Genocide and Modernity: An Introduction to Postcolonial Genocide

Balorda, Jasna (2025) Genocide and Modernity: An Introduction to Postcolonial Genocide. In: Routledge Handbook of Genocide Studies. Routledge.

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Abstract

This chapter explores the importance of the concept of modernity for further development of the field of genocide studies. Modernity is here defined as a capitalist world system, which is subject to economic shocks, struggles over resources and oppressive power dynamics on the global scale. It is only in this high tension, high-stakes profit-oriented context that commodification of human life and annihilation of indigenous groups who lay claim on resources and land, can take place. Genocide is here seen as at the very heart of the modern world system, which is born out of several key historical moments, including the colonisation of the Americas, the transatlantic slave trade and the scramble for Africa. But rather than merely a timeframe, modernity is also a crucial element in the genocidal ideology of the
colonising project, a line that distinguishes lives worth living from those that are not. The colonially imposed racial identity categories which persist in many former colonies, both in the public memory and in the bureaucratic and legal systems, have been shown to play a crucial
part in post-colonial genocides. For this reason, it is essential that genocide theorists embrace coloniality as a broader concept, which persists in various shapes after the end of colonialism stricto sensu and recognise its links with the modern project and the political economy it is
based on.

Item Type:	Book Section
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Jasna Balorda
Date Deposited:	07 Jul 2025 10:49
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2025 10:49
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4691

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