What If the Model Does Not Tell the Whole Story? The Clock, the Natural Forest and the New Global Studies
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David Jacobson
Machiavelli made his celebrated distinction between `the effective truth of things' and the `imaginary republics and monarchies that have never been seen or known to exist.' The scholarly study of international relations has generally sought to make research more manageable by cutting complex social realities into manageable structures and patterns—risking a world of imaginary republics. This approach has been imparted to policy, with limited success and sometimes disastrous results. The New Global Studies offers an opportunity to re-think our approach on global matters. Drawing on different sources, primarily the work of the Nobel economist Ronald Coase, evolutionary biology, and concepts of non-ergodicity, we suggest an alternative, `organic' approach that seeks to engage and learn from complexity rather than simplify it.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Branding the Riders: "Marlboro Country" and the Formation of a New Middle Class in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey
- What If the Model Does Not Tell the Whole Story? The Clock, the Natural Forest and the New Global Studies
- Revisiting Barraclough's Contemporary History
- Globalizing 'Global Studies': Vehicle for Disciplinary and Regional Bridges?
- Reportage
- Withering Roses: A Portrait of Georgia before the Fall
- Book Review
- Review of Bound Together
- Review of Power and Plenty
- Review of The Europeanization of the World
- Review of The Anthropology of Globalization
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Branding the Riders: "Marlboro Country" and the Formation of a New Middle Class in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey
- What If the Model Does Not Tell the Whole Story? The Clock, the Natural Forest and the New Global Studies
- Revisiting Barraclough's Contemporary History
- Globalizing 'Global Studies': Vehicle for Disciplinary and Regional Bridges?
- Reportage
- Withering Roses: A Portrait of Georgia before the Fall
- Book Review
- Review of Bound Together
- Review of Power and Plenty
- Review of The Europeanization of the World
- Review of The Anthropology of Globalization
