A critique of postcolonial reason: Toward a history of the vanishing present
01 Jun 2000-Journal of The History of The Behavioral Sciences (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)-Vol. 36, Iss: 3, pp 300-301
About: This article is published in Journal of The History of The Behavioral Sciences.The article was published on 2000-06-01. It has received 1139 citations till now.
Citations
More filters
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the intersection between 'Northern' traditions of law and space and indigenous Australians experience of this 'history' and argue that the interleaving of law, tradition and "existence" is played out in various ways in the colonial and post-colonial history of the South.
Abstract: The article explores the issues of how law and space intersect in the area known as 'The South'. It examines the intersection between 'Northern' traditions of law and space and indigenous Australians experience of this 'history'. These intersections are germane to the question of how living in the South should now be understood in terms of the shape and pattern of legal relations. Ultimately, the question of indigenous and local traditions that form patterns of the lived experience of local peoples is mediated through law, but is not entirely subsumed by Northern law. Spatial and temporal existence is culturally embedded, and Aboriginal experience of time, for example, does not adhere to Northern parameters. Accordingly, the interleaving of law, tradition and 'existence' is played out in various ways in the colonial and postcolonial history of the South. Thus the interaction between the imposed legal concept and process, and that lived experience of the peoples of the South (whether we designate it as 'tradition' or not) is what is at issue in framing responses to the question of what it means to be positioned in the South.
1,044 citations
Cites background from "A critique of postcolonial reason: ..."
...Spivak Gayatri (1999) A Critique of Post Colonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present, Harvard University Press....
[...]
TL;DR: The article is concerned with a formation of ideas - "subaltern urbanism" - which undertakes the theorization of the megacity and its subaltern spaces and subaltern classes, and highlights emergent analytical strategies that transcend the familiar metonyms of underdevelopment.
Abstract: ijur_1051 223..238 This article is an intervention in the epistemologies and methodologies of urban studies. It seeks to understand and transform the ways in which the cities of the global South are studied and represented in urban research, and to some extent in popular discourse. As such, the article is primarily concerned with a formation of ideas — ‘subaltern urbanism’ — which undertakes the theorization of the megacity and its subaltern spaces and subaltern classes. Of these, the ubiquitous ‘slum’ is the most prominent. Writing against apocalyptic and dystopian narratives of the slum, subaltern urbanism provides accounts of the slum as a terrain of habitation, livelihood, self-organization and politics. This is a vital and even radical challenge to dominant narratives of the megacity. However, this article is concerned with the limits of and alternatives to subaltern urbanism. It thus highlights emergent analytical strategies, utilizing theoretical categories that transcend the familiar metonyms of underdevelopment such as the megacity, the slum, mass politics and the habitus of the dispossessed. Instead, four categories are discussed — peripheries, urban informality, zones of exception and gray spaces. Informed by the urbanism of the global South, these categories break with ontological and topological understandings of subaltern subjects and subaltern spaces.
807 citations
Cites background from "A critique of postcolonial reason: ..."
...Following the work of Spivak (1999), the subaltern can be understood as marking the limits of archival and ethnographic recognition; it is that which forces an analysis of dominant epistemologies and methodologies....
[...]
...Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak 1999:1 In the urban imagination of the new millennium, the “megacity” has become the shorthand for the human condition of the global South....
[...]
...This “produced ‘transparency,’” she rightly notes itself “marks the place of ‘interest’” (Spivak 1999: 265)....
[...]
...If we are to pay attention to what postcolonial critic, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1985: 262) has identified as the “worlding of what is now called the Third World,” then it is necessary to confront how the megacity is worlded through the icon of the slum....
[...]
Book•
20 Aug 2014
TL;DR: In this article, Now 1 1. Blackness: The Human 17 2. Bare Life: The Flesh 33 3. Assemblages: Articulation 46 4. Racism: Biopolitics 53 5. Law: Property 74 6. Depravation: Pornotropes 89 7. Deprivation: Hunger 113 8. Freedom: Soon 125 Notes 139 Bibliography 181 Index 205
Abstract: Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Now 1 1. Blackness: The Human 17 2. Bare Life: The Flesh 33 3. Assemblages: Articulation 46 4. Racism: Biopolitics 53 5. Law: Property 74 6. Depravation: Pornotropes 89 7. Deprivation: Hunger 113 8. Freedom: Soon 125 Notes 139 Bibliography 181 Index 205
731 citations
01 Jan 2008
727 citations
Cites background from "A critique of postcolonial reason: ..."
...…counterpoints, their relationships with corporations and governments are often ambiguous and framed by categories furnished by international institutions like the United Nations and World Bank, categories that are inimical to many groups that are negatively impacted by corporations (Spivak, 1999)....
[...]
...While NGOs do serve as important counterpoints, their relationships with corporations and governments are often ambiguous and framed by categories furnished by international institutions like the United Nations and World Bank, categories that are inimical to many groups that are negatively impacted by corporations (Spivak, 1999)....
[...]
TL;DR: Boaventura de Sousa Santos as discussed by the authors is a sociologist at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra (Portugal) and Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
Abstract: Boaventura de Sousa Santos is Professor of Sociology at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra (Portugal) and Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. He is Director of the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra and Director of the Center of Documentation on the Revolution of 1974, at the same University. He has published widely on globalization, sociology of law and the state, epistemology, democracy, and human rights in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, French and German.
668 citations
Additional excerpts
...…1971; Cardoso and Faletto, 1969; Frank, 1969; Rodney, 1972; Wallerstein, 1974, 2004; Bambirra, 1978; Dussell, 1995; Escobar, 1995; Chew and Denemark, 1996; Spivak, 1999; Césaire, 2000; Mignolo, 2000; Grosfoguel, 2000; AfzalKhan and Sheshadri-Crooks, 2000; Mbembe, 2001; and Dean and Levi, 2003....
[...]
References
More filters
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the intersection between 'Northern' traditions of law and space and indigenous Australians experience of this 'history' and argue that the interleaving of law, tradition and "existence" is played out in various ways in the colonial and post-colonial history of the South.
Abstract: The article explores the issues of how law and space intersect in the area known as 'The South'. It examines the intersection between 'Northern' traditions of law and space and indigenous Australians experience of this 'history'. These intersections are germane to the question of how living in the South should now be understood in terms of the shape and pattern of legal relations. Ultimately, the question of indigenous and local traditions that form patterns of the lived experience of local peoples is mediated through law, but is not entirely subsumed by Northern law. Spatial and temporal existence is culturally embedded, and Aboriginal experience of time, for example, does not adhere to Northern parameters. Accordingly, the interleaving of law, tradition and 'existence' is played out in various ways in the colonial and postcolonial history of the South. Thus the interaction between the imposed legal concept and process, and that lived experience of the peoples of the South (whether we designate it as 'tradition' or not) is what is at issue in framing responses to the question of what it means to be positioned in the South.
1,044 citations
TL;DR: The article is concerned with a formation of ideas - "subaltern urbanism" - which undertakes the theorization of the megacity and its subaltern spaces and subaltern classes, and highlights emergent analytical strategies that transcend the familiar metonyms of underdevelopment.
Abstract: ijur_1051 223..238 This article is an intervention in the epistemologies and methodologies of urban studies. It seeks to understand and transform the ways in which the cities of the global South are studied and represented in urban research, and to some extent in popular discourse. As such, the article is primarily concerned with a formation of ideas — ‘subaltern urbanism’ — which undertakes the theorization of the megacity and its subaltern spaces and subaltern classes. Of these, the ubiquitous ‘slum’ is the most prominent. Writing against apocalyptic and dystopian narratives of the slum, subaltern urbanism provides accounts of the slum as a terrain of habitation, livelihood, self-organization and politics. This is a vital and even radical challenge to dominant narratives of the megacity. However, this article is concerned with the limits of and alternatives to subaltern urbanism. It thus highlights emergent analytical strategies, utilizing theoretical categories that transcend the familiar metonyms of underdevelopment such as the megacity, the slum, mass politics and the habitus of the dispossessed. Instead, four categories are discussed — peripheries, urban informality, zones of exception and gray spaces. Informed by the urbanism of the global South, these categories break with ontological and topological understandings of subaltern subjects and subaltern spaces.
807 citations
Book•
20 Aug 2014
TL;DR: In this article, Now 1 1. Blackness: The Human 17 2. Bare Life: The Flesh 33 3. Assemblages: Articulation 46 4. Racism: Biopolitics 53 5. Law: Property 74 6. Depravation: Pornotropes 89 7. Deprivation: Hunger 113 8. Freedom: Soon 125 Notes 139 Bibliography 181 Index 205
Abstract: Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Now 1 1. Blackness: The Human 17 2. Bare Life: The Flesh 33 3. Assemblages: Articulation 46 4. Racism: Biopolitics 53 5. Law: Property 74 6. Depravation: Pornotropes 89 7. Deprivation: Hunger 113 8. Freedom: Soon 125 Notes 139 Bibliography 181 Index 205
731 citations
TL;DR: Boaventura de Sousa Santos as discussed by the authors is a sociologist at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra (Portugal) and Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
Abstract: Boaventura de Sousa Santos is Professor of Sociology at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra (Portugal) and Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. He is Director of the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra and Director of the Center of Documentation on the Revolution of 1974, at the same University. He has published widely on globalization, sociology of law and the state, epistemology, democracy, and human rights in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, French and German.
668 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that despite claims of a paradigm shift, the sustainable development paradigm is based on an economic, not ecological, rationality, and argue that these aspects of sustainable development threaten to colonize spaces and sites in the Third World, spaces that now need to be made "efficient" because of the c...
Abstract: This paper explores the contradictions inherent in one of the more popular buzzwords of today: sustainable development. I argue that, despite claims of a paradigm shift, the sustainable development paradigm is based on an economic, not ecological, rationality. Discourses of sustainable development embody a view of nature specified by modern economic thought. One consequence of this discourse involves the transformation of ‘nature’ into ‘environment’, a transformation that has important implications for notions of how development should proceed. The ‘rational’ management of resources is integral to the Western economy and its imposition on developing countries is problematic. I discuss the implications of this ‘regime of truth’ for the Third World with particular reference to biotechnology, biodiversity and intellectual property rights. I argue that these aspects of sustainable development threaten to colonize spaces and sites in the Third World, spaces that now need to be made ‘efficient’ because of the c...
641 citations