Suchergebnisse

An outgrowth of the critical examination of Western political theory embedded in Western-centrism and the tumultuous ideational processes by which contemporary Korean political theory and reality have intensely interacted (both in convergent and divergent ways). The book addresses complex and variegated ideas regarding Western centrism: the definition of Western-centrism; how Western-centrism is compared and contrasted with other forms of centrism such as Sinocentrism, capitalism (bourgeois-centrism) patriarchy (male-centrism), and racism (white-centrism); how Western-centrism has evolved in world history and in the history of Western political thought; how the evolution of contemporary Korean political thought has been interwoven with Western-centrism; the ill effects Western-centrism has brought about in Korean society and academia; and, ultimately, how Western-centrism can be overcome

It is a paradox that there are few monographs committed to examining Western-centrism in the discipline of (Western) political theory, an intellectual tradition that has long been proud of critical self-reflection. This book is an outgrowth of examining Western political theory and the ideational processes by which contemporary Korean political theory has interacted with it.

Over the last two decades, research on professional service firms has developed into an important subfield of management studies. In this article, I offer a postcolonial critique of this subfield. I show that it is not only built almost exclusively on studies conducted in the West but also generally presents its theorizing as though it were universal. This is despite the field being mostly focused on transnational firms. It is also despite professional service firm scholars generally being distinctly sensitive to (organizational) difference and having no steadfast commitment to positivism. Importantly, I also contend that professional service firm scholarship tends to construct an image of Western professionals as bearers of universal experience, knowledge and 'professional' culture while overlooking, if not obscuring, their role in neo-colonialism. Thus, what started as a useful effort to study an unusual – 'professional' – type of organization appears to have evolved into a West-centric scholarly enterprise. I urge scholars to recognize and interrogate the problem and work self-reflexively to address it in their own research – and I offer suggestions to that end. My contribution also has implications for the postcolonial critique in management studies and related efforts to decolonize the field.

The primary purpose of this article is to advance the ongoing global international relations (Global IR) debate and to offer some possible paths toward Global IR 2.0. To this end, this article first analyzes how Global IR has emerged, what contributions it makes to giving new impetus to IR knowledge (production), and, more importantly, what charges are leveled against Global IR. Although Global IR has produced an important body of scholarship, contributing substantially to identifying West-centrism as a key point of contention in IR and nudging the discipline toward theoretical pluralism, Global IR in its current form still carries the risk of reinforcing the old hierarchical and essentialized structure of knowledge production in ways that are analytic, epistemological, and ontological. Following this critical mapping exercise, I argue that while Global IR can serve as a key signifier of challenge to West-centrism, this important signifier needs to be redefined in terms of what it indicates and means - thereby becoming Global IR 2.0. In onto-epistemological terms, Global IR 2.0 relates more directly to questioning and dissolving essentialized ways of knowing in the discipline. In the final section of this article, I elaborate on how to realize this idea and harness it in practice.

Unlike some other staples of security studies that do not even register the issue, Buzan & Hansen's (2009) The Evolution of International Security Studies unambiguously identifies 'Western-centrism' as a problem. This article seeks to make the point, however, that treating heretofore-understudied insecurities (such as those experienced in the non-West) as a 'blind spot' of the discipline may prevent us from fully recognizing the ways in which such 'historical absences' have been constitutive of security both in theory and in practice. Put differently, the discipline's 'Western-centric' character is no mere challenge for students of security studies. The 'historical absence' from security studies of non-Western insecurities and approaches has been a 'constitutive practice' that has shaped (and continues to shape) both the discipline and subjects and objects of security in different parts of the world.

Post world war global scenario witnessed derivation of new world views on various spheres of human life viz. polity, economy, development and even the existence of humanity. Hence environmental issues as a movement took shape according to their popular concern about environmental pollution and the depletion of natural resources. Subsequently there casted more focus on environment from international community as legislations and various national and international factions and blocs came to existence with different world views in a way that more or less reflects their political stands and affiliations. Later events corroborate the very controversies and contradictions between developed and developing countries where the North and South dichotomy unveiled with arguments of industrialisation, poverty and population. This paper tries to delineate trajectory of emergence and development of different environmental world views with the help of literatures which marked milestones in the environmental discourses.