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2019.10.05 【Lecture】Emotion in Knowledge Production: The “Chinese IR Theory” Debate Revisited

【Lecture】Emotion in Knowledge Production: The “Chinese IR Theory” Debate Revisited(感情、知識與國際關係:對中國學派的評述)

■Time:13:30-15:00 Saturday , October 5, 2019

■Speaker:Chengxin Pan(Associate Professor of International Relations at Deakin University, Australia)

■Moderator:Chih-yu Shih(Professor,Department of Political Science,NTU)

■Venue:R108, 1F, College of Social Science, NTU

Registration here

■Speaker introduction

Chengxin Pan is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Deakin University, Australia, and a founding co-editor of the Global Political Sociology book series (Palgrave Macmillan). He graduated from Peking University and the Australian National University. He has received an Australian Government-funded Endeavour Research Fellowship, and has held visiting positions at the University of Melbourne, Peking University, Fudan University, China Foreign Affairs University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the University of Macau. His research interests include Chinese foreign policy, Western discourses of China’s rise, IR theory, Northeast Asian security, US-China relations, and Australia-China relations. He is the author ofKnowledge, Desire and Power in Global Politics: Western Representations of China’s Rise (Edward Elgar, 2012). The book was translated and published in Chinese by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and won a 2016 SSAP Best Book Award. He has published in many international journals such as European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Studies, Politics, Pacific Review, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Journal of Contemporary China, Contemporary Politics, Australian Journal of International Affairs, and Alternatives.

■Abstract

The past quarter of a century has seen the emergence and evolution of an important debate on Chinese International Relations (IR) theory. To date, much of the debate has focused, among other things, on why there is no Chinese IR theory, whether it is possible for such a theory to emerge, how to build it, how it should be named, and to what extent Chinese IR theory can be said to exist today. Important as these questions are, scholars have overlooked the role of emotion in theory construction in general and in the Chinese IR theory debate in particular. Drawing from the literature on emotion in world politics, this paper highlights the neglected function of emotion in IR theory construction as opposed to the now better-understood role of emotion in international relations practice. It argues that Chinese IR scholars and theorists are also ‘affective communities’ whose emotions have been on display in the Chinese IR theory debate and have played important roles in the quest for Chinese IR theory. Addressing the questions of what those emotions are and how they affect Chinese IR theory development, the paper will illustrate that China’s IR theory quest is both stimulated and stunted by some