Refashioning Futures

Criticism after Postcoloniality

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by David Scott

Princeton University Press

Due/Published June 1999, 272 pages, paper

ISBN 0691004862

How can we best forge a theoretical practice that directly addresses the struggles of once-colonized countries, many of which face the collapse of both state and society in today's era of economic reform? Scott argues that recent cultural theories aimed at "deconstructing" Western representations of the non-West have been successful to a point, but that changing realities in these countries require a new approach. Through a series of linked essays on culture and politics in his native Jamaica and in Sri Lanka, he demonstrates that modern concepts of political representation, community, rights, justice, obligation, and the common good do not apply universally and require reconsideration.