Beyond the European province: Foucault and postcolonialism

Legg, Stephen

Abstract

The colonization of most of the free world between the 16th and 21st centuries has brought not only territorial but also epistemic and historiographical violence and domination. The end of formal occupation has not signalled the withdrawal of colonial categories, procedures and technologies of rule, nor has it beheaded Europe as the sovereign subject in deference to which many postcolonial 1 histories and geographies are constructed (Chakrabarty 2000). Whilst Michel Foucault has provided many of the tools that are necessary to unpick the power-knowledge relationships of post-Enlightenment Europe, especially in their spatial groundedness, his silence on the colonial construction of European modernity and the mutual constitution of ‘metropole’ and ‘periphery’ is astounding.

Citation

Legg, S. (2007). Beyond the European province: Foucault and postcolonialism. In S. Elden, & J. Crampton (Eds.), Space, knowledge and power: Foucault and geography. Ashgate. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315610146

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2007
• Deposit Date: Nov 6, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 6, 2014
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Space, knowledge and power: Foucault and geography
• ISBN: 9780754646556
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315610146
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1017567
• Publisher URL: http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754646556