Inverted Eurocentrism: The Consumption of Decolonization in the Global North and a Radical Decolonization Agenda

ABSTRACT In the Global North and elite spaces in the Global South, the concepts of Eurocentrism and decolonization have come to be associated primarily with identity and location rather than with capitalism and political economy. This article argues that the reason for this can be traced to what Samir Amin calls ‘inverted Eurocentrism’, which entails a romanticization of specific identities or social formations in the Global South that tends to accompany Eurocentric ideology. This has become the dominant discourse on decolonization, leading to the displacement of broader, more radical decolonization efforts. Moreover, this discourse reflects a partial engagement with the original Modernity‐Coloniality‐Decoloniality (MCD) debates in Latin America that it claims as its origin. The article argues that a radical decolonization agenda entails the critique of political economy and it evaluates the extent to which the original MCD tradition reflects such an agenda. It shows that, despite allowing for a more critical understanding of knowledge, decolonization and capitalism than today's dominant decolonial strand, the original MCD tradition is nonetheless limited by its departure from the critique of political economy. Finally, the implications of the dominant understanding of decolonization for universities and beyond are considered and the article concludes that this understanding of decolonization hinders a structural critique of capitalism and imperialism.