15112

Evidence and Argument in International Political Economy

Andrea Binder

Kommentar

In its broadest sense, IPE research deals with the intersection of wealth and power (and their unequal distribution) in the international sphere or across borders. The seminar introduces students to how arguments are constructed and how evidence is collected and used in the study of international political economy (IPE). These questions are particularly pertinent in IPE. The scholarship is by definition trans-disciplinary and has maintained an epistemological and methodological pluralism. Many researchers work based on theories and models that seek to explain certain phenomena in the international political economy in quantitative terms. Others prefer using historical analysis to explain these phenomena in qualitative terms. Yet others eschew social science and focus on understanding these phenomena by way of interpretative means. While those choices matter, they are simply different ways to deal with the contested nature of the discipline’s key concepts. These include, for example, classical concepts such as capitalism or neoliberalism. They also include concepts that became more recently ubiquitous in the discipline, such as financialization, offshore finance or degrowth. The seminar centres on classical and recent IPE’s key concepts. We discuss their meaning, their contestation, and how to evaluate their usefulness. We also think through the importance of concept analysis for all forms of IPE scholarship, whether realist or constructivist, quantitative or qualitative, explanatory, or interpretative. We learn how to do good conceptual work by asking about the explanatory power of certain concepts and their ability to travel across time and space and what this means for the kinds of evidence we use and the arguments we construct. Schließen

13 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Do, 14:00 - 16:00 13 Termine

Do, 18.04.2024 14:00 - 16:00

Dozenten:
Dr. Andrea Binder