Professor Jason Ralph delivers lectures on new book in Hamburg and Delhi

Professor Ralph spoke to staff and students in Delhi and Hamburg about his new book, published in 2023 by Cambridge University Press. It is his fourth book to date.

Professor Ralph’s book On Global Learning: Pragmatic Constructivism, International Practices and the Challenge of Global Governance (CUP, 2023) is part of the prestigious Cambridge Studies in International Relations Series which is published by the British International Studies Association and Cambridge University Press. 

Book cover of "On Global Learning: Pragmatic Constructivism, International Practices and the Challenge of Global Governance"

The book, which addresses the unease around international society’s capacity to cope with change (for example, changes posed by global security, climate change and health challenges), argues that International Relations would be better positioned to help practitioners develop appropriate responses if it drew more explicitly on the insights of classical Pragmatism. 

By bringing this tradition in from the margins, Professor Ralph’s book comprehensively engages norm, practice, realist and global IR theory to extend the 'new constructivist' research agenda in a normative direction. He develops a 'Pragmatic Constructivist' approach to assess how well communities of practice facilitate the learning that mitigates emergent social problems and improves lived experiences.

University of Delhi 

Professor Ralph spoke to students about On Global Learning at an invited seminar at the University of Delhi in October 2023. 

Professor Ralph delivering lecture at the University of Delhi.

His lecture addressed a Pragmatic Constructivist theory of global learning and its relationship to "Global IR", pointing to a new research project on the Indian Pragmatist thought of B.R.Ambedkar.

Professor Ralph with staff and students at the University of Delhi.

University of Hamburg

In November 2023, Professor Ralph also spoke about On Global Learning when he gave the first lecture of the Hamburg Political Science Seminar Series of the Winter Semester of 2023/24 at the University of Hamburg. 

The week-long visit to Hamburg included a workshop to develop collaborations across the University of Leeds and University of Hamburg. The institutions jointly support new and promising collaborative initiatives with the aim of developing externally funded research grants, larger scale collaborations, jointly authored papers as well as common teaching activities at the advanced level (master or doctoral education).