Hi Jason! First of all, thanks for all the interesting thoughts! Although many topics and debates on here to me are somewhat unfamiliar due to the often US-specific focus (I'm German) I find your meditations quite inspiring, not least because of your proclivity for M.-R. Trouillot, whose work I devoured within the last months (not all of it digested yet...) while trying to find a subject for my thesis in "Transcultural Studies", a Master's program at University of Bremen. I actually came across your blog while searching online in order to find more from and about Prof. Trouillot (whose name and work I first heard of during a course with Walter Mignolo, by the way, who was visiting professor here in Bremen two years ago and had Trouillot on his "decolonial" reading list - glad I finally revisited this reference!).
What currently intrigues me most is also this notion of interconnection, or more exactly: how interconnectedness is theorized in various disciplines from anthropology to "global history" - you might glean that affinity for the interwoven from the "transcultural" in my "studies" - while Western (or North Atlantic) power is critiqued, or how a radical critical potential varies according to the way this interconnectedness is theorized (from very generalized in the sense of "modernity/coloniality", allowing for a trenchant critique of the same, to highly differentiated, going so far as to say that concepts ending with an -ity are generally suspect of being unscientific and ahistorical, making the critique of power all the more difficult). Sorry if this sounds very vague right now, but...
...in this regard, however, I wonder if you're familiar with Fernando Coronil's critique of Wolf (in his article "Beyond Occidentalism" [1996]) for "unwittingly obscur[ing] the role of non-Western peoples in the making of the modern world, subtly reiterating the distinction between Other and Self that underwrites Europe's imperial expansion" through his "critical focus on Western development" (p. 61)? All this goes under the heading "The Incorporation of the Other into the Self", what Coronil calls the "second modality of Occidentalism" (ibid.). I think this, too, goes in exactly the same direction as the broad topics you touched upon in your reply to Helga above ("interconnection, interdependence, and in fact the co-production of ‘us‘ and ‘them‘"), and I wonder if you've ever gotten to write that post pertaining to this idea that you were talking about? At least I couldn't find it "two posts down the road", but could it by chance be that your current post "Globalization Stories" is precisely the one? I just found that while writing this reply - serendipity! Either way, I'm looking forward to reading it! Thanks again!
Hi Jason! First of all, thanks for all the interesting thoughts! Although many topics and debates on here to me are somewhat unfamiliar due to the often US-specific focus (I'm German) I find your meditations quite inspiring, not least because of your proclivity for M.-R. Trouillot, whose work I devoured within the last months (not all of it digested yet...) while trying to find a subject for my thesis in "Transcultural Studies", a Master's program at University of Bremen. I actually came across your blog while searching online in order to find more from and about Prof. Trouillot (whose name and work I first heard of during a course with Walter Mignolo, by the way, who was visiting professor here in Bremen two years ago and had Trouillot on his "decolonial" reading list - glad I finally revisited this reference!).
What currently intrigues me most is also this notion of interconnection, or more exactly: how interconnectedness is theorized in various disciplines from anthropology to "global history" - you might glean that affinity for the interwoven from the "transcultural" in my "studies" - while Western (or North Atlantic) power is critiqued, or how a radical critical potential varies according to the way this interconnectedness is theorized (from very generalized in the sense of "modernity/coloniality", allowing for a trenchant critique of the same, to highly differentiated, going so far as to say that concepts ending with an -ity are generally suspect of being unscientific and ahistorical, making the critique of power all the more difficult). Sorry if this sounds very vague right now, but...
...in this regard, however, I wonder if you're familiar with Fernando Coronil's critique of Wolf (in his article "Beyond Occidentalism" [1996]) for "unwittingly obscur[ing] the role of non-Western peoples in the making of the modern world, subtly reiterating the distinction between Other and Self that underwrites Europe's imperial expansion" through his "critical focus on Western development" (p. 61)? All this goes under the heading "The Incorporation of the Other into the Self", what Coronil calls the "second modality of Occidentalism" (ibid.). I think this, too, goes in exactly the same direction as the broad topics you touched upon in your reply to Helga above ("interconnection, interdependence, and in fact the co-production of ‘us‘ and ‘them‘"), and I wonder if you've ever gotten to write that post pertaining to this idea that you were talking about? At least I couldn't find it "two posts down the road", but could it by chance be that your current post "Globalization Stories" is precisely the one? I just found that while writing this reply - serendipity! Either way, I'm looking forward to reading it! Thanks again!