Mining the past: The case for historical narratives in global justice theorizing

Abstract

Debates on global justice, it is claimed, can be enriched in important ways by more explicitly historicizing our approach and using historical narratives, stories and debates to expand our conceptual vocabulary and theoretical purview. The claim is illustrated through a specific analysis of Paul Robeson’s relationship with the Welsh Miners. It is argued such a historical turn, grounded in a wider interdisciplinary engagement with subjects such as cultural studies may see at least three key benefits accrue in terms of our understanding of the field. Firstly, it can uncover philosophical and theoretical ideas and alternatives so far unconsidered; secondly, it can generate a shift in the empirical frame that accounts for and seeks to identify means for “real world” political change; lastly, it should encourage us to question the in/out dichotomy at the heart of the western debate, which projects global injustice as being “out there.”