Couze Venn

Occidentalism and Its Discontents

This important book critically addresses the `becoming West' of Europe and investigates the `becoming Modern' of the world. Drawing on the work of Derrida, Foucault, Levinas, Lyotard, Merleau-Ponty and Ricoeur, the book proposes that the question of postmodernity is inseparable from that of postcoloniality. The argument fully conveys the sense that modernity is in crisis. It maps out a new genealogy of the birth of the modern and suggests a new way of grounding the idea of an emancipation of being. Postcolonialism has emerged as a central topic in contemporary social science and cultural studies. This book informs readers as to the central strands of the debate and introduces a host of new ideas which will be a rich fund f

Modernity and Subjectivity

Occidentalism

The present crisis of capitalism has a history. A history of the private accumulation of wealth through property regimes which allow increasing commodification and the privatisation of resources: from land to knowledge and even to life itself. Understanding that history may allow us to imagine alternatives after Capital which are no longer private but common. After Capital explores this history, showing how the economy is linked to environmental damage, climate change, resource depletion, and to massive inequality. It takes the reader from liberalism to neoliberalism, from climate change to the Anthropocene, and shows how this history is inextricably the history of colonialism. It is a rich and detailed narrative of capitalism over the last 200 years, that explains its texture and its neoliberal endgame. This discussion frames speculation on what postcapitalist societies could be, with regimes of private accumulation replaced by a politics and ethics of a democratic and ecologically- grounded Commons.

After Capital

`Couze Venn's book makes an outstanding contribution to our understanding of postcolonial theory and its engagement with significant changes within the contemporary world. Couze Venn forces us to rethink the very parameters of the post-colonial and suggests a new political economy for post-modern times. This critical engagement opens up the possibility to reimagine the world from its current narrow European strictures to a world full of alternative possibilities and modernities. Venn's book adds a new dimension to the scholarly literature on postcolonial studies with the suggestion that such a rethinking is transmodern - properly postcolonial and postoccidental. As such, it is an extended meditation and development of his Occidentalism. This is a timely and ground breaking book that contributes to a much needed reconceptualisation of the postcolony' - Professor Pal Ahluwalia, Goldsmiths College, University of London What is postcolonial studies? What are its achievements, strengths and weaknesses? This ground breaking book offers an essential guide to one of the most important issues of our time, with special emphasis on neo-liberalism within world poverty and the `third world'. It clarifies: · the territory of postcolonial studies; · how identity and postcolonialism relate; · the ties between postcolonialism and Modernity; · new perspectives in the light of recent geo-political events; · potential future developments in the subject. Lucid, comprehensive and accessible the book offers students and scholars a one-stop guide to one of the most important issues of our time.

Towards Alternative Worlds

The Postcolonial Challenge

Julian Henriques

Wendy Hollway

Valerie Walkerdine

Cathy Urwin

Changing the Subject is a classic critique of traditional psychology in which the foundations of critical and feminist psychology are laid down. Pioneering and foundational, it is still the groundbreaking text crucial to furthering the new psychology in both teaching and research. Now reissued with a new foreword describing the changes which have taken place over the last few years, Changing the Subject will continue to have a significant impact on thinking about psychology and social theory.

Couze Venn

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