Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination

Citation

Bhambra, G. K. (2007). Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination. Palgrave Macmillan. (Reissued by Springer in 2023 with the same chapters.)

Chapter Summary

Context and Argument

Bhambra's first book argues that sociology's account of modernity is built on an abstraction of Europe from its colonial relations. The publisher's description says that she criticises the abstraction of European modernity from its colonial context and the way non-Western "others" are disregarded, and that she aims to establish a dialogue in which those others can speak and be heard. Her alternative is the idea of "connected histories". The book is short, about 200 pages, and has an introduction, six chapters and a conclusion. In 2008 it won the British Sociological Association's Philip Abrams Memorial Prize for the best first book in sociology.

Introduction: Postcolonialism, Sociology, and the Politics of Knowledge Production

The introduction places the book between postcolonial thought and sociology, and presents the question as one about how knowledge is produced in the discipline.

Chapter 1: Modernity, Colonialism, and Postcolonial Critique

The chapter criticises standard sociological accounts of modernity for neglecting colonialism, and introduces postcolonial critique as a way of treating colonial histories as integral to modernity, not peripheral to it.

Chapter 2: European Modernity and the Sociological Imagination

This chapter asks how the idea of European modernity shaped the sociological imagination. It discusses the Enlightenment background to the discipline and the way colonial contexts dropped out of its founding narratives.

Chapter 3: From Modernization to Multiple Modernities: Eurocentrism Redux

The chapter follows the move from classical modernization theory to the idea of multiple modernities, and argues that Eurocentrism persists in both. Connected histories are offered as a methodological alternative.

Chapter 4: Myths of European Cultural Integrity: The Renaissance

The Renaissance is used as the first test case. Bhambra questions the picture of a self-contained European cultural achievement and places it within wider global connections.

Chapter 5: Myths of the Modern Nation-State: The French Revolution

The French Revolution, usually treated as the birth of the modern nation-state, is re-read with attention to its global dimensions and its colonial entanglements.

Chapter 6: Myths of Industrial Capitalism: The Industrial Revolution

The last case study argues against presenting the Industrial Revolution as a purely European development, and points to the global processes and colonial contexts involved in industrialisation.

Conclusion: Sociology and Social Theory after Postcolonialism – Towards a Connected Historiography

The conclusion draws the arguments together and calls for a connected historiography that places colonial histories at the centre of sociological inquiry.

Key Concepts

Introduction and Chapters 1–2

• Modernity: the set of social, political and economic transformations that sociology has usually attributed to Europe, which the book argues cannot be understood without colonial history.
• Postcolonial critique: a way of exposing the colonial assumptions and omissions in disciplines and their narratives.
• Sociological imagination: the discipline's habit of thought, which the book shows to be shaped by a particular picture of European modernity.

Chapter 3

• Eurocentrism: treating European experience as the universal measure.
• Multiple modernities: the idea that modernity takes several cultural forms, which Bhambra argues still keeps a European framework.
• Connected histories: an approach that follows the links between regions, in place of treating histories as separate and self-sufficient.

Chapters 4–6

• Myths of European integrity: the Renaissance, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution as the three episodes where the claim of a self-contained Europe is tested.

Conclusion

• Connected historiography: a rewritten account of the modern world that includes colonial histories as part of the core.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A sharp, compact argument. The book is short and has a clear sequence: the diagnosis in Chapters 1–3, three case studies in Chapters 4–6, and a conclusion that proposes a different historiography.
• Tests the argument on standard narratives. Taking the Renaissance, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, the pillars of the usual story of modernity, makes the critique concrete and checkable.
• Recognised contribution. It was awarded the BSA's Philip Abrams Memorial Prize, the committee describing it as a fundamental reconstruction of the idea of modernity in sociology and social theory.
• Moves beyond the multiple modernities debate. The book does not treat that framework as a solution, and gives readers an argument for why it falls short.

Limitations

• Written for readers who know the canon. The book discusses modernization theory, multiple modernities and the sociological imagination in a way that assumes some theory background.
• Case studies are brief. At about 200 pages, each historical episode receives a chapter of roughly twenty pages, so specialist historians of these periods will find the treatment a framing, not a full history.
• Part of a longer conversation. The author's later Connected Sociologies (2014) and her later work with Holmwood develop the argument further, so this book is best seen as an early statement.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the postcolonial and decolonial course, this is a theoretical argument aimed at sociology and social theory. Young's Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction and Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks are more accessible entries to postcolonial thought. Bhambra and Holmwood's Colonialism and Modern Social Theory is the textbook that applies a similar viewpoint to the classical theorists, and it makes a good first step before or after this book. Smith's Decolonizing Methodologies asks the parallel question about research and Indigenous knowledge, while Harrison's Decolonizing Anthropology and Adébísí's Decolonisation and Legal Knowledge pursue similar concerns in anthropology and law. Bhambra's book is the one to choose for the case that sociology's understanding of modernity needs rewriting.

How to Use This Book

The book is for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in sociology, social theory and historical sociology. A working knowledge of classical sociological theory and some modernization theory is useful.

Start with the introduction and Chapter 1, then Chapters 2 and 3, which give the theoretical argument. Chapters 4–6 can be read in any order, according to which episode matters to you. The conclusion shows where the argument leads and should be read last. For a short route, read the introduction, Chapters 1 and 3, and the conclusion.

While reading, ask of each concept, such as modernity or the nation-state, which history it assumes, and what changes if colonial relations are placed inside it. For follow-up reading, move to Bhambra and Holmwood's textbook or to Bhambra's later Connected Sociologies.