Collaboratory in Critical Security Methods
The International Collaboratory on Critical Methods in Security Studies is an ESRC funded project (RES-810-21-0072)
Library
Rorty (1982) Method, Social Science, Social Hope
Rorty, Richard (1982): "Method, Social Science, Social Hope", in Consequence of Pragmatism (Essays: 1972-1980), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 191-210. Revised version of a paper written for a conference on "Values and the Social" held at the University of California at Berkeley in 1980. First published in The Canadian Journal of Philosophy, XI (1981): 569-588.
Rorty explores the issue of method in social sciences, how it came to be equated with "objectivity", "rationality" and "rigor". He is expressing some concerns about the "hermeneutic turn" choosing Dewey against Foucault.
Dean (2003) Prologue for a Genealogy of War and Peace: Genealogical Approaches
Dean, Mitchell (2003), "Prologue for a Genealogy of War and Peace: Genealogical Approaches", in : Gerard Delanty and Egin F. Isin (eds): Handbook of Historical Sociology, SAGE publication: 180-190
A paper with a rather clear explanation of what a (foucaldian) genealogy is/ could be about at the beginning (history of present, relation to truth...)
Dean (2003) Critical and Effective Histories. Foucault's Method and historical Sociology
Dean, Mitchell (2003): Critical and Effective Histories, Foucault's Methods and Historical Sociology, London/ New York: Routledge, 237 p.
This book places Foucault's methodologies against central currents in social theory and philosophy in order to provide a guide to doing historical sociology in particular and social science more generally. The book addresses the many formulations of Foucault's methodological position and seeks to establish its relation to such figures as Nietzche, Kant, Weber, Elias, Habermas, Giddens and the Annales and Frankfurt Schools.
Aradau (2010) Security that matters: critical infrastructure and objects of protection
Aradau, Claudia (2010), 'Security that matters: critical infrastructure and objects of protection', Security Dialogue vol. 41(5): 491-514.
Critical infrastructure protection is prominently concerned with objects that appear indispensable for the functioning of social and political life. However, the analysis of material objects in discussions of critical infrastructure protection has remained largely within the remit of managerial responses, which see matter as simply passive, a blank slate. In security studies, critical approaches have focused on social and cultural values, forms of life, technologies of risk or structures of neoliberal globalization.
Alker (1996) Rediscoveries and Reformulations Humanistic Methodologies for International Studies
Alker, Hayward (1996), Rediscoveries and Reformulations Humanistic Methodologies for International Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
This book provides a distinctive and rich conception of methodology within international studies. From a rereading of the works of leading Western thinkers about international studies, Hayward Alker rediscovers a 'neo-Classical' conception of international relations which is both humanistic and scientific. He draws on the work of classical authors such as Aristotle and Thucydides; modern writers like Machiavelli, Vico, Marx, Weber, Deutsch and Bull; and post-modern writers like Havel, Connolly and Toulmin.
Norton (2003) 95 Theses on Politics, Culture, and Method
Norton, Anne (2003) 95 Theses on Politics, Culture, and Method (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).
When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenberg, he offered a challenge to the dominant establishment of which he was a member. In this provocative book, political scientist Anne Norton proposes 95 theses that launch a brilliant, witty polemic against the reigning orthodoxies in her own field.
Glynos and Howarth (2007) Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory
Glynos, Jason and Howarth, David (2007), "Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory", London, New York: Routledge.
In their book, Jason Glynos and David Howarth propose to practice social and political analysis based on the role of logics. While drawing upon hermeneutics, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, and post-analytical philosophy, they elaborate an alternative grammar of concepts informed predominantly by an ontological stance rooted in poststructuralist theory (and in particular, in the Essex School of Discourse Theory).
Ackerly, Stern and True (2006) Feminist Methodologies for International Relations
Ackerly, Brooke A., Stern, Maria, True, Jacqui (2006), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Why is feminist research carried out in international relations (IR)? What are the methodologies and methods that have been developed in order to carry out this research? Feminist Methodologies for International Relations offers students and scholars of IR, feminism, and global politics practical insight into the innovative methodologies and methods that have been developed – or adapted from other disciplinary contexts – in order to do feminist research for IR.
Rabinow (2003) Anthropos Today: Reflections on Modern Equipment
Rabinow, Paul (2003) Anthropos Today: Reflections on Modern Equipment (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
The discipline of anthropology is, at its best, characterized by turbulence, self-examination, and inventiveness. In recent decades, new thinking and practice within the field has certainly reflected this pattern, as shown for example by numerous fruitful ventures into the "politics and poetics" of anthropology.
Austrin and Fransworth (2005) Hybrid genres: fieldwork, detection and the method of Bruno Latour
Austrin, Terry and Farnsworth, John (2005) 'Hybrid genres: fieldwork, detection and the method of Bruno Latour', Qualitative Research vol. 5(2): 147-165.
This article explores tensions in the study of innovation, the practice of fieldwork and the narratives these produce, particularly as represented in the work of Latour. It argues that Latour’s ethnographic studies of science and technology parody a variety of sociological and literary genres, particularly detective fiction, and that he uses this literary device as a way of pinpointing unexpected links between fictional and sociological modes of investigation.