
Decolonization as World Counterculture
Studying Theories in Motion in Social Work Education
Sandra Holtgreve(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 27. October 2025
Book
Hardback
252 pages
978-1-032-93382-5 (ISBN)
Description
Decolonization as World Counterculture captures the underlying conditions of the rise of post- and decolonial theories by asking how we arrived at this moment when decolonial arguments seem to be everywhere and yet not enough.
While efforts to decolonize knowledge and disciplines continue to expand, this book takes a different, theory-reflecting approach. It examines instead how decolonization itself has become a global although unequally addressed phenomenon. Bringing together world culture research with postcolonial studies in the field of social work, the book analyzes social work curricula from Germany, Mexico, and Ecuador to explore how (de)coloniality is embedded in diverging horizons of meanings but shaped by strikingly similar institutions in the educational setting. To this end, the book offers a knowledge sociological view on how decolonization itself is globalized. It mobilizes the neo-institutional approach of world culture to describe the decolonial imperative as "world counterculture," an integrative frame of otherwise different and diverging social justice agendas. In this way, taking the theoretical premises of decolonization seriously, the book examines the promises and limitations of connecting decolonization with Western theories of globalization.
Assembling these distinct pieces of a puzzle spanning different fields, this book is a testimony to the most successful and thriving theoretical views of the last decades in the human and social sciences. It is sure to challenge, fascinate, and inspire readers across the specialist fields of postcolonial studies, the sociology of knowledge, global social theory, and international social work.
While efforts to decolonize knowledge and disciplines continue to expand, this book takes a different, theory-reflecting approach. It examines instead how decolonization itself has become a global although unequally addressed phenomenon. Bringing together world culture research with postcolonial studies in the field of social work, the book analyzes social work curricula from Germany, Mexico, and Ecuador to explore how (de)coloniality is embedded in diverging horizons of meanings but shaped by strikingly similar institutions in the educational setting. To this end, the book offers a knowledge sociological view on how decolonization itself is globalized. It mobilizes the neo-institutional approach of world culture to describe the decolonial imperative as "world counterculture," an integrative frame of otherwise different and diverging social justice agendas. In this way, taking the theoretical premises of decolonization seriously, the book examines the promises and limitations of connecting decolonization with Western theories of globalization.
Assembling these distinct pieces of a puzzle spanning different fields, this book is a testimony to the most successful and thriving theoretical views of the last decades in the human and social sciences. It is sure to challenge, fascinate, and inspire readers across the specialist fields of postcolonial studies, the sociology of knowledge, global social theory, and international social work.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Academic and Postgraduate
Illustrations
6 s/w Zeichnungen, 6 s/w Abbildungen, 3 farbige Abbildungen, 3 farbige Zeichnungen, 15 s/w Tabellen
15 Tables, black and white; 3 Line drawings, color; 6 Line drawings, black and white; 3 Illustrations, color; 6 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
540 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-93382-5 (9781032933825)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Sandra Holtgreve
Decolonization as World Counterculture
Studying Theories in Motion in Social Work Education
E-Book
10/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download

Sandra Holtgreve
Decolonization as World Counterculture
Studying Theories in Motion in Social Work Education
E-Book
10/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download
Person
Sandra Holtgreve is a lecturer at Bielefeld University and a practicing social worker responsible for coordinating municipal integration initiatives. She is the co-editor of Envisioning the World: Mapping and Making the Global (2021), with Karlson Preuss and Mathias Albert.
Content
1. Introduction: Studying theories in motion 2. How non-Western principles permeate the world? 3. Tracing world countercultural models 4. Semantic landscapes of the turn to coloniality 5. Four drivers of institutionalization 6. Decolonization as world counterculture: Lessons from the turn to coloniality 7. Bibliography 8. Attachments