Postcolonialism Flashcards
What does the word post highlight? (3)
- Nothing post about post colonialism
- Highlights impact that colonial histories still have in shaping a colonial way of thinking about the world
- And how Western forms of knowledge + power marginalise the non-Western world
Postcolonialism is not only interested in understanding the world as it is…
But also as it ought to be
What are Western perceptions of the non-West a result of?
A result of the legacies of European colonisation + imperialism
How did discourses help justify European domination? (3)
- Discourses constructed non-Western states + peoples as ‘other’, so they appeared inferior
- So helped justified European domination in the name of bringing civilisation or progress
- These discourses made certain power relations seem natural or inevitable
Postcolonialism views key issues in IR as constituting discourse of power. What does this move away from?
The empirically verifiable and ‘fact’-based inquiry that drives traditional IR theories
In order to better understand how global class relations emerge and are maintained, what must we do?
We must address ideas about why these relations appear normal
What often accompanies characterisations of global poverty?
Images and narratives of non-Western governments + societies as
- Primitive
- Hypermasculine
- Aggressive
- Childlike
What makes it difficult for Western policymakers to shed their biases? What is the impact of this? (3)
- Representations of the ‘other’ make it difficult for Western policymakers to shed their biases
- And address underlying global structural factors of global inequality
- Such as how capital + resources are accumulated, + flow around world generating inequality
Why do Western solutions often not address underlying causes of global inequality?
Solutions to global inequalities often focus only on intervening to support a less developed state, rather than addressing the underlying causes of global inequality
What do key concepts of IR, such as power, the state and security reproduce?
Reproduce the status quo
How does postcolonialism challenge the Westphalian model, of a sovereign modern state?
- Concepts of sovereignty + the modern state were imposed on colonial world by European powers
- Yet is a concept taken for granted by realists + liberalists
How does postcolonialism challenge the Marxist perspective that class struggle is at the root of historical change? (2)
- Instead demonstrates how race shapes history
- Analyses that focus only on class fail to consider how identification of ‘Third World’ as ‘primitive’ + ‘non-rational’ are linked to persistent economic marginalisation
What do postcolonialists see instead of anarchy (3)
- See the international system as a hierarchy
- Colonialism has fostered a long process of continued domination by the West over the rest of world
- Cultural, economic and political domination still characterise global politics
What is Edward Said’s Orientalism? (4)
- Western media rely on a distorted lens to describe history + culture of Arab peoples
- Ascribes ‘Orient’ + its peoples with characteristics that are opposite of the West
- Characterised as exotic, emotional, feminine, backward, non-rational
- In contrast to West: rational, masculine, civilised, modern
What is the power of othering? (5)
- The ‘black man’ made to believe in his inferiority, through imposition of coloniser’s language, culture, religion + education systems
- Through such impositions, colonised believe they are a culturally inferior ‘other’
- This internalisation helps justify + maintain coloniser’s rule
- These racial binaries continue even after end of colonial rule
- Racialised othering still frames contemporary debates e.g. immigration, security, nuclear politics
