Critical Methods for the Study of World Politics

Critical Methods for the Study of World Politics PDF

Author: Shine Choi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-12-05

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1000710769

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This book develops an approach to both method and the socio-political implications of knowledge production that embraces our embeddedness in the world that we study. It seeks to enact the transformative potentials inherent in this relationship in how it engages readers. It presents a creative survey of some of the newest developments in critical research methods and critical pedagogy that together go beyond the aims of knowledge transfer that often structure our practices. Each contribution takes on a different shape, tone and orientation, and discusses a critical method or approach, teasing out the ways in which it can also work as a transformative practice. While the presentation of different methods is both rigorously practice-based and specific, contributors also offer reflections on the stakes of critical engagement and how it may play an important role in expanding and subverting existing regimes of intelligibility. Contributions variously address the following key questions: What makes your research method important? How can others work with it? How has research through this method and/or the way you ended up deploying it transformed you and/or your practice? How did it matter for thinking about community, (academic) collaboration, and sharing ‘knowledge’? This volume makes the case for re-politicizing the importance of research and the transformative potentials of research methods not only in ‘accessing’ the world as an object of study, but as ways of acting and being in the world. It will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, critical theory, research methods and politics in general.

The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations

The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations PDF

Author: Patrick Thaddeus Jackson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-07-19

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 1136912029

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This volume ws the winner of The International Studies Association Theory Section Book Award 2013, presented by the International Studies Association and The Yale H. Ferguson Award 2012, presented by International Studies Association-Northeast. There are many different scientifically valid ways to produce knowledge. The field of International Relations should pay closer attention to these methodological differences, and to their implications for concrete research on world politics. The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations provides an introduction to the philosophy of science issues and their implications for the study of global politics. The author draws attention to the problems caused by the misleading notion of a single unified scientific method, and proposes a framework that clarifies the variety of ways that IR scholars establish the authority and validity of their empirical claims. Jackson connects philosophical considerations with concrete issues of research design within neopositivist, critical realist, analyticist, and reflexive approaches to the study of world politics. Envisioning a pluralist science for a global IR field, this volume organizes the significant differences between methodological stances so as to promote internal consistency, public discussion, and worldly insight as the hallmarks of any scientific study of world politics. This important volume will be essential reading for all students and scholars of International Relations, Political Science and Philosophy of Science.

Research Methods in International Relations

Research Methods in International Relations PDF

Author: Christopher Lamont

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2021-11-17

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1529764955

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The only guide to conducting research in International Relations. Covering the full breadth of methods in IR with unrivalled clarity, this best-selling textbook takes you through the entire process of doing research, from honing your question to writing up the dissertation. The engaging and jargon-free style demystifies the process of doing research, whilst helping you develop a comprehensive understanding of the strengths and limitations of different methods and methodologies. This second edition comes with new chapters on conducting interviews and discourse analysis, as well as expanded coverage of qualitative and quantitative methods. Packed with examples, it explores the breadth of IR research today, from the long-lasting impact of colonialism to migration policy; climate change negotiations to international aid. Covering the most cutting-edge methodological developments, including critical realism, feminist, and postcolonial approaches, it helps you understand and apply research methods in world politics. This practical introduction is essential reading for anyone setting out on their International Relations research project for the first time, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Christopher Lamont is Assistant Dean of E-Track Programs and Associate Professor of International Relations at Tokyo International University, Japan.

International Relations' Last Synthesis?

International Relations' Last Synthesis? PDF

Author: J. Samuel Barkin

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-02-12

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0190463449

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Many scholars, intentionally or unintentionally, have entangled constructivisms and critical theories in problematic ways, either by assigning a critical-theoretical politics to constructivisms or by assuming the appropriateness of constructivist epistemology and methods for critical theorizing. IR's Last Synthesis? makes the argument that these connections mirror IR's grand theoretical syntheses of the 1980s and 1990s and have similar constraining effects on the possibilities of IR theory. They have been made without adequate reflection, in contradiction to the base assumptions of each theoretical perspective, and to the detriment of both knowledge accumulation about global politics and theoretical rigor in disciplinary IR. It is not that constructivisms and critical theories have no common ground; rather, the fact that it has become routine for IR scholars to overstate their common ground is counterproductive to the discovery and utilization of their potential dialogues. To that end, IR's Last Synthesis? argues that scholars using the two in conjunction should be cognizant of, rather than gloss over, the tensions between the approaches and the tools they have to offer. Along these lines, the book uses the concept of affordances to look at what each has to offer the other, and to argue for a modest, reflective, specified return to (constructivist and critical) IR theorizing. By rejecting its over-simple syntheses, this book hews a road toward reviving IR theorizing.

Theories of International Relations

Theories of International Relations PDF

Author: Stephanie Lawson

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2015-04-06

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780745664248

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Since the field of International Relations was established almost a century ago, many different theoretical approaches have been developed, each offering distinctive accounts of the world, why it has come to be the way it is, and how it might be made a better place. In this illuminating textbook, leading IR scholar, Stephanie Lawson, examines each of these theories in turn, from political realism in its various forms to liberalism, Marxism, critical theory and more recent contributions from social theory, feminism, postcolonialism and green theory. Taking as her focus the major practical issues facing scholars of international relations today, Lawson ably shows how each theory relates to situations ?on the ground?. Each chapter features case studies, questions for discussion to encourage reflection and classroom debate, guides to further reading and web resources. The study of IR is a profoundly normative enterprise, and each theoretical school has its strengths and weaknesses. Theories of International Relations encourages a critical, reflective approach to the study of IR theory, while emphasising the many important and interesting things it has to teach us about the complexities and challenges of international politics today.

Beyond Paradigms

Beyond Paradigms PDF

Author: Rudra Sil

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2010-08-31

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1137013591

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While paradigm-bound research has generated powerful insights in international relations, it has fostered a tunnel vision that hinders progress and widens the chasm between theory and policy. In this important new book, Sil and Katzenstein draw upon recent scholarship to illustrate the benefits of a more pragmatic and eclectic style of research.

Key Research Concepts in Politics and International Relations

Key Research Concepts in Politics and International Relations PDF

Author: Lisa Harrison

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2013-04-29

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 1446290417

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From action research to validity, this innovative and informative text is an invaluable guide to a variety of core research concepts in both political science and international relations. Key Features: - Each entry is consistently structured, providing: a clear definition, a focused explanation, a summary of current debates and areas of research, further reading, and references to other related concepts. - Explains how and why particular research methods are used and highlights alternative research concepts and strategies. - Cross-relates entries, enabling you to dip in to topics and follow threads throughout the book. - Packed with illuminating examples to help you to apply theory to the ′real world′ of political analysis. An essential companion for students of Politics and International Relations at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The Study of World Politics

The Study of World Politics PDF

Author: James N. Rosenau

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-06-07

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1134227744

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The Study of World Politics is two volume set that presents thirty-nine essays of some two hundred essays authored by Professor James Rosenau, a renowned international political theorist. They include both articles recently published and those that have not previously been published. All of them focus on the theme of the study of world politics, with the twenty-three articles in this volume devoted to probing theoretical and methodological challenges. This volume is divided into five parts and address such issues as: the challenge of world politics the professional political scientist methods concepts and theories the analysis of foreign policy. Included in this collection is perhaps James Rosenau’s most widely-read essay, ‘Pre-Theories and Theories of Foreign Policy’ as well as several essays that articulate various dimensions of global governance and how they are shaped by the dynamics of globalization. These articles are marked by unique and imaginative formulations which break with a number of conventional approaches employed in the fields of international relations and foreign policy. The Study of World Politics provides the reader with access for the first time to a collection of James Rosenau’s outstanding scholarship, making this an invaluable book to students and academics with interests in politics.

Studying Politics Today

Studying Politics Today PDF

Author: Nancy S. Love

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-27

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9781138379206

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This book examines what political scientists are studying - and how they are doing it - in ways that could improve our world. It features scholars in political science and related fields, who are engaged in research that is more politically relevant than the work that continues to dominate the larger discipline. Their shared commitment "to make the study of politics relevant to the struggle for a better world" represents the continuing legacy of the Caucus for a New Political Science, founded in 1967, and the perestroika movement that began in 2000. Both have challenged the defining commitments of political science as a discipline to narrow, parochial, and apolitical approaches to the study of politics. Although the balance of disciplinary critique and alternative approach varies from chapter to chapter, all of the authors included here offer innovative and progressive perspectives on the study of politics today. Topics include: critiques of mainstream political science methods and models; redefinitions of key concepts and major institutions; reconstructions of the borders, subjects, and spaces of politics; and reflections on the ethical commitments of scholars and scholarly journals. This book was published as a special issue of New Political Science: A Journal of Politics and Culture.

Critical Approaches to Security

Critical Approaches to Security PDF

Author: Laura J. Shepherd

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-03

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1135127999

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Focusing on critical approaches to security, this new textbook offers readers both an overview of the key theoretical perspectives and a variety of methodological techniques. With a careful explication of core concepts in each chapter and an introduction that traces the development of critical approaches to security, this textbook will encourage all those who engage with it to develop a curiosity about the study and practices of security politics. Challenging the assumptions of conventional theories and approaches, unsettling that which was previously taken for granted – these are among the ways in which such a curiosity works. Through its attention to the fact that, and the ways in which, security matters in global politics, this work will both pioneer new ways of studying security and acknowledge the noteworthy scholarship without which it could not have been thought. This textbook will be essential reading to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of critical security studies, and highly recommended to students of traditional security studies, International Relations and Politics.