Culture, Diversity and Technology

Christian Reus-Smit is one of the leading experts on international theory, history, and international law. He has pioneered new conceptualizations of individual rights and political legitimacy in the development of international orders, generating innovative debates around concepts of legitimacy, power and social and political theory at the intersection of international relations. This chapter details a 30-minute conversation between Reus-Smit and Constance Duncombe in his office in the School of Political Science and International Studies at The University of Queensland in August 2017, which explored how technology has both informed his work and how he understands its social and cultural underpinnings. In this conversation Reus-Smit discusses technology as a material artefact and its role in transformative change of the international order. Key here is the insight that how we conceptualize technology, including social media, matters for how we understand its material and ideational power. Reus-Smit's principal innovation is to see technology not just as a social artefact, but also as congealed ideas.