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4 Eur. Rev. Int'l Stud. 5 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/epnrvwo4 and id is 1 raw text is: Articles EUROCENTRISM, ETHNOCENTRISM, AND MISERY OF POSITION: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN EUROPE - A PROBLEMATIC OVERSIGHT* Audrey Alejandro London School of Economics and Political Science Abstract: Since the 1980s, International Relations (IR) scholars have emphasised the 'geo- epistemological' dynamics underpinning the global structuration of discipline diversity. By focusing mainly on the study of 'American' and 'non-Western' IR, this debate has given little attention to the voices, perspectives, and practices of those scholars who study IR in Europe. This article aims reflexively to question the identity dynamics of the marginalisation of European cases in the debate about diversity and hegemony in International Relations. Using anthropological and sociological tools, such as the idea of 'misery of position' developed by Pierre Bourdieu, it explores the postcolonial and eurocentric narratives that can explain this situation, while also putting forward why assuming a balanced ethnocentric stance would provide a more appropriate relational model to promote pluralism. Keywords: eurocentrism; ethnocentrism; International Relations in Europe; sociology of science; anthropology of science This article takes as a starting point the marginality of works focusing on Europe in the discussion of diversity and the circulation of knowledge in International Relations (IR) globally. On the one hand, although American parochialism and eurocentrism are described as the two main issues impeding the advent of a truly global IR, the concrete manifestations of contemporary eurocentrism among European scholars have been the focus of very little academic inquiry in comparison to the study of American parochialism.1 On the other hand, although European scholars have made * I would like to thank Sebastian Schindler and AJR Groom for their useful comments on an earlier draft of this article. 1 For the denunciation of American parochialism in IR see Daniel J. Levine and Alexander D. Barder, 'The Closing of the American Mind: 'American School' International Relations and the State of Grand Theory', European Journal oflnternationalRelations, Vol. 20, No. 4 (2014), pp. 863-88; Molly Cochran, 'What Does It Mean to Be an American Social Science? A Pragmatist Case for Diversity', in D.S.L. Jarvis and R. Crawford (eds.), International Relations-Still an American Social Science? : Toward Diversity in International Thought (Albany, NY: State University of New York, 2001); Steve Smith, 'The United States and the Discipline of International Relations: 'Hegemonic Country, Hegemonic Discipline', International Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 2 (2002), pp. 65-82; Thomas J. Biersteker, 'The Parochialism of Hegemony: Challenges for 'American' Alejandro: Eurocentrism, Ethnocentrism, and Misery of Position, ERIS Vol. 4, Issue 1/2017, pp. 5-20

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