PSCI 3601 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Hawala, Post-Structuralism, Linguistic Turn
10 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Poststructuralism
Lecture 8
Postmodernism vs. poststructuralism
• Postmodernism: cultural sensibility in art, architecture, music, literature, etc. since the
1960s-70s (or the fin de siècle?)
• Poststructuralism (PS): mode of philosophical interpretation derived from – as well as
transcending – structuralism (e.g. in linguistics, sociology/ anthropology)
• Philosophical: “linguistic turn”, post empiricism → Focus on language and discourse:
esp. power/knowledge: archaeology of knowledge, genealogy of power (Foucault);
deconstruction (Derrida)
• Political: disillusionment with the traditional left (1953, 1968, etc.) → Focus on identity
politics
PS a fringe approach in IR since the 1980s:
• (meta-)theoretical critique (e.g. Walker 1993, 2010)
• Discoures analysais (e.g. de Géode 2003, Hansen 2011)
PS is not a school of thought (or theory) of IR, but a
met theoretical orientation and critical analytical strategy
concerned with:
(1) practices of representation and the production of “truth”
(2) the mutual implication of power and knowledge and the “productivity” of power
(3) the consequences of (1) and (2) for ethics and subjectivity (or identity)
Poststructuralist critique of Grand Narratives
• Critique of foundational, universalizing, totalizing assumptions and theories, e.g.
• critique of sovereignty, the state, human nature, anarchy as “given” and foundational
• critique of essentialization of “international relations” across time and space (“from Plato
to NATO”)
- Need for denaturalization, historicization, contextualization (e.g. in early modern
Western philosophy and history)
poststructuralist critique of positivist social science
• critique of its supposed neutrality and objectivity
- critique of subject-object, fact- value distinctions
- critique of givenness of facts and neutrality of language
- language not innocent i.e outside politics, but part of it (Hawala as terrorist finance)
→ implication of scientific knowledge and other forms of discourse in social and
political power.
Critique of ethical elisions and ethical universalism
• critique of positivist bracketing and liberal universalism
- both presuppose and normalize particular identities especially white, western, well-
off males; sovereign states.
- universal ethics emancipation in fact based on particularistic assumptions about
human nature, rationality, and progress.
→ ethical neutrality and universal ethics entail their own exclusion (human rights).
poststructuralist concerns with representations and discourses
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Postmodernism vs. poststructuralism: postmodernism: cultural sensibility in art, architecture, music, literature, etc. since the. Ps a fringe approach in ir since the 1980s: (meta-)theoretical critique (e. g. walker 1993, 2010: discoures analysais (e. g. de g ode 2003, hansen 2011) met theoretical orientation and critical analytical strategy concerned with: Need for denaturalization, historicization, contextualization (e. g. in early modern. Implication of scientific knowledge and other forms of discourse in social and political power. Critique of ethical elisions and ethical universalism: critique of positivist bracketing and liberal universalism. Both presuppose and normalize particular identities especially white, western, well- off males; sovereign states. Universal ethics emancipation in fact based on particularistic assumptions about human nature, rationality, and progress. Ethical neutrality and universal ethics entail their own exclusion (human rights). poststructuralist concerns with representations and discourses: concern with production of truth and performativity of language and discourse.
