Reflecting on the History of Sociology in Nigeria: Strategies to Enhance Endogenous Theory within a Global Dialogue

Akinyede, Oluwatomi; Puddephatt, Antony J.

doi:10.1007/s12108-021-09486-0

Cited by 2 publications

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“…If, in the 2000s, the echoes of postcolonialism already resonated in more transversal initiatives, such as those related to the construction of a global and public sociology (McLennan, 2010a: 119), this tendency seems to have grown in recent years. Current debates on how to develop a global sociology capable of accounting for the cultural diversity to be found within and beyond the West more or less explicitly take up the challenges posed by postcolonial theory (see for instance: Akinyede and Puddephatt, 2021;Bhambra, 2010Bhambra, , 2014aBhambra and Santos, 2017;Connell, 2007a;Hanafi, 2020;Santos, 2014;Savransky, 2017). Since Burawoy (2005) published his influential article, the debates on what a public sociology should look like have also been responsive to these criticisms (Arribas Lozano, 2018).…”

Section: The Postcolonial Critique Of Sociological Eurocentrism and T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Durkheim, Religion, and the Postcolonial Critique of Sociology’s Eurocentrism

Bermejo

2023

Journal of Classical Sociology

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In light of the postcolonial critique of Eurocentrism, the epistemological foundations of sociology and the legacies of classical sociologists have certainly become controversial. Postcolonial critiques of sociology’s Eurocentrism have denounced the “parochial” nature and limitations of the theoretical contributions left by Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, the reductive and stereotyping orientation of the “primitivist” and/or “orientalist” representations of non-Western peoples that can be identified in their work, and the incomplete and misleading accounts of the Western processes of modernization that we have inherited from them, which fail to fully address and satisfactorily account for the realities of modern Western forms of colonialism and imperialism. However, the nature and consequences of Durkheim’s specific sociological Eurocentrism raise opposing views within postcolonialism. This article aims to evaluate the pertinence of the divergent and sometimes contradictory postcolonial appraisals of Durkheim’s Eurocentrism by focusing particularly on the controversies generated by his sociological approach to religion. Placing Durkheim’s sociological project within both the academic field and the socio-political context in which it took shape, this article highlights the shifting relevance and the implications of his evolving sociological approach to this object of study in his science of morals. Although it is not exempt from inconsistencies and Eurocentric assumptions, Durkheim’s sociological approach to religion leaves an invaluable legacy for a non-dualistic sociological understanding of the rituals through which humans (re)create their social identities and their forms of belonging and solidarity. In line with the priorities of some postcolonial agendas, it can fully reveal its explanatory potential in the sociological investigation of modern and contemporary interethnic and racial conflicts and forms of colonialism and neo-colonialism.

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