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Edvard Westermarck Memorial Lecture: “Connected Sociologies: from Modernity to Postcolonial Critique”

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Edvard Westermarck Memorial Lecture: “Connected Sociologies: from Modernity to Postcolonial Critique” Edvard Westermarck Memorial Lecture: “Connected Sociologies: From Modernity to Postcolonial Critique” by Gurminder K Bhambra, University of Warwick Time & Location: 18.00‒19.00 Thursday 20.11.2014 University of Helsinki, Main Building, lecture hall XIV Note: On Friday 21.11.2014 there is additionally a one-day PhD seminar with professor Bhambra, more information below. Abstract for the Edvard Westermarck Memorial lecture From its inception, classical sociology has been less interested in the delineation of understandings of the global than in examining what were understood to be the European origins of global processes. The ‘global’ was merely the space in which processes initiated in Europe came to play out as ‘world-historical’. It was not until the global order constituted by colonialism visibly fractured in the post-war period that these other societies came into European and North American view in their own right. The convulsions in the early to mid- twentieth century of the two world wars and, in particular, the emergence of the competing regimes of fascism (defeated) and communism (resurgent), together with the movements of decolonisation, dramatically reconfigured the world. The beginnings of a decline of Western European hegemony and the shift in the landscape of the global, from being organised in colonial terms to being organised around (the desire for) nation-states, necessitated developments within sociology in order to address the limitations of post-classical accounts of modernity. Postcolonial and decolonial arguments have been most successful in their challenge to the insularity of historical narratives and historiographical traditions emanating from Europe. This has been particularly so in the context of demonstrating the parochial character of arguments about the endogenous European origins of modernity in favour of arguments that suggest the necessity of considering the emergence of the modern world in the broader histories of colonialism, empire, enslavement, and dispossession. The argument of this paper is that any transformation of sociological understandings requires a reconstruction ‘backwards’ of our historical accounts of modernity, as well as ‘forwards’ in terms of constructing a social science adequate for our global (postcolonial) age. BIO: Gurminder K Bhambra is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick and Visiting Fellow in the Department of Sociology, Princeton University (2014-15). She is author of Connected Sociologies (Bloomsbury 2014) and Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination (Palgrave, 2007), which won the British Sociological Association’s Philip Abrams Memorial Prize for best first book in sociology. She has co-edited three collections, Silencing Human Rights (Palgrave, 2009); 1968 in Retrospect (Palgrave, 2009); and African Athena (OUP, 2011). 2014 Edvard Westermarck Memorial Lecture is organised by The Westermarck Society ry In conjunction with Edvard Westermarck Lecture welcome to a PhD workshop “From Modernity to Postcolonial Critique and Beyond” Friday 21.11.2014, 9‒16, University of Helsinki, Unioninkatu 35 Teachers: Gurminder Bhambra & Elina Oinas Credits: 3‒5 ECST The workshop welcomes PhD students, researchers and MA students in any social and political science and humanities discipline with an interest in postcolonial critique. The number of participants is limited. The workshop focuses on the question of how postcolonial critique of social science tradition matters both generally and in one’s own PhD work, and how researchers deal with theoretical/conceptual/perspectival challenges throughout the PhD process. We especially welcome students who struggle with the fit between theory and context, acknowledging that a lot of our conceptual and theoretical tools emerge in settings that may not reflect the location or historical period of the case we study. All participants will get a chance to read Gurminder Bhambra’s new book (133 pages) that will be distributed to participants as pdf. See: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/connected-sociologies-9781780931562/ Pre-assignment: Each participant will write a short (3‒5 pages) presentation on own thoughts and a chosen passage from the book, discussing the book’s relevance to one’s own research, and questions arising from the encounter between one’s PhD work and post- colonial theory. Pre-assignment, participation in Edvard Westermarck lecture and seminar provides 3 ECTS credits. Those who wish to do so may submit a research plan or part of a chapter that one wishes to be discussed in the seminar, maximum of 15 pages. Teachers will give comments on the papers. Pre-assignment, participation in Edvard Westermarck lecture and seminar paper provides 5 ECTS credits. We wish to establish a spirit of free discussion, so do see your paper as a thinking piece, work-in-progress, rather than a very polished text. The pre-assignments are due 17.11. 2014, e-mail one document attachment to [email protected]. All participants are expected to be present at the Westermarck lecture on 20 November 2014. Application: Send an e-mail application to [email protected], by 7.11.2014, with a short description/abstract of your PhD including information on where you are in the PhD process. Further information from Elina Oinas, [email protected] Organised by The Westermarck Society ry, UniPID (Finnish University Partnership for International Development), Youth and political engagements in contemporary Africa (YOPO) Academy of Finland consortium and University of Helsinki Department of Political and Economic Studies. .
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