Scholarship drawing from a wide array of perspectives including field theoretical and functional differentiation approaches has shed increasing light on the sectoral dimensions of world politics. In contrast to dominant approaches emphasizing hierarchy and power in relations between global fields, this article offers a novel interpretive framework for understanding how diverse fields, systems, or sectors may interact and facilitate change in world politics beyond the operation of established hierarchies and power dynamics. Taking forward the previously underutilized concept of symbolically generalized media of communication, this article elucidates two processes of international political change by which different fields, systems, or sectors may transform world politics. The first process, lateral retreat, is illustrated with reference to the case study of the Protestant Reformation, in which internal changes in the religious field facilitated the development of an increasingly autonomous political domain. The second process, lateral penetration, is illustrated with reference to the international political response to the climate change and Covid-19 crises, in which the scientific sector contributed toward transformed political priorities and associated hierarchies, at least in the short term. These diverse cases are used to indicate the broad potential scope of application of the concept of symbolically generalized media of communication to enrich relational theorizing in the study of international relations, and to improve understanding of diverse dynamics of international political change missed in traditional power- (and anarchy-) centric accounts.

中文翻译：

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世界政治中的横向关系：重新思考领域、系统和部门之间的相互作用和变化

从包括领域理论和功能差异化方法在内的广泛视角汲取的学术研究，越来越多地揭示了世界政治的部门层面。与强调全球领域之间关系中的等级和权力的主流方法相比，本文提供了一个新颖的解释框架，用于理解不同领域、系统或部门如何相互作用并促进世界政治的变化，超越既定等级和权力动态的运作。本文将之前未被充分利用的象征性广义传播媒介概念向前推进，阐明了国际政治变迁的两个过程，不同的领域、体系或部门可能通过这些过程改变世界政治。第一个过程，横向撤退，以新教改革的案例研究为例进行说明，其中宗教领域的内部变化促进了日益自治的政治领域的发展。第二个过程，横向渗透，参照国际政治对气候变化和 Covid-19 危机的反应进行了说明，其中科学部门至少在短期内为转变的政治优先事项和相关等级制度做出了贡献。这些不同的案例被用来表明象征性广义传播媒介概念的广泛潜在应用范围，以丰富国际关系研究中的关系理论，