Power and Cultures of the World. Developing New Social Architectures of Influence in the UN: A Network Analysis

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https://doi.org/10.17583/rimcis.2020.5248

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Abstract

The most important sociologists have discussed whether it is the social structure that produces individual behaviours or the latters are only the results of individuals’ will. In the literature of international relations, as well, a similar debate about the structure-agency problem has developed: in this context, the central question is whether or not there exist external sources of influences for the decisions that states take in international politics. This article, by sharing an integrative and post-structural approach (Archer, 1995; Foucault, 1970) proposes an empirical analysis of the formation of power architectures within the UN-SC surrounding the question of Intercultural Dialogue. A Social Network Analysis checks whether the way actors exercise power is concurrently the result of individual wills whose contents follows both institutional and cultural conditioning. Findings show that there is not a fixed structure of power relations which can be given for granted but it is continuously negotiated through both practices and social interactions. However, both institutional and, above all, cultural factors shape power relations.

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Author Biographies

Livia García-Faroldi, Universidad de Málaga

Livia García-Faroldi is Ph.D. in Sociology. She is Associate Professor at the University of Málaga (Spain). Her current research interests comprise two topics: 1) European integration and supranational identities and 2) comparative welfare states.  Her work on the first topic has been published in International Migration (2017), Partecipazione e Conflitto (2015, together with Massimo Pendenza), MZES Working Papers (2009), Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (2008), among others. Her work on the second topic has been published in journals such as Social Indicators Research (2015), Social Policy & Administration (2017), International Review of Sociology (2017) and Social Politics (2018), among others.

Valeria Bello, Universidad Ramón Llul

Valeria Bello is Ph. D. in Sociology and Political Sociology. She is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University Ramón Llul (Barcelone, Spain). She has been  Research Fellow at the Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility of the United Nations University (2012-2018). Her main research interests concern the role of both identity and non-state actors in the area of migration and interethnic relations, as well as in the area of international and human security. She has published International Migration and International Security. Why Prejudice is a Global Security Threat (Routledge, 2017), A Global Security Triangle: European, African and Asian Interactions (Routledge, 2010, with Belachew Gebrewold) and Civil Society and International Governance: The Role of Non-State Actors in the EU, Africa, Asia and Middle East (Routledge, 2011, with David Armstrong et al.), as  well as articles in journals such as International Migration, Social Indicators Research, Global Policy and Global Affairs.

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Published

2021-03-30

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García-Faroldi, L., & Bello, V. (2021). Power and Cultures of the World. Developing New Social Architectures of Influence in the UN: A Network Analysis. International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences, 10(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.17583/rimcis.2020.5248

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