Varieties of Empires and Colonialism - Professor Gurminder K Bhambra

Empires and nation states are typically understood as two distinct types of political organization. There are states, it is claimed, that are empires and there are others that are nation states. Nation states tend to be associated with the emergence of modernity and a system of empires with the world that modernity displaces. Presenting empires and nation states as distinct political entities, however, fails to acknowledge the conjunction of the nation state with the colonial expansion of new overseas European empires. In other words, nation states do not displace empires, but are the basis for the development of new colonial empires. In this lecture, I address this anomaly within social science accounts of modernity, nation states, and empire that fail to address colonial histories in such discussions. I further set out an alternative account of how we might understand the varieties of empire that characterize the modern period.

Resources

Bayar, Yesim 2019. Nationalism and Empire https://stateofnationalism.eu/article...
Vergerio, Claire 2021. ‘Beyond the Nation-State’ Boston Review https://www.bostonreview.net/articles...

Questions for discussion

1. What is the relationship of modernity to empires and nation states?
2. Why is it problematic to understand empires and nation states as distinct forms of political organisation?
3. What is the relationship of colonialism to empires and nation states?

This lecture is part of the Connected Sociologies module on Empires and Colonialism. Read more and download lesson plans here: https://thesociologicalreview.org/pro...