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A Decolonial Project for Europe

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  • Gurminder K. Bhambra

Abstract

Europe's past is an imperial and colonial past. Often presenting itself as a cosmopolitan continent of nations, it is, in fact, a continent of national projects buttressed by colonial endeavours. These have included colonial emigration and settlement, dispossession, appropriation, extraction, and enslavement. While particular national governments have played a central role – Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, for example – populations from across the European continent have also participated. This article sets out the ‘varieties of colonialism’ at the heart of the European project and asks what a decolonial project of Europe might look like. I argue it would be one that places the colonial histories of Europe at the centre of our understandings of the present and which seeks redress of the injustices associated with that history through postcolonial reparative action.

Suggested Citation

  • Gurminder K. Bhambra, 2022. "A Decolonial Project for Europe," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 229-244, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:60:y:2022:i:2:p:229-244
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13310
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Garavini, Giuliano, 2012. "After Empires: European Integration, Decolonization, and the Challenge from the Global South 1957-1986," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199659197.
    2. Laurent Warlouzet, 2018. "Britain at the Centre of European Co†operation (1948–2016)," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 955-970, May.
    3. Ueli Staeger, 2016. "Africa–EU Relations and Normative Power Europe: A Decolonial Pan‐African Critique," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 981-998, July.
    4. Peo Hansen & Stefan Jonsson, 2012. "Imperial Origins of European Integration and the Case of Eurafrica: A Reply to Gary Marks’‘Europe and Its Empires’," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(6), pages 1028-1041, November.
    5. Catarina Kinnvall, 2016. "The Postcolonial has Moved into Europe: Bordering, Security and Ethno-Cultural Belonging," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 152-168, January.
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    Cited by:

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