The necessity of a postcolonial imagination within the social sciences is more ur-gent than ever. As the rise of contentious politics disfigures our contemporary landscape - both here in Europe and globally - there is a growing need to address the historical processes that are producing our present. In this article, I ask what difference would be made to sociology, and the social sciences more broadly, if we took seriously postcolonial arguments. In particular, if we acknowledged the cen-trality of colonial endeavours to our current social and political configurations. It is only by engaging with this past more directly that we can hope to address the many challenges we face.
Keywords: Colonialism, history, nation, empire.