We are pleased to announce the full program for the Seventh Global Conference of WISC, which will be held in Warsaw on 24-26 July 2024. For your convenience, a directory of confirmed participants is also available for consultation. You can browse the list here. Additionally, you can download a PDF copy here.
WC05: Theorising International Relations Beyond the State/Society Binary: Continuity, Change, and Contestation
Time:
Wednesday, 24/July/2024:
3:00pm - 4:30pm
Session Chair: Dr. Jochen Kleinschmidt, TU Dresden
Location:Room 303
Auditorium Building
Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28
Roundtable
Presentations
Theorising International Relations Beyond the State/Society Binary: Continuity, Change, and Contestation
Chair(s): Dr. Jochen Kleinschmidt (TU Dresden), Dr. Aleksandra Maria Spalińska (University of Warsaw and University of Sussex)
Presenter(s): Prof. Antje Wiener (Hamburg University), Prof. Gunther Hellmann (Goethe University), Prof. Philip G. Cerny (University of Manchester and Rutgers University), Prof. Thomas Diez (University of Tübingen), Prof. Arie Kacowicz (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Prof. Valeria Korablyova (Charles University of Prague)
Classical international theory had been based on the presumption that the domestic realm is hierarchic, whereas the state system is anarchic. Marxist and poststructuralist critics have sometimes, with some success, argued for an ontology based on more hierarchic principles, such as in world systems theory or in biopolitical approaches. Moreover, the problem of state/society dichotomy is mirrored in the subject matter of IR, and specifically in differences between political and social ontologies. IR, despite its declared focus on relations, is actually rather centred around power. The roundtable addresses this problem by discussing approaches used to tackle the state/society dichotomy. For example, a more varied palette of options for the description of the international has recently been generated by theoretical innovations based on concepts such as societal multiplicity, heterarchy, differentiation, and contestation. The guiding question for this roundtable is: how should these concepts be utilized to understand a world that is increasingly being shaped by a brutal war of aggression, renewed great power competition, democratic backsliding, and the looming threat of climate catastrophe—in other words, a world that finds itself in a period of severe crisis?
