1

Social Theory:
Its Uses and Pleasures
Charles Lemert, in Social Theory:
The Multicultural and Classic Readings
(2010)

What is social theory?

2

Social theory is basic survival skill

Social theory is something done
necessarily, and often well, by people
with no particular professional credential
When its done well, by whomever, it can
be an uncommon source of pleasure

Social theory is about the mundane &

concealed
3

David Bradley says its about "those hidden aspects

of social life we sometimes encounter in the ordinary
course of daily life" but are largely unseen, because:
1) powers-that-be want them concealed
2) both empowered and weak find them too
threatening to talk about
3) it's difficult and time consuming to put social reality
into words

That's what makes the theory of "social theorists"

different from our everyday theories, they've taken the
time to write out their theories, in a coherent way writing
brings coherence

Origins of social theory

4

Social theory is fairly new, only dates back

to 18th century, Enlightenment, it started
with modernity

the key transformation brought by the

Enlightenment, according to Kant: people would
"dare to know"

The change from pre-modern to modern is

what the founders of sociological theory
were trying to explain, the changes in
society/social relations

foundational categories of discipline based on

modern-traditional dichotomy

All the major early theorists thought about the

modern world in relation to the traditional
5

But classical theorists worked from the

European, Western case, assuming it was
a universal ideal

Progress and development meant

movement toward the (Western) ideal

Non-European societies were judged based on how

well they conformed to this ideal

Marx, Weber and Durkheim assumed this

However, when colonialism began to lose

its grip, theory started changing too

The two great periods of social theory

6

The most creative moments in the history of social

theory were when fewer and fewer of the privileged
could relax, as more and more of the disadvantaged
could speak
"Social

theories require the energy and vision that come from

those less comfortable in society"

1st: mid-19th century, the classical period

2nd: 1960s
Today?
Are

conditions ripe for another one?

Or are we still living through the period of rapid social change
that began in the 60s?

Are we still fighting the same battles, which have now gone global?

FRANZ FANON
THE WRETCHED OF THE
EARTH
Concerning Violence, and On National Culture,
The Wretched of the Earth (1961)

Franz Fanon (1925-1961)

8

Fanon was born in Martinique, studied

medicine in France, became a
psychiatrist
During French-Algierian war, Fanon
served in a hospital in Algeria

The experience deepened his native

sympathy for and understanding of those
subject to colonial oppressions

Died of cancer at age 36

Both Black Skin, White Masks (1952)
and The Wretched (1961) were among
the most widely read books in Europe
and the US in the 60s, as well as early
classics of late- and post-colonial
literature

Influences and key themes

9

Fanon uses Marxist theory psychology, critical race

theory, and global political economy in order to give an
account of the colonized subject, the problem of
nationalism, and the path to liberation
Shows how colonized peoples also experience double
consciousness (DuBois)

double consciousness: how blacks must view themselves

through white perspectives while maintaining their own selfdefinitions

Similarity of double consciousness between people of

color in US & colonized people historically suggests
connections between racism in US & colonialism
internationally

DuBois makes same argument in Souls of White Folk

Postcolonial theory
10

Postcolonial theory refers to a set of theories in social

science and literature that address the legacy of
colonial rule and the struggle for political and cultural
independence of peoples formerly subjugated in
colonial empires
Besides Fanons work, Edward Sad's Orientalism
(1978) is seminal book in the field
Sad analyzed the works of the Western canon,
exploring how they both absorbed and helped to
shape a societal fantasy of European racial superiority
Inspired by Foucault, postcolonial theory emphasizes
discourse, which joins power and knowledge

Orientalism
11

Said took term Orientalism, used in the West neutrally

to describe the study and artistic depiction of the
Orient, and subverted it to mean a constructed binary
division of the world into the Orient and the Occident

East/West binary is key in postcolonial theory

Said argued that the Occident could not exist without the
Orient, and vice versa
Occident & Orient, East & West, are mutually constitutive
Concept of the East was created by the West, suppressing
the ability of the Orient to express themselves
Western

depictions of Orient construct an inferior world, of

backwardness, irrationality, and wildness
The West identify themselves as the opposite: a superior world,
thats progressive, rational, and civil

The Wretched of the Earth

12

Fanon defines and explains colonialism and

decolonization from a political, philosophical,
historical, and socio-cultural perspective
Defines colonialism and its constructs, the
psychology of colonialism and its subtle effects on
the colonized
Colonization is a creation of two conflicting societies,
one of the colonizer and one of the colonized

Colonizer & colonized, settler & native, mutually

constitutive
Colonization barbarizes the colonized so that the
colonizer can, in good conscience, take everything from
the oppressed

Colonialism
13

Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and

expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory

core/metropole claims sovereignty over the colony, and social structure,

govt, and economics of the colony are changed by colonizers from the core
Colonialism represents systematic underdevelopment of periphery to benefit
of core

Ideological basis of colonialism is racism/white supremacy

The white mans burden, in its 19th-century version, involved

extraordinary violence, approximating genocide, against its supposed
beneficiaries
A major component of this violence was the collection of cultural images and
themes by which colonized people came to be known by the colonial power
The status of colonial subject, of being known by the colonizer,
simultaneously enforced & rationalized the colonial powers dominance of
indigenous populations, giving imperialism a fundamental racial dimension

Decolonization
14

The Wretched of the Earth served as the handbook for

political leaders faced with decolonization
Decolonization is not simply the removal of colonial
structures, but especially, the deconstruction of colonial
legacies in the mindset of formerly colonized peoples
Fanon explores the psychological dimensions of colonialism,
how colonization creates a racist system that can go as far as
convincing the colonized that they are what the colonists tell
them they are

The colonized strive to be like the colonizer, to become him, to be

white even. "...The total result looked for by colonial domination
was indeed to convince the natives that colonialism came to
lighten their darkness," writes Fanon (210)

To end colonization, first the colonized must see the myth

that has been placed on him

Concerning Violence
15

Fanon offers a raw depiction of both the colonizer

and the colonized, describing colonialism as a
source of violence rather than reacting violently
against resistors which had been the common view
Describing how the two mutually constitute each
other, Fanon shows how the violence of
colonization both breeds and constrains violence
within the colonized, simultaneously enabling their
colonization and providing the very power through
which the colonized might liberate themselves
Such liberation is only possible, he claims, through
revolutionary violence

Colonialism is built on force

16

Barracks & police stations mark the frontiers of the divided colonial
world

In the colonies, the policeman and the soldier are the official, instituted
go-betweens, the spokesmen of the settler and his rule of oppression

In capitalist societies, institutions such as the educational system serve to

create around the exploited an atmosphere of submission and of inhibition
which lightens task of policing considerably
In the colonial countries, by contrast, policeman and soldier, by their
immediate presence and their frequent and direct action maintain contact
with the native, using the language of pure force

The intermediary does not lighten the oppression, nor seek to hide
the domination; he shows them up and puts them into practice with
the clear conscience of an upholder of the peace; yet he is the bringer
of violence into the home and into the mind of the native.

On National Culture
17

Fanons critique of nationalism and imperialism also develops

to cover areas such as mental health and the role of
intellectuals in revolutionary situations
Fanon explains in great detail that revolutionary groups should
look to the lumpenproletariat for the force needed to expel
colonists

The lumpenproletariat in traditional Marxist theories are considered

the lowest, most degraded stratum of the proletariat, especially
criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed, who lacked class
consciousness
Fanon uses the term to refer to those inhabitants of colonized
countries who are not involved in industrial production, particularly
peasants living outside the cities
He argues that only this group, unlike the industrial proletariat, has
sufficient independence from the colonists to successfully make a
revolution against them