Modernity and its spectres : a critique of Latin American decolonialism

This dissertation is concerned with contemporary Latin American decolonial theory, particularly the ‘decoloniality’ strand that emerged from the works of the self-described Modernity/Coloniality Group. I pursue three main aims. Firstly, I situate decoloniality historically, offering an overview of the political debates within the Latin American leftist intelligentsia that shaped its emergence and development. Secondly, I assess the analytical and explanatory strength of the theoretical framework underpinning decoloniality’s critique of modernity. Thirdly, I evaluate its political suitability for understanding socio-political conflicts and advancing anti-systemic mobilisations in contemporary Latin America. I argue that decoloniality suffers from significant conceptual flaws that undermine its critical claims and make it politically detrimental to emancipatory causes. I challenge decoloniality’s conception of modernity as an intrinsically Eurocentric civilisational project, with universalism and scientific objectivism as its structuring epistemological and ontological principles. My critique is twofold. Firstly, I contend that modernity is better understood as a political device without inherent political content, which can be – and has been – used in the service of conflicting political projects, both reactionary and emancipatory. Hence, modernity is not undetachable from (neo)colonial structures and ideologies, as decolonials argue. Secondly, opposing decoloniality’s cultural relativism, I argue that universalism and objectivism are indispensable categories for any cogent critique of injustice and illegitimate power. Demands for intercultural justice, in short, cannot do without them. I also advocate returning to a materialist framework for analysing political agency and social structures, as opposed to the analytical priority given to discursive constructs by decoloniality theorists. Building on an analysis of popular struggles within the context of Colombian multiculturalism, I submit that only a materialist framework will allow us to adequately account for and advance anti-systemic struggles in the present.