Transmodernizing Imperial Business History

Abstract

The rise of the radical right within the context of neoimperial neoliberal capitalism has been triggered by ultra-conservative revisionisms in both South and North which radicalize pasts of coloniality against the majority within and outside organizations and houses of knowledge. In this context we investigate the denial of Latin America by Unilever historiography (UH), an imperial Anglo-Dutch multinational corporation that operates in the region since 1926. We put forward a transmodern decolonial approach to foster a critical dialogue between the Euro-British and decolonial historical turns in Organizational Studies. Analysis shows that UH embodies an ambivalent pattern in Business History (BH) that has been rather ignored by both historic turns. Through this innovative/regenerative approach engaged with a majority excluded by history, we argue that the institutionalization of BH by the Anglo-American world as a post-imperial historical turn is informed by under-researched colonizing-decolonizing dynamics. With implications for research and teaching, we conclude that dynamics of appropriation-containment of “histories others” by the field of History informs the denial of Latin America by HU and global radicalization of modernity/coloniality that might be opposed by a history otherwise engaged with a growing population of Southern ‘peoples without history’ in both North and South which fosters reappropriations of the liberating side of pasts.