The Decolonization of Sociology: Rethinking Sociology from the Perspective of Bhambra

Abstract

This article reassesses the colonial foundations of sociology through Gurminder K. Bhambra’s framework of connected sociologies, arguing classical sociology to have constructed its narrative of modernity largely through intra-European historical dynamics and thus to have failed to account adequately for colonial relations as constitutive elements of the modern social world. The article first examines the epistemological foundations of classical sociology and the colonial blindness embedded within them before analyzing Bhambra’s critique of modernity, society, citizenship, and universality. The article further argues that modernity should be understood not as the self-generated development of Europe but as a historically connected formation that has been shaped by colonialism, empire, slavery, labor regimes, and global circulation networks. The article lastly discusses the decolonization of sociology, its intersections with decolonial theory, the historical and epistemological contributions of Bhambra’s intervention, and the principal criticisms directed at this approach. The article concludes the future of sociology to depend on its capacity to recognize its own colonial blindness and to reconstruct its claim of universality by incorporating excluded histories. The article is also expected to serve as a reminder of the search for reflexivity in sociology by drawing on the example of Bhambra.