I am an Associate professor in Social Inequalities at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge. I work at the intersection of decolonial sociology and critical race theory.
Sociology was institutionalized as a discipline at the height of global colonialism and imperiali... more Sociology was institutionalized as a discipline at the height of global colonialism and imperialism. Over a century later, sociology is yet to shake off its commitment to a colonial logic.
This book explores why, and how, sociology needs to be decolonized. It analyses how sociology was integral in reproducing the colonial order, as dominant sociologists constructed theories either assuming or proving the supposed barbarity and backwardness of colonized people. Ali Meghji reveals how colonialism continues to shape the discipline today, dominating both social theory and the practice of sociology, how exporting the Eurocentric sociological canon erased social theories from the Global South, and how sociologists continue to ignore the relevance of coloniality in their work.
This critique and guide will be necessary reading for any student or proponent of sociology. In conversation with other decolonial advocates, Meghji provides key suggestions for what the sociological community can do to decolonize sociology going forward. Because, with curriculum reform and innovative teaching, it is possible to make sociology more equitable on a global scale.
This book analyses how racism and anti-racism affect Black British middle class cultural consumpt... more This book analyses how racism and anti-racism affect Black British middle class cultural consumption. The author argues there are three black middle class identity modes: strategic assimilation, class- minded, and ethnoracial autonomous. People towards each of these identity modes organise their cultural consumption according to specific cultural repertoires. Those towards strategic assimilation draw on repertoires of code-switching and cultural equity, consuming traditional middle-class culture to maintain equality with the white middle-class in levels of cultural capital. Ethnoracial autonomous individuals draw on repertoires of browning and Afro-centrism, showing a preference for cultural forms that uplift Black diasporic histories and cultures.
Just what is critical race theory, and what is it doing in British sociology? From 'BritCrit' to ... more Just what is critical race theory, and what is it doing in British sociology? From 'BritCrit' to the racialized social system approach Abstract Critical race theory is growing in popularity in Britain. However, critics and advocates of critical race theory (CRT) in Britain have neglected the racialized social system approach. Through ignoring this approach, critics have thus 'missed the target' in their rebuttals of CRT, while advocates of CRT have downplayed the strength of critical race analysis. By contrast, in this paper, I argue that that through the racialized social system approach, critical race theory has the conceptual flexibility to study British society. As a practical social theory, critical race theory provides us with the tools to study the realities and reproduction of racial inequality. To demonstrate this strength of CRT, and to demonstrate its theoretical nature, I discuss the conceptual framework of the racialized social system approach, paying specific attention to the notions of social space, the racial structure and racial interests; the racialized interaction order, racialized emotions, and structure and agency; and racial ideology, racial grammar, and racialized cognition.
In this paper, I argue for a theoretical synergy between critical race theory (CRT) and decolonia... more In this paper, I argue for a theoretical synergy between critical race theory (CRT) and decolonial thought. I argue that while CRT and decolonial thought have different scopes, we can synergise them in analysis. Specifically, decolonial thought's transnational focus on coloniality complements CRT's 'presentist' focus on national racialized social systems. I display the efficacy of this theoretical synergy by discussing Brexit Britain and Trumpamerica. While CRT is helpful for analysing how these political projects built upon contemporary post-racial ideology and racialized emotions, it struggles to deal with the postcolonial melancholia that runs through both political moments. Decolonial thought is thus required to tease out the transnational, historical dynamics of coloniality embodied in Brexit Britain and Trumpamerica. This is particularly apparent in the way both projects involve a desire to return the nation to its imperial glory, and to keep those who are deemed to be opposed to Western civilization-particularly 'the Muslim'-outside of the nation's borders. Key words: critical race theory, decolonial thought, postcolonialism, race and ethnicity, social theory Critical race theory and decolonial sociology: building a dialogue As a child, I used to enjoy eating two scoops of ice cream at the same time: one chocolate flavoured, the other strawberry flavoured. It never occurred to me that we ought to create a 'strawberry-chocolate flavoured'
This essay looks at three books about the histories of anti-colonialism: Desai's the United State... more This essay looks at three books about the histories of anti-colonialism: Desai's the United States of India, Getachew's Worldmaking after Empire, and Gopal's Insurgent Empire. I argue that despite it not being the authors' primary focus, these books collectively push forward the sociology of race. In particular, each of these books shows the importance for contemporary race and racism scholarship to adopt a transnational, temporally connected approach which is able to both study and forge global anti-colonial solidarities. Desai, Manan. 2020. The United States of India: Anticolonial Literature and Transnational Refraction. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Getachew, Adom. 2019. Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Gopal, Priyamvada. 2019. Insurgent Empire: Anticolonialism and the Making of British Dissent. London: Verso. In the midst of a global pandemic in 2020, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked anti-racist protests across the world. Many of these protests drew links between their nation's racism and their nation's colonial history and postcolonial present. Thus, protests in France connected Floyd's death with their own state violence against post-colonial citizens from North Africa, Portuguese protestors carried placards stating 'Racism is colonial heritage', and in Belgium, protestors tore down the statue of King Leopold II. Of course, statues were not only targeted in Belgium, but were a target throughout the world, with statues of Cecil Rhodes, for instance, being taken down in both Cape Town and Oxford. Within Britain, debates over such statues of colonial figures took centre-stage during the protests. To some, the fact that figures such as Edward Colston, a key figure in Britain's role in enslavement, were not just put up on a literal pedestal, but that their statue plaques also described them (in Colston's case) as 'one of the most virtuous and wise sons of the city', was evidence that Britain was yet to confront its colonial past. In this review essay, I am not concerned with 'statues' as much as with the linkages between imperialism, colonialism, and racism. Nevertheless, this ongoing contestation over the existence of colonial statues feeds into a key point of this essay-namely, that the pasts of empire, colonialism, and imperialism still shape the material and epistemic contours of the present. Thus, in Britain, for example, those protesting against colonial statues were claiming that this is an issue of the present, not just an issue of the past; by failing to bring a critical eye to colonial history and historical figures, Britain was making a statement in the present
In this article, I consider how dominant sociological conceptions of validity reproduce the racia... more In this article, I consider how dominant sociological conceptions of validity reproduce the racial status quo. I argue that sociology has its own racialised regime of truth, which marginalises research that is critical to the racial status quo, and denies such research any validity. I explore this first from a historical perspective, focusing particularly on how Du Bois’ critical work was denied validity by his contemporaries (while other scholars’ research reproducing structural racism was welcomed with open arms). I then focus on the present, examining how race critical research is often recast as ‘mesearch’, and consequently denied validity in a way that disproportionately affects scholars of colour. I then reflect on the problem that we need validity to do ethical research, but so long as the racialised regime of truth shapes what is valid, then race critical sociology will be marginalised. I finish the article by considering how this marginalisation displays Toni Morrison’s idea of ‘racism as distraction’, where race critical scholars must overcome a validity-deficit. Our work is automatically assumed to not be valid, and we have to struggle to get it recognised as such.
Identities: Global studies in culture and power, 2019
Drawing on interviews with thirty-two black British professionals, and ethnographic work in middl... more Drawing on interviews with thirty-two black British professionals, and ethnographic work in middle-class cultural spaces across London, this paper asks ‘How do the black middle-class use cultural consumption for anti-racism?’ I argue that the black middle-class contest the racial hierarchy at three levels through their cultural consumption: the material, the ideological, and the symbolic. At the material level, black middle-class people consume cultural forms they decode as ‘white’ in order to establish an equity with whites in levels of cultural capital. At the ideological level, black middle-class people consume cultural forms that uplift meanings and representations of blackness, thus challenging controlling images of blackness. Lastly, at the symbolic level, black middle-class folks create and sustain cultural spaces where black people’s cultural and symbolic knowledge is given proper recognition and authority.
Post-racialism is an ideology holding that we have transcended racism. Since the mid 20th century... more Post-racialism is an ideology holding that we have transcended racism. Since the mid 20th century when nation-states across the world started introducing policies legally enforcing equal opportunities, an ideology has concurrently emerged that racism no longer mars the societies it used to plague. Becoming crystallised in the 21st century, post-racial ideology thus dangerously downplays the continuing effects of race, racialisation, and racism. We can identify three main ways that post-racial ideology works to reproduce racism: the myth of racial progress, cultural reinterpretations of racial inequality, and a moral equivalence between anti-racism and anti-racialism.
This paper investigates the link between the racial hierarchy and the racialized interaction orde... more This paper investigates the link between the racial hierarchy and the racialized interaction order, questioning how controlling images of blackness are mediated in interactions. I explore this through interviews with thirty‐two black British middle‐class individuals, examining their interactions in the professional workplace. I argue that white people often draw on a practical knowledge of “white ignorance” to activate controlling images in their interactions with black professionals. This white ignorance allows for white people to find creative ways to irrationally deploy controlling images, and to adapt controlling images to specific interactional settings.
Drawing upon 23 qualitative interviews, and ethnographic work in London, this article explores ho... more Drawing upon 23 qualitative interviews, and ethnographic work in London, this article explores how black middle-class individuals in the UK decode forms of middle-class cultural capital. This decoding is two staged. Firstly, black middle-class individuals often decode dominant or ‘traditional’ middle-class cultural capital as white. This involves a recognition that certain forms of middle-class cultural capital are marked as racially exclusive, and are reproduced and recognised in ‘white spaces’. Secondly, black middle-class individuals also decode alternative forms of cultural capital as woven into a greater project of racial uplift. Such alternative forms of cultural capital are defined as ‘black cultural capital’, and tend to be based around fulfilling a cultural politics of black representation.
Drawing upon 38 qualitative interviews with Black and South Asian middle-class individuals we the... more Drawing upon 38 qualitative interviews with Black and South Asian middle-class individuals we theorise post-racialism as a hegemonic ideology. While research tends to focus on how racialised people experience racial inequality, some of our participants rationalised such inequality through a post-racial understanding. This post-racial understanding involves commitments to racial progress and transcendence, the view that racism is no longer a societal issue; race-neutral universalism, the belief that we live in a colourblind meritocracy; and a moral equivalence between anti-racism and anti-racialism, allowing for forms of ‘cultural’ racial prejudice. We examine how these components of post-racialism travel from the political macro-ideological level, to the micro-phenomenological level. Through this analysis we argue that these post-racial rationalisations are not the result of false consciousness, but reflect how post-racialism, as a hegemonic ideology, can manifest itself as common-sense and consistent with particular individuals’ histories of mobility and success.
In this paper, I explore the experiences of the Black middle classes across the United States, Un... more In this paper, I explore the experiences of the Black middle classes across the United States, United Kingdom (UK), and South Africa. I argue that the similar experiences the Black middle classes face across these nations are not coincidental but represent the process of globalised White hegemony. Globalised White hegemony refers to how the middle class, transnationally, is often understood as a symbolic category informed by specific White norms, identifications, and practices. I explore globalised White hegemony through three areas of Black middle-class experience: identity, interactions, and ideologies. Thus, I examine how across the UK, United States, and South Africa, the Black middle classes construct public identities according to White norms, encounter interactions through which their blackness negatively trumps their middle-class status, and confront classed-racialised ideologies, which construe the Black middle class as inauthentic. I argue in this paper that central to fleshing out the similarities in Black middle-class experiences across the globe is engaging in relational sociology, which stresses the globalised nature of contemporary raciality.
This paper explores the identities of Britain’s black middle-classes. Drawing upon interviews wit... more This paper explores the identities of Britain’s black middle-classes. Drawing upon interviews with seventy-two participants, I theorize a ‘triangle of identity’. This triangle emphasizes how black middle-class identities are constructed within the dynamics of three poles. Firstly, there is the class-minded pole whereby class comes to the fore as a conceptual scheme; secondly, there is the ethnoracial autonomous pole whereby ‘race’ is central to one’s identity and whiteness is actively resisted; and lastly there is the strategic assimilation pole, where one continually moves between classed and racialized spheres of action. This tripartite approach to identity builds upon previous research by further exploring the social, cultural and phenomenological distinctions within Britain’s black middle-classes.
Reading the first page of Hall’s collected essays, I was gripped with excitement; by the time I f... more Reading the first page of Hall’s collected essays, I was gripped with excitement; by the time I finished the book, my feelings were closer to angst. From Hall’s writings on anti-immigrant hostility in the postwar era through to the commercialization of education in the twenty-first century, one reads this collection of essays with a horrible sense of déjà vu.
Sociology was institutionalized as a discipline at the height of global colonialism and imperiali... more Sociology was institutionalized as a discipline at the height of global colonialism and imperialism. Over a century later, sociology is yet to shake off its commitment to a colonial logic.
This book explores why, and how, sociology needs to be decolonized. It analyses how sociology was integral in reproducing the colonial order, as dominant sociologists constructed theories either assuming or proving the supposed barbarity and backwardness of colonized people. Ali Meghji reveals how colonialism continues to shape the discipline today, dominating both social theory and the practice of sociology, how exporting the Eurocentric sociological canon erased social theories from the Global South, and how sociologists continue to ignore the relevance of coloniality in their work.
This critique and guide will be necessary reading for any student or proponent of sociology. In conversation with other decolonial advocates, Meghji provides key suggestions for what the sociological community can do to decolonize sociology going forward. Because, with curriculum reform and innovative teaching, it is possible to make sociology more equitable on a global scale.
This book analyses how racism and anti-racism affect Black British middle class cultural consumpt... more This book analyses how racism and anti-racism affect Black British middle class cultural consumption. The author argues there are three black middle class identity modes: strategic assimilation, class- minded, and ethnoracial autonomous. People towards each of these identity modes organise their cultural consumption according to specific cultural repertoires. Those towards strategic assimilation draw on repertoires of code-switching and cultural equity, consuming traditional middle-class culture to maintain equality with the white middle-class in levels of cultural capital. Ethnoracial autonomous individuals draw on repertoires of browning and Afro-centrism, showing a preference for cultural forms that uplift Black diasporic histories and cultures.
Just what is critical race theory, and what is it doing in British sociology? From 'BritCrit' to ... more Just what is critical race theory, and what is it doing in British sociology? From 'BritCrit' to the racialized social system approach Abstract Critical race theory is growing in popularity in Britain. However, critics and advocates of critical race theory (CRT) in Britain have neglected the racialized social system approach. Through ignoring this approach, critics have thus 'missed the target' in their rebuttals of CRT, while advocates of CRT have downplayed the strength of critical race analysis. By contrast, in this paper, I argue that that through the racialized social system approach, critical race theory has the conceptual flexibility to study British society. As a practical social theory, critical race theory provides us with the tools to study the realities and reproduction of racial inequality. To demonstrate this strength of CRT, and to demonstrate its theoretical nature, I discuss the conceptual framework of the racialized social system approach, paying specific attention to the notions of social space, the racial structure and racial interests; the racialized interaction order, racialized emotions, and structure and agency; and racial ideology, racial grammar, and racialized cognition.
In this paper, I argue for a theoretical synergy between critical race theory (CRT) and decolonia... more In this paper, I argue for a theoretical synergy between critical race theory (CRT) and decolonial thought. I argue that while CRT and decolonial thought have different scopes, we can synergise them in analysis. Specifically, decolonial thought's transnational focus on coloniality complements CRT's 'presentist' focus on national racialized social systems. I display the efficacy of this theoretical synergy by discussing Brexit Britain and Trumpamerica. While CRT is helpful for analysing how these political projects built upon contemporary post-racial ideology and racialized emotions, it struggles to deal with the postcolonial melancholia that runs through both political moments. Decolonial thought is thus required to tease out the transnational, historical dynamics of coloniality embodied in Brexit Britain and Trumpamerica. This is particularly apparent in the way both projects involve a desire to return the nation to its imperial glory, and to keep those who are deemed to be opposed to Western civilization-particularly 'the Muslim'-outside of the nation's borders. Key words: critical race theory, decolonial thought, postcolonialism, race and ethnicity, social theory Critical race theory and decolonial sociology: building a dialogue As a child, I used to enjoy eating two scoops of ice cream at the same time: one chocolate flavoured, the other strawberry flavoured. It never occurred to me that we ought to create a 'strawberry-chocolate flavoured'
This essay looks at three books about the histories of anti-colonialism: Desai's the United State... more This essay looks at three books about the histories of anti-colonialism: Desai's the United States of India, Getachew's Worldmaking after Empire, and Gopal's Insurgent Empire. I argue that despite it not being the authors' primary focus, these books collectively push forward the sociology of race. In particular, each of these books shows the importance for contemporary race and racism scholarship to adopt a transnational, temporally connected approach which is able to both study and forge global anti-colonial solidarities. Desai, Manan. 2020. The United States of India: Anticolonial Literature and Transnational Refraction. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Getachew, Adom. 2019. Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Gopal, Priyamvada. 2019. Insurgent Empire: Anticolonialism and the Making of British Dissent. London: Verso. In the midst of a global pandemic in 2020, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked anti-racist protests across the world. Many of these protests drew links between their nation's racism and their nation's colonial history and postcolonial present. Thus, protests in France connected Floyd's death with their own state violence against post-colonial citizens from North Africa, Portuguese protestors carried placards stating 'Racism is colonial heritage', and in Belgium, protestors tore down the statue of King Leopold II. Of course, statues were not only targeted in Belgium, but were a target throughout the world, with statues of Cecil Rhodes, for instance, being taken down in both Cape Town and Oxford. Within Britain, debates over such statues of colonial figures took centre-stage during the protests. To some, the fact that figures such as Edward Colston, a key figure in Britain's role in enslavement, were not just put up on a literal pedestal, but that their statue plaques also described them (in Colston's case) as 'one of the most virtuous and wise sons of the city', was evidence that Britain was yet to confront its colonial past. In this review essay, I am not concerned with 'statues' as much as with the linkages between imperialism, colonialism, and racism. Nevertheless, this ongoing contestation over the existence of colonial statues feeds into a key point of this essay-namely, that the pasts of empire, colonialism, and imperialism still shape the material and epistemic contours of the present. Thus, in Britain, for example, those protesting against colonial statues were claiming that this is an issue of the present, not just an issue of the past; by failing to bring a critical eye to colonial history and historical figures, Britain was making a statement in the present
In this article, I consider how dominant sociological conceptions of validity reproduce the racia... more In this article, I consider how dominant sociological conceptions of validity reproduce the racial status quo. I argue that sociology has its own racialised regime of truth, which marginalises research that is critical to the racial status quo, and denies such research any validity. I explore this first from a historical perspective, focusing particularly on how Du Bois’ critical work was denied validity by his contemporaries (while other scholars’ research reproducing structural racism was welcomed with open arms). I then focus on the present, examining how race critical research is often recast as ‘mesearch’, and consequently denied validity in a way that disproportionately affects scholars of colour. I then reflect on the problem that we need validity to do ethical research, but so long as the racialised regime of truth shapes what is valid, then race critical sociology will be marginalised. I finish the article by considering how this marginalisation displays Toni Morrison’s idea of ‘racism as distraction’, where race critical scholars must overcome a validity-deficit. Our work is automatically assumed to not be valid, and we have to struggle to get it recognised as such.
Identities: Global studies in culture and power, 2019
Drawing on interviews with thirty-two black British professionals, and ethnographic work in middl... more Drawing on interviews with thirty-two black British professionals, and ethnographic work in middle-class cultural spaces across London, this paper asks ‘How do the black middle-class use cultural consumption for anti-racism?’ I argue that the black middle-class contest the racial hierarchy at three levels through their cultural consumption: the material, the ideological, and the symbolic. At the material level, black middle-class people consume cultural forms they decode as ‘white’ in order to establish an equity with whites in levels of cultural capital. At the ideological level, black middle-class people consume cultural forms that uplift meanings and representations of blackness, thus challenging controlling images of blackness. Lastly, at the symbolic level, black middle-class folks create and sustain cultural spaces where black people’s cultural and symbolic knowledge is given proper recognition and authority.
Post-racialism is an ideology holding that we have transcended racism. Since the mid 20th century... more Post-racialism is an ideology holding that we have transcended racism. Since the mid 20th century when nation-states across the world started introducing policies legally enforcing equal opportunities, an ideology has concurrently emerged that racism no longer mars the societies it used to plague. Becoming crystallised in the 21st century, post-racial ideology thus dangerously downplays the continuing effects of race, racialisation, and racism. We can identify three main ways that post-racial ideology works to reproduce racism: the myth of racial progress, cultural reinterpretations of racial inequality, and a moral equivalence between anti-racism and anti-racialism.
This paper investigates the link between the racial hierarchy and the racialized interaction orde... more This paper investigates the link between the racial hierarchy and the racialized interaction order, questioning how controlling images of blackness are mediated in interactions. I explore this through interviews with thirty‐two black British middle‐class individuals, examining their interactions in the professional workplace. I argue that white people often draw on a practical knowledge of “white ignorance” to activate controlling images in their interactions with black professionals. This white ignorance allows for white people to find creative ways to irrationally deploy controlling images, and to adapt controlling images to specific interactional settings.
Drawing upon 23 qualitative interviews, and ethnographic work in London, this article explores ho... more Drawing upon 23 qualitative interviews, and ethnographic work in London, this article explores how black middle-class individuals in the UK decode forms of middle-class cultural capital. This decoding is two staged. Firstly, black middle-class individuals often decode dominant or ‘traditional’ middle-class cultural capital as white. This involves a recognition that certain forms of middle-class cultural capital are marked as racially exclusive, and are reproduced and recognised in ‘white spaces’. Secondly, black middle-class individuals also decode alternative forms of cultural capital as woven into a greater project of racial uplift. Such alternative forms of cultural capital are defined as ‘black cultural capital’, and tend to be based around fulfilling a cultural politics of black representation.
Drawing upon 38 qualitative interviews with Black and South Asian middle-class individuals we the... more Drawing upon 38 qualitative interviews with Black and South Asian middle-class individuals we theorise post-racialism as a hegemonic ideology. While research tends to focus on how racialised people experience racial inequality, some of our participants rationalised such inequality through a post-racial understanding. This post-racial understanding involves commitments to racial progress and transcendence, the view that racism is no longer a societal issue; race-neutral universalism, the belief that we live in a colourblind meritocracy; and a moral equivalence between anti-racism and anti-racialism, allowing for forms of ‘cultural’ racial prejudice. We examine how these components of post-racialism travel from the political macro-ideological level, to the micro-phenomenological level. Through this analysis we argue that these post-racial rationalisations are not the result of false consciousness, but reflect how post-racialism, as a hegemonic ideology, can manifest itself as common-sense and consistent with particular individuals’ histories of mobility and success.
In this paper, I explore the experiences of the Black middle classes across the United States, Un... more In this paper, I explore the experiences of the Black middle classes across the United States, United Kingdom (UK), and South Africa. I argue that the similar experiences the Black middle classes face across these nations are not coincidental but represent the process of globalised White hegemony. Globalised White hegemony refers to how the middle class, transnationally, is often understood as a symbolic category informed by specific White norms, identifications, and practices. I explore globalised White hegemony through three areas of Black middle-class experience: identity, interactions, and ideologies. Thus, I examine how across the UK, United States, and South Africa, the Black middle classes construct public identities according to White norms, encounter interactions through which their blackness negatively trumps their middle-class status, and confront classed-racialised ideologies, which construe the Black middle class as inauthentic. I argue in this paper that central to fleshing out the similarities in Black middle-class experiences across the globe is engaging in relational sociology, which stresses the globalised nature of contemporary raciality.
This paper explores the identities of Britain’s black middle-classes. Drawing upon interviews wit... more This paper explores the identities of Britain’s black middle-classes. Drawing upon interviews with seventy-two participants, I theorize a ‘triangle of identity’. This triangle emphasizes how black middle-class identities are constructed within the dynamics of three poles. Firstly, there is the class-minded pole whereby class comes to the fore as a conceptual scheme; secondly, there is the ethnoracial autonomous pole whereby ‘race’ is central to one’s identity and whiteness is actively resisted; and lastly there is the strategic assimilation pole, where one continually moves between classed and racialized spheres of action. This tripartite approach to identity builds upon previous research by further exploring the social, cultural and phenomenological distinctions within Britain’s black middle-classes.
Reading the first page of Hall’s collected essays, I was gripped with excitement; by the time I f... more Reading the first page of Hall’s collected essays, I was gripped with excitement; by the time I finished the book, my feelings were closer to angst. From Hall’s writings on anti-immigrant hostility in the postwar era through to the commercialization of education in the twenty-first century, one reads this collection of essays with a horrible sense of déjà vu.
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Books by Ali Meghji
This book explores why, and how, sociology needs to be decolonized. It analyses how sociology was integral in reproducing the colonial order, as dominant sociologists constructed theories either assuming or proving the supposed barbarity and backwardness of colonized people. Ali Meghji reveals how colonialism continues to shape the discipline today, dominating both social theory and the practice of sociology, how exporting the Eurocentric sociological canon erased social theories from the Global South, and how sociologists continue to ignore the relevance of coloniality in their work.
This critique and guide will be necessary reading for any student or proponent of sociology. In conversation with other decolonial advocates, Meghji provides key suggestions for what the sociological community can do to decolonize sociology going forward. Because, with curriculum reform and innovative teaching, it is possible to make sociology more equitable on a global scale.
Papers by Ali Meghji
Book Reviews by Ali Meghji
This book explores why, and how, sociology needs to be decolonized. It analyses how sociology was integral in reproducing the colonial order, as dominant sociologists constructed theories either assuming or proving the supposed barbarity and backwardness of colonized people. Ali Meghji reveals how colonialism continues to shape the discipline today, dominating both social theory and the practice of sociology, how exporting the Eurocentric sociological canon erased social theories from the Global South, and how sociologists continue to ignore the relevance of coloniality in their work.
This critique and guide will be necessary reading for any student or proponent of sociology. In conversation with other decolonial advocates, Meghji provides key suggestions for what the sociological community can do to decolonize sociology going forward. Because, with curriculum reform and innovative teaching, it is possible to make sociology more equitable on a global scale.