From Arendtian antipolitical love to decolonial love: pedagogical possibilities in afflicted times

This paper explores the pedagogical and political significance of love in times of global affliction, marked by war, inequality, ecological devastation, and enduring colonial legacies. Bringing Hannah Arendt’s conception of antipolitical love into dialogue with decolonial understandings of love as an insurgent and world-making force, the paper examines how contrasting visions of love illuminate different risks and possibilities for education. Arendt’s scepticism cautions against the sentimentalisation of politics and highlights the need for plurality and responsibility, while decolonial thinkers reframe love as a praxis of refusal, repair, and solidarity. The paper argues that holding these perspectives in tension enriches pedagogical openings to confront the affective legacies of coloniality and to cultivate love as a critical, ethical, and transformative orientation towards the world. The paper concludes by proposing pedagogies of decolonial love as practices of collective care, resistance, and world-making.