Book contents
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- LSE International Studies
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part IActivists, Intellectuals, and Movements
- 1Genealogies of Anticolonialism
- 2Anticolonialism and National Liberation
- 3An Anticolonial Critique of Sovereignty
- 4Decolonization as Transformation
- 5Revolutionary Women’s Praxis to Bury Colonialism, 1945–1949
- Part IISchools of Thought
- Part IIIDissident Sociologists
- Part IVOn Method
- Index
- References
4 - Decolonization as Transformation
Malek Bennabi’s Philosophy of Liberation
from Part I - Activists, Intellectuals, and Movements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2025
Book contents
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- LSE International Studies
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part IActivists, Intellectuals, and Movements
- 1Genealogies of Anticolonialism
- 2Anticolonialism and National Liberation
- 3An Anticolonial Critique of Sovereignty
- 4Decolonization as Transformation
- 5Revolutionary Women’s Praxis to Bury Colonialism, 1945–1949
- Part IISchools of Thought
- Part IIIDissident Sociologists
- Part IVOn Method
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter engages with the philosophy of liberation of the Algerian philosopher and anticolonial thinker Malek Bennabi (1905–1973). It argues that Bennabi’s decolonization theory aims at transforming the structural conditions of the colonized that made colonization even possible. The chapter lays out some of the significant aspects of Bennabi’s theory, focusing on how Bennabi conceived the problem of colonialism/colonizability and what answers he attempted to offer to overcome it. The chapter also examines Bennabi’s theory of society and its elementary aspects before explicating Bennabi’s politics of liberation that aims at transforming (and perfecting) both the means of transformation and the humans as its agents. Bennabi’s philosophy of liberation is not predicated on changing the political system or institutions but on the transformation of their sociopsychological infrastructures in which the behaviors of the individuals can be molded, making their social actions engender a different kind of politics.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought , pp. 91 - 114Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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