The Dictionary of Human Geography

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levels after 1347 had little to do with the

living standards of the population since rich

and poor were equally susceptible (Bailey,

1996). Nonetheless, the model remains a

powerful statement to which many interpret-

ers still adhere on account of its conceptual

elegance. rms

Suggested reading

Campbell (2000); Hatcher and Bailey (2001);

Postan (1972).

post-colonialism An intellectual movement

originating in literary and cultural studies con-

cerned with the diverse, uneven and contested

impact ofcolonialismon the cultures of col-

onizing and colonized peoples, in terms of the

way in which relations, practices and represen-

tations are reproduced or transformed

between past and present, as well as between

the ‘heart’ and the ‘margins’ of empire and its

aftermath. While the proliferation of uses and

implied meanings of the term ‘post-colonial’

(and its conflation with other terms such as

‘neo-colonial’, ‘ex-colonial’, ‘anti-colonial’,

‘post-independence’ and ‘post-imperial’) has

resulted in a tangled skein of intellectual

threads, post-colonialism as a form of ‘critical

analysis of colonialism and its successor pro-

jects’ takes as axiomatic the following: (1) a

‘close and critical reading of colonial dis-

course’; (2) an understanding of ‘the compli-

cated and fractured histories through which

colonialism passes from the past into the pre-

sent’; (3) a mapping of ‘the ways in which

metropolitan and colonial societies are drawn

together in webs of affinity, influence and

dependence’; and (4) a sensitivity to the ‘pol-

itical implications’ of the way history is con-

structed (Gregory, 2000).

Post-colonialism may refer to something

tangible, with ‘real political and historical ref-

erents in space and time, locating cultural as

well as economic and political connections

between metropole and colony’ (King, 1993,

p. 90). This take on post-colonialism can be

distinguished in work focusing on forms of

post-colonial expressions andidentitysuch

as the social, demographic, political, cultural

and spatial forms, styles and identities in once-

colonial societies of the periphery (Simon,

1998, p. 230). Post-colonialnation-states

are often ‘overwhelmed with the onslaught of

representational spaces’ in attempts to pro-

duce the ‘ideal of the post-colonial citizen’

(Srivastava, 1996, p. 406). Urban forms and

architecture, in particular, have been treated

as ‘a social and political means of

representation in which a post-colonial nation

forms a dialogue with its colonial past’

(Kusno, 1998, p. 551). Post-colonial strivings

for a new identity do not completely banish

the colonial past, but involve the selective

retrieval and appropriation of indigenous (see

indigenous knowledge) and colonial cul-

tures to produce appropriate forms to repre-

sent the post-colonial present. Often ‘ironic’,

‘contradictory’ and anxious about ‘inauthenti-

city’, post-colonial identity is constituted by

both a ‘relatively unproblematic identification

with the colonizer’s culture,anda rejection of

the colonizer’s culture’ (Kusno, 1998, p. 550).

Using the term ‘post-colonialism’ to refer to

a specific periodaftercolonialism is, however,

problematic, as the historical reality in the

second half of the twentieth century in the

once-colonized world was shaped by ‘a mod-

ernity that is scored by the claws of colonial-

ism, left full of contradictions, of half-finished

processes, of confusions, ofhybridity, and

liminalities’ (Lee and Lam, 1998, p. 968).

Post-colonialism must be understood in a

plural sense, for there are ‘quite radical differ-

ences in the ‘‘colonial’’ relationship between

the imperial centre and the colonized in the

various parts of the former empires’ (Mishra

and Hodge, 1991, p. 412). The term is hence

less usefully tied to a specific historical

moment, a political status or a concrete object.

Instead, more critically, the ‘post-colonial’ is

used to signify ‘an attitude of critical engage-

ment with colonialism’s after-effects and its

constructions of knowledge’ (Radcliffe, 1997,

p. 1331). It provides a conceptual frame that

works to destabilize dominantdiscoursesin

the metropolitan West, to challenge inherent

assumptions, and to critique the material and

discursive legacies of colonialism (Crush, 1994;

Jackson and Jacobs, 1996; Jacobs, 1996, Blunt

and McEwan, 2002; McEwan, 2003). Post-

colonial critique engages with ‘the monumental

binary constructions of East/West, traditional/

modern, natural/cultural, structural/ornamen-

tal’ in order to locate ‘productive tensions aris-

ing from incommensurate differences rather

than deceptive reconciliations’ (Nalbantoglu

and Wong, 1997, p. 8).

The emancipatory radicalism and recupera-

tive stance ascribed to the ‘post-colonial’ have

been questioned in a number of ways. Critics

argue that just as the application of the cat-

egory ‘pre-colonial’ to societies prior to their

incorporation into European political and eco-

nomic systems tend to fix the ‘colonial’ as the

main point of reference, adding the prefix

‘post-’ may also impose ‘the continuity of

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POST-COLONIALISM