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Complexity, ecologism, and posthuman politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2012

ERIKA CUDWORTH  and
STEPHEN HOBDEN
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Abstract

Theorisations of the political in general, and international politics in particular, have been little concerned with the vast variety of other, non-human populations of species and ‘things’. This anthropocentrism limits the possibilities for the discipline to contribute on core issues and prescribes a very limited scope for study. As a response to this narrow focus, this article calls for the development of a posthuman approach to the study of international politics. By posthuman, we mean an analysis that is based on complexity theory, rejects Newtonian social sciences, and decentres the human as the object of study. We argue for a decentring of ‘the human’ in our scholarship as imperative to understanding the complexity of the world. However, this approach also has a political incentive, which we describe as ‘complex ecologism’.

Type
Articles
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , July 2013 , pp. 643 - 664
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2012 

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References

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