Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork and postcolonial theory, Sarah A. Radcliffe centers the experiences of rural indigenous women in Ecuador to show how the efforts of development agencies to reduce social and economic equality fail because they do not reckon with the legacies of colonialism.
The first book of its kind, Decolonizing Geography offers an indispensable introductory guide to the origins, current state and implications of the decolonial project in geography. Sarah A. Radcliffe recounts the influence of colonialism on the discipline of geography and introduces key decolonial ideas, explaining why they matter and how they change geography’s understanding of people, environments and nature. She explores the international origins of decolonial ideas, through to current Indigenous thinking, coloniality-modernity, Black geographies and decolonial feminisms of colour. Throughout, she presents an original synthesis of wide-ranging literatures and offers a systematic decolonizing approach to space, place, nature, global-local relations, the Anthropocene and much more. Decolonizing Geography is an essential resource for students and instructors aiming to broaden their understanding of the nature, origins and purpose of a geographical education.