Lecture 9 - Critical Theory Flashcards
positivist approaches
realism
liberalism
marxism
post-positivist approaches
Social constructivism
Critical Marxism
Post structuralism
Feminist theory
Post colonialism
Realism/foundationalism
Social phenomena exist independently of our understanding of them – they have an essence in their
own right, ‘out there
The world exists that is external to our theories.
There are regularities in human/state behaviour and thereby we can explain the social world in much the same way as a natural scientist might explain the physical world.
states desire power ‘naturally’; states are naturally
aggressive/peaceful
Constructivism/antifoundationalism
Social phenomena are produced through human interaction.
Phenomena do not have an essence, are constantly changing.
Just because something is socially constructed does not mean it is not ‘real
The world is constructed by our theories by shaping how we act and thereby make those theories
become self-confirming.
We have free will rather than having our ‘choices’ determined behind our backs - our language and concepts as helping create that reality.
states nature and interests are defined by our rationalisation.
interpretivist epistemology
Aim: Study meaning-making, understand human/state behaviour
Knowledge cannot be objective or value-free
The researcher is implicated: we can only know the world through the categories we have at hand (the meanings we ascribe)
problem-solving theory
There is a distinction between facts and values, with facts being neutral between theories.
concerned with ‘discovering’ regularities from a disinterested or value-free position;
Aims at better prediction of human behaviour
Roughly the same methodologies apply in both the scientific and non-scientific worlds
takes the world as it is: system- maintenance bias
critical theory
Reality perceived by theorists is dependent on their interests.
Separation between facts and values not possible.
All theories help constitute the world they claim merely to depict.
Critical Theory: Central Tenets
critique of traditional / instrumental theories
critique of repressive and ‘normalized’ social practices and institutions in today’s world
emancipation: transformation of what it is
approach: hermeneutics, critical self-reflection from one’s standpoint
hermeneutics, critical self-reflection from one’s standpoint
Using our individual experiences as entry-points into our ‘situadedness’.
Reflecting on the ‘limits of our knowledge’.
Reflecting upon ways in which certain social arrangements become ‘naturalized’/‘normalized‘.
Critical Theory: Historical Precursors – Marxism
Transition to capitalism has changed the way human beings meet their material needs –> selling labour in return for a wage
Class: defined by ownership of means of production
The modes of production determine who has structural power and who benefits from the social system.
Historical materialism: base (forces and relations of production) and superstructure
Class struggles underpin state policies
essential features Marxism
Materialist – base (forces and relations of production) and superstructure
Historical – international politics is different in different historical periods; a historical materialism.
Foreign policy decision-making driven by class relations within the global political economy
structural pressures drive decision-making
vertical class divisions
division between capital and labour
horizontal class division
divide between individual capitalists and labourers
inter-state war generated by capitalism
War driven by conflict between capitalist states for control of markets; overproduction; profit – WWI; Capitalists cooperate to exploit the Global South
world systems theory
core-semi-periphery- periphery exchange dynamics shape world system
satellite states distorted by elites focus on international market exchange.
satellite state
A country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country
Critical Theory: Historical Precursors – Gramscian IR
theory as political – creates real world political outcomes
focus on hegemony – the generation of coercion and consent
‘Third Face’ of power: A gets B to want what A wants
Critical IR Theory: Frankfurt School
focus on the “superstructure”: culture, bureaucracy, the social basis and nature of authoritarianism, the structure of the family, etc.
Innovative analysis of the role of media/the ‘culture industry’
Therefore, a one-dimensional society (Marcuse) where the working class has simply been absorbed by the system and no longer represents a threat to it.
Radical democracy = widest possible participation in word and deed. actively identifying barriers to participation and overcoming them.
Critical IR Theory: Robert Cox
Understand world orders as a continuing creation of new forms emerged in the configuration of three forces: Material Capabilities, Ideas and Institutions
Three levels of activity:
1. the organisation of production, more particularly with regard to the social forces engendered by the production process;
2 forms of state as derived from a study of state/society complexes; and
3 world orders, i.e. the particular configurations of forces which successively define the problematic of war or peace for the ensemble of states
International Relations from a Critical Perspective: anarchic structure
Open-ended social structure constituted through changing and unfolding social relations and identities;
Repressive features reinforced through social and political practices (e.g., state system and its tendencies of violent exclusion of minority non-conformist identities).
What we take to be a ‘normal structure’ is a highly political and socially constructed order which privileges some while marginalizing others.
International Relations from a Critical Perspective: states
Subjective agents –˃ their political and social interests are shaped by interaction with other actors as well as changing social and historical circumstances
International Relations from a Critical Perspective: international institutions
Political legitimation and stabilizing function of existing world order but also emancipatory potential =˃ possible frameworks for arriving at rational consensus through communicative action based on arguments and persuasion
