Eurocentrism in the social sciences

Abstract

Ethnocentrism, of which Eurocentrism is a special case, refers to ’the tendency to view one’s own ethnic group and its social standards as the basis for evaluative judgements concerning the practices of others-with the implication that one views one’s own standards as superior’. ’ I On the face of it, no reasonable person would see such an academic approach as justifiable. Yet European ideas and concepts * have had such an extraordinary effect in the last hundred years that Eurocen-trism has, in varying degrees, permeated all social science disciplines. This should not be seen as a phenomenon in isolation. It grew out of the historical process of western colonial and economic dominance and has, in turn, provided an ideological justification for that dominance. The categories and approaches used in European acade-mia help to maintain the political and intellectual superiority of Europe. The continuing presence of such academic constructs is a by-product of a widespread Eurocentric bias in the production,

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