Mikhail Maslovskiy (Gerda Henkel Fellow, Oct ‘23 – Dec ‘23) will talk on the theme:

Fellow Seminar: Historical Sociology, International Relations and Russian Civilizational Politics

on 23 November, 2023 (Thursday) at 16:30 h.

Moderated by Volodymyr Bureha.

Abstract: The research project deals with contemporary civilizational analysis in historical sociology and new perspectives on civilizational politics in the field of international relations. Shmuel Eisenstadt’s and Johann Arnason’s revival of civilizational analysis has largely contributed to a critical diagnosis of the present world constellation. At the same time, the relevance of sociological civilizational analysis for the discipline of international relations has been discussed. While contemporary historical sociology devotes considerable attention to civilizational legacies in today’s world the research program of civilizational politics in international relations regards civilizations as discursive constructs and focuses on the ways in which political imaginaries become institutionalized. Apparently, these perspectives can be seen as complementary. Within the discipline of international relations there is a growing interest towards the political dynamics of ‘civilizational states’ including China and Russia. In particular, it has been demonstrated that the Russian political elite use civilizational rhetoric in order to justify a wide range of policy decisions. However, current discussions of Russian ‘civilizationism’ are characterized by selective appropriation of insights from new approaches in international relations and general neglect of the findings of historical sociology. The project evaluates recent research on civilizational aspects of Russian politics and stresses the need to reconsider this issue taking into account the contributions of sociological civilizational analysis.