Postcolonial sociology as a remedy for global diffusion theory

Abstract

The dominant theoretical approaches that aim to explain the origins and subsequent global diffusion of modern norms, practices, and institutions have reached an impasse. World polity theory and ‘coercion’ perspectives describe a process in which norms originate in the Global North and spread to the rest of the world. For the former, diffusion occurs via the willful imitation of shared values; for the latter, it occurs due to economic/political pressure and/or force. However, both approaches are unable to account for norms that emerge in the Global South and get adopted globally. This article argues that postcolonial sociology can help overcome the common pitfalls of the existing theories and provide a theoretical framework for analyzing global diffusion through its analytical focus on subaltern agency, ‘relationalism,’ and colonial contours of power. The utility of postcolonial sociology is demonstrated using archival data and an historical analysis of the 1938 Trade Disputes (Arbitration and Inquiry) Ordinance, which emerged in Trinidad and Tobago and was subsequently adopted by a number of colonies across the British empire.

“SHE CAN GET A VISA”: How Nationality and Class Shape Decision Making at a Kenyan NGO

“…Elastic transnational stratification also accommodates the international development sector’s reckoning with White Supremacy. Elastic transnational stratification aligns itself with postcolonial sociology and intersectionality; it recognizes the agency subaltern subjects possess as they constitute their identities according to power relations at multiple levels (Atewologun, Sealy, and Vinnicombe 2016; Edwards 2020; Go 2013).…”

The journey of subalternity in Gayatri Spivak’s work: Its sociological relevance

“…Thirdly, it can guide studies that have a methodological interest in representing subalternity through research with/about subalterns (e.g. Darder, 2018; Edwards, 2020) but which do not elaborate on how including sociologically-specific subalterns in these investigations influences epistemic questions, research and the subaltern condition itself. With Spivak’s matrix instead, the problem of representing subalternity to counter epistemic violence in research is inextricable from asking who exactly these subalterns are: their sociological concreteness stimulates theoretical, methodological and political/practical questions with transformative potential.…”

Unsettling West-centrism in the study of professional service firms

“…Postcolonial sociological studies of global knowledge diffusion are useful here. For instance, Edwards’ (2020) historical study shows how the Trade Disputes Ordinance first emerged in Trinidad and Tobago in 1938 and was then diffused throughout the British Empire. There is no a priori reason to believe such ‘South-to-Rest’ knowledge transfer might not be present in the professional services sector and indeed in the world of business more generally.…”