Economy of Force

Counterinsurgency and the Historical Rise of the Social

Patricia Owens

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781107121942
• eBook ISBN: 9781316391075
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Retrieving the older but surprisingly neglected language of household governance, Economy of Force offers a radical new account of the historical rise of the social realm and distinctly social theory as modern forms of oikonomikos - the art and science of household rule. The techniques and domestic ideologies of household administration are highly portable and play a remarkably central role in international and imperial relations. In two late-colonial British 'emergencies' in Malaya and Kenya, and US counterinsurgencies in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, armed social work was the continuation of oikonomia - not politics - by other means. This is a provocative new history of counterinsurgency with major implications for social, political and international theory. Historically rich and theoretically innovative, this book will interest scholars and students across the humanities and social sciences, especially politics and international relations, history of social and political thought, history of war, social theory and sociology.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction: oikonomia in the use of force
• 2 The really real? A history of ‘social’ and ‘society’
• 3 Out of the confines of the household?
• 4 The colonial limits of society
• 5 ‘More than concentration camps’: the battle for hearths in two late-colonial emergencies
• 6 Society itself is at war: new model pacification in Vietnam
• 7 Oikonomia by other means: counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq
• 8 Conclusion: ‘it’s the oikos, stupid’
• References
• Index