SAC presents: Vivek Chibber

Postcolonial Theory and the Shadow of Capitalism Postcolonial studies presents itself as social theory for globalizing capitalism. Yet, it shows very little interest in mobilizing the basic concepts of political economy. In fact, most postcolonial theorists exhibit a deep ambivalence toward the very application of political economy to non-Western cultures. This has been criticized as a symptom of their hewing to a kind of cultural essentialism. I will show that postcolonial theorists are indeed cultural essentialists, but that their essentialism rests on a flawed sociology of the colonial world, in particular, from a flawed analysis of the universalization of capital.