Journal ArticleDOI
Practice Theory and Relationalism as the New Constructivism
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The authors argue that practice theory and relationalism represent the New Constructivism in International Relations (IR) and argue that a practice-relational turn became necessary because the meaning of constructivism narrowed over time, becoming tied to a specific scientific ontology focusing on the role of identity, norms, and culture in world politics.Abstract:
In this theory note, I address two new approaches in international relations theory gaining adherents and producing insightful applications: practice theory and relationalism. Practice theory draws attention to everyday logics in world politics. It stresses how international actors are driven less by abstract notions of the national interest, identities, or preferences than by context-dependent practical imperatives. Relationalism rejects the idea that entities—like states and international organizations—are the basic units of world politics. It replaces them with a focus on ongoing processes. Noting similarities in their arguments to those advanced by early constructivists, I argue that, taken together, practice theory and relationalism represent the New Constructivism in International Relations (IR). A practice–relational turn became necessary because the meaning of constructivism narrowed over time, becoming tied to a specific scientific ontology focusing on the role of identity, norms, and culture in world politics. This ontology unduly narrowed constructivism’s theoretical lenses, which practice theory and relationalism productively reopen.read more
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Contestation and Constitution of Norms in Global International Relations
TL;DR: Antje Wiener examines the involvement of local actors in conflicts over global norms such as fundamental rights and the prohibition of torture and sexual violence as discussed by the authors, providing accounts of local interventions made on behalf of those affected by breaches of norms, identifying the constraints and opportunities for stakeholder participation in a fragmented global society.
Journal ArticleDOI
Recognizing International Status: A Relational Approach
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the determinants of international status, and examine quantitatively how status emerges from state relations, and they show that self-reinforcing dynamics and social closure, rather than state attributes, drive status recognition.
Journal ArticleDOI
Beyond anarchy: logics of political organization, hierarchy, and international structure
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that only one kind of vertical stratification, governance hierarchy, actually challenges the states-under-anarchy framework, and argue that political formations with elements of these ideal types are likely ubiquitous at multiple scales of world politics, including within, across, and among sovereign states.
Journal ArticleDOI
Defending Hierarchy from the Moon to the Indian Ocean: Symbolic Capital and Political Dominance in Early Modern China and the Cold War
Paul Musgrave,Daniel H. Nexon +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a causal process in which concerns about legitimacy produce attempts to secure dominance in arenas of high symbolic value by investing wealth and labor into unproductive (in direct military and economic terms) goods and performances is identified.
References
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Book
Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the difficulty of being an ANT and the difficulties of tracing the social networks of a social network and how to re-trace the social network.
Journal ArticleDOI
Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics
TL;DR: Keck and Sikkink as discussed by the authors examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists for them influential not mean a developmental services ihss provider payments on.
MonographDOI
Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics
Margaret E. Keck,Kathryn Sikkink +1 more
TL;DR: Keck and Sikkink as mentioned in this paper examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists for them influential not mean a developmental services ihss provider payments on.
Book
Social Theory of International Politics
TL;DR: Wendt as discussed by the authors describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.
Journal ArticleDOI
Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics
TL;DR: The debate between realists and liberals has reemerged as an axis of contention in international relations theory as mentioned in this paper, and the debate is more concerned today with the extent to which state action is influenced by "structure" versus "process" and institutions.