The turn to turns in International Relations

Abstract

In this article, we explore what it means to research in International Relations (IR) in a context of dizzying multiplication of turns in the discipline – towards things that are material, practised, emotional, aesthetic, quantic or visual. A two-fold assumption of our times seems to be that more turns is a sound development for the discipline, and that every turn is inherently more critical than the previous one. Taking a step back from these numerous recent turns, we analyse the phenomenon of turning itself, and what it reveals about the state of the discipline and of critical International Relations (cIR), respectively. First, we track how the turn to turns occurred at a specific point in the discipline’s history where it had exhausted the modalities by which it had initially established itself. ‘Theory’ and ‘turn’ imply contrasting logics of organising knowledge claims. Second, we show that the phenomenon of turning evinces new and systematically structured ways of valuing what counts (and does not) as innovative knowledge worth pursuing. We attempt to render explicit the valuation structure at work in the turning – its grammar. Third, we explore how practicing critique, analysing the international political and politicising the international have been reconfigured by the ascent of turns. We do this in the format of five slow-down test questions for would-be turners.