Edited by Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, University of Manchester, UK, Manuela Boatca, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany and Sérgio Costa, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Decolonizing European Sociology builds on the work challenging the androcentric, colonial and ethnocentric perspectives eminent in mainstream European sociology by identifying and describing the processes at work in its current critical transformation. Divided into sections organized around themes like modernity, border epistemology, migration and ‘the South’, this book considers the self-definition and basic concepts of social sciences through an assessment of the new theoretical developments, such as postcolonial theory and subaltern studies, and whether they can be described as the decolonization of the discipline.
With contributions from a truly international team of leading social scientists, this volume constitutes a unique and tightly focused exploration of the challenges presented by the decolonization of the discipline of sociology.
Contents: Introduction: decolonising European sociology: different paths towards a pending project, Manuela Boatca, Sérgio Costa and Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez; Part I Unsettling Foundations: Postcolonial sociology: a research agenda, Manuela Boatca and Sérgio Costa; Sociology after postcolonialism: provincialized cosmopolitanisms and connected sociologies, Gurminder K. Bhambra; Decolonising postcolonial rhetoric, Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez. Part II Pluralising Modernity: Different roads to modernity and their consequences: a sketch, Göran Therborn; New modernities: what’s new?, Jan Nederveen Pieterse; European self-presentations and narratives challenged by Islam: secular modernity in question, Nilüfer Göle. Part III Questioning Politics of Difference: Eurocentrism, sociology, secularity, Gregor McLennan; Wounded subjects: sexual exceptionalism and the moral panic on ‘migrant homophobia’ in Germany, Jin Haritaworn; The perpetual redrawing of cultural boundaries: Central Europe in the light of today’s realities, Immanuel Wallerstein. Part IV Border-Thinking: Integration as postcolonial immigrants and people of colour: a German case study, Kien Nghi Ha; The coloniality of power and ethnic affinity in migration policy: the Spanish case, Sandra Gil Araújo; Not all the women want to be white: decolonizing beauty studies, Shirley Anne Tate. Part V Looking South: South of every North, Franco Cassano; From the postmodern to the postcolonial – and beyond both, Boaventura de Sousa Santos; Critical geopolitics and the decolonization of area studies, Heriberto Cairo; Index.
About the Editor: Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez is Senior Lecturer in Transcultural Studies at the University of Manchester, UK, Manuela Boatca is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociological Theory and Researcher at the Center for Latin American Studies at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany, Sérgio Costa is Professor of Sociology at the Freie Universität Berlin and a Senior Researcher at the Brazilian Centre of Analysis and Planning (São Paulo)
Reviews: ‘A superb and timely project with a stellar cast of scholars. The collective argument advanced here shows that to “open the social sciences” was an important step but it was only half of the story. What is needed is “to decolonize the social science” which this volume initiates by shaking the foundations of its very core: by decolonizing European sociology.’
Walter Mignolo, Duke University, USA
‘Decolonizing European Sociology offers a vital contribution to the ongoing debate over the Eurocentric epistem that has informed the formation of the disciplines. The brilliant interdisciplinary essays examine the field of Sociology as historically embedded within discourses of European coloniality and modernity. Building on the insights of postcolonial, feminist, and queer theories, this groundbreaking volume proposes new and provocative modes for decolonizing the production of knowledge about Europe.’
Ella Shohat, New York University, USA