The other night I attended a lecture given by David Held, who is apparently a rather large figure in something called the "new political economy" or "international political economy." I'm not a political scientist and I'm a pretty bad sociologist - for a lack of time and interest, I pay little attention to the more "politicy" or "practically" oriented scholarship in either discipline. This was, quite frankly, my introduction into what passes for liberal or left scholarship in the academy from an empirical perspective or approach.
I must say, I was rather dismayed. Admittedly, I was not expecting much from the lecture. A quick perusal of his publications indicated that his interests largely did not overlap with mine. He's written on "cosmopolitan democracy," "cosmopolitan law," "governance," "globalization" and "social democracy." These interests seem comparatively recent as his early work was on critical theory, having written books on "Horkheimer to Habermas" and an introductory text on critical theory in the early eighties. He also seemed to participate in the late seventies/early eighties renewal of interest in state theory. Thus, his earlier interests resemble more closely my own, even if, with him being a Habermasian of sorts, I expected significant theoretical differences.
At any rate, the following is a brief summary of his lecture, the text of which is available here. He opens, "The paradox of our modern times can be stated simply: the collective issues we must grapple with are of growing extensity and intensity and, yet, the means for addressing these are weak and incomplete." The rest of the lecture is an attempt, as one might expect, to grapple with, if not resolve, this paradox. Consequently, he first lays out the "collective issues" before moving on to "the means for addressing these." Clearly, this is a man pushing a particular political programme. (I'd point out at this point that my relunctance to accept his position does not require that I advance a better one - no blackmail of the status quo, as it were, will be accepted.)
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