The theory act

Responsibility and exactitude as seen from securitization

Bibliographic Data

ID4445486
AuthorsOle Waever (0000-0002-9053-5855, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume29
Issue1
Pages121-127
Publication date2015-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-1178 • E-ISSN: 1741-2862
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0047117814526606d
OpenAlexW2331247563
LanguageEN
Citations received40
References cited8

Austin gives us insights into the capacity of mankind for creating shared environments through language, not as a matter of transmitting anything from one head to the other or of causally influencing each other’s mental states, but as a matter of establishing situations and roles and attributing local statuses to participants. Herein lies the power of human civilization as opposed to ‘state of nature’; the power which alone makes it possible, on occasion, for someone weak and without weapons to be listened to and even obeyed, the power which makes it possible to conceive and pursue things such as social equality or solidarity and equal opportunities for genders, all of which would not be conceivable in a ‘state of nature’ ethology. To acknowledge in theory and investigate such power is at the same time to foster it and defend it against the risk of regression into forms of social life based on brute force and coercion

Business · Economics · Financial system · Law and economics · Political science · Securitization · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Global Security and Public Health · International Law and Human Rights