Read more
Posthumanism represents a significant new research direction both for International Relations and the social sciences. It emerges from questions about inter-species relations which challenge dominant perceptions of what it means to be human. Rather than seeing the human species as 'in nature' posthumanist thinking considers the species as 'of nature'. The work of posthumanist thinkers has sought to dispute accepted notions of what it means to be human, raising profound questions about our relations with the rest of nature. The volume commences with an overview of the influence thinkers have had on the development of posthumanist thinking.
Key ideas in International Relations are interrogated and reconceptualised and specific case studies are presented with a focus on inter-species relations. The work allows for a consideration of the limits of the posthumanist move and provides space for critics to argue that such an approach opens the discipline up to a biological determinism, and that a focus on inter-human relations should mark the boundaries of the discipline. The essays collected in this volume provide an overview of contributions from posthumanist thinkers with the particular intention of providing a succinct introduction to the area and should appeal to scholars and students in Politics, IR and philosophy.
List of contents
Introduction – Framing the Posthuman Dialogues in International Relations
Chapter One - Animals and Human Constitution: Greek Lessons, Posthuman Possibilities
Chapter Two – With a Posthuman Touch: International Relations in Dialogue with the Posthuman – A Human Account
Chapter Three – Telling (Hi)stories in the Anthropocene: When Forest Is Multispecies Relation
Chapter Four – Potential of Posthumanist Onto-Epistemology for the Study of International Relations
Chapter Five – Agency in Posthuman IR: Solving the Problem of Technosocially Mediated Agency
Chapter Six – Posthumanist International Relations and Ecopolitics
Chapter Seven – Worm Politics
Chapter Eight – Fish and International Relations
Chapter Nine – The Posthuman Way of War
Chapter Ten – Representing Posthumans: Citizenship and the Political Production of Bodies and Technologies
Chapter Eleven – Genetically Modified Crops and the Posthuman Politics beyond Borders
Chapter Twelve – Cyborgs, Control and Transformation: Posthumanist Arms Control and Disarmament
Chapter Thirteen – Non-Lines of Sight: Battlespace Visualization and the Reterritorialization of Martial Vision
Chapter Fourteen – The Excesses of Posthumanism: Some Reflections on ‘Thinking’ as Capacity
Epilogue – Beyond the Anthropocentric Partitioning of the World
About the author
Erika Cudworth is Professor of Feminist Animal Studies in the School of Social Sciences, University of East London where she teaches International Relations, researches in the fields of international political theory, critical animal studies and gender and generally thinks about things posthuman.
Stephen Hobden - Reader in International Relations in the School of Social Sciences at the University of East London, where he teaches International Relations theory.
Emilian Kavalski – Associate Professor of Global Studies at the Institute for Social Justice, Australian Catholic University (Australia).
Summary
Posthumanism emerges from questions about inter-species relations which challenge dominant perceptions of what it means to be human. The essays collected in this volume provide an overview of contributions from posthumanist thinkers with the particular intention of providing a succinct introduction to the area.
