Professor John M Hobson
Department of Politics and International Relations
Professor of Politics and International Relations
J.M.Hobson@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 1669
+44 114 222 1669
Modular Teaching Village
Full contact details
Professor John M Hobson
Department of Politics and International Relations
Modular Teaching Village
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 1AJ
Department of Politics and International Relations
Modular Teaching Village
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 1AJ
- Profile
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Professor Hobson gained his PhD from the LSE (1991), joined the Department in 2004 as Reader and became Professor of Politics and International Relations in 2005. Previously he taught at La Trobe University, Melbourne (1991–97) and the University of Sydney (1997–2004).
His main research interest concerns the area of inter-civilizational relations and everyday political economy. His work is principally involved in carrying forward the critique of Eurocentrism in World History/Historical Sociology, International Relations and IPE.
- Research interests
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- The critique of Eurocentrism: This forms the central theme of my work and as of 2015 forms the basis of 30 book chapters, 22 journal articles and 2 book monographs (2004, 2012).
- Historiography of IR/IPE: I have has contributed to this area of research with my 2012 book and my 2-part article in Review of International Political Economy, which came out in the 20th anniversary issue: Vol. 20, No. 5 (2013): 1024–1081.
- Global Historical Sociology of IR (GHSIR): I continue my interest in GHSIR, though since about 2000 I have combined this with my critique of Eurocentrism, both in empirical accounts of the rise of the West and of the development of world politics/economics, as well as in IR/IPE theory.
Current Research
I am currently working on a book that produces a non-Eurocentric analysis of the global political economy in the last 500 years.
- Publications
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Books
- Multicultural Origins of the Global Economy' Beyond the Western-Centric Frontier. Cambridge University Press.
- The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics: Western International Theory, 1760–2010. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics. Cambridge University Press.
- Selected Writing of John A. Hobson, 1932-1938. Taylor & Francis.
- The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge University Press.
- Everyday Politics of the World Economy. Cambridge University Press.
- Globalizing International Theory. Routledge.
Edited books
- Selected writings of John A. Hobson 1932-1938: The struggle for the international mind. Taylor and Francis.
Journal articles
- The Return of the Chinese Tribute System? Re-viewing the Belt and Road Initiative. Global Studies Quarterly, 2(4), ksac074.
- Unmasking the racism of orthodox international relations/international political economy theory. Security Dialogue, 53(1), 3-20.
- The lacuna of capital, the state and war? The lost global history and theory of Eastern agency. International Politics, 53(5), 600-617. View this article in WRRO
- The ‘R-Word’ and ‘E-Word’ Definitional Controversies: A Dialogue with My Five Interlocutors. Postcolonial Studies, 19(2), 210-226. View this article in WRRO
- The Eastern Origins of the Rise of the West and the “Return” of Asia. East Asia, 32(3), 239-255. View this article in WRRO
- The Twin Self-Delusions of IR: Why ‘Hierarchy’ and Not ‘Anarchy’ is the Core Concept of IR. Millennium, 42(3), 557-575.
- Recognition and the origins of international society: a reply to Erik Ringmar. Global Discourse, 4(4), 459-461.
- Re-viewing the Eurocentric Conception of World Politics: A Response to Knutsen, Ling, Schmidt, Tickner and Vitalis. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 42(2), 485-514.
- Part 1-Revealing the Eurocentric foundations of IPE: A critical historiography of the discipline from the classical to the modern era. REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY, 20(5), 1024-1054.
- Part 2 - Reconstructing the non-Eurocentric foundations of IPE: From Eurocentric 'open economy politics' to inter-civilizational political economy. Review of International Political Economy.
- The big bangs of IR: The myths that your teachers still tell you about 1648 and 1919. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 39(3), 735-758.
- What's at stake in the neo-trotskyist debate? towards a non-eurocentric historical sociology of uneven and combined development. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 40(1), 147-166.
- Unravelling Gramsci: Hegemony and Passive Revolution in the Global Political Economy. POLIT STUD REV, 8(3), 383-384.
- Liberal International theory: Eurocentric but not always Imperialist?. International Theory: a journal of international politics, law and philosophy, 2(2), 210-245.
- Provincializing Westphalia: The Eastern origins of sovereignty. INT POLITICS, 46(6), 671-690.
- Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century. NEW POLIT ECON, 14(1), 149-153.
- Letters. Historically Speaking, 9(7), 50-51.
- Letters. Historically Speaking, 9(4), 50-53.
- What is History in International Relations?. MILLENNIUM-J INT ST, 37(2), 415-435.
- Back to the future of ‘one logic or two’?: forward to the past of ‘anarchy versus racist hierarchy’?. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 20(4), 581-597.
- Sovereignty post-9/11. POLIT STUD-LONDON, 55(2), 271-273.
- Reconstructing international relations through world history: Oriental globalization and the global-dialogic conception of inter-civilizational relations. International Politics, 44(4), 414-430.
- Decolonizing "Western Exceptionalism and Universality" One More Time. Historically Speaking, 9(2), 16-18.
- Explaining the Rise of the West: A Reply to Ricardo Duchesne. The Journal of the Historical Society, 6(4), 579-599.
- East and west in global history. THEOR CULT SOC, 23(2-3), 408-410.
- The enduring place of hierarchy in world politics: Tracing the social logics of hierarchy and political change. EUR J INT RELAT, 11(1), 63-98.
- Deconstructing Rosenberg's 'contribution to the critique of global political economy': A (re)view from a non-Eurocentric bridge of the world. International Politics, 42(3), 372-380.
- Eurocentrism and neorealism in the 'fall of Mann': Will the real Mann please stand up?. MILLENNIUM-J INT ST, 34(2), 517-527.
Chapters
- Un-Veiling the Racist Foundations of Modern Realist and Liberal IR Theory, Globalizing International Theory (pp. 54-71). Routledge
- On the Road toward a Globalized International Theory, Globalizing International Theory (pp. 1-30). Routledge
- Why Britain Initiated an Iron and Steel Industrialisation and Why India (Mysore) and China Did Not, MULTICULTURAL ORIGINS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (pp. 353-392).
- Varieties of Global Economy From Historical to Modern Capitalism, c. 1500-2020, MULTICULTURAL ORIGINS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (pp. 433-455).
- The Global Atlantic Production Driver and the Imperial Primitive Accumulation of British Capital, MULTICULTURAL ORIGINS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (pp. 239-273).
- The Afro-Indian Pivot (II) Entangled Agencies and the Power of Africans, Indians and West Asian Muslims, MULTICULTURAL ORIGINS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (pp. 110-129).
- Multicultural Origins of the Second (Modern Capitalist) Global Economy Unveiling the 'Multicultural Contact Zone', c. 1850-c. 1940, MULTICULTURAL ORIGINS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (pp. 395-432).
- Indian Merchant-Financial Capitalists Navigating beyond the Western-centric Sea Frontier, MULTICULTURAL ORIGINS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (pp. 151-164).
- What’s at Stake in Doing (Critical) IR/IPE Historiography? The Imperative of Critical Historiography, Historiographical Investigations in International Relations (pp. 149-169). Springer International Publishing
- WESTERN INTERNATIONAL THEORY, 1492-2010: PERFORMING WESTERN SUPREMACY AND WESTERN IMPERIALISM, EMPIRE AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES (pp. 191-213).
- Decolonising sovereignty: Globalisation and the return of hyper-sovereignty, The Concept of the State in International Relations: Philosophy, Sovereignty and Cosmopolitanism (pp. 135-162).
- Re-Imagining the Other Palgrave Macmillan US
- Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism in Eurocentric Liberal International Theory, Liberal World Orders British Academy
- Islamic Commerce and Finance in the Rise of the West, The Role of the Arab-Islamic World in the Rise of the West (pp. 84-115). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- A non-Eurocentric global history of Asia, Routledge Handbook of Asian Regionalism (pp. 46-57).
- Orientalization in Globalization: A Sociology of the Promiscuous Architecture of Globalization, c. 500-2010, Globalization and Development in East Asia (pp. 12-35).
- Everyday international political economy, Routledge Handbook of International Political Economy (IPE): IPE as a Global Conversation (pp. 290-306).
- What have the muslims ever done for us? Islamic origins of western civilization, The Challenge of Eurocentrism: Global Perspectives, Policy, and Prospects (pp. 217-235).
- DECONSTRUCTING THE EUROCENTRIC CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS: DE-WESTERNIZING THE WEST BY ACKNOWLEDGING THE DIALOGUE OF CIVILIZATIONS, CIVILIZATIONAL IDENTITY: THE PRODUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF CIVILIZATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (pp. 149-165).
- Civilizing the global economy: Racism and the continuity of Anglo-Saxon imperialism, Global Standards of Market Civilization (pp. 60-76).
- Conclusion: everyday IPE puzzle sets, teaching and policy agendas, Everyday Politics of the World Economy (pp. 196-213). Cambridge University Press
- Eastern agents of globalisation: Oriental globalisation in the rise of Western capitalism, Everyday Politics of the World Economy (pp. 141-159). Cambridge University Press
- Everyday IPE: revealing everyday forms of change in the world economy, Everyday Politics of the World Economy (pp. 1-24). Cambridge University Press
- Decolonizing Weber: The Eurocentrism of Weber’s IR and Historical Sociology, Max Weber and International Relations (pp. 143-171). Cambridge University Press
- Worlding the Rise of Capitalism: The Multicivilizational Roots of Modernity, Global Historical Sociology (pp. 221-240). Cambridge University Press
- Asia in International Relations Routledge
- Everyday International Political Economy Meets the Everyday Political Economy of Southeast Asia, The Everyday Political Economy of Southeast Asia (pp. 239-260). Cambridge University Press
- Eurocentric Pitfalls and Paradoxes of International Paternalism: Decolonizing Liberal Humanitarianism 2.0, Paternalism beyond Borders (pp. 99-131). Cambridge University Press
- Postcolonial Theory and International Relations Routledge
- Globalization and Development in East Asia Routledge
- Marxism and World Politics Routledge
- Critical Theory in International Relations and Security Studies Routledge
- Back to the future of nineteenth-century Western international thought?, The Global 1989 (pp. 23-50). Cambridge University Press
- Comparative Politics and International Relations, The SAGE Handbook of Comparative Politics (pp. 175-190). SAGE Publications Ltd
- Is critical theory always for the White West and for Western imperialism? Beyond Westphilian towards a post-racist critical IR, Critical International Relations Theory after 25 years (pp. 91-116). Cambridge University Press
- Mann, the state and war, An Anatomy of Power (pp. 150-166). Cambridge University Press
Book reviews
- A
ndrew Phillips and J. C. Sharman . Outsourcing Empire: How Company-States Made the Modern World.. The American Historical Review, 126(1), 269-270.
- A critical-sympathetic introduction to Linklater’s odyssey: Bridge over troubled (Eurocentric?) water. Review of International Studies, 43(4), 581-601.
Conference proceedings papers
- Revealing the cosmopolitan side of Oriental Europe The eastern origins of European civilisation. EUROPE AND ASIA BEYOND EAST AND WEST, Vol. 8 (pp 107-119)
- Multicultural Origins of the Global Economy' Beyond the Western-Centric Frontier. Cambridge University Press.
- Research group
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I am keen to supervise promising research students in a range of areas including: Historical sociology of international relations, global political economy and especially civilisational analysis (East/West relations) in the context of the critique of Eurocentrism. I am currently supervising 4 PhD students.
Areas of past supervision include:
- A social theory of the WTO (Jane Ford) Completed 2000
- The Social Sources of Financial Power (Prof. Len Seabrooke) Completed 2003
- State and Market in Korea (Shin Seung-hoon) Completed 2007
- Reconstructing NATO after the Cold War (Yuke Abe) Completed 2009
- Imperialism and the Globalisation of Production (John Smith) Completed 2010
- Teaching interests
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My teaching speaks directly to my own research, especially my inter-disciplinary focus on IR/IPE and global historical sociology, featuring both the theory and empirical practice of the world economy and global system; something that is traced in long-run historical perspective through to the present.
All three of my modules are based on a ‘pedagogical’ practice of ‘cumulative knowledge’, in which I begin with a range of key ideas that are then applied in different contexts as the module proceeds. This means that while students often find the first month challenging, by the second half they have understood the central theme that runs throughout.
I enjoy teaching and I seek to make my seminars open and informal principally to encourage lively debate among students; something which should be fun for all concerned. I was pleased to have been awarded the faculty teaching prize for teaching excellence at the University of Sydney in 1999.
His principal teaching commitments are currently:
- POL111 The Politics of Globalisation
- POL3005 Civilisation, Empire and Hegemony
- POL6800 Theories and Issues in International Political Economy
- Professional activities and memberships
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Career Highlights
- In July 2015 I became a Fellow of the British Academy.
- In September 2015 I was interviewed for Theory Talks: ‘John M. Hobson on Eurocentrism, Historical Sociology and the curious case of Postcolonialism’, Theory Talks (No. 71).
- Since July 2014 I have been co-editor (with Prof LHM Ling) of a new book series, 'Global Dialogues: Developing Non-Eurocentric IR and IPE' (Rowman & Littlefield International).
- Alongside Cornelia Woll, I gave the Warwick/RIPE Annual Debate Lecture, University of Warwick (7 March, 2013).
- I have given 16 keynote lectures and public lectures around the world in: Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Korea, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, and the UK.
- I was a Visiting Professor at The University of Panteion, Greece (July, 2015), and The University of Durham (December, 2006). I was the Harry Lyman Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor at McMaster University, Canada (March, 2014).
- My 2012 book was awarded joint runner-up for the Francesco Guicciardini Award for best book in historical international relations (International Studies Association, 2014), and was shortlisted for the best book of the year by the Centre for Advanced International Theory, University of Sussex (2013).
- I won the prize for best blog post, awarded by the website The Duck of Minerva (Outstanding Achievement in International Studies Web-blogging Award, 2013). This was for my blog post: ‘Eurocentrism, Racism – What’s in a Word? Response to Bowden, Sabaratnam and Vucetic’.
- Supervision Expertise
- Race and Eurocentrism in IR, IPE, global history/historical sociology.
This comprises any issue related to the global economy or world politics. I'm also interested in non-Western IR theory.