Colonialism and Modern Social Theory. Gurminder K. Bhambra

200

      208  201

      209  202

      210  203

      211  204

      212  205

      213  206

      214  207

      215  208

      216  209

      217  210

      218  211

      219  212

      220  213

      221  214

      222  215

      223  230

      224 231

      225 232

      226 233

      227 234

      228 235

      229 236

      230 237

      231 238

      232 239

      233 240

      234 241

      235 242

      236 243

      237 244

      238 245

      239 246

      240 247

      241 248

      242 249

      243 250

      244  251

      245 252

      246 253

      247 254

      248 255

      249 256

      250 257

      251  258

Dedication

      For the Uncle Rabbit Social Club

Colonialism and Modern Social Theory

      Gurminder K. Bhambra and John Holmwood

      polity

Copyright Page

      Copyright © Gurminder K. Bhambra and John Holmwood 2021

      The right of Gurminder K. Bhambra and John Holmwood to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      First published in 2021 by Polity Press

      Polity Press

      65 Bridge Street

      Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

      Polity Press

      101 Station Landing

      Suite 300

      Medford, MA 02155, USA

      All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4129-4

      ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4130-0(pb)

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL

      The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

      Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

      For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

Preface and Acknowledgements

      In this book we discuss modern social theory in the context of the history of European colonialism and the construction of the United States as a nation with a ‘manifest destiny’ across the continent. The dominant accounts of modernity, which encompass ideas of liberty, democracy, and progress, are strongly determined by these events. Colonialism is largely absent from these understandings, yet it haunts everyday life in the self-defined centres of modernity. It forms the unacknowledged context of the ‘migrant crisis’ in Europe and of populist ressentiment and rejections of multiculturalism.

      We came to write this book after a period of research leave in the United States in 2014–15. This coincided with celebrations of fifty years since the passing of the Voting Rights Act in the United States and an increasing recognition that, rather than having been built upon, many of the gains of this period were being dismantled. Black Lives Matter had recently emerged as a distinctive new protest movement – new, that is, to those unfamiliar with the facts of what Michelle Alexander calls ‘the new Jim Crow’ and resistance to it. Among our many conversations, and with the benefit of distance, we necessarily turned to the issue of how our own context in the United Kingdom was similar. The referendum on Scottish independence was under way and was making evident the fractures within Britain, fractures that would open more dramatically with the referendum to leave the European Union a couple of years later.

These events were part of everyday lived experience, yet seemed at odds with the dominant sociological sensibility. An overwhelming majority of academics supported remaining in the European Union and, in the aftermath of the vote, there was a call that they needed to reconnect with ‘ordinary’ citizens. A similar call was issued in the United States after the election of Donald Trump to the office of president. It is right that there should be introspection about such moments, reflection on sociology’s broader failure to recognise the underlying currents and offer cogent analyses of the situation. Of course, it would have been better if these analyses had been available before the events – as the currents have been running over a long course. Just as the assumptions of economics came to be questioned after its failure to anticipate the financial crisis of 2008, so the assumptions of sociology and other social sciences are in question now.

      One response is in favour of a realignment with the current flow. This is evident in calls by some in the United States and Europe to recognise the ‘legitimate’ claims of a white working class that has been ‘left behind’. However, the apparent normalisation of these issues as being about ‘class’ and not about ‘identity’ reveals the strongest identity claim of all. After all, class issues could most easily have been addressed regardless of race and ethnicity, through inclusive social and economic policies. The focus on a special disadvantage to white workers, who were nonetheless relatively more advantaged than ethnic minority workers, indicated that the concern was less with economic disadvantage than with the inclusion of multicultural others.

      Here we want to identify the social structural