Apr 24, 2012

coloniality vs colonialism

sorry for the unusually long silence on this blog, I'm crazy busy, so for now just a brief quote from Ramón Grosfoguel (ethnic studies, Berkeley), who, in his article 'The epistemic decolonial turn' writes:

"'Coloniality of power' refers to a crucial structuring process in the modern/colonial world-system that articulates peripheral locations in the international division of labor with the global racial/ethnic hierarchy and Third World migrants' inscription in the racial/ethnic hierarchy of metropolitan global cities. In this sense, there is a periphery outside and inside the core zones and there is a core inside and outside the peripheral regions."

"I use the word 'colonialism' to refer to 'colonial situations' enforced by the presence of a colonial administration such as the period of classical colonialism, and, following Quijano (1991) Quijano (1993) Quijano (1998), I use 'coloniality' to address 'colonial situations' in the present period in which colonial administrations have almost been eradicated from the capitalist world-system. By 'colonial situations' I mean the cultural, political, sexual, spiritual, epistemic and economic oppression/exploitation of subordinate racialized/ethnic groups by dominant racialized/ethnic groups with or without the existence of colonial administrations."

He goes on to say that "The mythology about the 'decolonization of the world' obscures the continuities between the colonial past and current global colonial/racial hierarchies and contributes to the invisibility of 'coloniality' today."

Apr 4, 2012

books on solidarity



I am at the International Studies Association conference in San Diego. I was surprised that there were no presentations with the word solidarity in the title, and I only heard the word mentioned once in a presentation (by the fabulous Catherine Eschle who I was thrilled to get to meet).

But I did see two exciting new books on solidarity at the book fair:

Solidarity Politics for Millennials: A Guide to Ending the Oppression Olympics (The Politics of Intersectionality)

by Ange Marie Hancock (amazon link because it's searchable within and google is not)

and

Solidarity Transformed: Labor Responses to Globalization and Crisis in Latin America by
Mark S. Anner

and I was reminded of the book

Race and the Politics of Solidarity (Transgressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities) by Juliet Hooker

all of which I have added to this list of resources on solidarity (which you can add to - please do!)