Abstract

COSTA, Sérgio. "Deprovincializing" sociology: the post colonial contribution.Translated byAndré Villalobos. Rev. bras. ciênc. soc. [online]. 2007, vol.3Selected edition, pp. 0-0. ISSN 0102-6909.

This essay discusses the contributions of post-colonial studies for renewing the contemporary social theory. At first it considers the character of the critique addressed by post-colonial studies to social sciences. After that, it analyses the post-colonial epistemological alternatives, considering three interrelated concepts: entangled modernity, "hybrid" site of enunciation, and decentralized subject. The conclusion is that, in spite of its severity and suspicion among some authors that post-colonial theory can destroy epistemological foundations of social sciences, an important part of post-colonial critique is rather addressed to the theory of modernization. Here, post-colonial positions present affinities with objections, which have already been presented by "conventional" social scientists. Other aspects raised by post-colonial authors do not destabilize, necessarily, social sciences; they can even enrich them.

Keywords : Post-colonial studies; Difference; Sociological theory.

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