Decolonizing Peace: Possibilities for Pluriversality

David Golding and Victoria C. Fontan

No fk5zv_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: This chapter reviews some of the decolonial theory that has had significant impact on the current research that seeks to decolonize peace and conflict studies, as well as potential pathways for the further decolonization of the field. Much decolonial research on peace and conflict studies has critiqued the Eurocentrism and universalism that persists in the global peacebuilding architecture. Research that comprises this decolonial turn in peace studies often implements a pluriversal approach to conflict analysis and peacebuilding in opposition to the universalistic “expertise” through which Eurocentric peacebuilding often travels, as outlined in this chapter. We connect pluriversal peace research to the decolonial potential of subaltern cosmopolitanism, the latter of which is already underway and yet has seen little engagement in peace and conflict studies. The emergent project of subaltern cosmopolitanism, along with the pluriversal and postabyssal way of thinking from which it issues, can support the decolonization of the practice of peacebuilding, its institutional contexts, and its academic study. To demonstrate the practical importance of subaltern cosmopolitanism and indigenous epistemologies, this chapter highlights approaches to justice and reconciliation in Colombia and Rwanda. We conclude by emphasizing some aspects of peace and conflict that could be illumined and problematized through further decolonial research.

Date: 2025-07-01
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:fk5zv_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/fk5zv_v1

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