Conclusion: Ruptures and Recuperations?

Abstract

A postcolonial politic involves more than the dismantling of customary colonial institutions; it also necessitates the search for sets of discursive practices that resist imperialism in contemporary settings. A feminist sociology of imperialism can trace the vestigial and mutually constituting discourses and sociospatial boundaries that structure imperial practice even after the political independence of colonized states, an important first step in imagining and implementing alternative practices and more just social realities. My project has been to extend our understanding of the ruptured and recuperated relationship between Western women and imperialism over time by exploring the multiple and contingent discourses of power that organize a diverse range of Western women’s daily practices and subject positions in contemporary Gilgit, Pakistan.