I officially have one month left of school in Costa Rica. While I have been able to endure the daily joys of undergraduate hormones rushing about, I have also managed to learn quite a bit about social movements and Costa Rica. Which for me, the most most poignant moment occurs when pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together and information relates to my experience within society. After all, the study of the social quagmire is impossibly reflexive. In the field of sociology we often study about centers and peripheries. In the most simple sense of this concept, the center is the dominant power, the periphery can be seen as a reflection or a diluted copy of the original. However, this relationship can also be understood as one of control and dominance, in that the discourse of the center is so powerful that it drowns out the voice of the subjugated group. In fact, this is exactly what Patricia Hill Collins was talking about when she looked at male centered forms of knowing through a feminist methodology.

Specifically speaking, looking at ideas using feminist theory forces us to examine the social construction of knowledge, from a male dominated viewpoint. Men have always had the power, they created the discourse, which created the knowledge that we accept as true. Therefore the way we understand the world is through mens eyes.
Hill Collins uses the feminist methodology to understand what she called the matrix of domination, the foundation for Black Feminist thought. Not only are women all over the world oppressed on account of their position on the periphery, but Black women are subjugated twice, because of their oppression as people of color. In Costa Rica, Ticos have, like all countries, their own system for sorting class, race, color, appearance, intelligence etc. However, as a nation, they are peripheral to the dominant cultural and mass media machines of the Western World. This is yet another point within the matrix of domination. However, rather than discussing the personal implications, on a social scale, Costa Rica has adopted cultures and personality that often reflects the mainstream, dominant and current leader in the world race, but in a diluted way. Globalization creates and destroys, but is unavoidable as we all live within the capitalist system (thanks Marx for reminding us). However bulldozing by dominant cultures is dangerous and we should all be aware of the voice coming from the periphery, It may be difficult to hear, but can provide valuable and perhaps better knowledge that has been subjugated from centuries of capitalistic competition.