The article explores the relevance of postcolonial studies for critical social analysis. It introduces core themes of postcolonial studies as well as their critique as a basis for an exploration of postcolonial perspectives on resistance and transformation, feminism and globalisation. The authors demonstrate the thematic variety of postcolonial studies and the ways in which they combine investigations of material and discursive aspects in their analyses of colonial inflections in past and present power relations. Drawing on foundational anticolonial as well as current postcolonial literature, the article points out the implications of epistemological and methodological innovations/ reconceptualisations within postcolonial studies for critical social inquiry.