Introduction: Interdisciplinarity and the International Relations event horizon
| DOI | 10.1177/1354066120952726 |
| Author | Darshan Vigneswaran,Annette Freyberg-Inan,Ursula Daxecker,Geoffrey Underhill,Marlies Glasius |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Subject Matter | 25th Anniversary Special Issue |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066120952726
European Journal of
International Relations
2020, Vol. 26(S1) 3 –13
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1354066120952726
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JR
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Introduction: Interdisciplinarity
and the International Relations
event horizon
Ursula Daxecker, Annette Freyberg-Inan,
Marlies Glasius, Geoffrey Underhill
and Darshan Vigneswaran
Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Abstract
This Introduction contextualises this special anniversary issue of the journal. The Editors
of a previous 2013 special issue of the EJIR (The End of International Relations Theory?)
asked if the paradigmatic “theoretical cacophony” in IR was deep and irresolvable.
We argue that there is still very much a conversation going on across ‘generalist’
and specialised IR journals, and that renewal and broadening is more important than
boundaries per se. Meanwhile the field of International Relations has continued to
broaden, absorbing much from other social science disciplines in the process. Yet IR
has a problematic relationship with interdisciplinarity, often discovering as ‘new’ what
other fields have long debated and in turn ‘domesticating’ these insights from other
fields by fitting them into existing IR paradigms. This special issue is thus aimed above
all at what ‘we’ in IR are not seeing from other disciplines, and we go on to argue how
IR scholars might best employ ‘transdisciplinary’ insights to ensure the future dynamism
and innovation of the field. We argue that in this context, a special effort of critical and
open engagement with work that makes us uncomfortable is required and that the very
notion of inter-disciplinarity takes on a new form.
Keywords
interdisciplinarity; IR theory
Corresponding author:
Geoffrey Underhill, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 15578,
Netherlands.
Email: G.R.D.Underhill@uva.nl
952726EJT0010.1177/1354066120952726European Journal of International RelationsDaxecker et al.
research-article2020
25th Anniversary Special Issue
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