Grand Narratives in Critical International Theory

Critical international theory has the task of providing orientation to human beings in better understanding their conditions of existence, how those conditions came to assume their contemporary characteristics, and what immanent potential they might hold for emancipatory transformation. The argument in this book is that this task of orientation is indissociable from a reliance on grand narratives that capture the main features of the long-term process of human development. And yet, many of these grand narratives also tend to reproduce Eurocentric worldviews that undermine critical international theory's reliability as a means of orientation. In this book, André Saramago provides an innovative answer to the problem of orientation with which critical international theory is confronted. Through an indepth engagement with the work of Jürgen Habermas, Karl Marx, and Norbert Elias, he recovers a historical-sociological approach to grand narratives that avoids a reproduction of their Eurocentric shortcomings. In the process, he improves critical international theory's role as a means of orientation by making it better theoretically equipped to capture the interweaving of the historical development of the human capacity for self-determination in the four key dimensions of human existence: people's relations with themselves as individuals; social relations at both the intra- and inter-societal levels; and people's relations with non-human nature. This book will appeal to all students and researchers interested in interdisciplinary and critical approaches to the study of world politics, long-term processes of social change, and human-nature relations, working within or across the fields of International Relations, Sociology, Political Theory, and related areas of inquiry.

List of contents

Introduction

1. The problem of orientation in critical international theory
Orientation, grand narratives, and critical international theory
The Eurocentric critique of world politics
The possibility of a historical-sociological approach to grand narratives

2. A philosophical-transcendental grand narrative
A theory of moral and social evolution
Universal communication community
The cosmopolitan constitutionalization of world politics
Orientation in history

3. The materialist-emergentist conception of history
Humans in nature
Objective ethics
A general theory of human development
Orientation and emancipation

4. Class struggles and utopian limitations
The critique of capitalism
The interweaving of multiple forms of class struggle
Utopianism and social monopolies

5. Towards a reconstruction of historical-sociological grand narratives
Process sociology and critical theory
Symbol emancipation and the triad of controls
On the concept of civilisation
Civilising processes as grand narrative

6. Critical orientation in world politics
From the triad to the tetrad of controls
Class struggles in inter-societal relations
Socialisation and planned interdependence

Concluding remarks
Bibliography

About the author

André Saramago is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. His research focuses on the intersection of critical international theory, historical sociology, and environmental politics. He is the editor of Non-Human Nature in World Politics: Theory and Practice (with Joana Castro Pereira, 2020), and his research has been published in journals such as Historical Social Research, European Journal of International Relations, and International Relations.

Summary

Critical international theory has the task of providing orientation to human beings in better understanding their conditions of existence, how those conditions came to assume their contemporary characteristics, and what immanent potential they might hold for emancipatory transformation.

Report

This path-breaking book, which cuts across large swathes of IR, moves the non-Eurocentric historical-sociological agenda several notches along by achieving two colossal objectives: first, in confronting the stubborn, ossified binary between Eurocentric universalism and supposedly 'non-Eurocentric' cultural relativism; and second, in transcending the Eurocentric poststructuralist/critical trope that grand narratives are inherently Eurocentric.
- John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield, UK
In this exceptionally well-written, scholarly volume, Saramago tackles head-on the seemingly intractable problem of reconciling the need for de-centred, cosmopolitan reflexivity in international theory with the critical impetus for a more secure means of orientation towards the development of human societies. The latter undertaking, characteristically, has necessitated 'grand' conceptual architecture and universal models of analysis which inevitably express certain social and epistemic contingencies, classically those of a Eurocentric character. Piece-by-piece, Saramago convincingly builds the case for a historical-sociological alternative to this impasse through reframing the problem in a radically processual, synthetic and empirically-grounded manner. The critical project, indeed, the grand narrative of emancipatory critique this engenders, is here effectively transmuted into an analysis of emergent social dynamics, their myriad forms of historical expression and variation, and an investigation of the conditions under which the human capacity for self-determination might expand or decline. This outstanding contribution to debates in the field is essential reading for scholars of international relations, sociology, and a range of cognate disciplines.
- Jason Hughes, University of Leicester, UK
Written as a well-informed, sympathetic but nevertheless deep critique of canonical figures in critical theory - Kant, Marx and Habermas, the objective of this study is no less ambitious than were the works that inspired it: To salvage critical theory, especially critical international theory, from accusations of Eurocentrism or irrelevance. Saramago does this by taking lead from his teacher, Andrew Linklater, and reconstructing critical theory and its approach to grand narratives by engaging with the process sociology of Norbert Elias. In this pursuit, Saramago goes further than Linklater when he demonstrates how, firstly, Marx succeeded in avoiding some of the traps Habermas fell into, and, secondly, Elias can be utilised in improving on Marx as well as on the more recent tradition of critical international theory. He does so by expanding Elias's - lucidly exposed - conceptual apparatus, introducing the dimension of inter-societal relations into it. The result is a compelling contribution to contemporary debates in International Relations theory and beyond.
- Kamila Stullerova, Aberystwyth University, UK

Product details

• Authors: Andre Saramago, André Saramago
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 29.02.2024
• EAN: 9781032118390
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3211839-0
• No. of pages: 154
• Series: Rethinking Political and International Theory
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; Human Rights, PHILOSOPHY / Social, PHILOSOPHY / Political, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Civil Rights, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Far-left political ideologies and movements, Civil rights & citizenship, Socialism & left-of-centre democratic ideologies, Left-of-centre democratic ideologies, Human rights, civil rights, Marxism & Communism