| ID | 105952 |
| Title Proper | Who speaks? Discourse, the subject and the study of identity in international politics |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Epstein, Charlotte |
| Publication | 2011. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article aims to show the theoretical added value of focussing on discourse to study identity in international relations (IR). I argue that the discourse approach offers a more theoretically parsimonious and empirically grounded way of studying identity than approaches developed in the wake of both constructivism and the broader 'psychological turn'. My starting point is a critique of the discipline's understanding of the 'self' uncritically borrowed from psychology. Jacques Lacan's 'speaking subject' offers instead a non-essentialist basis for theorizing about identity that has been largely overlooked. To tailor these insights to concerns specific to the discipline I then flesh out the distinction between subject-positions and subjectivities. This crucial distinction is what enables the discourse approach to travel the different levels of analyses, from the individual to the state, in a way that steers clear of the field's fallacy of composition, which has been perpetuated by the assumption that what applies to individuals applies to states as well. Discourse thus offers a way of studying state identities without presuming that the state has a self. I illustrate this empirically with regards to the international politics of whaling. |
| `In' analytical Note | European Journal of International Relations Vol. 17, No. 2; Jun 2011: p. 327-350 |
| Journal Source | European Journal of International Relations Vol. 17, No. 2; Jun 2011: p. 327-350 |
| Key Words | Constructivism ; Discourse ; Jacques Lacan ; Levels of Analysis ; Post - Structuralism ; Psychoanalytic Theory ; Psychology ; Subject - Position ; Social Theory ; Whaling |