Decolonial Philosophy Movement

1. Introduction

The Decolonial Philosophy Movement designates a constellation of late 20th- and early 21st‑century theories and practices that treat colonialism not as a closed historical chapter but as an ongoing “coloniality” structuring knowledge, power, and subjectivity. Originating largely in Latin American debates and subsequently globalized, it proposes that Eurocentric modernity cannot be understood apart from the violent histories of conquest, slavery, dispossession, and epistemic erasure that enabled it.

Proponents describe decolonial philosophy less as a doctrine than as a critical-ethical orientation. It is oriented toward:

• analyzing how colonial hierarchies persist after formal independence,
• challenging the epistemic authority of Europe and North America,
• affirming pluriversality, understood as a world of many coexisting and interacting rationalities,
• linking critique to praxis, notably in education, activism, and institutional reform.

Although frequently grouped with postcolonial thought, decolonial authors tend to emphasize systematic concepts such as modernity/coloniality, coloniality of power, and delinking, and often foreground South–South intellectual alliances. They engage but also criticize poststructuralism, critical theory, and liberal philosophy for what they regard as lingering Eurocentric assumptions.

The movement is internally diverse. Some strands stress structural analysis of the global power matrix; others focus on gender, sexuality, and embodiment, religion and spirituality, or Indigenous and Afro‑diasporic ontologies. There are also sharp debates about its scope, its relation to Marxism and postcolonial studies, and the risks of institutional co‑optation.

Historians of philosophy increasingly treat decolonial thought as a distinct contemporary current. Its influence can be traced across disciplines—philosophy, sociology, anthropology, literary studies, education, and media studies—and across regions, from Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa, Asia, Europe, and settler-colonial contexts such as Canada and Australia. This entry surveys its development, concepts, schools, figures, debates, and emerging frontiers within that broad, contested field.

2. Chronological Boundaries and Periodization

2.1 Proposed Time Frame

Scholars commonly situate the Decolonial Philosophy Movement from the early 1990s onward, with no agreed end point. The periodization below reflects dominant but debated conventions:

2.2 Justifications and Disagreements

Proponents of this chronology emphasize several event-markers:

• Early 1990s publication of Aníbal Quijano’s essays on coloniality of power.
• Mid‑1990s to early 2000s formation of the modernity/coloniality research program, particularly in Latin America.
• 2010s global visibility through university “decolonize the curriculum” campaigns and movements like Rhodes Must Fall.

Alternative views question the distinctiveness of these boundaries:

• Some historians prefer a longer genealogy, extending “decolonial” thought back to 19th‑century anti-colonial thinkers or to early 20th‑century Pan-Africanism and Indigenous resistance, treating the 1990s as a terminological crystallization rather than an origin.
• Others argue that decolonial philosophy is better understood as a current within contemporary critical thought rather than a demarcated “era,” given overlap with postcolonial studies, Black radical traditions, and critical theory.
• A minority view restricts the term “decolonial” to the Latin American modernity/coloniality collective, treating later wider usages as metaphorical or derivative.

Despite such disagreements, there is general convergence that the early 1990s mark a qualitative shift in how colonial continuities are theorized, and that the 2010s represent a phase of both mainstreaming and contestation of decolonial vocabulary.

3. Historical Context and Antecedents

3.1 Post–World War II and Decolonization

The Decolonial Philosophy Movement emerged against the backdrop of formal decolonization in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, and the subsequent realization that political independence did not dismantle deeper structures of racial, economic, and epistemic domination. Cold War geopolitics and the Non-Aligned Movement fostered South–South dialogues that later decolonial thinkers would revisit under the rubric of transmodernity and pluriversality.

3.2 Neoliberal Globalization and Crisis of Alternatives

From the late 1970s onward, neoliberal structural adjustment, the debt crisis, and the collapse of many socialist projects generated a context in which critiques of global capitalism intersected with analyses of race and empire. Latin American dependency theory and world‑systems analysis provided a macro-structural vocabulary that decolonial authors adapted, often arguing that such approaches underestimated the centrality of race and epistemology.

3.3 Intellectual Antecedents

A range of liberationist and anti-colonial currents provided crucial antecedents:

Proponents of decolonial philosophy often present their work as systematizing and rearticulating these antecedents around the specific concept of coloniality.

3.4 Academic and Cultural Conditions

The rise of poststructuralism, postmodernism, and postcolonial studies in Euro-American academe created openings for critiques of universalism and representation. However, decolonial authors typically argue that these remained embedded in Northern institutions and languages, thus motivating a more explicit focus on the geo- and body-politics of knowledge.

Simultaneously, Indigenous uprisings (such as the Zapatista movement in Mexico) and Afro‑diasporic mobilizations across the Americas foregrounded epistemic and territorial sovereignty, further shaping the milieu in which decolonial philosophy coalesced.

4. The Zeitgeist of the Decolonial Turn

4.1 Mood and Ethos

The decolonial turn is frequently described as marked by an “epistemic insurrection”: a refusal to accept Eurocentric standards of rationality as neutral or universal. Its ethos combines diagnosis of historical violence with a constructive orientation toward alternative futures. Rather than merely denouncing colonialism, it seeks to “provincialize Europe” and give conceptual centrality to colonial difference—the structural position of those historically racialized and subordinated.

4.2 Shifting Paradigms

Proponents identify several paradigm shifts:

These shifts correspond to a broader suspicion of liberal progress narratives and of development discourses that portray the Global South as “lagging behind.”

4.3 Affective and Political Sensibilities

The zeitgeist also involves specific affective registers. Many texts emphasize:

• Indignation at historical and ongoing racial, gendered, and epistemic violence.
• Hopeful experimentation with new forms of community, pedagogy, and cosmology.
• Tension between institutional incorporation (e.g., in universities and NGOs) and grassroots demands for more radical delinking.

Some scholars stress that the decolonial turn aligns with a wider “return of the colonial” in global public debates—over statues, museum collections, migration regimes, and environmental destruction—indicating that colonial legacies have become widely visible and contested.

4.4 Relation to Contemporaneous Currents

The decolonial zeitgeist overlaps with but also differentiates itself from postcolonial and multicultural discourses. Where multiculturalism is seen by many decolonial authors as managing diversity within a dominant framework, decoloniality is framed as seeking structural transformation of that framework. Compared with some postmodern skepticism, the decolonial mood generally retains a normative commitment to epistemic justice and to reconfigured concepts of the human and the political, albeit in pluriversal rather than universalist terms.

5. Core Concepts: Coloniality, Modernity, and Pluriversality

5.1 Coloniality

Coloniality refers to enduring patterns of power that emerged with modern colonialism and, according to decolonial theorists, outlasted formal decolonization. Aníbal Quijano’s influential notion of the “coloniality of power” highlights the interweaving of race, labor, authority, and nature in a global matrix that ranks peoples and knowledges.

Subsequent authors distinguished related dimensions:

Proponents argue that these dimensions jointly structure contemporary capitalism, nation-states, and cultural institutions.

5.2 Modernity/Coloniality

The modernity/coloniality framework asserts that European modernity and colonialism are co-constitutive. Rather than viewing modernity as a civilizing force that later abuses, this approach claims that the “darker side” of modernity—conquest, slavery, and epistemic erasure—is intrinsic to its formation.

Walter D. Mignolo and others contend that:

"

“There is no modernity without coloniality.”

— (paraphrased from Mignolo, The Darker Side of Western Modernity)

Critics of this conceptual pair sometimes argue that it risks over-totalizing history or underplaying internal European conflicts, but its proponents maintain that it offers a necessary corrective to celebratory narratives of progress.

5.3 Pluriversality

Pluriversality designates a normative and descriptive ideal: a world of “many worlds” in which diverse cosmologies, rationalities, and forms of life coexist without subordination to a single universal standard. It responds to two perceived pitfalls:

• Eurocentric universality, which posits Western categories as globally binding.
• Relativism, which can preclude shared projects.

Some decolonial thinkers speak of a “pluriversal universal”—a common horizon negotiated among multiple epistemic traditions rather than dictated from a single center. This concept underpins projects in intercultural philosophy, legal pluralism, and transmodern democracy, and informs debates about how to pursue global justice without re-imposing Eurocentric criteria.

6. Central Philosophical Problems and Debates

6.1 Coloniality of Power, Knowledge, and Being

A first core problem concerns how to conceptualize the persistence of colonial structures after independence. Theories of coloniality of power/knowledge/being have been central. Supporters argue that they explain racial capitalism, epistemic hierarchies, and dehumanization in a unified framework. Critics within and beyond decolonial circles contend that this framework may be overly monolithic, insufficiently distinguishing among regions, empires, and historical periods.

6.2 Eurocentrism and Epistemic Violence

Decolonial philosophers widely view Eurocentrism as more than bias: a historically entrenched regime that defines what counts as rational. This raises questions in epistemology and philosophy of science: Can there be universal criteria of knowledge, or only situated ones? Advocates of decoloniality often call for epistemic disobedience and pluriversal standards, while some interlocutors (including sympathetic critical theorists and analytic philosophers) argue for reformed universality grounded in dialogical justification.

6.3 Universality, Pluriversality, and Relativism

A recurring debate concerns whether pluriversality can avoid both Eurocentric universalism and cultural relativism. Some authors propose transmodern universals emerging from horizontal dialogues among traditions; others emphasize radical incommensurability. Skeptical commentators worry that appeals to pluriversality may weaken grounds for universal human rights or global solidarity, while proponents counter that these concepts can be re-articulated decolonially.

6.4 Normativity and Emancipation

Another issue centers on the sources of normativity. If Western philosophy is problematized as complicit in coloniality, what provides the normative basis for critique and emancipation? Responses vary: some invoke subaltern experiences and struggles; others draw on Indigenous and Afro‑diasporic cosmologies, or on ethics of liberation that reinterpret rather than abandon selected Enlightenment motifs.

6.5 Relation to Class, Capitalism, and the State

Debates also focus on the relation between coloniality and capitalism. Some decolonial theorists present coloniality as the foundational logic of modern/colonial capitalism, while certain Marxist critics argue that decolonial work underplays class and political economy or risks fragmenting struggles into identity-based claims. Hybrid positions seek to integrate coloniality into analyses of racial capitalism and imperial formations.

Together, these problems and debates define the philosophical terrain on which decolonial thought operates, highlighting both its conceptual innovations and its contested status within contemporary theory.

7. Major Schools and Regional Currents

7.1 Latin American Modernity/Coloniality Group

The most widely recognized “school” is the Latin American modernity/coloniality group, an informal but influential network associated with Aníbal Quijano, Walter D. Mignolo, Enrique Dussel, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Catherine Walsh, and others. It developed key notions such as coloniality of power, border thinking, and transmodernity, drawing on Latin American historical experiences and intellectual traditions.

7.2 Afro-diasporic and Black Decolonial Thought

Across Africa, the Caribbean, and the broader African diaspora, scholars such as Achille Mbembe, Lewis R. Gordon, and Sylvia Wynter engage themes of racial slavery, plantation economies, and blackness as constitutive of modernity. Some identify with the decolonial label; others intersect with it while stressing alternative genealogies (e.g., Black radical tradition, Afro-pessimism). Debates persist about the extent to which decolonial frameworks adequately capture the specificity of anti-Black racism.

7.3 Indigenous and Intercultural Currents

Indigenous philosophers and activists in the Americas, Oceania, and elsewhere have articulated decolonial projects grounded in their own epistemologies and governance practices. Figures such as Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson often engage decolonial vocabulary selectively, sometimes criticizing Latin American decolonial theory for insufficient attention to land, sovereignty, and internal colonialism. The notion of interculturality—especially in Andean contexts—seeks structured dialogue across knowledge systems.

7.4 Decolonial Feminist and Queer Currents

Decolonial feminism and queer theory form a distinct but overlapping current (discussed in detail in Section 10). They emphasize coloniality of gender, heteronormativity, and intersectional analysis, often revising or contesting earlier, male-dominated formulations within the modernity/coloniality framework.

7.5 Islamic, Arab, and South Asian Decolonial Critiques

Authors such as Hamid Dabashi, Vandana Shiva, and others engage with decolonial themes while drawing heavily on postcolonial studies, Islamic thought, and Gandhian or ecofeminist traditions. Some adopt the decolonial lexicon explicitly; others remain more aligned with postcolonial theory, leading to hybrid or syncretic currents that challenge any Latin-American centrism in defining decoloniality.

7.6 European and North American Interlocutors

Within Europe and North America, scholars like Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Gurminder K. Bhambra contribute to what is sometimes termed “epistemologies of the South” or “connected sociologies.” These currents are often sympathetic to decolonial aims but may retain more engagement with European critical theory and institutional reform, producing debates over whether they constitute fully decolonial or merely decentering approaches.

Together, these regional and thematic currents illustrate that decolonial philosophy is pluricentric, with significant internal variation over terminology, priorities, and theoretical references.

8. Key Figures and Intellectual Networks

8.1 Central Figures

Certain authors are widely cited as central to the movement’s formation:

These figures often serve as reference points even for critics who challenge aspects of their frameworks.

8.2 Proto-Decolonial Influences

Earlier thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Sylvia Wynter are frequently cited as genealogical precursors. Some decolonial authors treat their work as inherently decolonial avant la lettre, while others reserve the term for the post‑1990s constellation and speak of these figures as antecedents rather than members of the movement.

8.3 Networks and Research Programs

The movement is sustained by several interlocking networks:

• The modernity/coloniality collective, initially linking Latin American and U.S.-based scholars through conferences, collaborative volumes, and research centers.
• University-based centers for Latin American and Caribbean studies, African studies, and Indigenous studies, which provide institutional homes for decolonial projects.
• Transnational forums such as the World Social Forum and regional gatherings where activists and intellectuals interact.

These networks facilitate co-authorship, co-edited volumes, and shared terminology, but also generate debates about gatekeeping and the politics of citation—for instance, whether non-Latin American voices are adequately recognized.

8.4 Modes of Circulation

Decolonial ideas circulate through:

• Academic publishing in Spanish, Portuguese, English, and other languages.
• Activist pamphlets, online media, and community workshops.
• Art, literature, and film, which sometimes popularize concepts like coloniality beyond academic circles.

Some commentators note asymmetries in visibility: authors publishing in Anglophone venues often gain disproportionate influence, raising questions about whether decolonial networks can themselves reproduce the global hierarchies they critique.

9. Landmark Texts and Canon Formation

9.1 Foundational Works

A small cluster of texts are widely treated as canonical within decolonial philosophy:

Additionally, works like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Decolonising the Mind and Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies are often incorporated into the decolonial canon, even though they predate or sit somewhat adjacent to the modernity/coloniality program.

9.2 Processes of Canon Formation

Canon formation has been shaped by:

• Collective volumes edited by members of the modernity/coloniality group, which foreground certain concepts and authors.
• Translation trajectories, especially from Spanish and Portuguese into English and French.
• Adoption of certain texts in university syllabi and activist reading lists.

Supporters argue that this canon provides a necessary reference framework; critics point to risks of centralizing a narrow set of voices, particularly male Latin American scholars, and of marginalizing Indigenous, Afro‑diasporic, and feminist contributions.

9.3 Expanding and Contesting the Canon

Decolonial feminists, Indigenous scholars, and Afro‑diasporic thinkers have advocated for a broader, more polycentric canon, incorporating texts such as:

• Sylvia Wynter’s essays on humanism and the “overrepresentation of Man”.
• Achille Mbembe’s On the Postcolony and writings on necropolitics.
• Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s works on Indigenous resurgence.
• Aileen Moreton‑Robinson’s analyses of white possessive logics.

Some propose “counter‑canons” organized regionally or thematically rather than around the modernity/coloniality group. Others question whether the very notion of a canon is compatible with decolonial commitments to pluriversality, suggesting instead a more flexible, context-specific set of reference texts.

10. Decolonial Feminist, Queer, and Gender Interventions

10.1 Coloniality of Gender

A major intervention comes from María Lugones, who introduced the concept of coloniality of gender to argue that European colonialism imposed a modern/colonial gender system intertwined with race and labor. According to this view, many colonized societies did not organize sex, gender, and sexuality along the binary, heteronormative lines naturalized by European modernity.

"

“The colonial/modern gender system is not just any gender system; it is the one that came into being in and through colonization.”

— (paraphrased from Lugones, Heterosexualism and the Colonial / Modern Gender System)

This thesis has prompted reevaluation of earlier decolonial analyses that foregrounded race and class but, critics argue, treated gender as secondary.

10.2 Decolonial Feminist Currents

Decolonial feminists—among them Lugones, Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, Catherine Walsh, Nkiru Nzegwu, and others—challenge both Western feminist universalism and androcentric strands within decolonial thought. They emphasize:

• Intersectional entanglements of race, gender, sexuality, and coloniality.
• The importance of embodiment and affect as sites of colonial violence and resistance.
• Critiques of how global feminist agendas (e.g., development programs) can reproduce civilizational hierarchies.

Some advocate for “decolonial feminist epistemologies” that start from the lived experiences of Indigenous, Afro‑descendant, and other racialized women and queer people.

10.3 Queer and Sexuality Perspectives

Queer and decolonial scholars examine how colonial projects regulated sexuality and family structures, criminalizing non-heteronormative practices and reconfiguring kinship. While some explicitly adopt the label “decolonial queer”, others draw more on queer of color critique and Indigenous Two-Spirit or other localized frameworks, arguing that Western LGBT categories can themselves be colonial impositions.

10.4 Debates and Critiques

Internal debates revolve around:

• Whether earlier decolonial works are best read as gender-blind or as implicitly open to feminist reinterpretation.
• The relationship between decolonial feminism and existing traditions such as Black feminism, womanism, and Indigenous feminisms.
• Concerns that “gender” may be re‑Westernized if detached from local idioms and cosmologies.

These engagements have substantially reshaped the broader decolonial field, foregrounding gender and sexuality as constitutive, rather than auxiliary, dimensions of coloniality.

11. Indigenous and Afro-Diasporic Philosophies

11.1 Indigenous Philosophical Contributions

Indigenous thinkers across the Americas, Oceania, and other regions contribute philosophical perspectives that both intersect with and sometimes critique decolonial frameworks. Works by Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and others foreground:

• Land and territoriality as central philosophical concerns, not merely political ones.
• Concepts of relationality, reciprocity, and non-human agency that challenge dominant Western ontologies.
• The need to decolonize research methodologies and institutional practices.

Some Indigenous philosophers welcome the language of coloniality and decoloniality as useful for articulating long-standing struggles. Others caution that such frameworks may obscure locally specific cosmologies or treat Indigenous thought as data rather than as autonomous philosophy.

11.2 Afro-Diasporic and Black Philosophies

Afro‑diasporic philosophers and theorists—such as Sylvia Wynter, Lewis R. Gordon, Achille Mbembe, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o—have elaborated critiques of racial slavery, colonialism, and anti-Blackness that significantly shape decolonial debates. Key themes include:

• The idea of racial capitalism and the plantation as a template for modern social order.
• Recasting the category of “the human”, as in Wynter’s argument that Western Man is a historically specific overrepresentation.
• Language politics, exemplified by Ngũgĩ’s call to write in African languages as an act of epistemic decolonization.

Some of these authors are retrospectively labeled decolonial; others explicitly engage with modernity/coloniality theorists while maintaining distinct lineages (e.g., the Black radical tradition).

11.3 Points of Convergence and Tension

Common concerns include:

These interactions have pushed the broader movement toward more pluriversal and self-reflexive understandings of coloniality and decolonization.

12. Religion, Spirituality, and Secularism in Decolonial Thought

12.1 Critique of Colonial Christianity and Secularism

Decolonial philosophers typically regard missionary Christianity and, to a lesser extent, other missionary religions as key instruments of colonial domination, contributing to the erosion of Indigenous spiritualities and justifying conquest. At the same time, they scrutinize modern secularism, arguing that it often functions as a “hidden theology” that universalizes Western distinctions between religion and politics.

Thinkers influenced by Talal Asad and liberation theology suggest that secularism can mask Christian-centric norms, while presenting itself as neutral.

12.2 Liberation Theology and Spiritual Resources

Latin American liberation theology—as in the work of Gustavo Gutiérrez and Leonardo Boff—forms an important antecedent. Enrique Dussel and others draw on Christian motifs (e.g., the preferential option for the poor) to articulate a decolonial ethics of liberation, while also criticizing ecclesiastical complicity with empire.

Some decolonial authors see in spiritual traditions resources for resistance and alternative worldviews. Others caution against romanticizing religion, noting its role in patriarchal and heteronormative structures.

12.3 Indigenous and Afro-Diasporic Spiritualities

Indigenous cosmologies and Afro‑diasporic religions (such as Candomblé, Vodun, Santería, and Ifá) are often highlighted as targets of colonial suppression and as sites of epistemic resurgence. Decolonial and allied scholars argue that these traditions challenge the nature/culture divide and anthropocentric ontologies, contributing to broader debates on pluriversality and relational ontologies.

12.4 Islamic and Arab Decolonial Perspectives

Writers such as Hamid Dabashi explore how Islamic intellectual traditions can inform decolonial critiques of Orientalism and Eurocentric secularism. Here, the focus is less on conversionary religion than on civilizational hierarchies that cast Islamic societies as premodern. Some propose “decolonial Islam” as a project of reclaiming intellectual autonomy from both Western orientalism and authoritarian state interpretations.

12.5 Secular vs. Spiritual Decolonialities

The movement includes both secular and spiritually inflected strands. Debates center on:

• Whether decolonial projects should embrace spirituality as constitutive of alternative worlds, or maintain critical distance.
• How to navigate intra-religious inequalities (gender, sexuality, caste, etc.) while acknowledging colonial disruptions.

These discussions illustrate how religion and spirituality function as contested terrains within decolonial philosophy rather than uniformly endorsed or rejected domains.

13. Decolonial Praxis: Education, Activism, and Institutions

13.1 Education and Curriculum

One of the most visible arenas of decolonial praxis is education. Initiatives to decolonize the curriculum seek to:

• Challenge Eurocentric canons and include subaltern, Indigenous, and Afro‑diasporic knowledges.
• Transform pedagogical methods, emphasizing dialogue, critical consciousness, and community engagement.
• Question institutional structures of assessment, language policy, and funding that privilege Northern epistemologies.

Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s work on decolonizing methodologies is influential here, advocating research practices that prioritize community accountability and Indigenous epistemic authority.

13.2 Activism and Social Movements

Decolonial concepts circulate widely in activist spaces, including:

• Student movements such as Rhodes Must Fall in South Africa and the UK, which target colonial symbols and institutional racism.
• Indigenous land and water protectors’ struggles, where decolonization is tied to territorial sovereignty and environmental justice.
• Anti-racist and migrant justice movements in Europe and North America that frame borders and policing as expressions of coloniality.

Some activists explicitly draw on decolonial theorists; others develop similar ideas independently, leading to debates over the ownership and translation of concepts between academia and movements.

13.3 Institutional Reforms and Their Limits

Universities, NGOs, museums, and cultural institutions have adopted decolonization language in policies, diversity statements, and exhibitions. Proponents view this as an opportunity to:

• Reassess collections and archives acquired through colonial violence.
• Reform hiring practices and governance structures.
• Support community partnerships and knowledge co-production.

Critics, including many within the movement, argue that such efforts often amount to symbolic inclusion without structural change, a topic covered more fully in Section 14.

13.4 Knowledge Production and Methodologies

Decolonial praxis also involves rethinking research design, authorship, and dissemination. Key proposals include:

• Community-based and participatory action research.
• Publishing in local languages and accessible formats.
• Reconfiguring citation practices to recognize marginalized intellectual lineages.

These practical efforts illustrate the movement’s insistence that decolonial philosophy is not solely a theoretical endeavor but intimately tied to institutional and social transformation.

14. Critiques, Internal Debates, and Co-optation

14.1 Internal Theoretical Debates

Within the movement, there are ongoing debates about:

• The scope of coloniality: whether it explains global power adequately or risks becoming an all-encompassing but vague concept.
• The relationship to capitalism and class: some argue decolonial theory underplays material political economy; others integrate coloniality into analyses of racial capitalism.
• The balance between structural analysis and agency: critics worry that emphasis on colonial matrices may overshadow everyday practices of resistance and negotiation.

Decolonial feminists and Indigenous scholars contest earlier formulations they see as androcentric or statist, pushing for deeper engagement with gender, land, and sovereignty.

14.2 External Critiques

From outside, critiques come from various directions:

Responses vary from dialogical engagement to calls for sharper differentiation between decolonial and other critical paradigms.

14.3 Charges of Co-optation

As decolonial terminology has become widespread, many commentators highlight risks of institutional co‑optation:

• Universities adopting “decolonization” in strategic plans without altering funding priorities, governance, or canon.
• Cultural institutions branding exhibitions as decolonial while maintaining colonial property relations over artifacts.
• Corporate or state actors using decolonial rhetoric to legitimize diversity initiatives that leave structural inequalities intact.

Some scholars speak of “NGO‑ized decoloniality” or “soft decolonization” to describe such processes.

14.4 Conceptual Inflation and Branding

Another concern is conceptual inflation: “decolonial” being applied to a wide array of projects (from fashion to mindfulness) with tenuous connections to critiques of coloniality. This can, critics argue, dilute analytical sharpness and transform decoloniality into a brand.

In response, some propose more rigorous criteria for what counts as decolonial, while others caution that restrictive definitions may undermine the movement’s pluriversal aspirations. The tension between openness and specificity remains a central, unresolved issue.

15. Interactions with Postcolonial Studies and Critical Theory

15.1 Relations with Postcolonial Studies

Decolonial philosophy shares with postcolonial studies an interest in empire, representation, and subalternity, yet the relationship is both collaborative and contentious.

Proponents of decoloniality often argue that:

• Postcolonial theory emerged primarily in Anglophone and Francophone contexts, focused on former British and French empires, whereas decolonial thought centers Iberian colonial legacies and Latin America.
• Postcolonial approaches can, in their view, remain too attached to textual analysis and metropolitan theory, whereas decoloniality emphasizes geo- and body-politics of knowledge.

Postcolonial scholars, in turn, sometimes criticize decolonial authors for constructing a simplified contrast, neglecting rich traditions such as Subaltern Studies and the work of Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha, and Edward Said.

15.2 Overlaps and Hybrids

Many researchers operate at the intersection of these fields, combining:

• Postcolonial attention to discourse and representation with decolonial analyses of global power matrices.
• Subaltern Studies’ focus on peasant and popular politics with decolonial attention to epistemic disobedience.

Hybrid approaches question the usefulness of strict boundaries, emphasizing instead a shared project of de‑centering Eurocentric knowledge.

15.3 Engagement with Critical Theory

Decolonial thought also engages with European critical theory, including Marxism, Frankfurt School theory, and Habermasian discourse ethics. Points of interaction include:

• Agreement on the need for immanent critique of capitalist modernity.
• Disagreement over whether Enlightenment reason can be redeemed or is structurally tied to coloniality.

Some decolonial authors critique critical theory for Eurocentric provincialism and for underestimating race and empire. Sympathetic critical theorists respond by incorporating colonialism and racial capitalism into their frameworks, proposing a more global critical theory.

15.4 Dialogues and Tensions

Ongoing dialogues explore:

These interactions have led to mutual transformations but also to persistent tensions over conceptual ownership, canonization, and institutional power.

16. New Frontiers: Digital, Ecological, and Urban Colonialities

16.1 Digital and Data Colonialism

Recent work extends the concept of coloniality into the digital realm. Scholars such as Nick Couldry and Ulises A. Mejías describe “data colonialism” as the extraction of human life through data, paralleling historical appropriation of land and labor.

Key claims include:

• Global tech platforms enact new forms of enclosure and surveillance, disproportionately affecting populations in the Global South.
• The infrastructure and governance of the internet reproduce linguistic and epistemic hierarchies, privileging English and Western platforms.

Debates concern whether “colonialism” is the best metaphor or whether digital capitalism requires distinct analytic tools.

16.2 Ecological and Environmental Colonialities

Decolonial ecology examines how coloniality shapes environmental degradation and climate change. Proponents argue that:

• Colonial extraction regimes and plantation economies laid foundations for the current planetary ecological crisis.
• Indigenous and Afro‑diasporic cosmologies offer alternative ecological rationalities, challenging the nature/culture divide.

Some link this to the notion of the Anthropocene, criticizing it for obscuring colonial responsibility, and propose terms like “Plantationocene” or “Capitalocene” instead.

16.3 Urban and Infrastructural Colonialities

Urbanists and geographers apply decolonial analytics to cities, borders, and infrastructure, arguing that:

• Urban planning, zoning, and policing are shaped by colonial racial logics.
• Megaprojects and smart-city initiatives can reproduce spatial segregation and dispossession.

Studies of settler-colonial cities, refugee camps, and gated communities explore how spatial forms embody coloniality of being and power.

16.4 Emerging Areas and Methodological Innovations

Other emerging frontiers include:

• Health and medical coloniality, examining global health regimes and pharmaceutical research.
• Aesthetic and museum decoloniality, focusing on restitution, curation, and representation.
• Algorithmic and AI coloniality, extending data colonialism debates to automated decision-making.

These fields often adopt interdisciplinary and participatory methods, involving collaboration with affected communities. Some commentators welcome this expansion as evidence of decoloniality’s analytical power; others worry about overextension and metaphorical use of “coloniality” in contexts where historical analogies may be strained.

17. Legacy and Historical Significance

17.1 Transformations within Philosophy

The Decolonial Philosophy Movement has contributed to reconfiguring what counts as philosophy, pressing institutions to recognize non-European and non-textual traditions, including oral, communal, and practice-based knowledges. It has influenced debates on:

• Epistemic injustice and ignorance, foregrounding global power relations.
• The history of philosophy, prompting revisions of curricula and canonical narratives.
• Normative theory, by questioning the universality of established concepts like rights, democracy, and secularism.

17.2 Impact Beyond Philosophy

Beyond the discipline, decolonial thought has shaped:

• Social sciences and humanities, through critiques of methodology, evidence, and theory-building.
• Education, energizing movements to decolonize curricula and research practices.
• Arts and cultural institutions, where calls for restitution and recontextualization of collections draw on decolonial vocabulary.

Activist spaces frequently deploy notions such as coloniality, decolonization, and epistemic disobedience, even when not directly citing academic sources.

17.3 Institutionalization and Ongoing Tensions

The movement’s institutionalization—via centers, programs, and funding streams—has secured its presence in global academia but also intensified concerns about:

• Co-optation, as discussed in Section 14.
• Uneven recognition of contributions from non-Anglophone, Indigenous, and Afro‑diasporic scholars.
• The risk that decoloniality becomes a normative requirement or label in grant and publishing arenas, potentially constraining intellectual diversity.

17.4 Historiographical Assessments

Historiographically, commentators increasingly regard decolonial thought as a distinct yet entangled strand of contemporary critical theory. Assessments vary:

• Supportive accounts see it as a necessary correction to Eurocentric orientations, particularly in global intellectual history.
• Critical accounts highlight risks of overgeneralization (e.g., “modernity/coloniality” as master narrative) and Latin American centrism.
• Some analysts propose understanding decoloniality as part of a broader “global turn” in the humanities and social sciences, alongside postcolonial studies, Black studies, and Indigenous studies.

Despite disagreements, there is broad recognition that the Decolonial Philosophy Movement has significantly reshaped discussions about global power, knowledge, and the future of the human, making colonial histories and their afterlives central to contemporary philosophical reflection.