The Oxford Handbook of International Political Sociology

This handbook provides an in-depth analysis of the theoretical agendas, analytical tools, and substantive contributions offered by International Political Sociology. It explores the range of insights available to those who use sociological theory to engage various facets of world politics, from colonialism to globalization. Structured around three defining commitments - relationalism, intersubjectivity, and historicism - the book outlines what is distinct about IPS, where it came from, and where it can go next. Engaging a wide range of debates in International Relations and related fields of enquiry, the volume includes contributions on seminal concepts in the social sciences, including power, order, rule, resistance, and agency, alongside discussion of a range of important issue-areas, from climate change to revolutions. Taken as a whole, the handbook is a seminal point of reference for understanding many of the key dynamics that shape contemporary world politics.

The Oxford Handbooks of International Relations is a twelve-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and innovative engagements with the principal sub-fields of International Relations.
The series as a whole is under the General Editorship of Christian Reus-Smit of the University of Melbourne and Duncan Snidal of the University of Oxford, with each volume edited by specialists in the field. The series both surveys the broad terrain of International Relations scholarship and reshapes it, pushing each sub-field in challenging new directions. Following the example of Reus-Smit and Snidal's original Oxford Handbook of International Relations, each volume is organized around a strong central thematic by scholars drawn from different perspectives, reading its sub-field in an entirely new way, and pushing scholarship in challenging new directions.

Stacie E. Goddard, Betty Freyhof Johnson '44 Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College,George Lawson, Professor of International Relations, Australian National University,Ole Jacob Sending, Research Professor, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

Stacie E. Goddard is the Betty Freyhof Johnson '44 Professor of Political Science and Associate Provost of Wellesley in the World. Her research and teaching focuses on questions of great power competition and international order. Her latest book, When Right Makes Might: Rising Powers and World Order was published by Cornell University Press in 2018.

George Lawson is Professor of International Relations at the Australian National University. He works primarily on historical sociology and revolutions. His many publications include On Revolutions: Unruly Politics in the Contemporary World (with Colin Beck et al.; OUP 2022), Anatomies of Revolution (CUP 2019), and The Global Transformation: History, Modernity, and the Making of International Relations (CUP 2015).


Ole Jacob Sending is Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) where he leads the Centre for Geopolitics. His current research focuses on the evolving features of power political competition, diplomacy, and changes in global governance arrangements.

1. Introduction, Stacie E. Goddard, George Lawson, and Ole Jacob SendingPart I. Relationalism2. What is Relationalism?, Julian Go and Daniel Nexon3. Relationally Challenged: Putting the Social back into Network Analysis, Alexander H. Montgomery4. Fields: From Social Interaction to the Analysis of Power, Marylou Hamm, Frédéric Mérand, and Anke S. Obendiek5. Assemblages, Colleen Bell and Caroline HolmqvistPart II. Subjectivity6. Intersubjectivity, Charlotte Epstein and Patrick Thaddeus Jackson7. Discourse, Tanja Aalberts8. Practices, Rebecca Adler-Nissen9. Repertoires, Paul K. MacDonald10. Performing Intersubjectivity, Silvija Jestrovic and Shirin M. Rai11. (Mis)recognition, Thomas Lindemann12. Visualizing International Politics: From Visual Securitization to Visual Governance, William W. CallahanPart III. Historicism13. What is "Historicism"?, Tarak Barkawi, Duncan Bell, and Ayse Zarakol14. History and Theory: On Putting Imperialism Back in the Center of Things, Jeanne Morefield15. IPS and Historical Sociology: Modernity, Capitalism, and Eurocentrism, Eren Duzgun16. Historicizing the Global, Brieg Powel17. Historical International Orders, Hendrik Spruyt18. Decolonizing International Political Sociology, Meera SabaratnamPart IV. Orders19. The Enduring Question of International Order, Christian Reus-Smit and Ann E. Towans20. Rule in Global Politics, Jorg Kustermans21. Sovereignty, Arjun Chowdhury22. The Structural Order of Neoliberal Racial Capital, Lisa Tilley23. Racial Orders, Clive Gabay24. Gender and Order in Global Politics, Laura Sjoberg25. Spatial Order: Territoriality, Internationalism, and Resistance, Joanne YaoPart V. Resistance26. Transgressive Politics: International Political Sociology and Resistance, Jef Huysmans and Joao Pontes Nogueira27. Everyday Resistance, Xavier Guillaume and Nicolas Lemay-Hébert28. Ecological Resistance, Håkan Thörn29. Conservative Resistance, Jean-François Drolet30. Border Trajectories: Foregrounding Durability and Friction, Debbie Lisle31. International Political Sociology and Resistance: Whither Revolution?, Eric SelbinPart VI. Power32. Power in International Political Sociology, Stefano Guzzini and Jimmy Casas Klausen33. Military Power, Jennifer Spindel34. Symbolic Power, Alvina Hoffmann35. Economic Power, Matthew Eagleton-Pierce36. Corporeal Power, Sabrina Axster and Ida DanewidPart VII. Actors and Agency37. On Actors, Agency, and Subjects in International Relations, Jutta Weldes and Raymond Duvall38. Polities, Iver B. Neumann39. The Social Constitution of International Organizations as Actors of World Politics, Ben Christian and Sebastian Schindler40. Experts, Annabelle Littoz-Monnet41. Putting "Things" First: On Objects and Agency in International Relations, Enrike van Wingerden