The series
This term’s series explores social science’s big concepts. It examines the contested meaning and diverse application of some of the theoretical ideas that unify and challenge social scientists. It brings together the bright minds of Oxford, and high profile external speakers, to consider the range of ways in which we can think about ‘power’, ‘space’, ‘identity’, and ‘belonging’.
Power: what does it mean for states, markets, and society?
What does the concept of power mean from different disciplinary perspectives? What makes states, companies, and people influential in the contemporary world? How is the distribution of power changing in world politics? How do Chinese firms build strategies in the global economy? What shapes social and cultural transformation?
Andrew Hurrell is Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at Oxford University and a Fellow of Balliol College. He was elected to the British Academy in 2011 and to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2010. His book, On Global Order. Power, Values and the Constitution of International Society (Oxford University Press) was the winner of International Studies Association Prize for Best Book in the field of International Relations in 2009. Other publications include: (with Ngaire Woods), Inequality, Globalization and World Politics (1999); and (with Louise Fawcett), Regionalism in World Politics (1995). He was named in the 2011 Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) survey as one of top twenty academics to have made the most influential contribution to IR over the previous five years, and was one of only two non-US based academics in that group.
Dace Dzenovska is Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Migration, at the University of Oxford. She is a social cultural anthropologist interested in the changing relationships between people, places, the state and capital in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Her book (2018, Cornell University Press) examines efforts to instil liberal political virtues in the Latvian society and political institutions as part of postsocialist liberalization and democratization initiatives. The book argues that Eastern Europe should be viewed as a laboratory for the forging of post-Cold War political liberalism in Europe. She has begun a five-year long European Research Council project entitled Emptiness: Living Capitalism and Democracy after Postsocialism (2020-2025).
Eric Thun is Peter Moores Associate Professor in Chinese Business Studies, Saïd Business School, and Tutorial Fellow in Management, at Brasenose College. His primary interest is the political economy of China. In his current research, Thun is analysing how the structure of industries and markets in China affect the ability of Chinese firms to build capabilities. More generally, he is interested in the strategy of indigenous and multinational firms in emerging markets. His previous research has focused on the development of the Chinese automotive industry, multinational strategies in China, the globalization strategies of Chinese firms, and China’s integration into global production networks. His published work Changing Lanes in China: Foreign Direct Investment, Local Governments and Auto Sector Development (Cambridge University Press 2011).
