The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Political Theory
Description:... Located at the intersections of political theory with area studies, international politics, and comparative politics, comparative political theory works to analyze normative claims, discursive structures and institutions, and expressions and formations of power in and from all parts of theworld. Increased flows of people, capital, and ideas across geographic borders raise urgent challenges to the existing terms and practices of politics, political structures and institutions, and expressions of power. Comparative political theory seeks to devise new intellectual frames for addressingthese challenges by questioning the canonical (that is, Euro-American) categories that have historically shaped inquiry in political theory and other disciplines. By looking to alternative bodies of thought and experience, as well as the terms we might use to critically examine them, comparativepolitical theory encourages self-reflexivity about the premises of normative ideas and articulates new possibilities for political theory and practice.The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Political Theory provides an entry point into this burgeoning field by both synthesizing and challenging the terms which motivate it. Over the course of five thematic sections and thirty-three chapters, this volume surveys the field and archives of comparativepolitical theory, bringing the many approaches to the field into conversation for the first time. Sections address geographic location as a subject of political theorizing; how the past becomes a key site for staking political claims; the politics of translation and appropriation; the justificationof political authority; and questions of disciplinary commitment and rules of knowledge. Ultimately, the handbook demonstrates how mainstream political theory can and must be enriched through attention to genuinely global, rather than parochially Euro-American, contributions to politicalthinking.
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