Robert W. Cox

Robert Cox was a political science professor at York University in Toronto, Canada from 1977 to 1992. He was the former director general and then chief of the International Labor Organization's Program and Planning Division in Geneva, Switzerland. Following his departure from the ILO he taught at Columbia University. He is cited as one of the intellectual leaders along with Susan Strange of the British School of International Political Economy [Cohen, B. (2008) "International Political Economy: An Intellectual History," Princeton: Princeton University Press] and is still active as a scholar after his formal retirement, writing and giving occasional lectures.

Biography

Cox graduated in 1946 from McGill University in Montreal, where he received a Master's degree in history. Following his graduation he eventually went on to work for the International Labor Organization where he would remain for a quarter century, helping to set up and design the International Institute for Labor Studies.

In his academic career Cox is known for his fierce indepedence and unwavering challenge of orthodoxy as well as his historical approach. While his initial scholarly contributions during his time at Columbia University were quite conventional and focused on international organizations, following from his experience in the ILO, he soon adopted a more radical perspective. During his time at York University he began to reassert himself in a historical manner, reflective of his previous training at McGill University, which enabled him to take on more ambitious themes. Cox describes his academic interests as no less than understanding, "the structures that underlie the world" [Cox, Robert. (1999) "Conversation," "New Political Economy" 4 (3), 389-398] .

Cox insists that there are few universal truths and that ideas are rooted in the particularities of a given time and place and must be understood within their historical context, a perspective which underlies his academic approach. His academic interests have focused on the emergence of a new transnational world order, the role of transnational actors, Antonio Gramsci and his political theory, processes of social change and changes in the world economy.

One of Cox's well known sayings is that, "Theory is always "for" someone and "for" some purpose". This statement is reflective of his critical orientation and his use of critical theory.

Bibliography

* "Production, Power and World Order"(1987)

Edited Works

*"Approaches to World Order" (co-editor, 1996)
*"The Political Economy of a Plural World: Critical Reflections on Power, Morals, and Civilization"(co-editor, 2002)

Notes