Globalisation and the challenge of coloniality of power

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article argues that coloniality of power poses a challenge for globalisation as a component of modernity. The challenge necessitates a programme of decoloniality for globalisation. The inherent potential of globalisation to elevate one culture as dominant and to residualise the rest is sufficient to warrant its problematisation despite its positive features. A review of the literature shows that some decolonial thinkers present globalisation as one of the phenomena associated with the coloniality of power. Indeed, as a form of global cultural hegemony, globalisation elevates one culture as an absolute while marginalising others. At the same time, globalisation has an inherent capacity to bring cultures into a conversation; potentially creating a less lopsided and more accommodating world. This article will discuss how the coloniality of power constitutes a problem for this more positive role for globalisation, and how this might be remedied.