Haunted by the centre, animated by the pluriverse: rethinking comparative education from within

This commentary engages the special issue Transcending Western-Centrism and Nationalism in Education: China and Beyond to reconsider the epistemic foundations of comparative education. Arguing that the field has long been ‘haunted by its center’–whether Western universalism or nationalist exceptionalism–it examines how the issue enacts a ’double negation’: delinking from Western-centric universals while refusing epistemic nationalism. Rather than benchmarking systems against a privileged reference point, the contributions reimagine comparison as a pluriversal, relational practice grounded in situated dialogue and temporal multiplicity. Drawing on Isabelle Stengers’ notion of comparison as a ‘matter of concern’ and recent reconceptualizations of comparative education as sympoiesis, the commentary highlights a shift from transfer and measurement toward encounter and co-creation. In doing so, it positions comparative education as an ethical and political practice of holding space for multiple worlds and ways of knowing in conditions of planetary crisis.