This special issue addresses the Eurocentred nature of knowledge production by examining alternative loci of knowledge production and the consequences of subverting standard narratives of particular events and conceptual paradigms through a focus on “other” places and traditions of thought, especially those formed in colonial encounters. In contesting imperial epistemologies, this special issue draws together contributors working on a variety of globally located phenomena and also seeks to re‐examine how “foundational” concepts and events within social theory and historical sociology are understood differently once we start from locations and traditions other than the typically hegemonic West.