II. Suggested Course Reading List

This section contains recent scholarly works that would be suited for an undergraduate Global Social Thought course. Click on the title to access the resource.

Alatas S. F. and Sinha V.2017. Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

This book broadens the sociological canon by including non-Western and female voices.  It highlights the biases of Eurocentrism and androcentrism and suggestions corrections to these biases. The authors challenge a dominant believe that sociological theory was developed by only Western European and later North American white males in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.  The book aims to restructure the ways in which we theorise the emergence of the classical sociological canon and fills a significant lacuna by providing a unique teaching resource to students of classical sociological theory.

Bhambra, G. K. and J. Holmwood. 2021. Colonialism and Modern Social Theory, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

This book aims to correct the imbalance caused by previously excluding marginalized groups and encourages readers to rethink the currently accepted foundational concepts in the canon of modern social theory. The authors aim to ‘decolonise’ the dominant sociological concepts and categories and disrupt the usual course of teaching social theory by providing alternate concepts and views of the development of social theory.

Go, J. 2016. Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory, New York: Oxford University Press.

This book explores the implications of postcolonial thought and its impact on the academic humanities, particularly in respect to social science, social theory and sociology. The author begins by introducing theories of social theory and postcolonial thought and then dissects the different postcolonial thought waves, highlighting the contributions of predominant thinkers and authors involved in each wave. The book presents a postcolonial challenge to social theory and identifies several strategies for shaping postcolonial social science, suggesting the creation of a third wave of social theory that highlights points of convergence and difference in postcolonial thought and social science.

Meghji, A. 2021. Decolonizing Sociology: An Introduction, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

This article aims to break down Sociology as a discipline and assess it through a decolonized lens. The author discusses the current problems within the sociological canon, mentions the scholars that are already doing decolonial work in Sociology and offers critiques of their ideas. The book explores the key concepts of colonialism, colonial difference and decoloniality, and discusses some alternatives, arguing for us to embrace decolonial sociology.