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ID: 167441

Can We Change the Topic, Please? Assessing the Theoretical Construction of International Relations Scholarship / Whyte, Christopher

Whyte, Christopher	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

A number of international relations scholars charge that the field suffers from academic religiosity: factional divisions along theoretical lines that limit research potential and create unnecessary bias against certain approaches. I explore this view of the field by applying a topic-modeling algorithm to a corpus of article abstracts from prominent journals in international relations. I generate a new dataset of information on international relations scholarship over more than two-and-a-half decades. I find evidence in support of claims that academic factionalism can negatively affect the research process. Paradigmatic foundations, though not present in most international relations studies, are closely linked to a large number of research topics and are associated with higher citation counts. At the same time, such works appear to be less likely than others to be “pathbreaking.” My analysis also supports a narrative common in recent scholarship that citation counts, though somewhat effective in their measurement of scholarly impact, are sensitive to organizational features of the academic process.

Key Words

International Relations Scholarship ; Theoretical Construction

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ID: 105720

Problem of Values" and international relations scholarship: From applied reflexivity to reflexivism / Hamati-Ataya, Inanna

Hamati-Ataya, Inanna	Journal Article
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2011.

Summary/Abstract

In light of recent discussions of cognitive and ethical dilemmas related to International Relations (IR) scholarship, this paper proposes to engage the "problem of values" in IR as a composite question whose cognitive treatment requires the objectivation of the more profoundly institutional and social processes that subtend its emergence and evolution within the discipline. This analysis is hereby offered as an exercise in reflexive scholarship. Insofar as the question of values constitutes a defining cognitive and moral concern for reflexive knowledge itself, the paper also points to the need for its reformulation within an epistemic framework that is capable of moving beyond reflexivity to Reflexivism proper, understood as a systematic socio-cognitive practice of reflexivity.

Key Words

International Relations Scholarship ; Applied Reflexivity ; Reflexivism

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