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Colonialism and Its Knowledges

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Abstract

This chapter offers a comparative historical analysis of three trends – the indigenous, the postcolonial, and decolonial – which have confronted the nineteenth century Western disciplinary field of sociology as a hegemonic field organized through the colonial grid. It maps the ontological-epistemic stances that these positions articulate to legitimize non-Western pathways to political modernity. It argues that distinct political contexts have organized the scholarship and research queries of these subaltern/non-hegemonic perspectives and analyzes these in terms of the two forms of colonialism: settler vs. non-settler colonialism. While highlighting some internal critiques that have informed these positions, it argues that these circuits of knowledge-making have created cognitive geographies which need to be taken into account to ensure non-hegemonic global social theory.

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Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges the contributions of the following: Fran Collyer for suggesting the title, Joao Maia for long conversations on this theme and Raewyn Connell for detailed comments.

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  1. Umea University, Umea, Sweden

    Sujata Patel

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  1. Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    David McCallum

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  1. University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

    Fran Collyer

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Patel, S. (2022). Colonialism and Its Knowledges. In: McCallum, D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4106-3_68-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4106-3_68-2

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Colonialism and Its Knowledges
    Published:
    08 March 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4106-3_68-2

  2. Original

    Colonialism and Its Knowledges
    Published:
    16 September 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4106-3_68-1

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