Putting the state in its place: the critique of state-centrism and its limits

2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Lacher
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Spatial Transformation ◽  
Crucial Aspect ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way

The critique of state-centrism is a crucial aspect of the restructuring of International Relations theory, widely seen as a precondition for the conceptualisation of international transformation. In this article, I argue that the terms on which this critique is framed lead to claims which are both too sweeping in their implications for a transformation to a post-Westphalian system, and not radical enough with respect to the Westphalian period itself. The critique of state-centrism is premised on the assumption that modernity was a territorial order in which states contained ‘their’ societies. But modern social relations always included global dimensions. If the modern social sciences discounted these global aspects of modernity, the way forward for the social sciences, and IR in particular, cannot be in embracing the notion of a contemporary shift from the national to the global, but in a reconsideration of modernity itself. Just as the new globalism is inadequate as a basis for understanding our supposedly postmodern times, so nation-statism was always defective as a basis for understanding modernity. I argue that the notion of a national/global dialectic provides a better basis for understanding the current socio-spatial transformation.

Local Institutions at the Crossroads of Environmental Regionalism in Southeast Asia: State-Civil Society Interplays and Tensions

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Antonio P. Contreras
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Interactions ◽  
Civil Societies

This paper inquires into the implications of the different discursive imaginations on civil societies and the state from the perspective of the social sciences, particularly political science and international relations. It focuses on some interfaces and tensions that exist between civil society on one hand, and the state and its bureaucratic instrumentalities on the other, particularly in the domain of environment and natural resources governance in the context of new regionalisms and of alternative concepts of human security. There is now a new context for regionalism in Southeast Asia, not only among state structures, such as the ASEAN and the various Mekong bodies, but also among local civil societies coming from the region. It is in this context that issues confronting local communities are given a new sphere for interaction, as well as a new platform for engaging state structures and processes. This paper illustrates how dynamic are the possibilities for non-state domains for transnational interactions, particularly in the context of the emerging environmental regionalism. This occurs despite the dominance of neo-realist political theorizing, and the state-centric nature of international interactions.

Relations, Human and Non-human

2020 ◽  
pp. 106-135
Author(s):  
Milja Kurki
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Social

This chapter argues for an extension of how we think relationally via relational cosmology. It places relational cosmology in a conversation with varied relational perspectives in critical social theory and argues that specific kinds of extensions and dialogues emerge from this perspective. In particular, a conversation on how to think relationality without fixing its meaning is advanced. This chapter also discusses in detail how to extend beyond discussion of ‘human’ relationalities towards comprehending the wider ‘mesh’ of relations that matter but are hard to capture for situated knowers in the social sciences and IR. This key chapter seeks to provide the basis for a translation between relational cosmology, critical social theory, critical humanism and International Relations theory.

Paradigms of Cognition in Security Sciences

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Andrzej Glen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Spatial Context ◽  
Ontological Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject

The article outlines difficulties related to the paradigm of cognition in security sciences, which have been generalised by asking about the paradigm that allows to study security of various entities and to obtain progress of knowledge about this fragment of reality. Then, a set of paradigms typical for the social sciences, disciplines: political and administrative sciences, international relations theory sub-discipline: security studies and management and quality sciences were analysed and evaluated using a system of hypothetical and assertion-deductive methods. The subject, time and spatial context of security of entities, the subject scope of security sciences and the ontological approach to the understanding of beings in the reality of security of entities were outlined. The usefulness of analysed and evaluated paradigms in cognition of security was assessed in this context. Finally, a complementary paradigm of cognition in security sciences was proposed and its usefulness in relation to multi-paradigmatic cognition was demonstrated.

Identities, Border, Orders: Rethinking International Relations Theory. Edited by Mathias Albert, David Jacobson, and Yosef Lapid. Minneapolis: University of Minnestota Press, 2001. 328p. $57.95 cloth, $22.95 paper. Bridges and Boundaries: Historians, Political Scientists, and the Study of International Relations. Edited by Colin Elman and Miriam Fendius Elman. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. 431p. $50.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 676-678
Author(s):  
Nicholas Onuf
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
North American ◽  
State Politics ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Common Stock ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
The Many ◽  
As If ◽  
The Way

The editors of Bridges and Boundaries asked contributors—nine political scientists and eight historians, all of them North American—to reflect on their respective disciplines and the way they go about “the study of international events” (p. 1). We should notice a positivist disposition here. While contributors “share an interest…in the state, politics and war” (p. 2), events are the stuff of international relations. That the state, politics, and war are complex institutional phenomena perhaps not reducible to events points to conceptual issues that this volume fails generally to address. Instead, contributors discuss the many problems attending generalized explanation and empirical fit—theory and science—as if their shared interests imply a common stock of core concepts.

The mother of all isms: Causal mechanisms and structured pluralism in International Relations theory

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Philosophical Foundation ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
The Social

Theorizing under the rubric of paradigmatic ‘isms’ has made important conceptual contributions to International Relations, but the organization of the subfield around these isms is based on flawed readings of the philosophy of science and has run its course. A promising alternative is to build on the philosophical foundation of scientific realism and orient International Relations theorizing around the idea of explanation via reference to hypothesized causal mechanisms. Yet in order to transform the practice of International Relations theorizing and research, calls for ‘analytic eclecticism’ must not only demonstrate that scientific realism is a defensible epistemology amenable to diverse methods; they must provide a structured and memorable framework for diverse and cumulative theorizing and research, field-wide discourse, and compelling pedagogy. I Introduce a ‘taxonomy of theories about causal mechanisms’ as a structured pluralist framework for encompassing the theories about mechanisms of power, institutions, and legitimacy that have been providing the explanatory content of the isms all along. This framework encourages middle-range or typological theorizing about combinations of causal mechanisms and their operation in recurrent contexts, and it offers a means of reinvigorating the dialogue between International Relations, the other subfields of political science, and the rest of the social sciences.

Critical Theory: International Relations' Engagement With the Frankfurt School and Marxism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faruk Yalvaç
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Just World ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Alternative Set

Critical international relations theory (CIRT) is not only an academic approach but also an emancipatory project committed to the formation of a more equal and just world. It seeks to explain the reasons why the realization of this goal is difficult to achieve. What is crucial here is not only the social explanation, but also politically motivated action to achieve an alternative set of social relations based on justice and equality. Critical theory in international relations (IR) is part of the post-positivist turn or the so-called “fourth debate,” which followed the inter-paradigm debate of the 1970s. Post-positivism consists of a plurality of theoretical and epistemological positions that opened up wide ranging criticisms of the neo-realist “orthodoxy” that has dominated IR theorizing since the beginning of 1980s. Critical theory has challenged the mainstream understanding of IR, and has spurred the development of alternative forms of analysis and approaches. Moreover, since the beginning of the 1980s, different types of CIRT have become the main alternative to mainstream IR. The general aim of CIRT can be summed up by Marx’s eleventh thesis on Feuerbach that “philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” A specific tradition of critical thought in IR, derived from Marx, comprises the normative Critical Theory (CT) of the Frankfurt School—termed the “structural critical theory”—since it focuses more on the sociological features and dynamics of capitalism.

scholarly journals The new institutionalism and international relations: A step forward

2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-358
Author(s):  
Rudy Baker
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
The 1960S

The behavioral revolution of the 1960s which engulfed the social sciences, and particularly Political Science and Sociology, led to a large-scale disinterest in the study and structure of institutions. The 1980s saw a new movement emerge upon the social sciences, which stressed the centrality of institutional analysis in the study of politics and society and resurrected the study of institutions as key variables. Dubbed the New Institutionalism, this movement would have profound effects on the direction of research in Political Science and Sociology. Unfortunately, the New Institutionalist movement has been largely ignored by International Relations theorists and practitioners, even though it has generated both a useful toolkit of methods, and a rich source of findings that could be of much use to International Relations theory.

International Relations before Critical Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Devetak
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Science Standards ◽  
Epistemic Practices ◽  
International Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Way

The chapter elaborates the post-war disciplinary context from which critical international theory emerged. While most accounts start with the so-called ‘third debate’, this chapter situates its emergence in the longer story of the rise in theory’s prestige in the social sciences. It tells the story of a series of disputes over method (Methodenstreit) that paved the way not just for higher levels of theoretical abstraction, and a never vanquished humanist challenge to the scientific outlook. It was during the 1950s that the persona of the theorist was first established in international relations. In the following decades, personae of the international relations theorist evolved through academic institutionalization of certain epistemic practices and technical capabilities modelled on behaviouralist and philosophy-of-science standards. The stage was thus set for a rival, namely, critical intellectual persona to emerge in opposition to both the humanist and scientific outlooks, but in continuity with the ever-higher orders of abstraction.

Emotions and politics of sensibilities in Latin America

2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092199451
Author(s):  
Adrian Scribano
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Latin America ◽  
The State ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multi Method Approach ◽  
Method Approach

The social sciences in Latin America have always had a special connection with the study and analysis of the place of emotions in the social structuration processes. The aim of this article is to offer a synthetic exposition of some inquiries about emotions and the politics of sensibilities in Latin America, emphasizing those that are being felt in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this objective, first we offer a synthesis of the theoretical and methodological points that will guide the interpretation; then we draw on pre-existing inquiries and surveys which allow us to capture the state of sensibilities before and during the pandemic in the region; and finally some conclusions are presented. The work is based on a multi-method approach, where qualitative and quantitative secondary and primary data are articulated in tandem.

International Relations an a World of Revolutionary Change

1949 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Easton Rothwell
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
New York ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Carnegie Corporation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wartime Experience

A PROJECT of collaborative research concerning major world trends affecting international relations has been launched this year at the Hoover Institute and Library. This project has been made possible by a three-year grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.1Beneath the original planning for the project lay the conviction born of wartime experience, that a deeper understanding of the dynamics of international relations could be obtained by pooling the contributions of the social sciences and related disciplines and by taking account of practical experience in the international field. The need for new and more penetrating approaches to international relations had been put by Arnold Toynbee in a few challenging words: “There is nothing to prevent our Western Civilization from following historical precedent, if it chooses, by committing social suicide. But we are not doomed to make history repeat itself; it is open to us through our own efforts, to give history, in our case, some new unprecedented turn.” Natural scientists, as well as social scientists are agreed that any “new unprecedented turn” must be sought in deeper understanding of relations among people and among nations.

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