Critical Interventions in Western Social Theory: Reflections on Power and Southern Theory

Abstract

This essay critically assesses Connell’s Southern Theory. Operating from the premise that knowledge is a “project” embedded in power relations, the essay suggests that while the scope of ideas surveyed in Southern Theory is an important accomplishment, two main dilemmas can be found. The first is that Southern Theory inadvertently puts “Northern theory” at the center. The second is that the southern theorists examined tend to be educated elites from the Global South, thereby overlooking other actors in the Global South and their ways of doing theory. Struggling to change, not just the ideas, but also the ownership, vested interests and institutional actors of social theory as knowledge project might create space for much needed dialogues across differences in power.

Citation

Collins, P.H. (2013), "Critical Interventions in Western Social Theory: Reflections on Power and Southern Theory ", Decentering Social Theory (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 25), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 137-146. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-8719(2013)0000025012