State and Statehood in the Global South

This book focuses on critical approaches to the state and state theory in the Global South. In light of the reemergence of the post-colonial and peripheral state as a crucial institution and actor in the 21st century’s capitalist world-system, the book examines the nature, functions and development dynamics of the state in the periphery, as well as its constituting interests and struggles. Drawing on the works of Poulantzas and Gramsci, dependency and world-systems theory, as well as the regulation school and the German Ableitungsdebatte, stategraphy and critical realism, it analyzes the development of different theoretical perspectives on the state, elaborates on their theoretical, ontological and epistemological presuppositions, and illustrates their methodological, practical and ethical implications.

The book is divided into three parts, the first of which provides an overview of recent global capitalist developments and challenges for state theory and lays the theoretical, ontological and hermeneutic foundation for studies of the state and statehood in the Global South. In turn, the second part introduces readers to different schools of state theory, including critical theory and materialism, as well as approaches derived from postcolonial, anthropological, and feminist thought. Lastly, the third part presents various empirical studies, highlighting concrete methodological and practical experiences of conducting critical state theory.

Miriam Fahimi is a social scientist and PhD candidate at the Digital Age Research Center at University of Klagenfurt. As a Marie Curie Fellow in the project “NoBIAS – Artificial Intelligence without Bias”, Fahimi researches the sociomaterial practices of AI technology in regard to bias, discrimination and power. Her research interests include theory of ethics, philosophy of science, science and technology studies, and feminist theory.

Elmar Flatschart is lecturer and occasional researcher at and around the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna. His research interests include a wide area of theoretical debates: Critical Theory (Frankfurt School, critical-dialectical theories of society), philosophy of science (Critical Realism), materialist state theory, critique of political economy, materialist-feminist approaches, political ecology (with a focus on energy as social relation) and social movements (with a focus on direct-democratic participation processes).

Wolfram Schaffar holds the chair of Development Politics at the University of Passau. Prior to this engagement, he taught at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna, the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn, the Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and he served as regular guest lecturer at Yangon University, Myanmar, Jigme Shingye Wangchuk School of Law, Thimphu, Bhutan. In his research, Schaffar focuses on democratization and de-democratization processes, state theory of the Global South and social movements, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia.