Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 19:59:23 -0400
Subject: Re: BHA: Absolute Beginner


Hi Ismail,

At 01:02 PM 04/30/2002 +0100, you wrote:

>Hi
>
>Much like someone mentioned earlier, Bhaskar's work is somewhat new to me; 
>Critical Theory less so. Thus, I am making my way slowly and laboroiusly 
>through some introductory texts. In the meantime, can someone provide me 
>with his conception/explanation of emancipation (with refs so I can follow 
>up on it), please.

I am also something of a beginner with Bhaskar, but since you asked for our 
conception/explanation of emancipation, rather than an explanation of what 
Bhaskar means, I decided to have a go at it.   There are a number of words 
and phrases which point to my conception of emancipation.  Freedom, 
liberty, empowerment, the end of the master-slave relationship, Lincoln's 
emancipation proclamation, and the truth shall make you free.  I see CR 
being a kind of empowerment, and hence a source of emancipation, because I 
believe that my acts of attempted control will be more effective if they 
are based upon the truth.  Empowerment involves seeing myself as capable of 
effective control.  (By "control," I do not mean the enslavement of other 
people.)  It also involves a realistic grasp of the very real limits of my 
capacity for effective control.


>I came across a kind of definition that resonates well with the basic 
>approach of my research:
>
>"...we evidently must acknowledge that an emancipatory conception of 
>international relations is not all of a piece. The subjects who are picked 
>out by the emancipatory theory may be the working class, or women, or 
>society's marginal people, but whomever the subject, the theories 
>addressed to them share the liberatory idea that there is something 
>drastically wrong with the way human life is lived on this planet, and 
>that, more importantly, people live in certain ways because they have an 
>erroneous understanding of what their individual and collective existence 
>ought to consist, of which can, and should, be changed." (Spegele, Roger - 
>1997. Is Robust Globalism a Mistake? Review of International Studies. 23, 
>211-239.

I think that a genuinely liberatory idea must include potentially effective 
ways of going from this drastically wrong way of living to a better way of 
living.  Further, I find that the following phrase ignores the hard facts 
of widespread oppression of the weak by the powerful (the master-slave 
syndrome):  "more importantly, people live in certain ways because they 
have an erroneous understanding of what their individual and collective 
existence ought to consist."

Best regards,

Dick




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