From international to world society? : English school theory and the social structure of globalisation / Barry Buzan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buzan, Barry.

Series:

Cambridge studies in international relations ; 95.

Cambridge studies in international relations ; 95

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Globalization--Sociological aspects.

Globalization.

Physical Description:

xviii, 294 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Summary:

Barry Buzan offers an extensive and long overdue critique and reappraisal of the English school approach to International Relations. Starting on the neglected concept of world society and bringing together the international society tradition and the Wendtian mode of constructivism, Buzan offers a new theoretical framework that can be used to address globalisation as a complex political interplay among state and non-state actors. This approach forces English school theory to confront neglected questions about both its basic concepts and its assumptions, and about the constitution of society in terms of what values are shared, how and why they are shared, and by whom. Buzan highlights the idea of primary institutions as the central contribution of English school theory and shows both how this differentiates English school theory from realism and neoliberal institutionalism, and how it can be used to generate distinctive comparative and historical accounts of international society.

Contents:

1 English school theory and its problems: an overview 6

English school theory: a summary 6

World society, and the problems and potentials of English school theory 10

The main areas of weakness in English school theory 15

Is English school theory really theory? 24

2 World society in English school theory 27

The intellectual history of world society within English school thinking 30

The pluralist-solidarist debate 45

3 Concepts of world society outside English school thinking 63

IR writers with a sociological turn: Burton, Luard and Shaw 66

Sociological conceptions of world society 70

Global civil society 77

4 Reimagining the English school's triad 90

State and non-state 91

Physical/mechanical and social concepts of system 98

Society and community 108

Individual and transnational 118

Conclusions: reconstructing the English school's triad 128

5 Reconstructing the pluralist-solidarist debate 139

What type of values, if shared, count as solidarist? 143

Does it make any difference to solidarism how and why any given values are shared? 152

What does 'thickness' mean in terms of type and number of values shared, and type and number of people and/or states sharing them? 154

6 The primary institutions of international society 161

Definitional problems 163

The concept of primary institutions in English school literature 167

Hierarchy and functionalism within primary institutions 176

The range of institutions and the types of international society 190

7 Bringing geography back in 205

Exclusive globalism is not necessary 207

Unwarranted pessimism 212

Understanding the interplay among the interhuman, transnational and interstate domains 217

Conclusions: a vanguard theory of international social structures 222

8 Conclusions: a portrait of contemporary interstate society 228

A snapshot of contemporary interstate society 231

Looking back: what changed, what didn't and why? 240

Driving forces, deeply rooted structures and contradictions 249.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-283) and index.

ISBN:

0521833485

0521541212

OCLC:

52902737

Online:

Publisher description