If the world is a family, what kind of family is it?

Marks, Susan ORCID: 0009-0003-2109-2143 (2025) If the world is a family, what kind of family is it? European Journal of International Law. ISSN 0938-5428

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Abstract

This essay is concerned with the trope that figures the world as a family. What ideas about the family inform, and are informed by, it? What effects does it have on the way global issues, relations and contexts are understood? In exploring those questions, consideration is given, in turn, to evocations of the human family, references to the family of nations, and discussions of the need to take action for the sake of our children. The essay illustrates something of the variety of family types that have been mobilised in representations of the world as a family, and shows how the effects produced have been mixed. While familial language has a venerable place in emancipatory discourses, it also works to install a false notion of unity rooted in biological filiation that helps to preserve divisions, sustain hierarchies, and promote depoliticised approaches to political problems.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Law School
Subjects:	K Law H Social Sciences
Date Deposited:	21 Nov 2024 10:24
Last Modified:	09 May 2025 19:55
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/126117

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