A Critical Synergy: Race, Decoloniality, and World Crises

Practitioners of decolonial theory and critical race theory (CRT) often use one or the other, but not both. In his provocative book, A Critical Synergy, Ali Meghji suggests using the two theories in tandem rather than attempting to hierarchize or synthesize them. Doing so allows for the study of social phenomena in a way that captures their global and historical roots, while acknowledging their local, national, and contemporary particularities.

The differences between decolonial thought and CRT, Meghji insists, does not necessarily imply one approach is stronger. Rather, he asserts, they often provide alternative but not incompatible viewpoints of the same social problem. Meghji presents case studies of capitalism, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and twenty-first-century far-right populism to show that with both theories, we can understand more, as insights may be lost by using only one.

Meghji is not calling for a universal theoretical synthesis in A Critical Synergy, but rather a practice that can help open sociology and social science to the tradition of pluriversality much more broadly.

Author: Ali Meghji
Publisher: Temple University Press
Published: 09/15/2023
Pages: 210
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.58lbs
Size: 8.25h x 5.50w x 0.48d
ISBN13: 9781439922071
ISBN10: 1439922071
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | General
- Social Science | Sociology | Social Theory
- Social Science | Race & Ethnic Relations