Module POL3261 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL3261: Becoming an Actor in World Politics: International and Transnational Recognition
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
1) To introduce students to the politics of international recognition of states, secessionism and contested statehood
2) To bridge traditional (legal and state-centric) understandings of international recognition in IR and the social theory of recognition
3) To expand traditional views of international recognition into the concept of transnational recognition, applying the latter to a variety of processes of state and non-state actor emergence in world politics
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
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Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate understanding and situate debates on the international recognition of states and contested statehood 2. Critically apply insights from the social theory of recognition to both state and non-state actors in world politics |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Find, use and analyse secondary and primary data relevant to specific issues in politics and IR; 4. Place contemporary political issues in larger contexts; 5. Deploy critical arguments in analysing political issues and evaluating sources; |
Personal and Key Skills | 6. Work independently and in a group, including the presentation of material for group discussion; 7. Demonstrate analytical skills and the ability to digest, select and organise material; 8. Demonstrate writing skills including the ability to produce well organised and coherent essays to a deadline, practice in articulating and defending positions on tutorial topics. |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- State recognition in international law and politics
- Secessionist movements and unrecognised/contested/de facto states
- Recognition in social and political theory
- Interstate recognition in IR: (mis)recognition or ‘disrespect’ as driver for state behaviour and cause of war
- Interstate recognition in IR: mutual recognition as respect/status between states, case of rising powers
- Recognition of governments: coups d'état, civil wars, decolonisation conflicts, foreign occupation
- Transnational recognition of non-state actors: social movements, civil resistance movements, national liberation movements, rebel movements, parties to civil wars
- (Mis)recognition in identity conflicts
- Recognition in conflict resolution/peacebuilding: ‘thick recognition’ in transformation of intractable conflicts, reconciliation and just peace
- Case studies (term 2) to be determined by class
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
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44 | 256 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 44 | 22 x 2-hour seminars |
Guided independent study | 88 | Reading for seminars |
Guided independent study | 144 | Completion of coursework |
Guided independent study | 24 | Preparation of case study presentation |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
- Aggestam, K. and A. Björkdahl (eds.) (2013), Rethinking Peacebuilding: The Quest for Just Peace in the Middle East and the Western Balkans (Oxon/New York: Routledge).
- Brincat, S. (2017) ‘Cosmopolitan Recognition: Three Vignettes, International Theory, 9(1), pp. 1-32.
- Caspersen, N. and G. Stansfield (eds.) (2011) Unrecognized States in the International System (Oxon/New York: Routledge).
- Crawford, J.R. (2006) The Creation of States in International Law (2nd ed.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Checkel, J.T. (ed.) (2013) Transnational Dynamics of Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- Coggins, B.L. (2016) Power Politics and State Formation in the 20th Century: The Dynamics of Recognition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- Daase, C., C. Fehl, A. Geis and G. Kolliarakis (eds.) (2015) Recognition in International Relations: Rethinking a Political Concept in a Global Context (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
- Geldenhuys, D. (2009) Contested States in World Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
- Gosewinkel, D. and D. Rucht (eds.) (2017) Transnational Struggles for Recognition: New Perspectives on Civil Society since the Twentieth Century (New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books).
- Honneth, A. (1995) The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts (Cambridge: Polity).
- Ker-Lindsay, J. (2012) The Foreign Policy of Counter Secession: Preventing the Recognition of Contested States (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Lindemann, T. (2010) Causes of War: The Struggle for Recognition (Colchester: ECPR Press).
- Lindemann, T. and E. Ringmar (eds.) (2012) The International Politics of Recognition (Boulder/London: Paradigm).
- McBride, C. (2013) Recognition (Cambridge: Polity).
- O’Neill, S. and N.H. Smith (eds.) (2012) Recognition Theory as Social Research: Investigating the Dynamics of Social Conflict (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
- Pegg, S. (1998) International Society and the de Facto State (Farnham: Ashgate).
- Taylor, C. and A. Gutmann (eds.) (1994) Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
- Visoka, G, J. Doyle and E. Newman (eds.) (2020) Routledge Handbook of State Recognition (Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2020).