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This article deals with the question how cultural borders are being negotiated through the protagonists in Gunther Geltinger's road novel Benzin (2019). In doing so, it presents two antithetical positions from Postcolonial Studies regarding cultural borders. Firstly, the paper examines the role of Edward Said's influential but dialectical notion of the "orient" versus the "occident" in the 18th and 19th century, while analyzing to what extent it is applicable to the border between the 'global north' (Europe) and the 'global south' (Africa). Secondly, it outlines the widely influential work of Homi K. Bhabha, who sees borders not as a place where negotiations stop, but where negotiations emerge and form new, hybrid identities. Thirdly and most importantly, the article is concerned with the cultural borders in Gunther Geltinger's novel Benzin, which are being shown as more solid than permeable. In this way, the novel thematizes the persistent feelings of guilt and cultural bias of European tourists in present day South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intercultural philosophy and critical development theories have so far rarely entered into exchange, although they share central concerns: they criticize epistemic eurocentrism and call for a diversification of science and knowledge alike. In this paper, I illustrate how the conjunction of philosophical concepts and insights from decolonial and postcolonial scholars can lead to a deeper understanding of empirical phenomena - such as unequal relations of knowers in the context of development cooperation. Drawing on empirical material generated by social science research in South Africa and Tanzania, I highlight how experts from the Global South experience epistemic injustice in aid-related advisory processes, and how this is fostered by a social imaginary of Northern epistemic superiority institutionalized in development practice. The paper ends with a critical reflection on the interdisciplinary research journey, pointing out its drawbacks but also its potential for opening up new thinking spaces and generating questions that demand further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]