Postcolonial geographies: an exploratory essay

Abstract: This article is about debates concerning the ‘postcolonial’. The term bears a variety of inter-related sets of meanings. In the first place ‘postcolonial ’ has been used in reference to a condition that succeeds colonial rule. But ‘postcolonial ’ also signifies a set of theoretical per-spectives. Mindful of this diversity, I present a tentative and speculative geography of the varied and complicated senses (and non-senses) of the conditions and approaches purported to be described by the term