Contextualizing decoloniality: reflections from indigenous language revitalization in southern Mexico

Abstract In their essay, “Decoloniality and language scholarship – a critical intervention”, Harshana and Zavala (Rambukwella, Harshana & Virginia Zavala. 2025. Decoloniality and language scholarship – a critical intervention. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 296. 9–31.) explore the risks associated with the growing influence of decoloniality in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics. From a collaborative research perspective, the essay offers a sustained critique of why decoloniality, with its history of radical political and material struggles in formerly colonized societies of the Global South, is being so readily adopted by institutions of the Global North. The authors also reflect on how, despite the acceptance of decolonial proposals, the institutional structures and power relations that sustain linguistic injustice remain fundamentally unchanged. This process depoliticizes and sanitizes academic discourse surrounding discussions of language and (de)coloniality. We view this review as an opportunity for self-reflection that will enable us to contextualize our proposals, considering the social, linguistic, and educational dynamics encountered in southern Mexico, which cannot be automatically extrapolated to other regions of the country or, in this case, Latin America.