Hana’ Khalief Ghani

Abstract

This essay reviews three books that investigate the intellectual significance of decentering Eurocentric models in sociology. Each takes a different approach: Syed Farid Alatas and Vineeta Sinha’s Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon employs the comparative biographical study of ‘canonical’ and less well known non-Western social theorists. Julian Go and George Lawson’s edited volume, Global Historical Sociology, develops a robust paradigm that departs from the ‘methodological nationalism’ that defines and limits contemporary sociology and related disciplines. The third book in this review, James V Spickard’s Alternative Sociologies of Religion: Through Non-Western Eyes, turns traditional sociology of religion on its head by examining contemporary Christianity and Islam using concepts developed in ancient China and 14th-century Tunisia. The three books share a similar aim: to shed light on the limits and oversight of Eurocentric sociology that emphasizes the stable sovereign nation and the individual but fails to provide due recognition to the interrelationships and mutual dependence that propel social identities in motion across time and space.

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Keywords

Decolonization
Eurocentrism
Global sociology
History of sociology
Sociology of religion

References
Abbott, A. Time Matters: On Theory and Method. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Alatas, Syed Farid & Sinha, Veneeta. Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Ghoshal, K.S. Sarkarism: The Ideas and Ideals of Benoy Sarkar on Man and his Conquests. Calcutta: Chuckervertty Chatterjee, 1939.
Go, Julian & Lawson, George. Global Historical Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Izharuddin, Alicia. "Does sociology need decolonizing?," International Sociology Reviews, Vol. 34, Issue 2, 2019.
Sarkar, B.K. Villages and Towns as Social Patterns. Calcutta: Chuckervertty Chatterjee, 1941.
Spickard, James V. Alternative Sociologies of Religion: Through Non-Western Eyes. New York: New York University Press, 2017.
How to Cite
Ghani, Hana’ Khalief. 2022. “Does Sociology Need Decolonization?”. Tajseer Journal 4 (2). https://doi.org/10.29117/tis.2022.0105.
Section
Articles in Arabic