Is the Pluriverse Just a Metaphor? Decoloniality as a Materialist Project

This article argues that the coloniality of power contributes to a materialist analysis of the pluriverse in contrast to its misconstruction as a mere metaphor for decolonial difference. By capturing the interplay of racial hierarchies, the global division of labour, and multiple onto-epistemologies, pluriversality not only challenges the violence of Eurocentrism as a homogenizing rationality, but it also problematizes the imperial divides that have enabled projects of economic extraction from historically colonized peoples and territories. This paper is part of the SPE special theme “Pluriversal Political Economy.”