Theory from the South: a decolonial approach to the psychology of global inequality

Hegemonic understandings rooted in the epistemic perspectives of the Global North explain global inequality (i.e., unequal relations between Global North and South) as a developmental gap in progress toward Eurocentric modernity. From this perspective, global inequality exists because Northern societies have created modern institutions and mentalities (e.g., independent selfways) that have enabled them to achieve development, and Southern societies suffer from poverty because their institutions and associated mentalities (e.g., interdependent selfways) retard development. In contrast, a decolonial standpoint, rooted in epistemic perspectives of the Global South, emphasizes the coloniality of modern individualist mentalities: the extent to which they reflect and reproduce colonial violence. From this perspective, modern individualist mentalities are a source, rather than solution, of global inequality, and a more equitable world requires cultivation of mentalities attuned to the interdependence of everyday life.