*** Welcome to piglix ***

Eurocentrism


Eurocentrism (also "Western-centrism") is a political term coined in the 1980s, referring to the notion of European exceptionalism, a worldview centered on Western civilization, as it had developed during the height of the European colonial empires since the Early Modern period.

The term Eurocentrism itself dates back to the late 1970s and became prevalent in the discourse of political correctness and cultural relativism during the 1990s, especially in the context of decolonization and development aid and humanitarian aid offered by industrialised countries ("First World") to developing countries ("Third World").

The adjective Eurocentric, or Europe-centric, has been in use, in various contexts, since at least the 1920s. The term is popularised (in French as européocentrique) in the context of decolonization and internationalism in the mid 20th century. English usage of Eurocentric as an ideological term in identity politics is current by the mid-1980s.

The abstract noun Eurocentrism (French eurocentrisme, earlier europocentrisme) as the term for an ideology was coined in the 1970s by the Egyptian Marxian economist Samir Amin, then director of the "African Institute for Economic Development and Planning" of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Amin used the term in the context of a global, core-periphery or dependency model of capitalist development. English usage of Eurocentrism is recorded by 1979.


...
Wikipedia

...