Provincial Universalism: The Landscape of Knowledge Production in an Era of Globalization

Abstract

In this article, the politics of the international division of intellectual labour in an age of globalization is examined. Despite globalization of a number of ideas and institutions, the landscape of knowledge production in the social sciences continues to be dominated by scholars located in developed countries. One characteristic of the prevailing division of intellectual labour is the fact that the knowledge produced by scholars in the developed societies is deemed to be ‘theoretical’ and of universal applicability. Conversely, social scientific knowledge produced by scholars from developing societies is usually relegated to the status of empirical case studies with presumably little general analytical value. The social factors behind this state of affairs and some of the consequences are examined in the article.