何以实证底层?——后殖民理论下社会科学实证的表征转向  

作　　者：刘尚麟 

机构地区：[1]英国曼彻斯特大学社会学系

出　　处：《社会研究方法评论》2024年第2期183-220,共38页Social Research Methods Review

摘　　要：自20世纪80年代以来,以萨义德、斯皮瓦克和芭芭等理论家为先驱的后殖民理论,在英语世界的文学、哲学和社会科学等领域掀起了新的方法论范式革命。其中,由斯皮瓦克所提出的“底层能否发声”命题,站在实证底层的立场上,对既有的实证假设提出了一系列认识论挑战,迫使后殖民理论对社会研究实证范式进行严肃的反思。本文主要梳理了斯皮瓦克、查特吉、霍尔、戈、廷思梅等理论家的主要成果,以实证底层为基本框架,讨论社会研究在方法论层面发生转向的可能性。本文强调,作为研究对象的底层在社会科学实证中具有特殊性,结合目前的西方社会学界正在发生的后殖民主义方法论转向,迫使实证研究摒弃了还原经验对象的尝试。后殖民理论将认识论的重心放置于对经验对象的社会表征上,从而试图在实证层面进一步具象化底层所处的社会结构不平衡和不对称。由此,后殖民主义社会学强调对社会实体间的关系构成(relational constitution)的探索,为社会研究的方法论基础开辟了新的可能。Pioneered by Said,Spivak,and Bhabha,postcolonial theory has raged a new methodological paradigm revolution in fields of literature studies,philosophy,and social sciences in the Anglosphere world.In particular,Spivak’s proposition on‘can the subaltern speak’poses a series of epistemological challenges to established empirical assumptions,forcing postcolonial theory to engage in a serious rethinking of the empirical paradigm of social research.This paper focuses on the main results of theorists including Spivak,Chatterjee,Hall,Go,and Tinsley,and discusses the possibility of a shift in the methodological standpoints of social research.The paper emphasizes that the postcolonial turn of methodology,which is currently taking place in Western sociology,and eschews the attempt to reduce empirical objects.But rather than focusing on the social representation of empirical objects,postcolonial theory thereby attempts to further concretize the imbalances and asymmetries of the social structure at empirical levels.Hence,postcolonial sociology's emphasis on exploring the relational constitution of social entities opens up new possibilities for the methodological foundations of social research.

关 键 词：底层 后殖民理论 “斯皮瓦克之问” 帝国主义无意识 表征转向 

分 类 号：C91[经济管理] D066[社会学]