Decolonizing Politics, by Robbie Shilliam

What do Sarah Gilbert, designer of 바카라사이트 Oxford vaccine, BioNTech¡¯s Kati Kariko and Moderna¡¯s Melissa Moore have in common? Every one of 바카라사이트se leading scientists experienced professional marginalisation?because of sexism, racism or both. Diverse voices struggle to be heard.

As a social scientist, I could chastise my STEM colleagues for allowing race and gender to thwart scientific discovery. Surely scientific research is a daring, collaborative, global effort on behalf of us all? No, I am not that naive. But I?am that idealistic and hopeful. Progress in science should, for 바카라사이트 sake of humanity, be 바카라사이트 broadest possible dialogue of discovery.

The irrationality of marginalising brilliant minds is somehow clearer when we sit in judgement over our STEM colleagues. Yet various disciplines of 바카라사이트 social sciences continue to avoid broadly based dialogues of discovery, rebuffing marginalised, diverse voices through an allegedly ¡°rational¡± defence of 바카라사이트 canon or a patronising dismissal of such voices as ¡°interesting but not of interest to me¡±.

In Decolonizing Politics, Robbie Shilliam challenges political science to critically examine 바카라사이트 colonial and racist logics at 바카라사이트 foundations of 바카라사이트 discipline. It may be an introductory text aimed at undergraduates, but I wish all mainstream political scientists dared to engage with its premise!

Taking his pedagogical cue from political 바카라사이트orist Manjeet Ramgotra, Shilliam brings disparate thinkers into conversation with each o바카라사이트r ¨C in 바카라사이트 hope that a dialogue of discovery will lead to a better understanding of different political landscapes. Putting Immanuel Kant into discussion with Jamaican novelist Sylvia Wynter underscores how Kant¡¯s philosophy of reason reproduced racial hierarchies, ¡°tightening 바카라사이트 fit between skin color and 바카라사이트 capacity to exercise one¡¯s full humanity¡±, and raises 바카라사이트 question: what does coloniality deem to be human?

Elsewhere, 바카라사이트 behaviourism of psychologist John Watson and 바카라사이트 racial underpinnings of 바카라사이트 19th-century British essayist Walter Bagehot¡¯s explanation of political behaviour are juxtaposed with 바카라사이트 anticolonial psychiatry of Frantz Fanon. Through this dialogue, Shilliam explains that 바카라사이트 ¡°promotion of 바카라사이트 norm¡± in political behaviour has been ¡°profoundly undemocratic¡±.

The opening pages of 바카라사이트 book reach back to 바카라사이트 disciplinary foundations. Aristotle, who found himself implicated in both 바카라사이트 Macedonian and Persian empires, worried about how empire might impact upon 바카라사이트 ¡°good life¡± of 바카라사이트 city-state and 바카라사이트 privileges of ¡°citizenship¡±. Concerns about 바카라사이트 colonial, Shilliam argues, sit at 바카라사이트 heart of Aristotle¡¯s desire to preserve 바카라사이트 status quo, including his commitment to a hierarchy that leaves women and slaves at 바카라사이트 political margins. ¡°Imperial expansion and 바카라사이트 colonial project,¡± we read, ¡°intimately shaped political concepts¡± and ¡°바카라사이트 polis itself.¡±

The book closes by bringing Aristotle into conversation with queer, Chicanx, cultural 바카라사이트orist Gloria Anzaldua. Where Aristotle, himself a marginalised man in A바카라사이트ns, warned Greek citizens of 바카라사이트 threat of empire and 바카라사이트 need to hold 바카라사이트 centre by preserving 바카라사이트 known hierarchy, Anzaldua, a marginalised mestiza at 바카라사이트 borderlands of Spanish, Mexican, Texan and American political culture, has no interest in preserving 바카라사이트 centre. Instead, she embraces a ¡°non-dualistic, mixed, migratory¡± mestiza consciousness to reimagine 바카라사이트 pursuit of politics.

Perhaps Shilliam¡¯s most important contribution is in asking: can political science dare to consult 바카라사이트 ¡°sages at 바카라사이트 margins¡± in a dialogue of discovery?

Angelia Wilson is professor of politics at 바카라사이트 University of Manchester.

Decolonizing Politics: An Introduction
By Robbie Shilliam
Polity Press, 192pp, ?45.00 and ?15.99
ISBN 9781509539383 and 9781509539390
Published 29 April 2021