case study HR

Content type

User Generated

Type

Study Guide

Uploaded By

Nffvtazragrkcreg96

Pages

Rating

[1]

Ole Wæver : Autobibliography

“There is more to life than books, you know.

But not much more”

Morrissey

In the train home after the meeting where the former editor of POLITIK, Ole

Dahl Rasmussen, first mentioned the idea of 10x10, I could not help starting –

as I am sure, many readers of our 10x10 will do – to scribble on the back of

an envelope: what would be my ten works? It seemed hard to get the list

down to ten – there are many good books in the world.

To discipline my selection process, I have asked in a genealogical mode, as a

‘history of the present’ “How I became what I am”. The question is not what I

was impressed by, found great when I read it, or would like to suggest to

others. I have been looking from my present position for those books without

which I am certain I would not be theorising, thinking and writing what I do.

Still, even after having decided on a criteria for selecting the ten books, a few

difficult cases that all ended up outside the list for different reasons deserves

to be mentioned. This will both illustrate the consequences of the logic of

selection and allow me to cheat and sneak in a brief mention of books no. 11,

12, etc.

Some might expect to see Carl Schmitt on my list (either Politische Theologie

on the concept of sovereignty or Der Begriff des Politischen on friend/enemy).

With a growing secondary literature discussing the relationship between

As volume 4:7 in 2004, the journal POLITIK published a special issue ”10x10”, where 10

leading contemporary social scientists presented the 10 works that shaped their own

academic development the most. As then editor in chief of POLITIK, I wrote –to market

the issue- my own piece, only published virtually (at the now seemingly dead link:

http://www.tidsskriftetpolitik.dk/index.php?id=125 ). Currently, the text is available at

http://cast.ku.dk/people/researchers/ow/Ole_W_ver_10_books_-_reposted.pdf/.

The special issue was republished in 2007 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing as a book

“10x10” ed. by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Ole Dahl Rasmussen and Ole Wæver:

http://www.amazon.com/10-Ole-Dahl-Rasmussen-ver/dp/1847182569 and http://www.c-

s-p.org/flyers/10-x-10.htm. The ten scholars writing in the volume are B. Guy Peters,

Chantal Mouffe, Elinor Ostrom, James M. Buchanan, Joseph H.H. Weiler, Kalevi Holsti,

Kenneth Waltz, Ole Borre, Richard Katz, and Thomas Hylland Eriksen.

[2]

Schmitt’s decisionism and the speech act conception of security in the

Copenhagen School of security studies, it could almost be interesting whether

I actually formulated the concept of securitisation with Schmitt in mind.

Unfortunately, I do not remember. I was somewhat familiar with the general

argument, but as I recall, the original version of the speech act theory was

formulated in 1988 without any direct inspiration. I only read Schmitt in detail

later – and found him very convincing, noticing naturally the similarities, as

well as the points where – hopefully – we part ways. Such reflections helped

to sharpen my understanding of what a performative view of politics implies,

so Schmitt could have been included, but given the actual history and the

criterion of selection adopted, he does not fully deserve it. Several others

were under consideration, too.

One was Hans J. Morgenthau’s classic International Relations (IR) textbook

Politics Among Nations. In a marxianised political science department in the

early 1980s, where security affairs and realism were totally excluded, my first

revolt was to seek up these works, and since bookstores in Copenhagen had

few foreign books (and certainly not this one) this was my first order from a

British bookstore. And the treasure fortunately turned out to be

commensurate to its effect on the budget of a poor student: a hard cover

book with gold lined pages. And of course the detail that impressed me most:

the reprint of a world map on the inner cover, suggesting “here is the world

and the book about it”. I struggled hard to get Cambridge University Press to

do a similar thing with the recent Buzan/Wæver book Regions and Powers, but

they placed the world on pages xxv-xxvi – not the same thing! Since this feat

about the map really is what has kept the book on my mind all these years, it

probably should not be among the chosen ten. I enjoyed reading it, but I

cannot see any specific traces today, and I can thus blame my genealogical

criterion for selection for not finding room for it.

Elias Canetti’s Masse und Macht (Crowds and Power) deserves to be listed –

and I am glad Chantal Mouffe did. In any case, I could not do it with honesty,

because it really has not influenced me, although I wish it had. It is one of the

most remarkable books written on a social science subject, but it is so

systematically written up against all conventions for how to do social science –

it does not locate itself in relation to any disciplines, does not draw

systematically on any specific body of literature but only a wide and highly

idiosyncratic selection of readings, its method and line of argumentation is

mysterious, and so forth. Accordingly, as it did not link up to any field, it was

not received or integrated into any. Despite the Nobel prize in literature that

Canetti was awarded, this masterwork never became very influential. It is a

unique source of provocation to read now and then – but what to do about it?

Canetti can be an illustration of the trouble of digging out what influenced you

– I will not claim it as influence, because that would be to say I had been able

End of Preview - Want to read all 25 pages?

Access Now

Unformatted Attachment Preview

Ole Wæver : Autobibliography “There is more to life than books, you know. But not much more” Morrissey In the train home after the meeting where the former editor of POLITIK, Ole Dahl Rasmussen, first mentioned the idea of 10x10, I could not help starting – as I am sure, many readers of our 10x10 will do – to scribble on the back of an envelope: what would be my ten works? It seemed hard to get the list down to ten – there are many good books in the world. To discipline my selection process, I have asked in a genealogical mode, as a ‘history of the present’ “How I became what I am”. The question is not what I was impressed by, found great when I read it, or would like to suggest to others. I have been looking from my present position for those books without which I am certain I would not be theorising, thinking and writing what I do. Still, even after having decided on a criteria for selecting the ten books, a few difficult cases that all ended up outside the list for different reasons deserves to be mentioned. This will both illustrate the consequences of the logic of selection and allow me to cheat and sneak in a brief mention of books no. 11, 12, etc. Some might expect to see Carl Schmitt on my list (either Politische Theologie on the concept of sovereignty or Der Begriff des Politischen on friend/enemy). With a growing secondary literature discussing the relationship between Schmitt’s decisionism and the speech act conception of ...
Purchase document to see full attachment