Southern Theory: Does Sociology Exist Outside the Western Canon?

Abstract

This work is intended to familiarize the reader with the southern theory in sociology, the idea presented by Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell and developed in a number of publications. Having emerged in the global North, sociology for a long time was based on the positions of northern universalism, which asserted the existence of “one sociology for one world”. During the time, the sociological discourse of the global South expanded and began to act, claiming the autonomous reproduction of sociological practices in opposition to the “northern theory”. The paper also examines the problem of recognition of the southern theory, which inevitably emerges with all ideas that can be identified with the declared concept. Publications often research the issue of how the ideological opponent of the North — southern theories — could be assessed. This problem is considered in the text through the prism of issues of recognition of scientific activity. The text of the article consists of an overview of those works that Connell herself labels as southern and those publications that fall under this label themselves. With the help of the moves used in the southern theory, the paper offers to analyze a number of texts, which construct the program of the declared idea. This article also provides a critical analysis of the key characteristics of southern theory. Three points for criticism are defined: resentment against the sociological North, monopolization of the right to criticism of the northern universalism, and the dubious validity of the influence of the colonial-imperial aspirations of the countries, where sociology was formed as a science.