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5/15/13 9:04 PM
ROGERMACGINTY MAY
5/15/13 9:04 PM
associated with slavery?) leaves little room for innovation, critique and intellectual dissent. Over the past few years I have been working on ideas of hybridity and resistance. I have to admit to having only the scantest knowledge of the works of Bourdieu, Foucault, Spivak and de Certeau. Frankly, although their ideas are important, I find their word very difficult to read. Usually whenever I give a conference or workshop paper, my fellow panellists or audience members mention these authors. I used to feel like a fraud, hoping that they wouldnt uncover the fact that my knowledge of these people was paper thin. But now Im happy to be a fraud. You see, I have got myself to similar intellectual positions as Bourdieu, Foucault, Spivak and de Certeau by observing my daily life, and my very broad reading. I hasten to add that I am in no way comparing the sophistication of my thinking to the likes of Foucault! Im still messing about with Play Dough while they were building grand temples. Im merely reflecting that I have been able to work out that the meanings of words matter, that politics is everywhere, and that power is often hidden and takes multiple forms without wading through their work in great detail. I have read a little of it, appreciated it, but have not done the cultish thing of reading everything and obsessively citing them. Perhaps we need to be less referential (and indeed reverential) to the greats. Obviously we need to be scholarly and cite people when we use their work. But do we have to all cite the same stuff? Where is the law (and it is followed so religiously that Im beginning to think it is a law) that says we have to cite Nye, Morgenthau, Kaplan, Keohane etc. Im sure they are/were extraordinarily nice people and excellent teachers and mentors. But I just find it this followership creepy. Are we doing enough in this discipline to encourage independent thinking, critique, innovation, the breaking of traditions and boundaries? Of course not. Because that would threaten the fiction that there is such a thing as International Relations. Roger Mac Ginty Roger.macginty@manchester.ac.uk About these ads (http://en.wordpress.com/about-these-ads/)
http://rogermacginty.com/2013/05/14/i-never-knew-kenneth-waltz/
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5/15/13 9:04 PM
5/15/13 9:04 PM
already despair at the ceaseless attempts to destroy education as an end in itself. I went to Jens talk the other week but didnt get the chance to say hello. Ill look out for her at the next NPC event. Ruxandra Stoicescu 15/05/2013 at 7:56 am # Maybe its a question of intellectual memory, rather than citing. These are important authors and thinkers, we can build on them, as long as we dont repeat in a servile manner. It is ironic and telling that they got to be giants because they werent! However, Theres no point in reinventing the wheel, either. REPLY
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http://rogermacginty.com/2013/05/14/i-never-knew-kenneth-waltz/
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