Postcolonial Sociologies: A Reader

by Julian Go

Postcolonial theory has mostly been confined to literary studies and the humanities, but it has been slowly making its way into social science. This is a welcome development but poses new challenges. How can postcolonial thought be most fruitfully translated and incorporated into sociology? This special volume brings together leading sociologists to offer some answers and examples. The chapters offer new postcolonial readings of canonical thinkers like Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Robert Park; consider whether or not postcolonial theory is compatible with sociology; explore the relationship between knowledge and colonial power; offer critical perspectives on the sociology of race; ponder the implications of postcolonial theory for global sociology; creatively employ postcolonial concepts such as hybridity; and excavate the social theories of occluded thinkers in India. This volume will be an important guide for scholars and students in the social sciences who are interested in what postcolonial thought has to offer.

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 26, 2016

About the author

Julian Go is a Professor of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate in the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture & The Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago.

Julian Go’s research explores the social logics, forms and impact of empires and colonialism; postcolonial/decolonial thought and related questions of social theory, epistemology, and knowledge; and global historical sociology.

Much of Go’s work has focused on the US empire. His other work is on postcolonial thought and social theory. His most recent book, Policing Empires: Militarization and Race in Britain and America, 1829-present (Oxford, 2023) explores imperialism’s impact upon police militarization in the US and Britain. He is also working on a project that recovers anticolonial thought as a critical form of social theory.

His scholarship has won prizes from the American Sociological Association, the Eastern Sociological Society, the American Political Science Association, and the International Studies Association, among other institutions. He is the winner of Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting in Sociology given by the American Sociological Association. In 2021-2022, Julian serves as the President of the Social Science History Association.