On the Borders of Social Theory Learning From Other Regions D Slater - D Slater - Democracy & Post-Colonialism

8/11/2019 On the Borders of Social Theory Learning From Other Regions D Slater - D Slater - Democracy & Post-Colonialism

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Environm ent nnci Planning D: Society nm Space, 1992, volume) 10, pnfjos 3 0 7 -3 2 7

On the borders of social theory: learning from other

regions

D Slator

Intorunivofnity Con tro for Latin Am erican Rosoarch and Docum ontation (CEDLA), Koizorsgracht 3 9 5 -3 9 7 ,

1016 EK Amsterdam, Tho Netherlands

Rocoivod 30 April 1991; in rovisod form 18 October 1991

Abstract, In the first section of the paper a few general remarks concern ing three lineages of

univcrsalism are outlined; these comments act as an introduction to a more detailed

examination of Euro-Am ericanism , In this secon d section , the main focus of analysis falls on

exam ples taken from the literature of critical urban stud ies, In the final part, a briefly stated

case is made for learning from the Sou th, It is suggested that it is not only crucial to

question ail forms of Western ethnocentrism, but that by scrutinizing critically the historical

constitution of the relations between the First World and the societies of the periphery, the

realities of the West can be better comp reh end ed. In fact, it is argued that without such a

connection First World geographers will not be able to grasp the meanings and dispositions

of the socie ties in which they live, and in this important sense will remain intellectual

prisoners of the West*.

Introduction

Although it may be reasonably argued that within critical geography, or, more

broadly interpreted, alternative urban and regional analysis, the tendency to centre

theory on the economic, and the inclination to develop conceptual interpretations

in an apparently gender-free world (androcentrism), have come under increasing

attack, critiques of that othercentrism ethnocentrism are somewhat thin on the

ground. I want to suggest that the phenomenon of ethnocentric universalism,

although present across a broad array of scientific discourses, has roots in two

main radical origins which have helped to shape some of the main contours of

critical geography, especially in its Anglo-American variant: Marxist political

economy and critical theory, as associated with Habermas. Also, although far more

ambiguous and polysemic, there is a third origin where elements of ethnocentrism

and a masked universalism are present: namely within the postmodern intervention,

or interruption, as Spivak (1988a) might call it. In the next section, I shall concentrate

my attention on this third lineage, not only because the postmodern influence is

growing/

1

) but also because within the domain of critical geographical studies its

ethnocentric flow is more submerged.

When I refer to 'critical geography', I am not so much referring to any notion of

an alternative tradition, but more to the idea of a current or orientation which has

been informed by various kinds of Marxist analysis and critical theory. The

interrogation of conventional urban and regional studies and the development of

alternative theoretical approaches are not only rooted in the three origins of

Marxism, critical theory, and the postmodern interruption; the various streams of

feminist theory have also been crucial in the formulation of a good deal of critical

geographical work. However, as it is in the first three origins that the need for a

t This is a revised arid extended version of a paper presented at the Annual Conference of

the Assoc iation of Am erican Geographers, Toronto, April 1 99 0. .

( l )

Elsewhere, I have dealt in more detail with the potential intersections between theories of

development and the politics of the postmodern (see Slater, 1992).


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D Slater

critique of ethnocentrism is so urgent, and as it is precisely within the women's

movement and feminist analysis that the debate over universalism and E ur o -

Amer icanism has progressed so far, I shall refer more to this fourth possible origin

as

a

source

of the

critique

itself.

This does

not

mean

to

imply that within

the

discussions of gender in geography there is no evidence of ethnocentr ism, but

rather that a consideration of such elements falls outside the scope of this particular

intervention. It ought to be made quite clear at the outset that, although, in directly

referring to the works of some of the more influential writers within 'critical

geography' ,

as

well

as in

other more general fields

of

enquiry,

I

endeavour

to

identify and evaluate critically elements of an ethnocentr ic or universalist inscription,

the intention is not to impugn these authors in any all-encompassing manner.

Rather , through the consideration of a variety of texts, one of my main objectives

is to illustrate the ways in which a Euro-Americanist discourse inhabits and

mo(u)lds much of the fabric of theoretical analysis.

My argument will be organized as follows. Fir st, I shall provide a few general

remarks concerning three lineages of universalism, which will act as an introduction

to a m ore detailed examination of what I shall here refer to as 'Euro-Americanism'.

In this second sectionI shall takemyexamples from thework of critical geographers,

and/or related enquiry which is directly concerned with urban and regional issues.

In the final part, I shall present elements of a case for learning from the periphery.

My position will

be

that

not

only

is it

crucial

to

interrogate

all

forms

of

Western

ethnocentr ism,

but

that

by

critically scrutinizing

the

historical constitution

of the

relations between the First World and the societies of the periphery the realities of

the West can be bet ter comprehended. In fact, I would argue that without such a

connection First World geographers will not be able to grasp, certainly not in any

effective way, the meanings and dispositions of the societies in which they live,and

in this important sense will remain ' intellectual prisoners of the West'.

Lineages o universalism

Marxism

Although

by now it is

well established that

the

theoretical project

of

classical

Marxism was gender-blind, and that within the contemporary currents of Marxist

thought there has been a continual need to interrogate the continuation of this

androcentric origin, the strong tendency towards a Marxist universalism has

received less scrutiny, certainly at least within the sphere of critical geography.

There were , of course, obviously differences within the founding Marxist tradition,

as, for

example, between Lenin

and

Rosa Luxemburg

on

issues

of

national

self-

determination (Davis, 1976), as well as changes over time, so that, for instance, at

the end of his life, Marx was more positive towards the nationalist aspirations of

Third World peoples than

he had

previously been (Shanin, 1983).

T he r e are three points I want to make here: (1)some of the earlier highly

ethnocentric positions expressed

by

Marx

and

Engels, described

in

some detail

by

Nirnni (1985),and dealt with recently by Larrain (1989) , in relation to development

theory, have generally passed without critical comment in socialist urbanand regional

analysis

(I

shall return

to

some

of the

relevant passages

in the

second section

of

this

paper);

(2) the universalist inscription of Marx's theoretical work, with its implicit

projection of the broader relevance of West European conditions (although later

modified and further restricted in letters to Vera Zasulich concerning developments

in Russia),

(2)

has

been widely written into

the

texts

of

critical geography;

and

( 2 )

For instance,

in his 1881

letter

to her,

Marx wrote that

the

commune

is the

fulcrum

for

social regeneration in Russia (see Shanin, 1983,page 124). His close analysis of the then

peripheral case

of

Russia helped Marx

to

modify

his

earlier more universalist views.


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On tho borcfors of social thoory

309

(3) although it must be said that during M arx's time, knowledge, discussion, and

information concerning peripheral societies were extremely limited, no such caveat

applies to contemporary Marxists, who in some cases, and on this question, still

tend to write today as if they were living with Marx* These observations, which

I shall subsequently substantiate, with reference to the works of, for example,

Lefcbvre and Harvey, raise the question of the discursive specificity of critical

geography, as exemplified in its widest con text. In other words, in contrast to

practically all other critical fields of social science enquiry, in the example of

critical geography, there is a pervasive tendency to construct research agendas,

formulate key issues for theoretical debate, and draw on bodies of literature as if the

West were somehow a self-contained entity. I shall return to this peculiarity at the

end of the discussion.

Critical social theory

A second origin of universalist thought can be traced to the Frankfurt school, and

in particular to Haberm as, with his development of critical social theory. In his

analysis of the political and philosophical traditions that are seen as grounding

Western liberal capitalism, and its possible socialist alternatives, one finds continuing

evidence of a universalist and Eurocentric commitment. For example, in a recent

study on the 'normative content of modernity*, the reader is informed that in

modern societies the discursive structures of the various public spheres owe a

universalist tendency that is hardly concealed ... the European Enlightenment

elaborated this experience and took it up into its programmatic formulas (Habermas,

1987, page 360). When Habermas talks of 'Occidental rationalism', he does so as

if the West has been a self-contained entity, separated from the history of colonialism

and imperialism; but not only is the history of colonialism the history of the West,

but it is also, as Bhabha (1990, page 218) puts it, a counter-history to the normative,

traditional history of the West . Furthermore, by creating a world of universals, in

order to imagine a certain representation of the West as universal for the rest of

the world, what need is there, as Dallmayr (1989, page 9) asks, to engage in

interaction and transcultural dialogue in order to learn politically and achieve a

measure of political concord ? Under what has recently been referred to as the

rationalist 'dicta torship ' of the Enlightenment (Laclau, 1990, page 4), the use of

any universal concept, such as 'class', 'race', or 'human being', can be highly

limiting and detrimentally partial in trying to understand the ways in which systems

of meaning and social organization are constructed within specific discourses; and

this universality becomes pernicious when it is rooted in Western ethnocentrism.

Postmodernism

If we follow the idea that postmodernism is not simply an exit from modernity, but

rather an internal rift or fissure, which looked at creatively can lead to all kinds of

political rethinking, then it is relevant to recall one of Foucault's earlier texts. Over

two decades ago he wrote that in attempting to uncover the deepest strata of

Western culture, I am restoring to our silent and apparently immobile soil its rifts,

its instability, its flaws; and it is the same ground that is once more stirring under

our feet (Foucault, 1970, page xxiv). But it is exactly in the context of that stated

intention of uncovering the deepest strata of Western culture that it is possible to

locate the contours of a Eurocentric focus. Spivak (1988b, page 291), for example,

argues that Foucault's work as a whole tends to occlude a reading of the broader

narratives of imperialism , and, as she expresses it, to buy a self-contained version

of the West is to ignore its production by the imperialist project (page 291 ). This

kind of criticism goes together with an unequivocal recognition of Foucault as a

brilliant thinker of power-in-spacing ; what Spivak is rightly pointing to is the


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D Slater

need to chart all tho se dive rse expressions of wh at she calls that sanction ed

igno rance of the im peria list project.

In contrast to Foucault, Derrida has given more time to investigating the often

complex nature of ethnocentrism in the texts of influential European thinkers; for

example, he effectively deconstructs the sentimental ethnocentrism of Levi-Strauss,

noting how the critique of ethnocentrism, a theme so dear to the author of Tristes

Tropiques, has most often the sole function of constituting the other as a model of

original and natural goodness . Non-European peoples were to be studied, after

Ro ussea u, as the index to a hid den good N atu re, as a nativ e soil recov ered ... with

reference to which one could outline the structure, the growth, and above all the

degradation of our society and our culture (Derr ida, 197 6, pages 1 1 4 -1 1 5 ) . In

Levi-Strauss's own wo rds , if the West has pro du ced anthrop ologists, it is because

it was so torme nted by rem ors e (quoted in D errid a, 19 76 , page 337 ). In this kind

of vision, 'non-Western' peoples are essentialized around notions of the nobility and

goodness of the primitive. Contradiction and difference are erased from their

histories, and, as Fabian (1983) has effectively argued, in Levi-Strauss's anthropological

mission 'traditional' peoples are situated in another, previous time; their coevalness

with the 'mod ern West' is denie d. Th e critical im po rtanc e attached by De rrida to

these kinds of issues is supported by his stand on apartheid (Derrida, 1985), expressed

in an essay on the last w ord in racism , which stan ds in m arke d co ntrast to the

innovative orientations of much if not all of the recent work of postmodern thinkers

such as Baudrillard and Lyotard.

With Baudrillard, there are a number of interesting ironies. In contrast to many

other radical European intellectuals of the 1970s Baudrillard confronted both the

universalist narrative of historical materialism and the ethnocentrism of Western

M arxism. Of the form er he writes that in M arxism , history is transhisto ricized :

it redoubles on itself and thu s is universalized (Baud rillard, 19 75 , pages 4 7 - 4 8 ) .

This is the case, as in historical materialism critical concepts, such as labour power

and surplus value, are not seen as explosive and mortal but are constituted as

universal, expressing an 'objective reality'; they thus cease to be analytical, and so

the religion of me anin g beg ins . On the issue of eth no cen trism , Ba udrillard first

interrogates Western culture in general, writing that other cultures were entered

into its museum as vestiges of its own images ... it rein terp rete d them on its own

model, and thus precluded the radical interrogation these 'different' cultures

imp lied for it , and its reflectio n on itself lead s only to the unive rsalizatio n of its

own principles (pages 8 8 - 8 9 ) . I t is then argued that the limits of the materialist

interpretation of earlier societies are the same because in the last analysis historical

materialism simply na tura lize s earlier societies un de r the sign of the m od e of

production ; these societies and those of the Third World are not comprehended

rather they become that other territory within which the analysis of the economic

contradictions of Western societies is projected and implanted.

It is now a somewhat strange irony [and there are others, as Gane (1990) shows]

that Baudrillard has recently been selected by Spivak (1988c, page 18) to serve as

an example of the discourse of postmodernism with its sanctioned ignorance of the

history of imp erialism. Spivak quotes from Ba ud rillard 's 1 98 3 essay on the silent

majorities , where there is indeed no recognition of the movements of resistance of

Th ird W orld pe op les, and w here in for Ba udrillard in gen eral the mass is only mass

beca use it social energy has already frozen (Ba udrillard , 1 98 3, page 26), and this

during the ph ase of ma ss me dia culture, of the glaciation of me aning (page 35).

Even more ironic is the fact that in this same essay, some thirty pages later,

Bau drillard doe s refer to the way in which colonizatio n violently initiated ... primitive

societies into the expansiv e and centrifugal no rm of W estern systems (page 59).


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On tho bordorn of nocinl thoory

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Thus, I would prefer to suggest that Baudrillard has been well aware of the realities

of the colonialist and imperialist project, with its conquests and violence, but that

in his more recent work he is silent on the reality of resistance and the mobilizations

and actions of the subaltern groups of the periphery; they are made to seem invisible,

or, in shadowy references, the South becomes the object of a familiar Eurocentric

condescension the countries of the Third World will never internalize the values

of democracy and technological progress (Baudrillard, 1989, page 78).

In contrast to Baudrillard's earlier texts, there is a clear sense in which his more

recent writing can be linked to Lyotard's considerations on the postmodern condition,

In both cases, the Third World is largely present through its absence. As Lyotard

(1986) states at the outset of his analysis of the postmodern condition, he is

discussing the most highly developed societies . At the same time the tendency to

essentializc the 'traditional' and the 'developing', or in another more philosophical

text (Lyotard, 1988, page 156) savage narratives , sits uneasily with the war on

totality, and the critique of Western universalism. In fact, given some of the current

realities of the 'most highly developed societies', it might be worthwhile subverting

this implicit dichotomy, in postmodern style, so that we can consider the 'savage'

inside the 'modern'.

From a rather different point of departure, Jameson, although generally regarded

as a key figure of the postmodern turn in literary theory, would be difficult to

include in the category of Lyotard's (1986, page 41) writers who have lost the

nostalgia for a 'lost narrative'. In a number of articles, he has posited the need for

a conception of the social totality (Jameson, 1988, page 355), stressed the

importance of the analyzing of global capital and class, and reaffirmed the need for

systemic transformation , adding too a belief in the future reemcrgence of a new

international proletariat (Jameson, 1989a, page 44). Also, in contrast to Baudrillard

and Lyotard, Jameson's interventions rarely marginalize the Third World; in fact he

has underlined the crucial interlocking of First and Third World realities, writing

that in terms of culture, awareness is central, and it would not be bad to generate

the awareness that we in the superstate are at all times a presence in third world

realities, that our affluence and power are in the process of doing something to

them (Jameson, 1989b, page 17). Equally brief but interesting observations are

made on the significance of resistance in the periphery, where a connection is

drawn with the idea of the emergence of collective subjects, beyond the old

bourgeois ego and schizophrenic subject of our organization society today (page 21).

It must be stressed here, however, that although Jameson does refer to the

phenomenon of resistance, he does not develop any analysis of protest or social

movements at the periphery; nor does he refer to any of the extensive literature on

this theme.

From this brief reading of certain representations of the postmodern genre, overall,

the relationship with the Third World as 'other' would seem to be ambiguous,

ambivalent, and certainly not free from ethnocentric traits, although as I have

indicated there are important variations among the authors cited. Western

ethnocentrism is certainly not explicitly defended, in the style of Rorty (1985),

(

3

) Jameso n is not alone in this respect, and even in consideration s of social mo vem ents, the

periphery is frequently left out of account, or represented in terms of the caricature of

violence and disorder, or, as in the case of Melucci (1989, page 189), the reader is given an

association between the Third World and grandiose political programmes which have in

prac tice resulted in 'violence and tota litarian ism '. I am not saying that this is no t on e of the

constituent elements of Third World reality, but to reduce the complexity and heterogeneity

of the Third World to the essence of violence and totalitarianism is to provide a highly


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312 D Slater

for example, and in the writings of Jameson and the earlier Baudrillard, the

exploitative nature of the West's encounter with the periphery is dealt with or at

least alluded to, in contrast to, for instance, Berman (1982), whose discussion of

modernity is suffused with the shades of an ethnocentric nostalgia akin to Habermas.

In a contrasting, although not entirely separate, vein, authors, such as Huyssen

(1984),

who have sought to map the terrain of the postmodern, stress the

im porta nce of othe r non-W estern cultures, arguing that such cultures must be met

by means oth er than conq uest or do m inatio n (Huyssen, 19 84, page 51). Hu yssen

is here influenced by Ricoeur, who at the beginning of the 1960s announced the

demise of the West's cultural mo nop oly , noting that suddenly it bec om es possible

that there are just others, that we ourselves are an 'other ' among others; for Ricoeur

this was cause for a dispirited sense of loss all meaning and every goal having

disappeared, it becomes possible to wander through civilizations as if through

vestiges and ruins (quoted in Ow ens, 19 85 , pages 5 7 -5 8 ) . This comm ent leads

Owens to suggest a connection with the postmodern condition, whereby Ricoeur 's

idea of loss anticipates both the melan cholia and the eclecticism that p erv ad e

curren t cultural produ ction . W hat H uysse n and Owens both fail tc point out is

that the connection between the sense of a loss of mastery, of monopoly, of

cultural hegemony, and a narcissistic melancholya cynical sentimentis deeply

reflective of an ethnocentric imperative.

Analysis of the continuing presence of ethnocentric universalism within the turn

to the postmodern has already begun. Along the interface between critical

anthropology and feminist theory, Mascia-Lees et al (1989, page 32), for example,

poin t out that the supposed a bsen ce of all me tanarratives is the new synthesizing

allegory that is being projected onto white women and Third World peoples who

only recently have been partially emp ow ered . Rich ard, in her work on philosop hy

and culture, stresses the fact that although the postmodern critique of the

universalizing project of capitalist modernity has been politically enabling in one

sense, on the other hand, there has also been a tendency to dissolve centre-

periphery distinctions. In this way, the realities of imperialist domination have been

reabsorbed and neutralized within an apparently equivalent set of 'other ' images

and mean ings (Richard, 198 7/8 8), In othe r related Latin A m erican w ork, similar

echoes of innovative and open critique can be increasingly encountered (Arditi,

1987;

Hinkelammert , 1987; Lechner , 1987; Reigadas, 1988) .

These orientating elements of openness, fluidity, and shifting meanings do not

have to be seen as necessarily threatening or paralyzing; they can be enabling and

creative. But, as I shall subsequently argue, the potential for renewal and

reconstruction, present in the politics of the postmodern, will be nullified if the

West is continually imagined as the transcendental pivot of analytical reflection.

Mapping Euro-Americanism

One of the most significant features of the contemporary debate on postmodernity

is the fact that although phrases such as the end of social criticism or the end of

history may well be prominently visible, the possibility of an 'end to ethnocentrism'

ha s still to be voiced. H ere , in fact, a com mo n threa d can be found with th e

critical theo ry of H ab erm as, and the foun dation al texts of classical M arxism . In

this section, I want to trace out some of the recurrent elements of a universalism

which is rooted in certain Western or Euro-American predilections concerning the

elaboration of social theory and its contextual deployment; and, in this discussion,

the context will be provided by critical geographical studies.


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The persistence of absence

Theoretical development within a given domain of knowledge is very often

propelled forward by the identification of important gaps or lacunae, the

conceptualization of which can open up new pathways of thought. But if those

'forgotten zones' are structurally produced, the result of a deeper and occluded

bias, their illumination will require far more effort and collective enterprise than

otherw ise would be the case. In much of the work of the con tem po rary theo rists

of spatiality, the complex territorial realities of peripheral societies and the changing

nature of geopolitical imperatives, as they impinge on centre-periphery relations,

rarely break the surface of Euro-American introspection. Those waves of conceptual

innovation, which move out from the academic heartlands of the West, carry with

them built-in assumptions and predetermined omissions which retard a genuine

global expansion of meaning.

Influenced by Foucault, Hebdige (1990, pages vi-vii) has recently argued in a

note on subjects in spa ce that spatial relations are no less com plex and

con tradic tory than historical proce sses . Space itself is refigured as inha bited and

hete rog ene ou s, as a moving cluster of points of intersection for manifold axes of

power which can't be reduced to a unified plane or organized into a single

narrativ e ; it is also suggested that som e geo-political partition s , for examp le the

North-South axis, have proved less permeable than others (for example, the Berlin

Wall).

The geopolitical divide of the North-South axis, with its antecedents in

colonialism, and its contemporary expression in new forms of imperialism, rarely

receives any concerted analysis in the work of geographers such as Gregory (1989),

Harvey (1989), and Soja (1989).

(4 )

In the domains of anthropology, literary theory,

historical sociology, and feminist studies, the long-established discussions of colonial

discourses, of the creative realities of postcolonial texts, and the impact of the

contemporary imperial order do not seem to find consistent echoes in the thematic

priorities of critical geo gra ph ers. In addition to the an dro cen tric drive of mu ch of

the work of the malestream of critical geography, a phenomenon that has been and

continues to be interrogated, the Eurocentric or more broadly Euro-Americanist

focus of critical geography creates a series of what Derrida (1981 , page 3) has

termed the blank spa ces of texts.

Thematic absences and the structured silences of texts also mean that within

given prov inces of know ledge and enqu iry certain deba tes do not unfold. In a

recent paper on locality Cooke (1989), who seems implicitly to endorse Rorty's

view that ethnocentrism is unavoidable, makes a number of comments on

imperialism and the world order which are in some ways reflective of an absence

of de ba te. For C oo ke the re has been a failure of established historical mo des of

organization, for example, of corporatism, statism, and imperialism, to deal with real

world crises (page 16). Moreover, it is suggested that there has been a flattening of

the hierarch y of world and imperial power, and an und erm ining of its stru ctu re of

internal social dom ination (page 16). A s a con sequ ence , a new configuration of

individual depe nden cies has emerged, in which negotiation and involvement are

key featu res (page 17). A s a further illustration , C oo ke adds that in co ntra st to

thirty years ago when the British government high-handledly sent its troops into

(4)

It is imp ortan t to indicate h ere that I am referring to these th ree mo re recen t texts. In

earlier work Harvey has dealt with aspects of colonialism and imperialism, and attempted to

develop some theoretical ideas on their spatial dimensions. In contrast, Gregory tends to

treat the West as a self-contained entity, whereas Soja does still maintain an intere st in

'core-periphery' issues (Soja, 1989), even though these have now been overshadowed by a

notion that the postmodern world comes together (and falls apart) in the creative sprawl of

Los Angeles.


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D Slater

Eg ypt at the time of the Suez crisis, toda y it has to nego tiate with its political

equ als (page 17).

It ought to be indicated here that Cooke's article overall is stimulating and well

argu ed, and his reference s to impe rialism are no t central to his argu me nt. Bu t it is

exactly in the interstices of the text, on the margins of the narrative, that we encounter

comments that are symptomatic of a much wider problem. A perspective which

presumes that imperialism has failed, that its structure of internal social domination

has been undermined, and that we are now living in an epoch of negotiation and

involvement, where imperial powers are no longer able to send their troops into

the recalcitrant periphery, is a perspective strangely out of touch with the

geopolitical realities of world power. Prior to 1989, the invasion of Grenada in

1983 , the 1982 Malvinas/Falklands War, the strategy of low-intensity warfare

waged against Nicaragua, and the bombing of Libya were only some of the more

overt and obvious examples of an imperialism which is hardly 'undermined' or

mo ribund . W hat for som e critical theorists of the urban and regional may be a

blank space is in other domains of critical knowledge an area of the most central

significance. I shall retu rn to this po int below .

There is another absence; the absence of Third World voices in the discussion

of contemporary issues and theoretical strategies. In the representation of what are

presumed to be the central axes of argument and debate the key authors who are

cited and granted authority are invariably of Euro-American origin. This applies

not only to texts which deal specifically with European or North American societies,

but also to studies of peripheral societies, where the work of autochthonous

intellectuals is not infrequently bypassed.

(5 )

O ne of the negative consequen ces of

this kind of absenc e is that th ere is no sym biosis of learning . W here as the late st

ideas of First World geographers are diffused to the periphery, and frequently

adopted, the knowledge and theoretical ideas of Third World scholars do not appear

on the agendas of their W estern coun terpa rts. T he nee d here , therefore, is for a

displacement; as Julien and Mercer (1988, page 6) express it , summarizing Stuart Hall,

the displacement of the centred discourses of the West, entails putting into question

its universalist character and its transcendental claims to speak for everyone, while

being itself everywhere and nowhere .

In general, I would argue that in so much of today's critical geography, the West

is implicitly viewed as a self-contained entity, as if somehow it can be apprehended

and comprehended of and by itself. There appears to be little realization that it is in

the outskirts that the system often reveals its true face, or as Cocks (1989, page 4)

defines it, in her bo ok on the op pos itiona l imag ination , the political adv anta ge in

looking at peripheries and extremities is that power is exposed in what it drives

from the center of life to the edges, and in what it incites as its own antitheses .

Assumptions ofuniversality

Concepts such as the spatial division of labour, the hypermobility of capital,

territorial power, and localization are often used without any specification of their

pertaining cultural and historical contexts. There is an underlying assumption of

universal applicability, but how is it possible to refer to the spatial division of

labour when the content of this division can change radically from one sociopolitical

context to another, or from one historical juncture to another? Rather, this projected

( 5 )

I have made reference to this problem in an earlier article (Slater, 1989), but in that

instance I was referring to the li terature of mainstream development geographers who,

although in some cases working for many years on Third World societies, somehow find it

possible to ignore the work of their social science counterparts born and based in these

societies.


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315

universality tends to conceal a particularity based* to a large extent, on the specific

experiences of the USA and the United Kingdom. This projected universality,

which exerts far more influence through being implicit and partially submerged,

rests on the assumption that 'the West* (notwithstanding its complexities and

contradictions) constitu tes the primary referent in theory and practice, In relation

to feminist theory, and making sense of the local*

1

, Probyn (1990, page 176)

appropriately writes, in creating our own centers and our own locals, we tend to

forget that our own centers displace others into the peripheries of our making .

Some of the problems that surface as a result of the pervasiveness of univcrsalist

assumptions can be illustrated from Harvey's (1989) fascinating and thought-

provoking analysis of the 'politics of space*. In his discussion of the Enlightenment

project, he begins by admitting to a somewhat ethnocentric method of concentrating

on the European case. The reader is then presented with a concise but one has to

say largely uncritical survey of time and space in relation to the discourse of the

Enlightenment. It is mentioned, somewhat en passant, that Enlightenment thought

perceived the other as necessarily having ... a specific

place

in a spatial order that

was cthnoccntrically conceived to have homogeneous and absolute qualities

(page 252), but this potential opening to a wider and more critical discussion is not

developed.

(6)

At the sam e time, when Harvey goes on to outline a few ideas

concerning the dilemm as of the politics of space in any kind of project to transform

society (page 254), we can see the continuation of a universalist current.

Leaning on Lefebvre, who suggested that one can find a permanent tension

between the free appropriation of space for individual and social purposes and the

domination of space through private property, the state, and other forms of class

and social power, Harvey extracts a number of explicit dilemmas. From a concern

with establishing the varying social principles by and around which space is

'pulverized* and fragmented, through an identification of the differing aspects of the

'production of space' in the France and USA of the eighteenth century, to the

suggestion that a growing commodification began to render place subservient to

transformations of space, Harvey ends with what he refers to as the most serious

dilemma of all. This is the fact that space can only be conquered through the

production of space, that is, through the development of transpo rt and com munications,

systems of administration, and human settlement and occupancy; this production of

space then forms a fixed frame, so that Harvey can argue that in the context of

capital accumulation this fixity of spatial organization becomes heightened into an

absolute contradiction (page 258). The result is to unleash capitalism's powers of

'creative destruction' upon the geographical landscape, sparking violent movements

of opposition . Harvey then seeks to generalize this point, writing that not only

may crises of overaccumulation be connected to tim e-space compression , but

also crises in cultural and political forms .

Apart from the orthodox base-superstructure connection, to which I shall return

below, the main problem with this discussion of the dilemmas involved in the

politics of space is that although it is argued that these tensions or dilemmas are at

the heart of any kind of project to transform society , the examples are taken

(6 )

For example, when Harvey (19 89 , page 249 ) talks about the develop men t of accurate m aps

and chronometers during the Enlightenment period, and the fact that abstract maps were

being used to define property rights in land, territorial boundaries, domains of administration,

and social control and communication routes, no clear link is made to the spatial expansion

of European power, and to the onset of colonialism. These connections can be found in

Said's (1985) Orientalism,w here , for instan ce, he rem inds u s of th e statem ent of a Swiss-

Prussian authority on international law who in 1758 invited European states to take possession

of territory inhabited only by mere wandering tribes (page 216).


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D Slater

from the Eu ro-A m erica n heartland of history, during the eighteenth century. D oe s

this mean, therefore, that not only is there, in relation to central societies, a clear

historical continuity from the Enlightenment era to the present, but that in addition

on e can po sit a universal relevanc e for all socie ties? O r are some or all of the se

dilemmas specific or particular to the Euro-A m erican core? Further , are there

other dilemmas of the politics of space that escape Harvey's classification?

Ac cordin g to Harvey, Enlightenm ent thinke rs sought a better society , and all

the projec ts of this era had in com m on a relatively unified co mm on-se nse of w hat

space and time we re abou t and why their rationa l ord ering was imp ortant (page 25 8).

Un fortunately, Enligh tenm ent visions of this better society were frequently racist.

The Scottish philosopher of the Enlightenment, Hume, writing half way through the

eighteenth century, clearly conflated race with intelligence; he remarked, for instance,

that, I am a pt to su spect the negroes ... to be natu rally inferior to the whites ...

there never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even

any individual emin ent in action or speculation (quoted in Ga tes, 198 5, page 10).

Following H um e's lead, Kant writing in the 1 76 0s declared that so fundam ental is

the difference between [the black and white] races of man ... it appears to be as

great in regard to mental capacities as in color ; and, moreover, for this leading

philoso phe r of the Enlightenm ent age, to be 'black' was also to be 'stupid' (page 10).

The Enlightenment legitimated and paved the way for colonial conquests and the

subo rdinatio n of 'peoples without histo ry' . Said (1985 ) docum ents this proc ess in

considerable detail. During the eighteenth century Europe moved itself outwards;

and through, for instance, the various India Companies colonies were already

created and ethnocentric perspectives installed. There was also historical

confrontation which gave Europe the opportunity to deal more assertively with

no n-E urop ean cultures , i ts own previously unrea chab le temporal and cultural

frontiers (Said, 198 5, page 120). Furth er, th ere was a steady dissolution of the

self-contained visions of Europea broadening of horizons, and an appreciation of

'exotic locales'. Last, the classifications of humankind were extended to include

other peop les and race s; thus, when an Oriental was referred to , it was in term s

of such genetic universals as his 'primitive' state, his primary characteristics, his

particular spiritual backg round (page 120).

In relation to the critical tradition of historical materialism, the key source for

both Harvey's and Lefebvre's projects, the central link with Enlightenment discourse

comes through Hegel. The ethnocentrism embedded in Hegel's philosophical work

has certainly not escaped critical scrutiny, but the depth of its impact on the

M arxist trad itio n is no t always em pha sized. To establish the influence one may

refer to Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1967), originally published in 1821. Here

Hegel argues that the intrinsic value of courage as a mental disposition is located

in the gen uine, absolu te, final end, the sovereign ty of the state , and that th e

nation, that ethical substance , canno t bec om e a nation -state without the due

accompaniment of objective law and an explicitly established rational constitution

(page 21 9). Fo r He gel the natio n-state is mind in its substantive rationality a nd

imm ediate actuality and is therefore the absolute po we r on earth (page 212 ). I t

follows from this that every state is sovereign and autonomous against its neighbours,

unless

the referen t is a peo ple on a low level of civilization . Th is means that the

civilized na tio ns are justified in treating as ba rba ria ns tho se who lag beh ind

them in institution s which are the essential m om en ts of the state (page 21 9).

Thus ,

Hegel goes on, the civilized nation is conscious that the rights of barbarians

are une qua l to its own and treats their auto no m y as only a formality . Of the

four world historical realms (the Oriental, the Greek, the Roman, and the Germanic)

Hegel draws a fixed hierarchy with the Oriental as the least developed its inner


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On tho foordora of social thoory

317

calm is merely the calm of non-political life and immersion in feebleness and

exhaustionsand the Germanic, the principle of the north , the most developed,

where the mind receives in its inner life its truth and concrete essence, while in

objectivity it is at home and reconciled with itself (pages 219-222).

The posited principle of European superiority thought and the universal is

employed in the service of colonialist conquest. For Hegel the true courage of

civilized nations is readiness for sacrifice in the service of the state ; this courage

is not the personal mettle of the individual but the alignment of the many with the

universal (page 296). In India, Hegel writes, five hundred men conquered twenty

thousand who were not cowards but only lacked this disposition to work in close

cooperation with others .

(7)

In his discussion of civil society, Hegel makes it clear that the developed or

mature civil society is driven' by its inner dialectic into colonizing activity, by

which it supplies to a part of its population a return to life on the family basis in

a new land and so also supplies itself with a new demand and field for its industry.

At the same time, the public authority must provide for the interests that lead

beyond the borders of its society , and its primary purpose is to actualize and

maintain the universal contained within the particularity of civil society

(pages 1 5 1 - 152).

In terms of subsequent perspectives on colonialism, the universal and the

imputed inferiority of other peoples, the writings of Marx and Engeis bear witness

to the Hegelian legacy. At the end of the 1850s, Engcls, in a short article on

Persia and China, referred to the notion of barbaric nations , and, in the context

of the difficulties perceived in the extension of European military organization to

the Persian region, the reader was reminded of the ignorance, impatience and

prejudice of the Oriental (Engcls, 1968, page 122).

(8)

In a somewhat more analytical

mode, Marx (1968 , page 81), discussing the future results of British rule in India ,

declared that Indian society had no known history, and that, therefore, the question

was not whether the English had a right to conquer India, but whether we are to

prefer India conquered by the Turk, by the Persian, by the Russian, to India

conquered by the Briton .

(9

> As societies such as that of India are not granted any

known history, recalling Hegel's peoples without history , it is only a small step to

argue that their conquest by an already presupposed superior nation or culture

must be in their long-term historical interest. To argue otherwise would be to

indulge in obscurantist sentimentality.

(10)

After discussing the Enlightenment, Harvey continues his analysts of tim e-space

compression by focusing on the rise of modernism as a cultural force; the reader

(7

>The reference is to Clive in the India of 1751. Hegel's text is marked by a series of highly

pejorative com men ts on India its com plete dege neration and inner cor rup tion (19 67 ,

page 133) stagnant and sunk in the mo st frightful and scan dalou s supe rstitio n (page 151).

(8 )

In oth er similar passag es, Eng eis talks of the stupid ity and ped antic bar baris m of the

Chinese (19 68 , page 12 4), or of that timid rac e , the M oo rs, with their very low mo ral

character (page 157).

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On the Borders of Social Theory Learning From Other Regions D Slater - D Slater - Democracy & Post-Colonialism