Criticality, subalternity and postcoloniality in climate security: Broadening perspectives through ‘epistemological deepening’?

Scholars have highlighted a need for ‘epistemological pluralism’ in the climate security literature as essential to truly capture contextual and socio-ecological complexities. At the same time, the field is facing criticism for reproducing a Western-dominated and Eurocentric ‘epistemic bias’ ignoring insights from subaltern epistemic communities. This article explores how the ethos of epistemological pluralism could be used as an analytical ‘mediator’ to bridge perspectives from the critical and mainstream climate security literature and, by doing so, contributing to deepening the insights on climate security interlinkages. To enable such cross-fertilization, the article argues that climate security not only requires epistemological pluralism but also ‘epistemological deepening’: insights from subaltern epistemic communities.