For a postcolonial sociology

Authors: Julian Go

Publish Date: 2012/10/29

Volume: 42, Issue: 1, Pages: 25-55

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Abstract

Postcolonial theory has enjoyed wide influence in the humanities but it has left sociology comparatively unscathed Does this mean that postcolonial theory is not relevant to sociology Focusing upon social theory and historical sociology in particular this article considers if and how postcolonial theory in the humanities might be imported into North American sociology It argues that postcolonial theory offers a substantial critique of sociology because it alerts us to sociology’s tendency to analytically bifurcate social relations The article also suggests that a postcolonial sociology can overcome these problems by incorporating relational social theories to give new accounts of modernity Rather than simply studying nonWestern postcolonial societies or only examining colonialism this approach insists upon the interactional constitution of social units processes and practices across space To illustrate the article draws upon relational theories actornetwork theory and field theory to offer postcolonial accounts of two conventional research areas in historical sociology the industrial revolution in England and the French RevolutionVersions of this article have been presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association and the Social Science History Association For comments on this article or parts of the argument the author thanks Neil Gross Rob Jansen Raka Ray Isaac Reed the Editors of Theory Society and two anonymous reviewers

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