Seeking epistemic justice and security in Eastern Europe and East Asia

Abstract

This afterword to The Sociological Review Monograph on War frames: insights from Eastern Europe and East Asia employs Sonevytsky’s account of epistemic imperialism to articulate how a strictly geopolitical realist lens, which focuses solely on the agency of the superpowers, tends to reduce the history, struggle and sovereignty of non-Western societies. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drastically alters the fates of the people and societies in Eastern Europe. At the same time, the event has had significant consequences for East Asia in the rearrangement of the post-Cold War order. From a comparative sociological perspective, I highlight how this monograph transforms our understanding of war through several perspectives: (1) from events to frames; (2) from subalterns to agents; and (3) from the spectacular to the everyday.

Keywords

epistemic imperialism security Taiwan Ukraine war

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