Southern theory : the global dynamics of knowledge in the social sciences

Abstract

Up front I am impelled to acknowledge
an intellectual debt to Raewyn Connell
as one of my PhD supervisors about 20
years ago and as having a lasting influence
on my own sociological approach
to research. One of key themes of this
book is that southern theorists are rarely
read in the northern hemisphere. This is
not the case for Connell, however, one
of Australia’s most internationally
renowned scholars. The tome reads as
the creative outpouring of her lifelong
thirst for social science. Its main claim is
that southern theory ‘has as much intellectual
power as metropolitan social
thought, and more political relevance’
(p. xii). A big but compelling claim, as I
will explain.