Staff
- Agar
- Agarin
- Alam
- Andreasson
- Baker
- Barry
- Bew
- Blease
- Bourne
- Breen
- Bulley
- Carter
- Demetriou
- Diekemper
- Dietl
- Dilly
- Galligan
- Garry
- Geoghegan
- Gorman
- Guelke
- Jarvis
- Kerr
- Lisle
- McBride
- McCall
- McGowan
- McLoughlin
- McManus
- Milton-Edwards
- Morrison
- Nimni
- O'Callaghan
- O'Neill
- O'Neill C
- Pettit
- Phinnemore
- Smith, Bill
- Smith, Nicholas
- WalkerB
- WalkerG
- Watkins
- Wilford
Breen
Dr Keith Breen
Lecturer in Political Theory
(PhD Edinburgh)
Contact Details
Room 21.202
tel: ++44 (0) 28 9097 3349
email: k.breen@qub.ac.uk
Teaching Areas
Political Theory; Culture and Identity; Skills and Methods in Research.
Research Interests
My current research interests lie in late modern theories of political action and rationality, with a specific emphasis on those developing out of the phenomenological-existential, critical theoretical, and communitarian traditions. Utilizing the work of Weber, Jürgen Habermas, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Hannah Arendt, I focus on the nature and possibilities of critical theorization in relation to civil society and the state, the grounds of social and political ethics, and the limits of communication and dialogue. My other research interests include multiculturalism and the politics of recognition, the ethics of institutions, and theories of war and justice, in particular Just War theory.
Research Supervision
Just war theory
Communitarianism and virtue ethics
The ethics of terrorism and paramilitary justificatory discourses
Reconciliation and truth commissions
The work of Alasdair MacIntyre
Critical theory and Habermasian discourse ethics
Theories of sovereignty
Hannah Arendt’s political philosophy
Max Weber’s conception of modernity
Global justice and cosmopolitanism
Philosophies of work and economic organization
I would be very happy to consider research proposals in the above or related areas.
Research Grants
British Academy Conference Grant, 2007 - £2,000
Community Relations Council, Northern Ireland, Community Relations and Cultural Diversity Grant, 2007 - £4,000
Recent/Selected Publications
- (2010) Under Weber’s Shadow: Modernity, Subjectivity and Politics in the Work of Arendt, Habermas, and MacIntyre (Ashgate, forthcoming)
- (2010) ed. with O’Neill, S. After the Nation? Critical Reflections on Post-Nationalism (Palgrave, forthcoming).
- (2009) ‘Agonism, Antagonism, and the Necessity of Care’, in Schaap, A. (ed.) Law and Agonistic Politics (Ashgate), pp.133-146.
- (2007) ‘Work and Emancipatory Practice: Towards a Recovery of Human Beings’ Productive Capacities’, Res Publica, Vol. 14, No.1, pp.381-414.
- (2007) ‘Violence and Power: A Critique of Hannah Arendt on the “Political”’, Philosophy & Social Criticism, Vol. 33, No.3, pp.343-372.
- (2005) ‘The State, Compartmentalization and the Turn to Local Community: A Critique of the Political Thought of Alasdair MacIntyre’, The European Legacy, Vol. 10, No.5, pp. 485-501.
- (2004) ‘A Review of Erik O. Eriksen and Jarle Weigård, Understanding Habermas: Communicative Action and Deliberative Democracy’, German Politics, Vol. 13, No.1, pp.152-153.
- (2002) “Alasdair MacIntyre and the Hope for a Politics of Virtuous Acknowledged Dependence,” Contemporary Political Theory, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 181-201.
- (2002) ‘On the Brink of a New Great Transformation? A Review of Jürgen Habermas’ The Postnational Constellation and The Liberating Power of Symbols’, Contemporary Political Theory, Vol. 1, No. 1.
