Against Decolonisation

Campus Culture Wars and the Decline of the West
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5095-5423-2
Verlag: Polity Press

Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 135 mm x 215 mm, Gewicht: 272 g

Following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, a moral panic gripped the US and UK. To atone for an alleged history of racism, statues were torn down and symbols of national identity attacked. Across universities, fringe theories became the new orthodoxy, with a cadre of activists backed by university technocrats adopting a binary worldview of moral certainty, sin and deconstructive redemption through Western self-erasure.

This hard-hitting book surveys these developments for the first time. It unpacks and challenges the theories and arguments deployed by ‘decolonisers’ in a university system now characterised by garbled leadership and illiberal groupthink. The desire to question the West’s sense of itself, deconstruct its narratives and overthrow its institutional order is an impulse that, ironically, was underpinned by a more confident and assured Western hegemony, which is now waning and under great strain. If its light continues to dim, who or what will carry the torch for human freedom and progress?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stokes, Doug

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Postkoloniale Literatur
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Kolonialismus, Imperialismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

1. Identity politics, decolonisation and social theory

2. Racism on campus

3. Moral panic and illiberalism in Universities

4. History reclaimed

5. Accounting for Wokery

Conclusion: the future of the West?

Über Autor(innen)

Doug Stokes is the Director of the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter, a Fellow at the Legatum Institute and an Advisory Council member for the Free Speech Union. His writings on academic freedom and culture wars have appeared in The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Critic, The Spectator and other international outlets. Follow him online @profdws or at www.dougstokes.net.