Refracting Eurocentrism, operationalizing complicity: The Swiss Sonderfall as a vantage point

Abstract

Critiques of the parochialism of urban theory have resulted in appeals for more global urban studies. Yet, the fruitful responses to postcolonial work frequently remain sequestered, reflecting the persistence of Eurocentrism as a burden shouldered largely by the so-called “South”. This paper aims to shift the work implied by critiques of Eurocentrism – from the labor of translation to the chore of representation – to those whom Eurocentrism serves. We argue that recognizing the ways academics are always already complicit in Eurocentrism by working within the academy is an important starting point. Can the functions of complicity also serve to redistribute the burdens of redress and allow cultivating new possibilities to respond? To understand the functions of complicity, we take inspiration from the historical position of Switzerland on “the margins” of colonialism. Scrutinizing the history of a formally non-colonizing country reveals multiple forms of taking part in, benefitting from and assisting in colonial efforts. Applying these learnings to institutional and epistemological possibilities of working with complicity in the academy, we interrogate the potentials and limits of these functions to address the reproduction of Eurocentrism.

Complicity: Methodologies of power, politics and the ethics of knowledge production

“…For sure, there are instances where academics generally, and sociologists of health and illness specifically, have actively colluded with states, industries and each other to do harm and perpetuate inequalities (see Landman et al., 2008; McElfish et al., 2022). More frequently, though, it seems likely that the situations that we describe above, different as they might be, are typical: on neither the football field nor at the donor drive did we intend to perpetuate harm, but neither did we overtly challenge a status quo that allowed our research to progress (Hilbrandt & Ren, 2022; Joseph‐Salisbury & Connelly, 2021, pp. 190–198).…”

Re-imagining the futures of geographical thought and praxis

“…Un-disciplining the discipline of geography involves not only a reckoning with colonial and imperial legacies but also engaging with theories, methods, and problematics of 'cognate' disciplines as well as different ontologies, epistemologies, and praxes. Additionally, it demands that geographers come to terms with our own differential complicity in the very assemblages of Eurocentric knowledge production that are the object of our critiques (Hilbrandt and Ren, 2022).…”