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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2010

The internationalization of social sciences: distortions, dominations and prospects

Wiebke Keim

Résumé

Wiebke Keim uses sociology as an example that illuminatesWestern hegemony in social sciences. For her, theEuropean origin of academic disciplines within specializedinstitutions, and their later extension into the rest of theworld, has led to the marginalization of the global South’ssocial experiences and social-scientific production. Theglobal South’s sociology, in particular, still suffers fromits intellectual dependency on Western production andfrom an unequal division of labour. Researchers from theglobal South are often more devoted to empirical studiesand data collection, whereas the theoretical implicationsof these works are discussed in studies by researchers innorth-western countries. But this exclusion process goeshand in hand with an inclusion process. Indeed, Westernscience has the ambition to be universal. General socialtheory is regarded as universally valid, and social realitiesfrom all over the world are analysed with its tools, whichare essentially produced in the North. Consequently it isargued that Western social science produces a ‘distortedform of universality’.Several counter-hegemonic currents have emerged sincethe 1960s. They aim both to challenge North Atlanticdomination and to offer social sciences that are sociallyrelevant for realities which mainstream research hasnot fully taken into account. These currents seem to beenjoying a revival in the present context of internationalization.Keim notes that there is absolutelyno paradox in this, as the increase in internationalcommunication networks is likely to intensify the tensionsbetween local and general sociologies, and to stimulatespecific claims for the recognition of local social realitiesand forms of knowledge.

Domaines

Sociologie
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halshs-01077035 , version 1 (04-12-2014)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-01077035 , version 1

Citer

Wiebke Keim. The internationalization of social sciences: distortions, dominations and prospects. World Social Science Report 2010, Unesco, pp.169-170, 2010, 978-92-3-104131-0. ⟨halshs-01077035⟩
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