Social Theory and the International: Multiplicity #2 - Professor Justin Rosenberg

The Centre for Global Security Challenges is delighted to host Professor Justin Rosenberg to present 'Social Theory and the International: Multiplicity #2'.

Join us on 5th November, 3.30pm in Social Sciences SR (14.33)

About the talk:

Society is often analysed in the singular, despite the world being divided into multiple interacting units. What makes this 'international' dimension of the world special and so important, and how has it been so badly overlooked? The idea of 'multiplicity' has recently been put forward as a way to overcome longstanding problems in social and international theory. Since this idea was introduced in 2015 it has been the subject of numerous conference panels, roundtables, workshops, forums, edited volumes and publications by over fifty academics. And yet it has also been quite widely misunderstood, even among those who have adopted it as a research focus. Why should this be, and what can be done about it? This talk poses these questions and attempts to present the idea afresh - a kind of ‘Multiplicity #2’. Does this new presentation help clarify the idea? And if not, does that suggest that there are more fundamental problems with the idea itself?

Speaker profile:

Justin Rosenberg is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex. His research is focused on the intersection of International Relations, History and Social Theory. Initially this research took the form of using historical materialism to critique realist and liberal approaches in IR (in The Empire of Civil Society, and The Follies of Globalisation Theory respectively). However, in recent years, the emphasis has been reversed: his work now analyses the significance of ‘the international’ for social theory and historical change.