Western Dominance in International Relations? | Audrey Alejandro

gloknos and DoingIPS (Queen Mary University of London) are co-sponsoring the launch of Dr. Audrey Alejandro's recently published book Western Dominance in International Relations? The Internationalisation of IR in Brazil and India (Routledge, 2018).

The event, hosted by the Department of Methodology of the London School of Economics, features a roundtable discussion followed by a reception. It is held at the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, on 21 January 2019 from 6 to 8PM.

Admission is free but registration is required.

Chair: Alvina Hoffmann (King's College London)

Roundtable : Barry Buzan (London School of Economics), Inanna Hamati-Ataya (University of Cambridge), Alvina Hoffmann (Chair; King's College London), Jef Huysmans (Queen Mary University of London), Katharine Millar (London School of Economics).

Since the 1970s, a 'critical' movement has been developing in the humanities and social sciences denouncing the existence of 'Western dominance' over the worldwide production and circulation of knowledge. However, thirty years after the emergence of this promising agenda in International Relations (IR), this discipline has not experienced a major shift.

This volume offers a counter-intuitive and original contribution to the understanding of the global circulation of knowledge. In contrast to the literature, it argues that the internationalisation of social sciences in the designated 'Global South' is not conditioned by the existence of a presumably 'Western dominance'. Indeed, although discriminative practices such as Eurocentrism and gate-keeping exist, their existence does not lead to a unipolar structuration of IR internationalisation around ‘the West’. Based on these empirical results, this book reflexively questions the role of critique in the (re)production of the social and political order. Paradoxically, the anti-Eurocentric critical discourses reproduce the very Eurocentrism they criticise. This book offers methodological support to address this paradox by demonstrating how one can use discourse analysis and reflexivity to produce innovative results and decentre oneself from the vision of the world one has been socialised into.

This work offers an insightful contribution to International Relations, Political Theory, Sociology and Qualitative Methodology. It will be useful to all students and scholars interested in critical theories, international political sociology, social sciences in Brazil and India, knowledge and discourse, Eurocentrism, as well as the future of reflexivity.

Audrey Alejandro is an International Political Sociology scholar, Assistant Professor at the Deparment of Methodology, LSE. Her research focuses on discourse and knowledge, the role they play in society, how we can apprehend their effects, and what it takes to produce discourses and knowledge helping us to create a world consistent with our values.

Barry Buzan is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the LSE; honorary professor at Copenhagen, Jilin, and China Foreign Affairs Universities, and at the University of International Relations (Beijing); a Senior Fellow at LSE Ideas; and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has written, co-authored or edited nearly thirty books, written or co-authored over one hundred and fifty articles and chapters, and lectured, broadcast or presented papers in over twenty countries.

Inanna Hamati-Ataya is Principal Research Associate at the Centre for Research in theArts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), and founding director of the Centre for Global Knowledge Studies (gloknos), at the University of Cambridge. With Arlene Tickner and David Blaney, she is co-editor of the Routledge book series Worlding Beyond the West.

Alvina Hoffmann is a PhD candidate in International Relations in the War Studies Department at King’s College London. Her research examines the relations between citizenship, rights claims practices and geopolitics in different contexts. She is the co-convenor of the research group Doing IPS and works for Millennium: Journal of International Studies as review article editor and social media officer.

Jef Huysmans is Professor of International Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London and convenes the research cluster Doing International Political Sociology (www.doingips.com). He is best known for his work on the politics of insecurity, the securitization of migration, critical methods, and international political sociology.

Katharine M. Millar is Assistant Professor of Gender and International Relations at the London School of Economics. Her research interests include critical IR theory, particularly gender, feminist, and queer theory, the philosophy of science, and understandings of collective subjectivity. Her current project examines gendered cultural narratives underlying the modern collective use of force.

10364019716_1e27890068_z.jpg

Image: Courtesy of Parth Joshi