Wednesday 19 March Zochonis Lecture Theatre A, 15:30 – 17:00.
Professor Vivek Chibber (New York University) ‘Postcolonial Theory and the Spectre of Capital’.
A provocative intellectual assault on the Subalternists’ foundational work.
Postcolonial theory has become enormously influential as a framework for understanding the Global South. It is also a school of thought popular because of its rejection of the supposedly universalizing categories of the Enlightenment. In this devastating critique, mounted on behalf of the radical Enlightenment tradition, Vivek Chibber offers the most comprehensive response yet to postcolonial theory. Focusing on the hugely popular Subaltern Studies project, Chibber shows that its foundational arguments are based on a series of analytical and historical misapprehensions. He demonstrates that it is possible to affirm a universalizing theory without succumbing to Eurocentrism or reductionism.
Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital promises to be a historical milestone in contemporary social theory.
http://www.versobooks.com/books/1158-postcolonial-theory-and-the-specter-of-capital
All welcome
Supported by the Manchester Global Political Economy Research Cluster, the Manchester Political Economy Institute, and the CSE Trans-Pennine Working Group.