Southern Theory

Introduction

Raewyn Connell, an Australian sociologist known for her work on masculinities, published Southern Theory in 2007. The first part examines how classical sociology arose in the imperial centres and generalised from their experience, and how recent general theorists – James Coleman, Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu – write as if from nowhere while drawing only on metropolitan societies. The rest of the book presents social thought from the global periphery: African debates on indigenous knowledge (Paulin Hountondji among others), Iranian thinkers such as Jalal Al-e Ahmad and Ali Shariati, Indian subaltern studies, Latin American dependency theory, and Aboriginal and settler thought on land in Australia. The book has become a reference point in debates on decolonising the social sciences.

Connections

Criticizes

• Distinction1979 · Pierre Bourdieu
• The Constitution of Society1984 · Anthony Giddens