'Doing Theory' from 'Somewhere'CSS Working Paper No.5 published: Global International RelationsOliver Merschel, Antje Wiener, Hauke Brückner, Alvine Datchoua-Tirvaudey, Lennart Riebe, Ana Soares and Gabriel Mondragón Toledo

25 May 2022, by CSS

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The fifth Working Paper in the CSS Working Paper Series has been published.

Global International Relations - ‘Doing Theory’ from ‘Somewhere’

Authors: Oliver Merschel, Antje Wiener, Hauke Brückner, Alvine Datchoua-Tirvaudey, Lennart Riebe, Ana Soares and Gabriel Mondragón Toledo

Abstract: What does it mean to take the call for more ‘global’ International Relations (IR) seriously for the practice of research in IR and adjacent disciplines? This working paper presents specific themes that Global IR could engage with in the ‘pluralist’ and ‘dialogical’ spirit of the GIR initiative. To flesh out six potential themes that relate directly to the six dimensions of Acharya’s original proposal for Global IR, this paper draws on a reflexive epistemology which prioritises ‘doing’ over ‘applying theory’ based on a ‘view from somewhere’. The themes are identified and outlined in this paper as follows: (1) practicing global IR, (2) towards more global historiographies, (3) decolonising IR contextually, (4) deconstructing concepts for a post-colonial language, (5) mapping agencies, and (6) eschewing exceptionalism. Put forward by a diverse group of authors, the paper exemplifies the productive dialogue among several ‘views from somewhere’. The point of discussing these six themes is precisely to refrain from narrowing down the debate or proposing fixed agendas for future research, and to resist canonisation by conceptualizing Global IR not as a specific theory or worldview but as a continuous impulse to keep reflexivity going. In a nutshell, we argue that if this reflexivity and openness for dialogue are genuinely practiced, Global IR will enrich and advance diverse fields of research without submitting to traditional disciplinary boundaries, hierarchies and modes of knowledge production.

Keywords: agency, de-colonial approaches, doing theory, historiography, language, mapping, practices, reflexivity