Baylis,, Smith and

d Owens: T
The Globa
alization of World Pol itics 6e
Re
evision guiide
Chapter
C
11
1: Poststrructuralism
m

Po
oststructura
alists raise questions about ontology and epistemoloogy.

Po
oststructura
alism is crittical of stattism and of
o taking the
e anarchiccal system for
gra
anted.

oststructura
alism adopts a constiitutive epis
stemology.
Po

Wh
hat count as
a facts depends on tthe ontolog
gical and epistemolo
e
ogical assumptions a
the
eory makess.

Four conceptts from pos

ststructura
alist philoso
ophy have been usedd to produc
ce new
kno
owledge about world
d politics: d
discourse, deconstruc
d
ction, geneealogy, and
d
inte
ertextualityy.

To look at wo
orld politics
s as discou
urse is to study
s
the lin
nguistic strructures th
hrough
wh
hich materiality is give
en meanin g.

De
econstructio
on argues that langu
uage is a sy
ystem of unstable dicchotomies where
one
e term is valued
v
as superior.
s

enealogy asks which political prractices ha

ave formed
d the preseent and which
Ge
alte
ernative un
nderstandings and diiscourses have been
n marginalizzed and fo
orgotten.

ertextualityy holds tha

at we can ssee world politics
p
as made up oof texts, and that all
Inte
texxts refer to other texts
s yet each is unique.

Sta
ate sovereignty is a practice
p
tha
at constituttes identity
y and authoority in a particular
p
ma
anner.

Po
oststructura
alists deconstruct the
e distinction
n between the nationnal and the
e
inte
ernational by showing that the two terms stabilize each
e
other and depen
nd on a
lon
ng series of other dichotomies.

ory like the

e state, and
d thereforee cannot re
eplace it.
The global is not a polittical catego

Oxford Universityy Press, 2014.

Baylis,, Smith and

d Owens: T
The Globa
alization of World Pol itics 6e
Re
evision guiide

Po
oststructura
alists warn against th
he danger of
o universa
al discoursee because
e it is
alw
ways define
ed from a particular
p
p
position of power.

In keeping with the non

n-foundatio
onalist onto
ology that poststructu
p
uralism ado
opts,
the
ere are no natural or objective i dentities, only those
e that are pproduced in
disscourse.

The terms su
ubjectivities or subje
ect position
ns undersc
core the faact that ide
entity is
ng that som
meone has,, but a pos
sition that one
o is consstructed as
s having.
nott somethin

The relationsship betwee

en identityy and foreig
gn policy is
s performattive and mutually
m
con
nstitutive.

oststructura
alism asks Who and how can the subjectt speak? aand What subjects
s
Po
are
e prevented from spe
eaking?

Po
oststructura
alists raise questions about ontology and epistemoloogy.

Po
oststructura
alism is crittical of stattism and of
o taking the
e anarchiccal system for
gra
anted.

Po
oststructura
alism adopts a constiitutive epis
stemology.

Wh
hat count as
a facts depends on tthe ontolog
gical and epistemolo
e
ogical assumptions a
the
eory makess.

Oxford Universityy Press, 2014.