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From: Richard Kurt Burch <kurt@strauss.udel.edu>
To: INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY <ipe@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: IPE Yearbook contributions
CALL FOR PAPERS
(please forward to interested colleagues)
The editors of the IPE Yearbook -- published by Lynne Rienner
Publishers under the auspices of the ISA -- are soliciting potential
contributors to a planned volume on "the constitution of IPE".
The volume asks what is the character of the international
political economy and how did it come to be? We ask contributors to
explore how IPE as a discipline and ipe as global practices and
circumstances were "constituted" by specific social activities. In so
doing, we also intend the volume to explore the approach called "social
construction" or "social constitution". (A fuller description appears
below).
We plan to compile a complete set of full drafts at the April 1996
ISA convention in San Diego (panels formed), receive revisions by August 1,
1996, then submit the manuscripts to the publisher in Fall 1996.
ABSTRACT AND ADDRESS
For consideration, please send a 2-page abstract by Aug 15, 1996
to:
Editors, IPE Yearbook
c/o Kurt Burch
Dept of Political Science and International Relations
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Two conditions raise questions about the constitution of the
ipe. Dramatic national, regional, and global events beg questions about
social change and the construction/reconstruction of societies. At the
same time neorealist arguments subsume the significance of social change
to enduring continuities and social structures. Skeptical scholars
responded with critiques of the development and reproduction of such
continuities. "Social construction" represents one form of critique and
a unique approach to social science analysis.
For IPE scholars, at issue are characterizations of the ipe and its
construction. The "anarchy problematique" sets a point of reference and
fixes the context of problem-solving theory and policy making. Yet
questions of instrumental policy and practice follow constitutive
questions. A critical exploration of the ontological or constitutive
character of the ipe is both overdue and necessary for deriving apt
policy and theoretical explanations.
To ask "what is the constitution of the ipe?" is to ask about the
philosophical foundations, theoretical understandings, conceptual
frameworks, and normative assumptions of investigating scholars. It is
also to ask about the premises and choices of individual key actors.
Moreover, as "ipe" is less a definite object of study than an eclectic,
ever-changing assortment of ideas and beliefs, the posed question has no
answer since attempts to answer it change what both IPE (discipline) and
ipe (activities and conditions) are.
As editors, our purpose, then, is to embrace many
"constructivist" approaches to explore their contributions and
limitations as an approach. By the effort we investigate the
claimed insights and examine the consequences of social constition for
actors' behaviors and for constructing the field of IPE.
We plan to significant contributions. First, the volume will
survey late modern alternatives (e.g., Wendt, 1987; Onuf, 1989; Walker,
1992) to modernist accounts of anarchy (e.g., Waltz, 1979) and the
postmodern response (e.g., DerDerian and Shapiro, eds., 1989). More
specifically, the second contribution is to collect for the first time
the diverse and widely scattered strands of constructivist scholarship
for comparison, contrast, and elaboration.
On behalf of my fellow editors B. Denemark, M. Tetreault, and K.
Thomas, thanks for your attention.
Kurt Burch
Univ of Delaware
Dept of Poli Sci and IR
email: kurt@bach.udel.edu
tele: 302-831-1936
Prof. Chris Chase-Dunn
Department of Sociology
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD. 21218 USA
tel 410 516 7633 fax 410 516 7590 email chriscd@jhu.edu