Challenges of Doing Sociology in a Globalizing South: Between Indigenization and Emergent Structures

Abstract

As sociology emerged from the womb of the industrial revolution in Europe and the challenges of the anomic socio-economic environment, the concern of its founding fathers naturally gravitated around Western ideologies and challenges. The modernization paradigm facilitated the hegemonic ascendancy of Western sociology in the South until the recent ideological impasse, when the South began to grope for fresh insights. Currently, attention is still being drawn to the sociological significance of emancipation from systemic inequality created by social structural variables in the development process globally but particularly in poorer countries. This study, therefore, draws from Professor Peter Ekeh’s “Colonialism and Social Structure” and his theoretical statement on the two public to highlight the consequences of uncritical engagement in the Periphery with the sociology of the Core, the importance of agency in post-imperialistic thinking in sociology, and the implications for repositioning sociologists in the South for the task of a more creative local engagement with globalizing ideologies that are integral to mainstream sociology in the North. The paper also highlights the roles of international, regional, and national associations such as the International Sociological Association (ISA), the African Sociological Association (AFSA), the Nigerian Sociological and Anthropological Association (NASA), and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in setting the agenda.