This presentation theorizes the relational character of technology and authority through the concept of ‘technopraxis’: the technological expression of practical or applied thinking. Common approaches in IR consider technology in terms of material power and as tools for actors to use, however tend to neglect the co-constitutive relationship of technology and techniques with collective understandings of practicality and practical action. Drawing from Yuk Hui’s notion of ‘cosmotechnics’ and Chih-yu Shih’s framing of ‘Confucian autocracy’, I look towards mainland China and its contemporary prioritization of technological know-how alongside renewed visions of political authority in practice. Technologies are interpreted as durable cultural expressions and functional beings, and therefore mediators of practical power available to state authority. From this analysis, I theorize a relational technopraxis, one that sees Chinese state-building and technological development as part of the same process: a narrativized return towards a strong China and position of filial authority in East Asia (and beyond). Examples for such a technopraxis include the mid-19th century contrast of “Chinese learning for essence, Western learning for application” and its logical fate in a world of shifting international and neglected post-global relations, particularly regarding technological and practical thinking.
Dr. Jonathan Hui has a Ph.D from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, with research interests in the fields of futures studies, international relations, and sociology, specializing in Chinese approaches to technology and practice. His dissertation is titled “Heaven is Quiet and Technologies are Everywhere: Chinese Cosmotechnics and Dyadic Approaches to International Structure”, which sketches a theory bringing together technics and practices, as a springboard for understanding international distributions of technological and state authority. Jonathan’s longer-term work seeks to imagine technopraxis beyond (inter)nation-states towards planetary or post-global technopraxes, and the cultural and political knowledge needed for such tasks.
