The in-depth analysis of the historical condition commonly described as ‘postcoloniality’ has been on the academic agenda for several decades, not least in different branches of sociology. Broadly speaking, the term ‘postcoloniality’ refers to any set of social constellations directly or indirectly shaped by both the short-term and the long-term consequences of the history of colonialism, including its demise. In the humanities, ‘the study of postcoloniality has taken on the form of “postcolonial theory”’,1 emphasizing the relevance of its conceptual concerns to the inquiry into key aspects of human existence—notably in disciplinary fields such as philosophy, historiography, arts, law, linguistics, literary studies, religious studies, and cultural studies. In the social sciences, research on postcoloniality has contributed to a critical understanding of postcolonial practices, stressing the relevance of its empirical dimensions to the examination of central elements of social life—above all, in disciplines such as anthropology, geography, political science, and sociology. Interestingly, however, ‘sociology’s approach to postcolonial issues has been comparably muted’,2 if not relegated to the fringes of disciplinary activity. Instead of being elevated to an area of investigation that is located at the core of its intellectual autonomy and institutional identity as a discipline, the in-depth exploration of postcoloniality—commonly referred to as ‘postcolonial studies’ and ‘postcolonialism’—continues to occupy a fringe space within sociology.
Unsympathetic critics may contend that the marginal influence of postcolonialism on mainstream sociology is due to the peripheral position of postcolonial realities in global society. Sympathetic critics, by contrast, may posit that the limited impact of postcolonialism on mainstream sociology is the result of hegemonic attempts to deny the omnipresence of postcolonial realities in the national contexts of both ‘the colonized’ and ‘the colonizers’—that is, in a global universe characterized by a profoundly asymmetrical division of power. Notwithstanding the question of which particular stance in relation to this issue one may wish to defend, a key challenge consists in exploring the actual (or at least the potential) usefulness of postcolonial studies ‘for reorienting sociological theory and research’.3 Before fleshing out the main facets of this task, it is imperative to scrutinize the motivational background to this endeavour, by reflecting on the historical context in which sociology emerged and succeeded in establishing itself as one of the most prominent disciplines in the social sciences.
In this respect, two events that took place in the past centuries are of paramount significance:
- 1.The ‘violent imperial expansion of the European and Anglo-American states’4 across the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly in Africa and Asia, constitutes a large-scale conglomerate of historical processes generally described as colonization and associated with the era of colonialism. The acquisition, establishment, and maintenance of colonies entail the systematic exploitation of territories and populations by foreign powers. By definition, colonialism represents a form of imperialism, to the extent that it sets up an unequal relationship between ‘the colonizers’ and ‘the colonized’—that is, between an exogenous and oppressive force and an indigenous and oppressed population. ‘Beginning in the late nineteenth and continuing through the early twentieth century, powerful states like England, France, Germany, the USA, Belgium, Italy, and others mounted new territorial assaults upon Africa and Asia, creating what has become known as the period of “high imperialism”.’5 Indeed, it took only a few decades for ‘modern colonial empires’6 to rule almost ‘all of the globe’7 and thereby spread their imperial wings to exercise their hegemonic power over the political, cultural, ideological, linguistic, economic, military, demographic, and territorial organization of foreign lands and regions.
- 2.Shortly after the end of World War II in 1945, a historically significant process commenced, which continued through the 1960s: decolonization. This tension-laden dynamic was characterized by ‘imperial retrenchment and decline’8 and, consequently, by ‘the dismantling of those very same colonial empires that had been expanding previously’.9 To be sure, this period did not necessarily signal the end of imperialism; rather, it indicated the transformation of the international division of power into a global system in which the label ‘colony’ and the reality of ‘colonialism’ were no longer ideologically defensible, but in which transnational structures of domination continued to exist.10 Irrespective of the question of whether or not a neoimperialist period succeeded the age of imperialism, decolonization on a global scale implied that, from the 1950s onwards, a ‘multitude of independent nation-states appeared’,11 especially in the Southern hemisphere. The protagonists and representatives of these postcolonial states were...