International relations theory and the third world academic : bridging the gap

[摘要] This thesis takes as its point of departure the problem that the disciplined study ofInternational Relations (IR), whose very basis of existence makes claims towardsuniversality and international applicability, is seen by some to push pertinent issuesrelating to the majority of the world's population to the periphery of its enquiry. It beginsby exploring the concept 'Third World, arguing for its continued relevance in the post-Cold War arena as generalised term when referring to the 'majority of the world'spopulation. It is then theorised that one can parallel the marginalisation of the ThirdWorld in the global political economy with a perceived marginalisation of a 'Third Worldacademic in the discipline of IR. By making use of both quantitative and qualitativemethods, the thesis investigates the production of knowledge within the discipline of IRtheory to argue that a possible root cause for the above problem could be the absenceof Third World academic contributions to the core of the discipline. Embarking from thenotion that IR theory is dominated by a British-American condominium of authorship, byre-interpreting the data provided by Ole Waever on academic contributions to leading IRjournals, the researcher concludes that 'Third World academics find themselves on theperiphery of knowledge production within the discipline of IR and are thereforedependent on the core to construct knowledge. A brief critical look at the history of thesocial sciences dominated by Western science as a hegemonic and specific'ethnoscience furthermore puts into context the development of IR as a conversationdominated by voices from the First World academic community. With reference to theconcepts of 'responsibility and 'reflexivity as they relate to theory, it is proposed thatthe development of IR as a discipline can be equated to a dialogue/conversation ratherthan a debate. For the dialogue to be responsible, all voices should be considered validcontributors, while all contributors should themselves act responsibly by being selfreflexive.Ultimately, although the discipline of IR must open up to contributions from theThird World, for the development of a truly global discipline that reflects the diversity ofglobal interactions, it is necessary for academics from the Third World to establishthemselves within the discourse by producing valuable contributions towards advancingthe discipline as a whole and stepping out of the periphery by realising the importance ofteaching and understanding 'theory.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University