Routledge International Political Sociology: Transversal Lines (Routledge Studies in International Political Sociology)

This book presents an overview and evaluation of contemporary research in international political sociology (IPS). Bringing together leading scholars from many disciplines and diverse geographical backgrounds, it provides unprecedented coverage of the key concepts and research through which IPS has opened up new ways of thinking about international relations. It also considers some of the consequences of such innovations for established forms of social and political analysis. It thus takes the reader on an intellectual journey engaging with questions about boundaries and limits among the many interrelated worlds in which we now live, the ways we conceptualise them, and how we continually reshape boundaries of identities, spaces, authorities and disciplinary knowledge. The volume is organized three sections: Lines, Intersections and Directions. The first section examines some influences that led to the formation of the project of IPS and how it has opened up avenues of research beyond the limits of an international relations discipline shaped within political science. The second section explores some key concepts as well as a series of heated discussions about power and authority, practices and governmentality, performativity and reflexivity. The third section explores some of the transversal topics of research that have been pursued within IPS, including inequality, migration, citizenship, the effect of technology on practices of security, the role of experts and expertise, date-driven surveillance, and the relation between mobility, power and inequality. This book will be an essential source of reference for students and across the social sciences. Review 'After disciplines, disciplinarity, what can we say about the international? Instead of ‘essentialist or transcendental causalities,’ how can we possibly know what we are talking about? This book uncovers ‘transversal lines’ and more―mobilities, ruptures, transitions―and it does so without the old and broken crutches.' - Nicholas Onuf, Professor, Florida International University, USA 'International Political Sociology is only twenty years old as a field, but it has already yielded more penetrating modes of inquiry, cogent analytic approaches and suggestive theorizing than seems within the capabilities of its three established nominal elements -- or any combination of them. This is at once a demonstration of what has been achieved to date and an invitation to building on, expanding -- and, yes, challenging -- those achievements.' - Martin O. Heisler, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, USA ‘This important collection presents a rich new way of looking at the major problems of international relations, security studies and political sociology through the lens of such major social theorists as Foucault and Bourdieu. The result is a new approach to such themes as borders, surveillance and big data which are central challenges for the social sciences today.’ - Arjun Appadurai, Professor, New York University, USA 'This book is an outstanding, thought provoking and much needed contribution to studies on security, politics and the international. By exploring how to think sociologically about politics, the work of this excellent group of researchers invites us to question established ideas and concepts in international politics, to explore new empirical endeavors, and to envision alternative forms of power and authority. In short, it does what at the outset seems impossible: it helps us to understand the particularity of the field of ’International Political Sociology’, while still leaving open possibilities for observing new and interesting developments in world politics.' - Karen Lund Petersen, Copenhagen University, Denmark About the Author Tugba Basaran is associate researcher at CCLS (France) and visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA. Didier Bigo is Professor at King’s College London depar