Abstract
This article provides a critique of Eurocentric knowledge formations that currently dominate the sociological imagination and its analyses of the ‘other’. It proposes a deep questioning of the colonial underpinnings of the discipline and argues that a series of conceptual, methodological, and institutional concerns must be addressed if we are profoundly to transform teaching and learning agendas in universities. It will argue that decolonising sociology cannot merely rely upon cosmetic changes, but rather it must demonstrate a wider commitment to anti-racism and social justice.
Highlights
Recent years have seen a boom in literature on debates around decolonising the curriculum which takes on many different registers including, but not limited to, diversifying, internationalisation and/or activism
The critical literature on postcolonialism and decoloniality has paved the way for an important rethinking of knowledge production in the West (Said, 1978; Mohanty, 1988; Hall, 1992; Fanon, 2001; Quijano, 2007; Mignolo, 2011; Santos, 2014), which for the most part has been structured around an oppositional binary
It argues that decolonising the curriculum must include a commitment at three levels: the conceptual, the methodological and the institutional
Summary
Recent years have seen a (welcomed) boom in literature on debates around decolonising the curriculum which takes on many different (often overlapping) registers including, but not limited to, diversifying, internationalisation and/or activism. The article goes on to examine ways in which such thought continues to shape and influence contemporary sociological understandings of the ‘other’, which remain locked into a culturally reductive, essentialist lens After mapping out these conceptual concerns, I examine how Eurocentrism is manifested at the methodological level, in the study of communities of colour which are currently analysed for the most part through a colonial gaze. The women and men interviewed were at different stages of their academic careers and on both permanent and fixed-term contracts They were based in the social sciences and worked at different institutions across the country, including both Russell Group and Post-92 universities (Sian, 2019). I conclude by arguing that the promise of a decolonised sociology cannot be reduced to cosmetic changes: it must demonstrate a wider commitment to anti-racism and social justice
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