Savransky, Martin. 2017. A Decolonial Imagination: Sociology, Anthropology and the Politics of Reality. Sociology, 51(1), pp. 11-26. ISSN 0038-0385 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

While the recent proliferation of sociological engagements with postcolonial thought is important and welcome, central to most critiques of Eurocentrism is a concern with the realm of epistemology, with how sociology comes to know its objects of study. Such a concern, however, risks perpetuating another form of Eurocentrism, one that is responsible for instituting the very distinction between epistemology and ontology, knowledge and reality. By developing a sustained engagement with Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s work, as well as establishing possible connections with what has been termed the ‘turn to ontology’ in anthropology, in this paper I argue that in order for sociology to become exposed to the deeply transformative potential of non-Eurocentric thinking, it needs to cultivate a decolonial imagination in order to move beyond epistemology, and to recognise that there is no social and cognitive justice without existential justice, no politics of knowledge without a politics of reality.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038516656983
Keywords:	anthropology, decolonial thought, epistemologies of the South, Eurocentrism, imagination, Kant, ontology, reality, sociology
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Sociology
Dates:	Date Event 25 April 2016 Accepted 1 February 2017 Published
Item ID:	18464
Date Deposited:	31 May 2016 16:40
Last Modified:	23 Mar 2021 12:21
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/18464

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