The ‘New’ Sociology of Empire and Colonialism

Abstract

This study reviews recent sociological scholarship on empire and colonialism. The new ‘imperial–colonial studies’ in sociology is not a fully fledged subfield but an emerging space of inquiry that examines social forms, processes, and relations associated with imperialism and colonialism. This study sketches the main features of the new scholarship. It also situates the new sociological studies within a larger history of sociological inquiry and interdisciplinary context. Finally, it suggests that the future of sociology’s new imperial–colonial studies lies not in ‘sociologizing’ the study of empire and colonialism but in deploying analyses of empire and colonialism to help critically reorient some of traditional sociology’s limiting lenses and assumptions.