DPIR’s Yang Han pens new article on the idea of ‘banal modernity’

DPIR DPhil in International Relations student Yang Han has had an article published in the European Journal of International Relations in which she explores the notion of ‘banal modernity’.

In ‘Banal modernity: a logic of hierarchization in International Relations’, Yang theorises that people often judge how advanced or modern their own country (or the social groups they belong to) is by comparing everyday things – such as how punctual people are or how clean the streets are – with others.

She argues that these simple, everyday comparisons mould how people rank or see the status of different social groups across the globe. 

And she goes on to claim that this notion forms the basis of her theory that everyday views of modern life help to form a kind of global ‘pecking order’.

The key message she hopes to convey though the article is that social discrimination practices are often informed commonly by banal modernity and that this offers the vocabulary and grammar that facilitate these practices.

Yang said: 

“This article importantly offers critical IR scholars another way to make sense of the intersecting forms of hierarchisation in International Relations and highlights another crucial aspect of modernity that is often overlooked – the banality. “

Yang is currently also working on other articles that theorize the postcolonial, especially what she calls a contradiction between development and solidarity.