Pluriversal dialogism: reconciling alterity and relationality in the conceptualisation of the pluriverse

Pluriversal approaches have recently gained a foothold in international relations (IR) theorising. Decentring the one-world reality, pluriversality highlights diverse ways of knowing and being, thereby opening up space for rethinking IR’s ontology. However, the concept of the pluriverse is not without problems. In this article, I argue that the unresolved tension between alterity and relationality within the conceptualisation of the pluriverse, stemming from the dual task of conceiving the pluriverse as made up of ontologically distinct yet simultaneously relational worlds, has not been adequately reconciled, leading to a tendency to overemphasise alterity above relationality. The results are twofold: an inadvertent reproduction of Cartesian dualism and an ahistorical image of worlds. To resolve this tension, I draw on the theory of dialogism by Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, which situates all meaningful utterances on a dialogic chain of ‘call-and-response’ extending from the past to the present and into the future, embedded in specific sociopolitical and cultural contexts. Dialogism involves making sense of a heterogeneous reality by incorporating the various and conflicting voices ( heteroglossia ) so as to (re)constitute the self via the other. Hence, any utterances contain both the logic of one’s own speech and the logic of that of our interlocutors. As such, there are no observable worlds without relations and no articulable differences without dialogue. In global politics, worlds are always related through a shared object of speech, a political problem that demands attention. Thus, they co-evolve in dialogic relationality. The article concludes with a discussion of the methodological implications of pluriversal dialogism.