The Black Horizon: Alterity and Ontology in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This paper makes the case for an approach to International Relations in the Anthropocene, which draws upon resources from critical Black studies. This distinctive perspective is set out in comparison to two, more familiar, sets of critical Anthropocene thought, that have been influential in contemporary discussions of global politics. We heuristically frame these as the “Planetary” - a focus on ontology and vibrant and unruly materiality – and the “Pluriversal” - which places race and coloniality at the centre of our understanding of power and knowledge. We suggest that Planetary approaches underestimate the centrality of race and coloniality to questions of ontology and that Pluriversal approaches are often undermined by a failure to take ontology more seriously. These literatures are opposed to a third perspective, which we call the “Black Horizon”, which troubles our approach to alterity and works with a non- or para-ontological understanding of being.

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