Critical Synergy

Ali Meghji is Associate Professor in Social Inequalities in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of The Racialized Social System: Critical Race Theory as Social Theory,  Decolonizing Sociology: An Introduction, and Black Middle-Class Britannia: Identities, Repertoires, Cultural Consumption.

“A Critical Synergy is an insightful text that will be equally useful to global and transnational sociologists, sociologists of race and ethnicity, and critical theorists. By creatively weaving together critical race theory and decolonial theory, Meghji demonstrates how social inequalities within nation-states articulate to global systems of inequality. His unique theoretical approach sheds new light on a range of contemporary problems-from right-wing populism to environmental racism and COVID-19. A must read!”-Zine Magubane, Professor of Sociology at Boston College “Get ready to be drawn into a highly readable account of why a theoretical synergy between decolonial thought and critical race theory is not only a good idea, but a highly necessary endeavor-one that is not a synthesis, but a dialogue. In clear and precise language and with a wealth of both historical and present-day examples, Meghji makes a convincing case against conventional theoretical taxonomies and for collaborative conversations between two key critical knowledge projects of our time.”-Manuela Boatcă, Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of the Global Studies Programme at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and coauthor of Creolizing the Modern: Transylvania across Empires "What binds critical race theory (CRT) and decoloniality? They seem to be polar opposites, as CRT centers racism while decoloniality, being transnational, decenters the nation-state as a unit of analysis. Temporally, CRT rests on presentism, decoloniality on historicism. Despite this spatial and temporal divergence, Meghji fuses both theoretical traditions so that one appears incomplete without the other. He deploys four case studies to construct a dialogue between the two: far-right populism, global capitalism, the climate crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic.... Meghji does a splendid job showing how CRT and decoloniality complement each other.... This volume should be required reading on critical race theory and decoloniality. Summing Up: Highly recommended."-Choice "Meghji offers an insightful, readable walk through two schools of sociological and analytical thought that have been kept too far apart from one another, and readers will gain a revived lens through which to understand some of the most critical ongoing crises of our times."-Contemporary Sociology