Decoloniality or colonialism is a term used principally by an emerging Latin American movement which focuses on understanding modernity in the context of a form of critical theory applied to ethnic studies and, increasingly, gender and area studies as well. It has been described as consisting of analytic and practical “options confronting and delinking from [...] the colonial matrix of power” (Mignolo 2011: xxvii) or from a "matrix of modernity" in which coloniality and colonialism constitute the "generative order" of a four-fold matrix of forces comprising colonialism/imperialism, capitalism, nationalism and modernity as a set of processes and discourses (LeVine 2005a and 2005b). It has also been referred to as a kind of "thinking in radical exteriority" (Vallega 2015: x). As such it can be contrasted with coloniality which is “the underlying logic of the foundation and unfolding of Western civilization from the Renaissance to today,” a logic that was the basis of historical colonialisms, although this foundational interconnectedness is often downplayed (Mignolo 2011:2). This logic is commonly referred to as the colonial matrix of power or coloniality of power. Some have built upon decolonial theories[1] by proposing Critical Indigenous Methodologies[2] for research.
Last modified: Mon Aug 07 18:03:37 SAST 2023