Browse Hierarchy POLP201: Doing International Politics (2): Methods - Giving an Account of International Actors

Nineteenth-century Marxists and positivists attacked idealism, laying the foundations for modern social science's distrust of actors' own explanations for their behaviour. More recent authorities such as Pierre Bourdieu remained suspicious of 'biographical illusions¿. This course introduces students to these debates by asking what we can and cannot learn from people giving an account of themselves. It begins with the study of how various actors give accounts of themselves (activists, diplomats, lawyers, migrants, technicians) and culminates in students conducting and analysing their own account of international political actors and themselves as actors.