Paper short abstract:

Concepts of modernity/tradition, and of globalisation, imply assumptions of scale and teleology that go against the multilateralism implied in Gilroy's Black Atlantic. An approach is needed that avoids conceptual processes of scaling and teleologising processes of social change.

Paper long abstract:

Gilroy's notion of the Black Atlantic heralded a multilateral approach to crossings and re-crossings of both time and space in the way cultural formations emerge and take shape. This paper argues that concepts of modernity (and tradition), and theories of globalisation and cosmopolitanism, imply taken-for-granted assumptions of scale and historical teleology that go against the grain of such multilateralism. A more radical approach is needed to avoid conceptual processes of scaling and lineally teleologising processes of social change.