Editors Celeste Muñoz Martínez and Oriol López Badell
In a context marked by growing global inequalities, colonial legacies have become a central site of political and social dispute. Phenomena such as structural racism, socioeconomic gaps, land dispossession, border regimes, and the climate crisis are increasingly understood as direct consequences of the systems of domination that fuelled—and continue to sustain—the expansion of contemporary capitalism.
Demands for reparation today go far beyond the removal of monuments or the restitution of museum collections. They encompass public recognition, economic compensation, nationality and citizenship rights, debt cancellation, and the transformation of educational and cultural narratives. The momentum of movements such as Black Lives Matter has renewed the urgency of these claims, explicitly linking police violence and racial injustice to the enduring symbols and structures of imperialism.
Recognising these legacies is a necessary step toward questioning present-day inequalities and imagining new horizons of justice, repair, and collective responsibility.
