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New Materialisms, discourse analysis, and International Relations: a radical intertextual approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2014

TOM LUNDBORG  and
NICK VAUGHAN-WILLIAMS
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Abstract

This article investigates the recent ‘New Materialisms’ turn in social and political thought and asks what the potential theoretical and methodological significance might be for the study of International Relations (IR). To do so we return to debates about the theoretical status of discourse in IR as it is in this context that the question of materiality – particularly as it relates to language – has featured prominently in recent years. While the concept of discourse is increasingly narrow in IR, the ‘New Materialisms’ literature emphasises the political force of materiality beyond language and representation. However, a move to reprioritise the politics of materiality over that of language and representation is equally problematic since it perpetuates rather than challenges the notion of a prior distinction between language and materiality. In response, we draw on earlier poststructural thought in order to displace this dichotomy and articulate an extended understanding of what analysing ‘discourse’ might mean in the study of IR.

Type
Articles
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 3 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2014 

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References

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13 We gratefully acknowledge the comments of an anonymous reviewer on this point.

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