PO942 Theories and Issues in International Political Economy

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PO942 Theories and Issues in International
Political Economy

• Week 11
• Constructivist and Feminist Theories of IPE

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Some key dates this term 18-21 January (weeks
2/3) 2nd timed essay 14 February (week 6)
submission of first round research essays 28
February (week 8) submission of titles for
second round research essays 06 March (week 9)
submission of provisional dissertation topic
PAIS seminar series recommences in week 2 (next
week)
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• This weeks objectives
• to complete our overview of theory in IPE
• to consider the contribution and usefulness of
  feminist and constructivist approaches to the
  study of IPE
• to assess the capacity of the standard IPE
  theories (especially liberalism,
  realism/economic nationalism and Marxism) to
  accommodate or repel the critiques offered by
  feminists and constructivists

• Both relative newcomers to mainstream IPE
• Emergent literatures an assessment of
  potential
• Different types of critique, but both challenge
  the theoretical mainstream (feminism also asks
  big questions about the very subject matter of
  IPE)
• Imports to IPE from elsewhere
• Feminist thinking from across the academic
  spectrum recent prominence in IR
• Emphasis on social construction of reality in
  social theory since the 1960s recent prominence
  in IR

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Feminism
Critique of IPE scholarship
Critique of practice
1. Feminist scholars frequently criticise
orthodox theories for their silence on questions
of gender. Why is this such a problem for IPE?
2. Feminist scholars often note that the
organisation and practices of the global
political economy are gendered. What do they
mean? Can you think of some examples?
A feminist IPE
3. What would a feminist IPE look like? Would
attention to women as actors and gender issues
rectify the deficiencies of orthodox IPE? Or is
something more needed?
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Traditional IR
Anarchy The outside
The sphere of International Politics
Community The inside
Domestic politics
But
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Constructivism
Ideas REALLY matter!
?

• Note
• there are several versions of constructivism and
  different constructivist scholars have quite
  diverse views on the extent to which they are
  operating within or beyond the (liberal/realist)
  mainstream
• constructivism is not a rival theory (to e.g.
  realism or liberalism). It represents a rival
  ontology (view of social reality). The world is
  not materially-given, but socially constructed
• Realism and liberalism are ontologically
  rationalist

Interests are not pre-given, but socially
constituted through interaction
Collective (intersubjective) meanings
(structures)
Power ability to shape collective meanings
Continuity and change
(agency)
material structures are given meaning only by
the social context through which they are
interpreted Jeffrey C. Checkel, The
constructivist turn in International Relations
theory, World Politics 50(2), 1998 326
it is collective meanings that constitute the
structures which organise our actions Alexander
Wendt Anarchy is what states make of it,
International Organization 46, (2), 1992 397
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• Try to develop a constructivist take on the
  following commonplace discussion topics in IPE
• The emergence of the Bretton Woods system
• The retreat of the state under conditions of
  globalisation
• The rise of neoliberal policy orthodoxy
• How helpful is a constructivist approach to these
  questions? How successfully does it displace
  orthodox rationalist accounts?