Provincial Europe

Abstract

This review essay argues that József Böröcz reverses explanations that have served as the basis not only for Eurocentric accounts of global social change and the ‘rise’ of Europe but also for the latter’s critics coming from Marxist, postcolonial and world-systems perspectives. Most notably, the review considers why on the basis of Böröcz’s work we have to reject the classic question of how and why Europe and the West have become rich and/or ‘progressive’. The essay considers the wide implications of Böröcz’s novel analysis which focuses on weights of different political entities that he sees as crucial in understanding geopolitical manoeuvring of wide-ranging historical and present-day actors such as the European Union, western colonial powers, as well as state socialist countries and blocs, thus offering a fresh and provocative perspective on global social change.