A Critical Synergy
Race, Decoloniality, and World Crises
Published on 15. September 2023
Book
Hardback
210 pages
978-1-4399-2206-4 (ISBN)
Description
Practitioners of decolonial theory and critical race theory (CRT) often use one or the other, but not both. In his provocative book, A Critical Synergy, Ali Meghji suggests using the two theories in tandem rather than attempting to hierarchize or synthesize them. Doing so allows for the study of social phenomena in a way that captures their global and historical roots, while acknowledging their local, national, and contemporary particularities.
The differences between decolonial thought and CRT, Meghji insists, does not necessarily imply one approach is stronger. Rather, he asserts, they often provide alternative but not incompatible viewpoints of the same social problem. Meghji presents case studies of capitalism, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and twenty-first-century far-right populism to show that with both theories, we can understand more, as insights may be lost by using only one.
Meghji is not calling for a universal theoretical synthesis in A Critical Synergy, but rather a practice that can help open sociology and social science to the tradition of pluriversality much more broadly.
The differences between decolonial thought and CRT, Meghji insists, does not necessarily imply one approach is stronger. Rather, he asserts, they often provide alternative but not incompatible viewpoints of the same social problem. Meghji presents case studies of capitalism, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and twenty-first-century far-right populism to show that with both theories, we can understand more, as insights may be lost by using only one.
Meghji is not calling for a universal theoretical synthesis in A Critical Synergy, but rather a practice that can help open sociology and social science to the tradition of pluriversality much more broadly.
Reviews / Votes
"A Critical Synergy is an insightful text that will be equally useful to global and transnational sociologists, sociologists of race and ethnicity, and critical theorists. By creatively weaving together critical race theory and decolonial theory, Meghji demonstrates how social inequalities within nation-states articulate to global systems of inequality. His unique theoretical approach sheds new light on a range of contemporary problems-from right-wing populism to environmental racism and COVID-19. A must read!"-Zine Magubane, Professor of Sociology at Boston College "Get ready to be drawn into a highly readable account of why a theoretical synergy between decolonial thought and critical race theory is not only a good idea, but a highly necessary endeavor-one that is not a synthesis, but a dialogue. In clear and precise language and with a wealth of both historical and present-day examples, Meghji makes a convincing case against conventional theoretical taxonomies and for collaborative conversations between two key critical knowledge projects of our time."-Manuela Boatca, Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of the Global Studies Programme at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and coauthor of Creolizing the Modern: Transylvania across Empires "What binds critical race theory (CRT) and decoloniality? They seem to be polar opposites, as CRT centers racism while decoloniality, being transnational, decenters the nation-state as a unit of analysis. Temporally, CRT rests on presentism, decoloniality on historicism. Despite this spatial and temporal divergence, Meghji fuses both theoretical traditions so that one appears incomplete without the other. He deploys four case studies to construct a dialogue between the two: far-right populism, global capitalism, the climate crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic.... Meghji does a splendid job showing how CRT and decoloniality complement each other.... This volume should be required reading on critical race theory and decoloniality. Summing Up: Highly recommended."-Choice "Meghji offers an insightful, readable walk through two schools of sociological and analytical thought that have been kept too far apart from one another, and readers will gain a revived lens through which to understand some of the most critical ongoing crises of our times."-Contemporary SociologyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Philadelphia PA
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4399-2206-4 (9781439922064)
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
Person
Ali Meghji is Associate Professor in Social Inequalities in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of The Racialized Social System: Critical Race Theory as Social Theory, Decolonizing Sociology: An Introduction, and Black Middle-Class Britannia: Identities, Repertoires, Cultural Consumption.