dekolonial

Dekolonial refers to a school of thought and practice that critiques the ongoing legacies of colonial rule embedded in knowledge systems, institutions, and social relations. It argues that coloniality persists beyond formal independence and seeks to create epistemic space for diverse cosmologies, aiming to redefine power, knowledge, and social organization through pluriversal possibilities rather than a single Western norm.

The approach emerged from Latin American intellectual debates in the late 20th century and is associated with scholars such as Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, and Enrique Dussel. It builds on postcolonial critique but foregrounds the concept of coloniality of power, knowledge, and being, along with strategies like border thinking and epistemic disobedience to Western epistemologies.

Key concepts include the coloniality of power (hierarchies of race, class, and gender shaping global order), the coloniality of knowledge (privileging Western forms of knowing), and the coloniality of being (subjectivities produced by these hierarchies). The decolonial project seeks epistemic justice, decolonized curricula and archives, and the cultivation of pluriversal modes of understanding that honor diverse histories and knowledges.

In practice, decolonial work appears in education reform, cultural institutions, and community research, emphasizing indigenous and Afro-descendant knowledges, language revitalization, and collaborative, community-led scholarship. It interacts with social movements advocating land rights, cultural sovereignty, and anti-imperial solidarity, often framed as opciones decoloniales or decolonial options.

Critics argue about potential relativism or essentialism, while proponents view it as a pragmatic critique of Western modernity that opens space for localized, justice-oriented futures.