Cervinkova, Hana
(2012)
Postcolonialism, postsocialism and the
anthropology of east-central Europe.
Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 48 (2).
pp. 155-163.
ISSN 1744-9855
Abstract
In this paper, I consider the issue of postcolonialism and postsocialism from the
perspective of the discipline of anthropology. I argue that the recent efforts of anthropologists at bringing postcolonialism and postsocialism into dialogue can help us to
develop a fresh conceptual framing of ethnographic problems and can play a positive
role in the dismantling of the historically generated and geographically bounded divisions that have determined scholarly approaches to analysing peoples’ experiences in
different parts of the globe. I insist, however, on what I consider to be a key epistemological divergence between the two concepts. While postcolonialism was born as a
project of indigenous epistemological critique of the persistence of colonialism in the
postcolonial present with emancipatory/liberatory implications, postsocialism was
developed as an analytical tool by western scholars to analyse the former societies of
the Communist bloc. This hegemonic epistemology of postsocialism makes it a very
different concept from postcolonialism and raises questions concerning its usefulness
as an intellectually empowering tool for scholars in challenging local inequities arising
from the effects of global capitalism. In order to illustrate this limitation, I review the
recent disciplinary debate on the politics of knowledge production between native and
western anthropologists of postsocialism.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
postsocialism; postcolonialism; anthropology; epistemology; global
capitalism; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology |
| Item ID: |
12753 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2012.658246 |
| Depositing User: |
Hana Cervinkova
|
| Date Deposited: |
16 Apr 2020 13:40 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Journal of Postcolonial Writing |
| Publisher: |
Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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