File(s) under permanent embargo
Method or madness: sociolatry in international thought
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 22:36 authored by Patricia OwensInternational theory has a social problem. Twenty years after the so-called ‘social turn’, the historical origins of distinctly social forms of thought are not subject to scrutiny, let alone well understood. Indeed, the problem of the ahistorical social is an issue not only for predominant liberal, realist, and constructivist appropriations of social theory, but also the broad spectrum of critical and Marxist modes of theorising. In contrast to practicing sociolatry, the worship of things ‘socio’, this article addresses the historicity of the social as both a mode of thought - primarily in social theories and sociology - against the background of the emergence of the social realm as a concrete historical formation. It highlights problems with the social theoretic underpinnings of liberalism, social constructivism, and Marxism and advances an original claim for why the rise of the social was accompanied by attacks on things understood (often erroneously) as political. To fully understand these phenomena demands a closer examination of the more fundamental governance form the modern social realm was purported to replace, but which it scaled up and transformed.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Review of International StudiesISSN
0260-2105Publisher
Cambridge University PressExternal DOI
Issue
4Volume
41Page range
655 -674Department affiliated with
- International Relations Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes