Relational sociology and postcolonial theory

sketches of a "postcolonial relationalism"

Julian Go

pp. 357-373

in: François Dépelteau (ed), The Palgrave handbook of relational sociology, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

This chapter illuminates the common ground between postcolonial theory and relational sociology. While they seem opposed, in fact they both share a critique of substantialism and place ontological and analytic primacy upon constitutive relations. In postcolonial theory, this "postcolonial relationalism" is evident especially, but not only, in Edward Said's "contrapuntal" approach. After drawing out these commonalities, the chapter provides an empirical illustration of postcolonial relationalism in social theory, examining the French and Haitian revolutions from the perspective of Pierre Bourdieu's field theory.

Cited authors

Bourdieu Pierre