The Modern International: A Scalar Politics of Divided Subjectivities

Lecture Series Cluster of Excellence "The Formation of Normative Orders"

Prof. R. B. J. (Rob) Walker, University of Victoria, Canada

Abstract

Debates about relations between problematic concepts of order, global and theorization are now shaped by shared but conflicting commitments to modern principles of subjectivity and self-determination. These commitments rest on specific claims about spatiotemporal origins and boundaries. The consequence is a structure of spatiotemporally organized contradictions expressed in aporetic claims to humanity and citizenship, and thus in the contested status of sovereignties expressed in state law and international law. Prevailing literatures usually erase the significance of the spatiotemporal, normative and contradictory character of this historical constitution of modern politics, partly by recasting internal and external moments of subjectivity as distinct spatial, temporal and hierarchical domains, partly by identifying specific practices through which contradictions are negotiated as the primary problem that must be engaged. To the contrary, I argue that the core source of order and disorder remains the status of claims about modern subjectivity expressed in political practices that must try, and fail, to reconcile claims about liberty, equality and security within a scalar hierarchy.

CV
R. B. J. (Rob) Walker is Professor of Political Science and of Cultural, Social and Political Thought at the University of Victoria in Canada and Professor Associado at the Instituto de Relações Internationais, Pontifica Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. He is the long-term Editor of the journal Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, and the founding Co-Editor of the journal International Political Sociology. His most recent publications include After the Globe, Before the World (2010) and Out of Line: Essays on the Politics of Boundaries and the Limits of Modern Politics (forthcoming in August 2015).

Video

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 Bildergalerie

29 April 2015, 6.15pm

Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main
Campus Westend, Hörsaalzentrum, HZ6

Presented by:
Cluster of Excellence "The Formation of Normative Orders"

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