Manuela Boatcă thought she did, until a late 1990s move from Romania to Germany unsettled everything she had taken for granted. Here, she challenges mainstream ideas of “Europe” to show how its borders extend to the Caribbean and beyond – a fact that is obvious if we acknowledge colonialism’s past and present, but it is an inconvenient truth for some in political power.

Alexis and Rosie ask Manuela: How has Brexit revealed the contradictions built into so much discourse about “Europe”? How does “Creolizing” theory differ from “Decolonising” it? And what is the legacy of early sociologist Max Weber’s leading question: why the West?

Plus: a celebration of Immanuel Wallerstein’s World System approach, which decentres the nation state. With reflection on Stuart Hall, Edouard Glissant, Françoise Lionnet and Shu-mei Shih.