Does sociology need decolonizing

Bibliographic Data

ID2355853
AuthorsAlicia Izharuddin (0009-0002-3796-5554, University of Malaya, Malaysia, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume34
Issue2
Pages130-137
Publication date2019-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-5809 • E-ISSN: 1461-7242
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0268580919830903
OpenAlexW2918285788
LanguageEN
Citations received8

This essay reviews three books that investigate the intellectual significance of decentering Eurocentric models in sociology. Each takes a different approach: Syed Farid Alatas and Vineeta Sinha's Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon employs the comparative biographical study of 'canonical' and less well known non-Western social theorists. Julian Go and George Lawson's edited volume, Global Historical Sociology, develops a robust paradigm that departs from the 'methodological nationalism' that defines and limits contemporary sociology and related disciplines. The third book in this review, James V Spickard's Alternative Sociologies of Religion: Through Non-Western Eyes, turns traditional sociology of religion on its head by examining contemporary Christianity and Islam using concepts developed in ancient China and 14th-century Tunisia. The three books share a similar aim: to shed light on the limits and oversight of Eurocentric sociology that emphasizes the stable sovereign nation and the individual but fails to provide due recognition to the interrelationships and mutual dependence that propel social identities in motion across time and space

Epistemology · Historical sociology · Islam · Social science · Social theory · Sociology · Sociology of culture · Sociology of leisure · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions

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