David Blaney
Macalester College, Political Science, Faculty Member
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Heterodox work in Global Political Economy (GPE) finds its motive force in challenging the ontological atomism of International Political Economy (IPE) orthodoxy. Various strains of heterodoxy that have grown out of dependency theory and... more
Heterodox work in Global Political Economy (GPE) finds its motive force in challenging the ontological atomism of International Political Economy (IPE) orthodoxy. Various strains of heterodoxy that have grown out of dependency theory and World-Systems Theory (WST), for example, emphasize the social whole: Individual parts are given form and meaning within social relations of domination produced by a history of violence and colonial conquest. An atomistic approach, they stress, seems designed to ignore this history of violence and relations of domination by making bargaining among independent units the key to explaining the current state of international institutions. For IPE, it is precisely this atomistic approach, largely inspired by the ostensible success of neoclassical economics, which justifies its claims to scientific rigor. International relations can be modeled as a market-like space, in which individual actors, with given preferences and endowments, bargain over the charac...
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Scholarly learning often challenges one’s politics. For example, we wanted to diagnose the ills of capitalism so we turned to Marx. In his work we found a profound critique but also an appreciation of capitalism’s progressive credentials.... more
Scholarly learning often challenges one’s politics. For example, we wanted to diagnose the ills of capitalism so we turned to Marx. In his work we found a profound critique but also an appreciation of capitalism’s progressive credentials. Indeed, we now believe it is Marx’s generosity to capitalism that allows his deep diagnosis.1 In modern society, Marx claims, humans individuate themselves within a system that constitutes them as legal equals and constructs a sphere of individual freedom. Simultaneously, capitalism expands and differentiates needs while producing material capacities that satisfy those needs (Marx 1973: 156, 241-3, 496). These possibilities are linked to capitalism’s greatest achievement: a process of expanded wealth production. As Marx puts it, “Capital’s ceaseless striving towards the general form of wealth drives labor beyond its natural paltriness, and thus creates the material elements for the development of a rich individuality, which is the as all-sided in i...
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Key Points 1. Contemporary thinking justifies global inequality by linking market outcomes to individual effort and individual skill. 2. Major Western thinkers such as Kant, Hegel, Smith, and Marx rationalize inequality by making... more
Key Points 1. Contemporary thinking justifies global inequality by linking market outcomes to individual effort and individual skill. 2. Major Western thinkers such as Kant, Hegel, Smith, and Marx rationalize inequality by making racialized arguments. 3. Adam Smith’s and Karl Marx’s produce incisive critiques of how capitalism produces inequality. Nevertheless, this critique is coupled with their support of capitalism’s progressive historical role. This historical role is used to explain and validate Western society’s colonial violence. 4. Contemporary international relations theory shows a clear preference for unit-level analysis over a more system-level investigation. This preference hides Western colonial violence. It also excuses inequality by stressing the connection between individual effort/skill and market reward.
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This article argues that attention to representational practices and epistemology, however important for expanding the boundaries of International Relations as a field of study, has been insufficient for dealing with difference in world... more
This article argues that attention to representational practices and epistemology, however important for expanding the boundaries of International Relations as a field of study, has been insufficient for dealing with difference in world politics, where ontological conflicts are also at play. We suggest that IR, as a latecomer to the ‘ontological turn’, has yet to engage systematically with ‘singular world’ logics introduced by colonial modernity and their effacement of alternative worlds. In addition to exploring how even critical scholars concerned with the ‘othering’ and ‘worlding’ of difference sidestep issues of ontology, we critique the ontological violence performed by norms constructivism and the only limited openings offered by the Global IR project. Drawing on literatures from science and technology studies, anthropology, political ecology, standpoint feminism and decolonial thought, we examine the potentials of a politics of ontology for unmaking the colonial universe, cul...
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This article argues that Justin Rosenberg’s proposal to reground IR in an ontology of societal multiplicity fails to account for the practices by which the field has erased multiplicity from its register and has sustained its identity... more
This article argues that Justin Rosenberg’s proposal to reground IR in an ontology of societal multiplicity fails to account for the practices by which the field has erased multiplicity from its register and has sustained its identity through suppression of difference. We posit that the prison of colonial modernity, more than that of Political Science, is at the root of IR’s lack of a distinctive purpose, and that Rosenberg’s gesture toward uneven and combined development (UCD) as a sorely needed ‘big idea’ is insufficient for the jail break.
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... We would like to thank David Levine, Mustapha Pasha, Hon Tze-ki, Cindy Weber, Mark Rupert, Tony Favro, Sorayya Khan, Rob Walker, and two referees for helpful comments. ... the Bible, Marco Polo's Travels, Pierre d'Allys... more
... We would like to thank David Levine, Mustapha Pasha, Hon Tze-ki, Cindy Weber, Mark Rupert, Tony Favro, Sorayya Khan, Rob Walker, and two referees for helpful comments. ... the Bible, Marco Polo's Travels, Pierre d'Allys Imago Mundi, the works of Pliny. ...
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Research Interests: Medicine and Hegelianism
... International Political Economy as a Culture of Competition. David Blaney, Macalester CollegeNaeem Inayatullah. Suggested Citation. David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah. "International Political Economy as a Culture of... more
... International Political Economy as a Culture of Competition. David Blaney, Macalester CollegeNaeem Inayatullah. Suggested Citation. David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah. "International Political Economy as a Culture of Competition" Culture in World Politics. Ed. ...
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ABSTRACT I imagine an IR that (1) begins with conquest and the colonial experience, instead of Westphalia, (2) focuses attention on thinking and feeling IR; and (3) sees contemporary neo–neo debates as trapped within fractures in the... more
ABSTRACT I imagine an IR that (1) begins with conquest and the colonial experience, instead of Westphalia, (2) focuses attention on thinking and feeling IR; and (3) sees contemporary neo–neo debates as trapped within fractures in the enlightenment vision that we need to move beyond.
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Page 1. Mershon International Studies Review (1994) 38, 282-284 Gramscian Readings of the Post-Cold War Transition Review by DAVID L. BLANEY Department of Political Science, Macalester College Gramsci, Historical Materialism and... more
Page 1. Mershon International Studies Review (1994) 38, 282-284 Gramscian Readings of the Post-Cold War Transition Review by DAVID L. BLANEY Department of Political Science, Macalester College Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations. ...
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... Contributions to Books Next». International Relations from Below. David Blaney, Macalester College Naeem Inayatullah. Suggested Citation. David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah. "International Relations from Below" Oxford... more
... Contributions to Books Next». International Relations from Below. David Blaney, Macalester College Naeem Inayatullah. Suggested Citation. David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah. "International Relations from Below" Oxford Handbook of International Relations. Ed. ...
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Research Interests: Sociology, International Relations, Development Studies, International Relations Theory, Postcolonial Studies, and 10 morePolitical Science, Reformation Studies, Modernization, History of Capitalism, Capitalism, Karl Polanyi, Cultural Political Economy, Peace of Westphalia, American Indians, and Contexto Internacional
Global education is supposed to empower. However, this article argues that global education is often premised on an idea about the inexorabilityof “globalization” that acts to de-politicize global life and disempower students. Though it... more
Global education is supposed to empower. However, this article argues that global education is often premised on an idea about the inexorabilityof “globalization” that acts to de-politicize global life and disempower students. Though it is important to retrieve a sense of the human agencybehind “globalization,” this article argues that we also should work to disempower our students in certain respects, challenging their sense of interpretive privilege and cultural superiority. The article advocates trying to strike two balances. First, it argues for finding a balance between creating a sense of the possibilities for change and recognition of the limits of human agency. Second, the article aims to locate a balance between empowering our students while cultivating a sense of humilityin the face of a complex world, a willingness to live with ambiguity, and an ethos of political self-restraint when in an advantaged position.
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JIRD, an independent, internationally peer-reviewed journal in international relations and political economy.
Research Interests: Macroeconomics, International Relations, Political Economy, Health Economics, History of Economic Thought, and 15 moreDemocratic Theory, Religion and Politics, Political Science, Civic Education, International Political Economy, Comparative Constitutional Law, Philosophy of Criminal Law, Relations, Ir, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT, Contemporary Liberalism, Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention, Early Modern English Political Philosophy, CIR, and jird
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Join My Mailing List. David Blaney. Macalester College. Professor, Political Science; Contact Information; Curriculum Vitae [PDF]. ... Journal Articles «Previous Next». Review of Christopher Coker, War and the Illiberal Conscience. David... more
Join My Mailing List. David Blaney. Macalester College. Professor, Political Science; Contact Information; Curriculum Vitae [PDF]. ... Journal Articles «Previous Next». Review of Christopher Coker, War and the Illiberal Conscience. David Blaney, Macalester College. Suggested Citation ...
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ABSTRACT Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Denver, 1990. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 346-365). Photocopy. s
Page 37. Realist Spaces/ Liberal Bellicosities: Reading the Democratic Peace as World Democratic Theory David L Blaney The observation that democracies do not go to war with each other has spawned a vast literature, composed ...
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... Ethical Diversity and Global Economic Justice. David Blaney, Macalester College NaeemInayatullah. Suggested Citation. David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah. "Ethical Diversity and Global Economic Justice" Global Justice 3.3... more
... Ethical Diversity and Global Economic Justice. David Blaney, Macalester College NaeemInayatullah. Suggested Citation. David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah. "Ethical Diversity and Global Economic Justice" Global Justice 3.3 (1996): 13-29. ...
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4 Naeem Inayatullah David L. Blaney Economic Anxiety: Reification, De-Reification, and the Politics of IPE We focus in this chapter on an especially puzzling aspect of the contempo-rary IPE literature: that two prominent yet often opposed... more
4 Naeem Inayatullah David L. Blaney Economic Anxiety: Reification, De-Reification, and the Politics of IPE We focus in this chapter on an especially puzzling aspect of the contempo-rary IPE literature: that two prominent yet often opposed figuresRobert Gilpin and Richard ...
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... RSS Feed. Print this page. Bookmark. Contributions to Books «Previous Next». Knowing Encounters: Beyond Parochialism in International Relations Theory. David Blaney, Macalester College Naeem Inayatullah. Suggested Citation. David... more
... RSS Feed. Print this page. Bookmark. Contributions to Books «Previous Next». Knowing Encounters: Beyond Parochialism in International Relations Theory. David Blaney, Macalester College Naeem Inayatullah. Suggested Citation. David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah. ...
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... International Political Economy as a Culture of Competition. David Blaney, Macalester CollegeNaeem Inayatullah. Suggested Citation. David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah. "International Political Economy as a Culture of... more
... International Political Economy as a Culture of Competition. David Blaney, Macalester CollegeNaeem Inayatullah. Suggested Citation. David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah. "International Political Economy as a Culture of Competition" Culture in World Politics. Ed. ...
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David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah." The Third World and a Problem with Borders" Perspectives on Third World Sovereignty: The Postmodern Paradox. Ed. Mark E. Denham and Mark Owen Lombardi. London: Macmillan, 1996. 83-101.
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Four critical engagements with 'IR in the Prison of Political Science', together with a reply.
We show how Ashis Nandy might be seen as a theorist of International Relations (IR). Specifically, we demonstrate what aspects of Nandy's writing and thinking became the foundation of our own work and how he has influenced other scholars... more
We show how Ashis Nandy might be seen as a theorist of International Relations (IR). Specifically, we demonstrate what aspects of Nandy's writing and thinking became the foundation of our own work and how he has influenced other scholars within IR. We see Nandy as practicing a form of dialectics on behalf of Modernity's others who have been relegated to the hinterlands of the modern. This aspect of Nandy's thought has led some to emphasize his " critical traditionalism, " but we see his critical stance located within the modern as well, since Modernity's others are always also within. Nandy makes clear that the modern serves as a challenge to ossified traditions as much as traditions can be mobilized to undercut of modern thought's pretensions to completeness and universality. These insights grow out of Nandy's understanding that colonialism produces both the colonized and colonizers as victims, a co-suffering that makes the other a source of critical reflection and opens us up to the possibility of a softer and more democratic self. Following Nandy, we might see international relations as cultural encounters that remain colonial, but also offer the possibility for critical self-reflection to envision and fight for forms of society and political life beyond the oppressions of colonialism.
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We demonstrate that contemporary liberal International Political Economy (IPE) melds together a static, timeless time with a dynamic evolutionary time. This conflation is traced to the work of Alfred Marshall who was one of four... more
We demonstrate that contemporary liberal International Political Economy (IPE) melds together a static, timeless time with a dynamic evolutionary time. This conflation is traced to the work of Alfred Marshall who was one of four theorists who independently developed neo-classical economics in the 1870s. Marshall's evolutionary frame is explicitly supportive of colonialism, slavery, and imperialism. The punchline of the paper is that contemporary IPE shares with Marshall similar commitments, but retains them implicitly.
This is a pre-publication draft of “Liberal IPE as a Colonial Science,” with David Blaney, for (eds) Andreas Gofas, Inanna Hamati-Ataya, Nicholas Onuf, The SAGE Handbook of the History, Sociology and Philosophy of International Relations, (Sage, 2018), pp. 60-74.
This is a pre-publication draft of “Liberal IPE as a Colonial Science,” with David Blaney, for (eds) Andreas Gofas, Inanna Hamati-Ataya, Nicholas Onuf, The SAGE Handbook of the History, Sociology and Philosophy of International Relations, (Sage, 2018), pp. 60-74.
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Five page definition of liberalism (in Spanish) translated by Jeanne Simon.
