WHOS AFRAID OF META-THEORY

In this rejoinder to the 'International Imagination', the author criticises Rosenberg for not engaging with an entire realm of theoretical discourse, i.e., meta-theory. It is this lack of interest in meta-theory which, according to the author, accounts for Rosenberg's uncritical adoption of Mills' approach and his cursory dismissal of other perspectives-critical theory, post-modernism and feminist theory-which have, in recent years, offered critical insight into the dangers of relying on a 'positivist logic of investigation'. Dependent as it is on this positivist epistemology, Mills and later Rosenberg's project of emancipation is, therefore, limited.