Unsettling Knowledges in Latin America

Latin America has produced its fair share of autochthonous concepts and ideas, such as dependence and autonomy. However, for the most part academic production within the field of International Relations (IR) operates within disciplinary limits as established in the North and is accepting of them, at least in epistemological and ontological terms. Instead of making distinct regional contributions to IR as conventionally understood visible, the purpose of this chapter is to examine alternative and unsettling ways of thinking about the world that are also present in Latin American thinking but that are potentially incommensurate with customary interpretations of global politics. The chapter’s invitation to unsettle IR is conducted through examination of theology, pedagogy and methodology of liberation, more commonly known as participatory action research (PAR), and relational indigenous and Afro-descendent thought, both of which are key precursors of decolonial theory.