On the Perils of Lifting the Weight of Structures: An Engagement with Hobson’s Critique of the Discipline of IR

Abstract

Sajed's and Inayatullah's joint intervention focuses on Hobson's effort to bring forward a notion of non-Western agency as an antidote to the prevailing Eurocentrism of contemporary IR scholarship. They reflect on the stakes involved by constructing a story of an agentic non-Western world co-participant in the past and current world system. They worry that ‘in his attempt to recover Eastern agency, [Hobson] inadvertently plays down the impact (and the rigidity) of global structures.’