Description
The concept of emancipation is central to Critical Theory and yet remains vague and under-theorised. This paper traces the development of this concept within IR, with its roots in Kant, Hegel, Marx and the Frankfurt School. Following this trajectory, the paper argues that the normative aspiration of emancipation was a focal point in the Third Great Debate in which Critical Theorists like Cox, Linklater and Ashley highlighted that without an emancipatory interest that theory was epistemologically incomplete. The implications of this fundamental insight have, however, been limited since this debate. Critical Theory has stymied, either retreating to liberal normativity or seeking an improved approach to historical analysis. The paper argues that a focus on emancipation through global processes of recognition can of-fer a way to reach the radical promise of Critical Theory in a lived politics of emancipation.
