AUTHOR=Patel Sujata 

TITLE=Anti-colonial thought and global social theory

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sociology

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sociology/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1143776

DOI=10.3389/fsoc.2023.1143776

ISSN=2297-7775

ABSTRACT=From the late 1980s onwards, global social theory has been introduced to a new perspective variously called indigeneity, endogeneity, Orientalism, Eurocentrism, postcolonial, decolonial and southern sociology/social sciences.  This paper argues that the above-mentioned trends should be collectively termed anti-colonial social theory as all of these explore the relationship between colonialism and knowledge production. The paper divides the growth of anti-colonial social theory in terms of two phases and relates it to changing geopolitics of 20th century. It argues that these distinct trends manifest a united stance in its ontological-epistemic articulation It also argues that anti-colonial social theory can play a relevant role in a knowledge system divided through colonial/imperial relationships given its theorisation on the same.