Overview
- Examines how Pakistan’s identity is constructed within the wider International Relations (IR) discipline
- Analyzes the IR discourse by including 'Area Studies' and Think-tanks as part of the wider IR Community
- Analyses production of representational identity based in on Jennifer Milliken’s methodology on productivity of discourse
- Challenges basic assumptions on Pakistan, not the facts they know, but the ways in which they have obtained knowledge
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- Discourse Analysis on Pakistan
- Representational Identities and Pakistan
- Knowledge Production and Pakistan
- Knowledge Circulation and Pakistan
- International Relations and Pakistan
- Pakistan Area Studies
- Think-tanks and Pakistan
- Epistemic Communities and Pakistan
- Pakistan in International Relations Articles
- Academia and Pakistan
- Pakistan and the wider International Relations discipline
- discourse analysis
About this book
Reviews
“Waheed explores the production of knowledge through a forensic examination of key sites of academic and policy-related work on Pakistan. His focus is not what we know about Pakistan, but how we know what we know. Underlying this project is a restrained, clinical fury at the deeply-embedded inequalities which produce the geostrategic realities of the modern world. In the context of the study of South Asia, Waheed’s work represents a necessary step towards challenging these realities. It is the responsibility of the institutions and individuals who constitute the contemporary academy to take up this challenge.” (Dr John Zavos, Honorary Research Fellow in Religions and Theology, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
“A remarkable deconstruction of the mainstream Western discourse on Pakistan in the field of International Relations with its ‘Orientalist’ stereotypes and ethnocentric attitudes. Due to its strategic cum politico-cultural location, Pakistan is a prime topic for such a needed investigation that should be emulated for other countries and areas.” (Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations, SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom)
“How do countries take on identities—like ‘failed state’—in scholarly literature? Many realize that IR and Area Studies are American social sciences, seeing the world from the point of view of the powerful. But few scholars subject this knowledge/power problem to sustained inquiry. In this groundbreaking study, Ahmed Waheed shows us how ‘knowledge’ about Pakistan is produced and comes to seem like truth. His study will become a model of critique as we try to rebuild international and area studies in the wake of Western hegemony.” (Tarak Barkawi, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom) “This is a brilliant book on the social construction of Pakistan. It challenges conventional readings of Pakistan's present and possible futures, turning the question to the politics of how Pakistan is known, particularly in the International Relations literature. Through discourse analysis, the power to define Pakistan—who and how—is unpacked, making space for alternative nominations of agency. An alternative present and future for Pakistan is only possible by challenging how Pakistan is defined by who gets to speak and who gains authoritative voice. Knowledge production via Area Studies and International Relations is challenged arguing that Area Studies is indeed International Relations. This is achieved by asking not "What do know about Pakistan?" but "How do we know about Pakistan?" This is an easy to read, well argued, thoroughly researched book.” (Professor Sohail Inayatullah, UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies, USIM, Malaysia and Adjunct Professor, the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia)Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Constructing 'Pakistan' through Knowledge Production in International Relations and Area Studies
Authors: Ahmed W. Waheed
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0742-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Singapore
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-0741-0Published: 18 November 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-0744-1Published: 18 November 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-0742-7Published: 02 November 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 230
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: International Relations, Knowledge - Discourse, Discourse Analysis, Political Sociology, Asian Politics