Global Modernization, `Coloniality' and a Critical Sociology for Contemporary Latin America
- 1 January 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Theory, Culture & Society
- Vol. 26 (1), 112-133
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276408099018
Abstract
This article analyses recent social, cultural and political developments in Latin America, with special reference to the `modernity/coloniality' project, as well as offering an alternative sociological interpretation of the contemporary subcontinent. It analyses in particular Walter Mignolo's work as the main expression of that `post/decolonial' project, a general interpretive effort that reflects actual social changes but offers misguided theoretical and political perspectives. The article then proposes a discussion of modernity as a global civilization which is now unfolding its third phase, characterized by greater complexity and pluralism. In addition it argues that modernity should be seen as a two-pronged phenomenon, featuring not only domination but also emancipation. Against the reification of modernity, the article suggests that we see it as woven by multiple and contingent modernizing moves.Keywords
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