Peeter Selg
Biographic Data
| ID | 357701 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peeter Selg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peeter |
| FAMILY NAME | Selg |
| SIGNATURE | SELG P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tallinn University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4886-3748 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Power of Emotions: On the Affective Constitution of Political Struggle
Wicked problems and sociology
Relationalism presumes conceptual primacy of relations over the elements engaged in those relations. In that sense, relations are not viewed as something external to pre-given elements, but as constitutive of those elements. Processual relationalism presumes that the relations between/among elements are not just static ties, but unfolding, dynamic processes. Currently, processual relationalism is increasingly present in the social sciences. Never…
Cultural semiotics as the foundation of political semiotics
Our paper relies on the cultural semiotics of Lotman which we bring to bear on political theory in order to develop a methodological framework that we have referred to as “political semiotics” in our previous work during the past decade. In our first section, we synthesize the core categories of the Essex school (Laclau, Mouffe, and others) of political analysis and the Tartu-Moscow school of cultural semiotics. In the next section, we move furth…
Digital heritage politics from the perspective of relational sociology
In proposing a new conceptual framework that systematises and comprehends the complex dynamics of cultural heritage politics in China, the study takes its inspiration from Chinese scholars who have explored the relevance of Guanxi beyond its immediate business context. While current discourse theory acknowledges that heritage-making entails complex relationships that structure this making, there is as yet no systematic theoretical account of how …
A sociological imagination for a clumsy world
In this paper I introduce the special section on the work of the late Francois Dépelteau (1963-2018), by analyzing an essential tension within the relational sociology which I call the division between “clumsy” and “elegant” relationalism. “Clumsy” relationalism as exemplified most uncompromisingly by Francois is in a way an extreme perspective on social research, prescribing a certain “obsession” with change and unfolding of reality, rather than…
Causation Is Not Everything
Introducing Relational Political Analysis
A pragmatist defence of rationalism
The endeavour to explain and predict international affairs is getting harder since it is ever more widely accepted that heterogeneous and fluid actors are making international politics. Positivists of various types have dominated the discussion on knowledge creation in the discipline of International Relations (IR), but the increasing acceptance of the dynamic character of international politics has led to the support and use of constructivist, p…
What is political semiotics and why does it matter? A reply to Janar Mihkelsaar
In view of the recent criticisms of Janar Mihkelsaar the authors explicate their position on what political semiotics is and why it is important for both semiotics and the social sciences. Some further research trajectories are also discussed in moving from semiotic theory of hegemony to fully developed subdiscipline of political semiotics that would be part of the “relational turn” in political analysis more generally
Mann and Relational Sociology
Power and Relational Sociology
The fable of the Bs’
The paper aims at drawing out concisely the differences and potentials for a dialogue between the two major understandings of relational approach to power, that the author dubs ‘the fable of the Bs’ and ‘trans-actionalism’. Compared to traditional substantialist approaches that overwhelmingly focus on the As (the powerful) ‘the fable of the Bs’ highlights the importance also of considering the contribution of the Bs (the powerless) in creating an…
Two Faces of the “Relational Turn
In the previous decade, the literature on “relational approach” has burgeoned in the social sciences. Recently, a “relational turn” in political science was called for in a symposium in this journal (McClurg and Young, 2011). The participants perceived a promising path for such a “turn” by introducing social network analysis (SNA) into political science. This call is informed by a conviction that the central concept of political science— that is,…
Teleological historical narrative as a strategy for constructing political antagonism
We analyze Estonian history-writing on Estonia's regaining of independence in light of the semiotic theory of hegemony. Besides articulating this theory as a framework for analysis we provide an account for the application of its general categories to history-writing as a specific system of meaning by introducing concepts from theories of history/historical memory. We chart how via representing Estonia's transition in the form of teleological nar…
A political-semiotic introduction to the Estonian “bronze-night” discourse
On April 26–27, 2007 Estonia witnessed its largest civil unrest since the country’s regaining of independence in 1991. The mass riots related to government’s displacement of a memorial (containing a bronze statue) from the centre of Estonia’s capital to a military cemetery a couple of kilometers away came to be referred to as “bronze-night” in Estonian public discourse. Using a framework based on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, Jakobson’s m…
The Politics of Theory and the Constitution of Meaning
How should sociologists use the word theory? Gabriel Abend's recent insistence that this question should be tackled politically raises two important issues: Is sociology political? And if so, what normative implications follow for its organization? Drawing on Wittgenstein's notion of family resemblance and post-Gramscian theories of hegemony, I argue that Abend's proposal that semantic questions about theory can be addressed separately from ontol…
Justice and Liberal Strategy
An outline for a semiotic theory of hegemony
There are basically three main problems that this article tries to address. First, it aims to elaborate and take to a more general level the main principles of the semiotic theory of hegemony that has been proposed recently. It takes as a starting point the discourse-theoretical approach to political analysis developed most notably by Ernesto Laclau and the Essex School, and tries to complement this with the insights provided by the semiotics of …
Towards a semiotic theory of hegemony
The article concentrates on the possibilities of bringing into dialogue two different theoretical frameworks for conceptualising social reality and power: those proposed by Ernesto Laclau, one of the leading current theorists of hegemony, and Juri Lotman, a path breaking cultural theorist. We argue that these two models contain several concepts that despite their different verbal expressions play exactly the same functional role in both theories.…
Two Faces of the “Relational Turn
In the previous decade, the literature on “relational approach” has burgeoned in the social sciences. Recently, a “relational turn” in political science was called for in a symposium in this journal (McClurg and Young, 2011). The participants perceived a promising path for such a “turn” by introducing social network analysis (SNA) into political science. This call is informed by a conviction that the central concept of political science— that is,…
The fable of the Bs’
The paper aims at drawing out concisely the differences and potentials for a dialogue between the two major understandings of relational approach to power, that the author dubs ‘the fable of the Bs’ and ‘trans-actionalism’. Compared to traditional substantialist approaches that overwhelmingly focus on the As (the powerful) ‘the fable of the Bs’ highlights the importance also of considering the contribution of the Bs (the powerless) in creating an…
The Politics of Theory and the Constitution of Meaning
How should sociologists use the word theory? Gabriel Abend's recent insistence that this question should be tackled politically raises two important issues: Is sociology political? And if so, what normative implications follow for its organization? Drawing on Wittgenstein's notion of family resemblance and post-Gramscian theories of hegemony, I argue that Abend's proposal that semantic questions about theory can be addressed separately from ontol…
Towards a semiotic theory of hegemony
The article concentrates on the possibilities of bringing into dialogue two different theoretical frameworks for conceptualising social reality and power: those proposed by Ernesto Laclau, one of the leading current theorists of hegemony, and Juri Lotman, a path breaking cultural theorist. We argue that these two models contain several concepts that despite their different verbal expressions play exactly the same functional role in both theories.…
Wicked problems and sociology
Relationalism presumes conceptual primacy of relations over the elements engaged in those relations. In that sense, relations are not viewed as something external to pre-given elements, but as constitutive of those elements. Processual relationalism presumes that the relations between/among elements are not just static ties, but unfolding, dynamic processes. Currently, processual relationalism is increasingly present in the social sciences. Never…
Digital heritage politics from the perspective of relational sociology
In proposing a new conceptual framework that systematises and comprehends the complex dynamics of cultural heritage politics in China, the study takes its inspiration from Chinese scholars who have explored the relevance of Guanxi beyond its immediate business context. While current discourse theory acknowledges that heritage-making entails complex relationships that structure this making, there is as yet no systematic theoretical account of how …
Teleological historical narrative as a strategy for constructing political antagonism
We analyze Estonian history-writing on Estonia's regaining of independence in light of the semiotic theory of hegemony. Besides articulating this theory as a framework for analysis we provide an account for the application of its general categories to history-writing as a specific system of meaning by introducing concepts from theories of history/historical memory. We chart how via representing Estonia's transition in the form of teleological nar…
Towards a semiotic theory of hegemony
The article concentrates on the possibilities of bringing into dialogue two different theoretical frameworks for conceptualising social reality and power: those proposed by Ernesto Laclau, one of the leading current theorists of hegemony, and Juri Lotman, a path breaking cultural theorist. We argue that these two models contain several concepts that despite their different verbal expressions play exactly the same functional role in both theories.…
An outline for a semiotic theory of hegemony
There are basically three main problems that this article tries to address. First, it aims to elaborate and take to a more general level the main principles of the semiotic theory of hegemony that has been proposed recently. It takes as a starting point the discourse-theoretical approach to political analysis developed most notably by Ernesto Laclau and the Essex School, and tries to complement this with the insights provided by the semiotics of …
Justice and Liberal Strategy
A political-semiotic introduction to the Estonian “bronze-night” discourse
On April 26–27, 2007 Estonia witnessed its largest civil unrest since the country’s regaining of independence in 1991. The mass riots related to government’s displacement of a memorial (containing a bronze statue) from the centre of Estonia’s capital to a military cemetery a couple of kilometers away came to be referred to as “bronze-night” in Estonian public discourse. Using a framework based on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, Jakobson’s m…
The Politics of Theory and the Constitution of Meaning
How should sociologists use the word theory? Gabriel Abend's recent insistence that this question should be tackled politically raises two important issues: Is sociology political? And if so, what normative implications follow for its organization? Drawing on Wittgenstein's notion of family resemblance and post-Gramscian theories of hegemony, I argue that Abend's proposal that semantic questions about theory can be addressed separately from ontol…
Teleological historical narrative as a strategy for constructing political antagonism
We analyze Estonian history-writing on Estonia's regaining of independence in light of the semiotic theory of hegemony. Besides articulating this theory as a framework for analysis we provide an account for the application of its general categories to history-writing as a specific system of meaning by introducing concepts from theories of history/historical memory. We chart how via representing Estonia's transition in the form of teleological nar…
The fable of the Bs’
The paper aims at drawing out concisely the differences and potentials for a dialogue between the two major understandings of relational approach to power, that the author dubs ‘the fable of the Bs’ and ‘trans-actionalism’. Compared to traditional substantialist approaches that overwhelmingly focus on the As (the powerful) ‘the fable of the Bs’ highlights the importance also of considering the contribution of the Bs (the powerless) in creating an…
Two Faces of the “Relational Turn
In the previous decade, the literature on “relational approach” has burgeoned in the social sciences. Recently, a “relational turn” in political science was called for in a symposium in this journal (McClurg and Young, 2011). The participants perceived a promising path for such a “turn” by introducing social network analysis (SNA) into political science. This call is informed by a conviction that the central concept of political science— that is,…
Mann and Relational Sociology
Power and Relational Sociology
What is political semiotics and why does it matter? A reply to Janar Mihkelsaar
In view of the recent criticisms of Janar Mihkelsaar the authors explicate their position on what political semiotics is and why it is important for both semiotics and the social sciences. Some further research trajectories are also discussed in moving from semiotic theory of hegemony to fully developed subdiscipline of political semiotics that would be part of the “relational turn” in political analysis more generally
Causation Is Not Everything
Introducing Relational Political Analysis
A pragmatist defence of rationalism
The endeavour to explain and predict international affairs is getting harder since it is ever more widely accepted that heterogeneous and fluid actors are making international politics. Positivists of various types have dominated the discussion on knowledge creation in the discipline of International Relations (IR), but the increasing acceptance of the dynamic character of international politics has led to the support and use of constructivist, p…
A sociological imagination for a clumsy world
In this paper I introduce the special section on the work of the late Francois Dépelteau (1963-2018), by analyzing an essential tension within the relational sociology which I call the division between “clumsy” and “elegant” relationalism. “Clumsy” relationalism as exemplified most uncompromisingly by Francois is in a way an extreme perspective on social research, prescribing a certain “obsession” with change and unfolding of reality, rather than…
Cultural semiotics as the foundation of political semiotics
Our paper relies on the cultural semiotics of Lotman which we bring to bear on political theory in order to develop a methodological framework that we have referred to as “political semiotics” in our previous work during the past decade. In our first section, we synthesize the core categories of the Essex school (Laclau, Mouffe, and others) of political analysis and the Tartu-Moscow school of cultural semiotics. In the next section, we move furth…
Digital heritage politics from the perspective of relational sociology
In proposing a new conceptual framework that systematises and comprehends the complex dynamics of cultural heritage politics in China, the study takes its inspiration from Chinese scholars who have explored the relevance of Guanxi beyond its immediate business context. While current discourse theory acknowledges that heritage-making entails complex relationships that structure this making, there is as yet no systematic theoretical account of how …
Wicked problems and sociology
Relationalism presumes conceptual primacy of relations over the elements engaged in those relations. In that sense, relations are not viewed as something external to pre-given elements, but as constitutive of those elements. Processual relationalism presumes that the relations between/among elements are not just static ties, but unfolding, dynamic processes. Currently, processual relationalism is increasingly present in the social sciences. Never…
Power of Emotions: On the Affective Constitution of Political Struggle
Sociology (18 works) · Epistemology (17 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Political science (14 works) · Politics (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Social science (7 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (6 works) · Linguistics (6 works) · Semiotics (6 works)