The Bandung imaginary

Abstract

Every notion of the ‘international’, ‘global’, or ‘world’ has a certain social imaginary built into it, which determines or delimits the questions that can be posed of that object, what practical/political problems are seen to be most pressing, and what possibilities there might be for action and change. This chapter traces the transformation whereby an ‘imperial’ imaginary of the international was challenged and replaced by an alternative conception of the international—the Bandung imaginary. Central to this imaginary was its to challenge the global colour line in an effort to reorder the world. This chapter is about Bandung and its global imaginary, but also about its subsequent eclipse