in the Philippines: From the Asian Crisis to the Ouster of Estrada.” Pp. 230–61 in Southeast Asian Middle Classes: Prospects for Social Change and Democratisation, edited by EmbongA. R.Bangi: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
82.
RocamoraJoel. 1995. “Introduction: Classes, Bosses, Goons, and Clans: Reimagining Philippine Political Culture.” Pp. vii–xxxi in Boss: Five Case Studies of Local Politics in the Philippines, edited by LacabaJ. F.Quezon City, the Philippines: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and Institute for Popular Democracy.
83.
RoseRichardShinDoh Chull. 2001. “Democratization Backwards: The Problem of Third-Wave Democracies.” British Journal of Political Science31(2):331–54.
84.
RostowW. W.1960. The Stages of Communist Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto. London: Cambridge University Press.
85.
SaidEdward W.1978. Orientalism. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
86.
Sekyi-OtuAto. 2019. Left Universalism: Africacentric Essays. New York, NY: Routledge.
87.
SidelJohn T.1999. Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
88.
SidelJohn T.2002. “Response to Ileto: Or, Why I Am Not an Orientalist.” Philippine Political Science Journal23(46):129–38.
89.
SisonJose Maria (writing under the pseudonym Amado Guerrero). 1971. Philippine Society and Revolution. Manila, the Philippines: Pulang Tala.
TaylorCharles. 1994. “The Politics of Recognition.” Pp. 25–74 in Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition, edited by GutmanA.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
92.
Thiong’oNgũgĩ wa. 1986. Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. Nairobi, Kenya: James Currey.
93.
VericCharlie Samuya. 2020. Children of the Postcolony: Filipino Intellectuals and Decolonization, 1946-1972. Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
94.
WeberMax. [1904] 1949. Methodology of the Social Sciences. London, UK: Routledge.
