Re-framing the mess we’re in:  ideology-action-structures and coloniality.

This is a working paper in which I explore some ideas I’ve been working with.  It takes a long and comprehensive view of where we are, how we got here, and what might help get out of here.  It uses a concept of ideology-action-structure complexes which so far as I know is my own, identifying some of the dominant ones.  It also draws on radical post-colonial or rather de-colonial thought from Latin America but also exploring how coloniality is important for understanding the context in the core countries of the world system.
Read the paper

Erratum:  one reference has disappeared from the web address I cited – here is an alternative location.  It’s recommended, a very interesting article that spells out a lot of the thinking that I draw upon.  Grosfoguel, R. (2008, July 4). Transmodernity, border thinking, and global coloniality: decolonizing political economy and postcolonial studies. Eurozine. Retrieved from http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-07-04-grosfoguel-en.html

Addendum (September, 2013):  The 1998 text by Enrique Dussel that I cite – Ética de la Liberación... is now at long last available in English as Ethics of Liberation in the age of globalization and exclusion.  My copy has just arrived and it is a delight to re-read some key sections, without stumbling along in a second language!  See this link which says something about the book and its publication.