Jill Steans

A useful dialogue? Habermas and International Relations

It is now more than twenty years since Jurgen Habermass work was first referred to in International Relations (IR) theory. Along with many other continental philosophers and social theorists, Habermas was initially mobilised in the critique of positivism, and in particular neorealism, in IR theory. As such, the interest in Habermas and IR must be located in the first instance within the context of the fourth debate. This Forum section of the Review provides us with the opportunity to take stock and ask whether the dialogue between Habermas and IR has, thus far, been useful in providing new conceptual and methodological tools to analyse international politics and in inspiring new research agendas in IR. We also ask whether the role that dialogue plays within Habermass work has been useful in formulating a critical theory of international relations.

Introduction - Social reproduction in international political economy: Theoretical insights and international, transnational and local sitings

ABSTRACT This introduction provides an introduction to current innovative theoretical and empirical research on social reproduction. While the work showcased herein is by scholars from Europe and North America (reflecting a western bias), the diversity in the empirical cases goes some way to overcoming the focus on North American countries. The contributions vary from transnational accounts of social reproduction to the study of changes in social reproduction in the countries of the global south. The collection also offers contrasts in research on the macroeconomic level with research on the microeconomic level in order to allow for an understanding of peoples experiences of changes in patterns of social reproduction.

Negotiating the politics of difference in the project of feminist solidarity

The article is concerned with the constitutive tension between solidarity and difference in feminist practice. It is argued that while a ‘politics of difference’ has dogged efforts to build feminist solidarity across the boundaries of class, nation, ethnicity and religion, this does not refute the continuing importance of the concept of solidarity in understanding the dynamic interaction of agents in transnational political space. Drawing upon a number of illustrations from contemporary feminist practice, it is further argued that differences among women do not preclude solidarity. On the contrary, respect for difference is a necessary condition for forging solidarity. Moreover, conflict need not be divisive and can be creative in this process.

An introduction to international relations theory: perspectives and themes

Introduction 1. Liberalism 2. Realism 3. Structuralism 4. Critical theory 5. Postmodernism 6. Feminist Perspectives 7. Social Constructivism 8. Green Perspectives Conclusions, Key Debates and New Directions Glossary of key or problem terms

Telling Stories about Women and Gender in the War on Terror

This article focuses on the role of gender in boundary-drawing practices, in the construction of identities and in the discursive construction and depiction of the “body politic” in the War on Terror. It argues that the evocation of “liberated Western women” and “oppressed Muslim” women in narratives on the War on Terror has been useful in the project of casting the United States as a beacon of civilisation and in constructing, reinforcing and reproducing a polarity between the West and the Islamic world. The War on Terror has also generated narratives about male protectors and the female protected; narratives that are also central to boundary-drawing processes. The final section of the article focuses on “dissident stories” that have challenged dominant meanings and dominant constructions of identity and boundaries, and unsettled simplistic and dichotomous characterisations of “good” and “evil” in the War on Terror.

Negotiating the politics of gender and rights: Some reflections on the status of women's human rights at ‘Beijing Plus Ten’

This article undertakes a review of the development of the womens human rights project, focusing particularly on violence against women and issues of sexuality and reproductive rights. It notes gains by activists in promoting the womens human rights agenda and highlights the continuing impediments to the project from increasingly influential groups and some United Nations member states opposed to womens human rights. A more general problem is a lack of political will from those member states ostensibly committed to the cause who have often failed to translate this ‘commitment’ into effective action. It concludes that, as we approach the tenth anniversary of the ‘Conference of Commitments’, the implementation of initiatives has often been slow and somewhat ineffective. Governments have mastered the rhetoric of respect for womens human rights, yet the full realisation of womens human rights across the world remains elusive.

The New Materialism: Re-claiming a Debate from a Feminist Perspective

This article re-claims and invigorates the debate on ‘New Materialism’ as it is unfolding within Marxist political economy specifically. We choose this site to make our intervention in the debate because, while Marxism claims to makes visible the poor, dispossessed and those ‘left behind’ in the contemporary global capitalist economy, we discern, in contributions made thus far, a marked tendency to sideline the rich tradition of feminist historical materialist scholarship. We contend that feminist analyses are vital in elucidating the ‘gendered face’ of global financial crisis and austerity. Accordingly, after first mapping the contours of current discussion, we briefly revisit feminist critiques of Marxism; interrogate the inter-relationship between neoliberal capitalism, the gendered nature of labour markets, the ‘patriarchal’ state and social reproduction and unpaid care work; and, finally, we further develop our argument through an analysis of the gendered impacts of current austerity measures in the United Kingdom.

Revisionist Heroes and Dissident Heroines: Gender, Nation and War in Soviet Films of “the Thaw”

This article focuses on three films produced in the Soviet Union between 1956 and 1966, a period encompassing both “the Thaw” and the rise of the dissident movement. In distinctive ways these films challenge aspects of both “official” discourses on war and cinematic representations of war that prevailed in the Stalin era. The article interrogates changing representations of heroes, heroines and heroism, the concomitant challenges to prevailing representations of gender in stories of nation and war and also the limits of “subversion” and “dissidence” with respect to the story of gender within the grand narrative of the nation at war.

Gender in the Theory and Practice of International Political Economy

At first sight, a neo-Gramscian framework is a promising framework that might be utilized by feminist scholars who seek to understand, analyze, and challenge social relations of inequality, who work within a broadly historical materialist tradition, and who are dedicated to the task of reclaiming an explicitly anticapitalist feminism. Nancy Hartsock, for example, has noted that Marxist inspired critiques of class domination “underline the need for a theory that can put individual and intentional actions in the context of structural constraints,” and in so doing, “explain how what seem on the surface voluntary interactions between equal participants are in reality deeply and structurally unequal.”1 Within the context of International Relations (hereafter, IR) and International Political Economy (hereafter, IPE) specifically, scholars with similar ambitions have noted the intellectual and political affinities between feminists and neo-Gramscians2 and, in recent years, work has appeared that has undertaken a thoughtful and serious analysis of gender within a broadly neo-Gramscian framework.3 However, in much neo-Gramscian IR and IPE, gender remains either wholly neglected or undertheorized. Thus, while feminists and neo-Gramscians can be seen as fellow travelers in some respects, the potential rewards to be gained from a serious engagement between neo-Gramscian and feminist approaches have not, as yet, been fully realized, and so the promise of neo-Gramscian approaches remains largely unfulfilled.