Jonathan Luke Austin is a sociologist and

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

. Austin is currently a professor at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia after Uppsala Unive ...

. He is also Director of the Centre for Advanced Security Theory at the same university. Previously he was Lead Researcher at the Geneva-based Violence Prevention (VIPRE) Initiative, hosted by the

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, or the Geneva Graduate Institute (french: Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement), abbreviated IHEID, is a government-accredited postgraduate institution ...

, where he is also a Visiting Professor. Austin has previously been based at the

, the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

, and the

Orient-Institut Beirut The Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB) ( ar, المعهد الألماني للأبحاث الشرقية) is one of ten German Humanities Institutes Abroad which belong to the Max Weber Foundation. The OIB was established in 1961 by the Deutsche Morge ...

. Austin is widely known for his work in the fields of

International Political Sociology (security studies) International Political Sociology (IPS) is an interdisciplinary field and set of approaches at the crossroads of international relations theory and other disciplines such as sociology, geography and anthropology. It is structured around initiatives ...

critical security studies Critical security studies (CSS) is an academic discipline within security studies which draws on critical theory to revise and, at times, reject the narrow focus of mainstream approaches to security. Similarly to the case of critical international ...

, and

International Relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

. Theoretically, Austin has played a central role in reconsidering the status of critique in

, mainly through his engagements with pragmatist sociologies, science and technology studies, and

postcritique In literary criticism and cultural studies, postcritique is the attempt to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. Such methods have been characterized as a ...

. He has also been a key advocate for extending the ‘materialism’ of the practice of

, suggesting social scientific practice must move beyond its present preoccupation with epistemic modes of inquiry. Empirically, much of Austin's work has revolved around exploring the ontologies of political violence. This includes a significant research programme studying the conditions of possibility underlying torture, conducted through both secondary sources and the interviewing of perpetrators. Practically, Austin is known for applying ‘high’ social theory to concrete international problems. This is currently occurring through the application of material-semiotic social theories to the challenge of violence prevention. For this work, Austin was nominated among the ‘faces of peace’ in recognition of his Peacebuilding activities by the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...

and Geneva Peacebuilding Platform.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Jonathan Luke British sociologists British political scientists Academic staff of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)