POL208Y1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Postpositivism, Post-Structuralism, Postcolonialism
Document Summary
Post-positivists argue against positive methodology with its focus on observable facts and measurable data and its ambition to scientifically explain the world of international relations. Critical of any claim of an established truth for all. Adopts a critical attitude towards established approaches in that it highlights the ways in which these theories represent and discuss the world. Post-colonialism: adopts a post-structural attitude in order to understand the situation in areas that were conquered by europe. Feminism: underlines that women are a disadvantaged group in the world, both in material terms and in terms of a value system which favors men over women. Reject empiricism, the view that science is based merely on observation of facts. The social world is a construction of time and place: the international system is a specific construction of the most powerful states. Knowledge is not and cannot be neutral. There is no objective reality; everything involving human beings is subjective.
