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From International to World Society?: English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalisation: 95 (Cambridge Studies in International Relations)

From International to World Society?: English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalisation: 95 (Cambridge Studies in International Relations)

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Barry Buzan
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 4/28/2010
EAN 9780521541213, ISBN10: 0521541212

Paperback, 320 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Language: English

In this 2004 book, Barry Buzan offers an extensive critique and reappraisal of the English school approach to International Relations. Starting on the neglected concept of world society and bringing together the international society tradition and the Wendtian mode of constructivism, Buzan offers a new theoretical framework that can be used to address globalisation as a complex political interplay among state and non-state actors. This approach forces English school theory to confront neglected questions about both its basic concepts and assumptions, and about the constitution of society in terms of what values are shared, how and why they are shared, and by whom. Buzan highlights the idea of primary institutions as the central contribution of English school theory and shows how this both differentiates English school theory from realism and neoliberal institutionalism, and how it can be used to generate distinctive comparative and historical accounts of international society.

Introduction
1. English school theory and its problems
an overview
2. World society in English school theory
3. Concepts of world society outside the English school
4. Reimagining the English school's triad
5. Reconstructing the pluralist-solidarist debate
6. The primary institutions of international society
7. Bringing geography back in
8. Conclusions
a portrait of contemporary interstate society.

'This book represents an attempt to rethink and redevelop the English School project as a coherent research program. Although it builds on the basic assumptions and premises that underlie the English School framework, it greatly expands the scope of the project and rethinks many of the fundamental issues and tensions. It actively engages with much of American social science and sociological literatures, makes some very nice links to American constructivist scholarship, and offers some excellent ways to improve the Wendtian approach. I view the manuscript as the most important English School work in a generation.' Bruce Cronin, City College of New York