Eurocentrism in Social Sciences – Does Chinese Sociology Remain Voiceless in Global Academia?

My presentation will discuss the question of hegemonic language(s) of publication in a globally connected academic world. This question will be discussed on the basis of interviews which were conducted with social scientists from China (PRC). I will argue that a linguistic eurocentrism in social sciences produces a structural voicelessness of the 'other' in academia. On the basis of the empirical data I will discuss the role of eurocentric practices of publication in a system of global knowledge product ion. In the presented empirical data the social scientists talk about their challenge how to voice their academic findings on a global level. The interviewees link this question essentially to their choice of language in their publications. In their view English is required as a hegemonic means of communication to be recognized in a global academic system. The discussion of these empirical findings raises more general questions of language and knowledge legitimization, their embeddedness in a neoliberal exploitation logic and the question if English is the hegemonic language of academia. Therefore I want to link my empirical data to questions of how this hegemony in academia makes certain knowledge unheard and therefore voiceless. And how this practices of publication reinforce hegemonic power relations in global knowledge production.