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Postcolonial theory, particularly in its poststructuralist variant, presents important challenges to sociology's self-image, and open debate on these attempts to `unsettle' the modernist, Westernized disciplines is both conceptually and politically interesting. However, the postcolonial unsettling of sociology has to be actively extracted and reconstructed from the key texts of postcolonial theory - it is not transparently available as such - and this is the first main goal of the article. Particular attention is paid to the framings of these issues by Stuart Hall, Homi Bhahba and Robert Young. Second, the article offers the elements of a counter-critique, pointing out where the anti-sociological impulses of postcolonialism are exaggerated or unfounded, and also indicating serious internal problems for postcolonial theory when it is pitched as a direct and superior alternative to the modernist sociological `imaginary'. The continuing centrality (and difficulty) of questions on the nature of and purpose of explanatory social theory and postcolonial cultural studies are discussed.

THIS ARTICLE IS A REVISED AND EXPANDED VERSION OF A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE SOCIALIST SCHOLARS CONFERENCE IN APRIL 1989. THE PAPER REPRESENTS A TRANSITION IN SAMIR AMIN'S WORK FROM A CONCENTRATION ON ECONOMIC RELATIONS AND STRUCTURES TO A NEW FOCUS ON CULTURAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. IT OFFERS A REVIEW OF AMIN'S BOOK AND AN EXTENDED ARGUMENT OF MOGHADAM'S ON PROBLEMS ARISING FROM THE INDISCRIMINATE REJECTION OF MODERNITY, SECULARISM, AND MARXISM

1. From Eurocentrism to Polycentrism -- 2. Formations of colonialist discourse -- 3. The imperial imaginary -- 4. Tropes of empire -- 5. Stereotype, realism and the struggle over representation -- 6. Ethnicities-in-relation -- 7. The third worldist film -- 8. Esthetics of resistance -- 9. The politics of multiculturalism in the postmodern age -- Afterword : thinking about unthinking twenty years after.

"This book raises awareness of Eurocentrism's enormous impact and shows how, over the course of five centuries, Eurocentrism has extended its power across the globe. By exploring a vast range of sources including Eurocentric maps and images, historiography, and Rudyard Kipling's White Man's Burden, Wintle uncovers Eurocentrism's gradual evolution and reveals the ways in which it functions at both seen and unseen levels. Due to its multi- and interdisciplinary analysis, this book is an indispensable tool for both scholars and students concerned with modern history, politics, visual culture and political geography"--