If You Want To Know About Social Identities, Study The Caribbean

It is well known that social theory has historically been dominated by European thinkers from the founding figures like Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Simmel to more recent luminaries like Foucault, Beck, Habermas, Giddens and Baumann. They are fecund and important thinkers and, not surprisingly, many contemporary scholars turn to them when starting their investigations of social identity. Yet, this Eurocentric starting point has some limitations. The founding thinkers rarely used the word 'identity' and, arguably, contemporary European social theory is largely insulated from discussions of colonialism, post-colonialism, colour, race and racism, which often are significant components of felt identity, identity politics and discriminatory social practices. Bhambra (2014) has made a passionate plea for widening conventional epistemologies of social science to include voices from the periphery, a plea I have heartily endorsed in my Foreword to her book. But my entreaty here is more specific: if you are a researcher studying the question of social identity, I urge you to turn your attention to the Caribbean.