Keywords
identity politics
capitalist world-system
essentialism
universalism
progressive politics
revolutionary politics
How to Cite
Abstract
While agreeing with Martin Müller’s intent of filling the gap in contemporary social sciences that the lack of interest in the Global East constitutes, the article engages in polemics withsolution postulated by Müller. The Author argues for a conceptualization of the Global East that would not be based on its essence, but rather on its place in the global division of labor. The “strategic essentialism” postulated by Müller is refuted for three reasons: a reactionary character of identity politics as such, its capture by the Right and doubtful value of socio-cultural identity of most societies of Global East. Instead an alter-universalism is proposed that would be different from the colonial universalism of the West and focused on constructing a common front of progressive--emancipatory struggles.
References
Geertz, Clifford. 1993. “The Integrative Revolution: Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics in the New States”. In Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Fontana Press.
Johnson, Cedric. 2017. “The Panthers Can’t Save Us Now”. Catalyst 1(1). https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no1/panthers-cant-save-us-cedric-johnson.
Kiossev, Alexander. 1999. “Notes on Self-Colonising Cultures”. In After the Wall: Art and Culture in post-Communist Europe, ed. Bojana Pejic and David Elliott. Stockholm: Moderna Museet.
Krastev, Ivan and Stephen Holmes. 2020. The Light That Failed: Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy. New York: Pegasus Books.
Scott, James. C. 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Sowa, Jan. 2011. Fantomowe ciało króla: Peryferyjne zmagania z nowoczesną formą. Kraków: Universitas.
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