decolonial

Decolonial refers to a body of thought and practice that seeks to contest and overturn the legacies of colonial domination in knowledge, politics, and social life. It emphasizes the continuities of colonial power beyond formal state independence and calls for the decolonization of minds, institutions, and worldviews.

The decolonial approach emerged in late 20th century Latin American scholarship and is associated with thinkers such as Aníbal Quijano (coloniality of power), Enrique Dussel (philosophy of liberation and ethics of decolonial difference), and Walter Mignolo (decolonialidad). Nelson Maldonado-Torres has analyzed coloniality of power in the ethics of knowledge and being. The project often situates itself within and against postcolonial studies, highlighting global power structures and the historical continuities of empire.

Core concepts include coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge, and coloniality of being; modernity is viewed as a project entangled with colonial domination. Decolonial thought advocates epistemic disobedience, the recovery of marginalized knowledges, and pluriversality—the coexistence of multiple, non-hominocentric ways of knowing and living.

In practice, decolonial approaches influence education, research methodologies, archives, and cultural production. They favor indigenous, Afro-descendant, and other marginalized epistemologies, challenge Eurocentric curricula, and seek to decenter Western universalisms.

Critiques note that the field is diverse and sometimes lacks methodological coherence, and that political commitments can lead to essentialism or nationalism. Nonetheless, it remains influential in critiques of colonial legacies and the push for more just, inclusive epistemologies.