ABSTRACT: Deals with the issue of incommensurability between paradigms of International
Relations through a scientific theory perspective. By asking the question of Water as a
commodity is a positive means for poverty alleviation? we find incommensurability between
the Pluralist and the Structuralist paradigms. By treating different epistemological
perspectives in a hierarchical way, which marginalises certain branches of the discipline,
information that could be used in a complementary analysis is lost. Instead of accepting
incommensurability we therefore suggest that incommensurability should be treated as
anomalies on the structural level of the discipline.
KEY WORDS: International Relations, Theory of Science, Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend,
Imre Lakatos, Paradigm, Incommensurability, Scientific Research Programs, Structuralism,
Pluralism, Critical Theory, Neo-liberalism, Pragmatics.
WORDS: 11.002