Description
Book SynopsisWalter D. Mignolo and Catherine E. Walsh introduce the concept of decoloniality by providing a theoretical overview and discussing concrete examples of decolonial projects in action.
Trade Review"As the first book in the
Decoloniality series, it sets the tone and terms; it opens the conversation on decoloniality that is relevant globally as the Right rises and the colonial matrix of power is only strengthened through global capitalism.
On Decoloniality brings important insights to the fore from locations not as well-known by English-reading theorists who might not concentrate on colonial language areas other than English." -- Laura Marie de Vos * Transmotion *
"On Decoloniality reflects on what it means to think, live and act decolonially in our present moment: what is at stake when we seek a decolonial perspective in both theory and praxis. This is not a compilation of the latest literature or a comprehensive introduction to decolonial thought, but rather an invitation to think dialectically about the decolonial praxis(es) and decolonial analytics." -- Rosa M. O'Connor Acevedo * Radical Philosophy Review *
"Although divided into two distinct parts authored under individual signatures, this is a book, which like a piano concert for two hands, displays a high degree of interplay and collaboration between Mignolo and Walsh. . . . For all readers and doers a major challenge and invitation is issued in the pages of
On Decoloniality for learning how to think relationality will make serious demands of all imaginaries and modes of thinking we have thus far inherited and developed. This carefully thought-out book is not only a necessary intervention in the annals of 'theory' but a felicitous achievement in collaboration and in bringing together the task of presenting concepts, analytics and praxis under one single treatise." -- Sara Castro-Klarén * MLN *
"In the current climate of trying to rethink everything in order to find a way out of the contemporary morass of bankrupt and destructive epistemologies that are destroying the planet, [this] book is a timely intervention. It succinctly offers the reasons to find new concepts as well as providing incremental steps that do not simply reproduce what we 'know' already." -- Sneja Gunew * Postcolonial Text *
"Recalling Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang's critique that reminds us that decolonisation is more than a metaphor for Indigenous peoples, the participants in this forum grapple with the colonial matrix of power and modernity/coloniality/decoloniality analytics to unbuild violence and imagine worlds of hope and freedom through alliances that recognise settler guilt." -- Michele Lobo * Postcolonial Studies *
"The fable of modernity was the unifying arc of this aggressive universalism, and Mignolo’s principal argument is that any variety of Marxist argument that focuses primarily on capitalism, class, and material exploitation misses the forms of power that came through this cultural and epistemological domination. To resist and replace it with another epistemological worldview, Walsh and Mignolo recommend decoloniality, an outlook that embraces Indigenous modes of thinking and rejects those Western expressions of modernity imposed on much of the world through colonialism and empire." -- Arjun Appadurai * The Nation *
"An un-disciplinary read, challenging the foundational logic of Western knowledge production." -- Kirsten Mundt * Cultural Studies *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
I. Decoloniality In/As Praxis / Catherine E. Walsh
1. The Decolonial
For: Resurgences, Shifts, and Movements 15
2. Insurgency and Decolonial Prospect, Praxis, and Project 33
3. Interculturality and Decoloniality 57
4. On Decolonial Dangers, Decolonial Cracks, and Decolonial Pedagogies Rising 81
Conclusion: Sowing and Growing Decoloniality in/as Praxis: Some Final Thoughts 99
II. The Decolonial Option / Walter D. Mignolo
5. What Does It Mean to Decolonize? 105
6. The Conceptual Triad: Modernity/Coloniality/Decoloniality 135
7. The Invention of the
Human and the Three Pillars of the Colonial Matrix of Power (Racism, Sexism, and Nature) 153
8. Colonial/Imperial Differences: Classifying and Inventing Global Orders of Lands, Seas, and Living Organisms 177
9. Eurocentrism and Coloniality: The Question of the Totality of Knowledge 194
10. Decoloniality Is an Option, Not a Mission 211
Concluding Remarks: Colonial Wounds, Decolonial Healings, Re-existences, Resurgences 227
After-Word(s) 245
Bibliography 259
Index 279
