scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

The Play of International Practice

01 Sep 2015-International Studies Quarterly (Wiley/ Oxford University Press (OUP))-Vol. 59, Iss: 3, pp 449-460
TL;DR: The core claims of the practice turn in International Relations (IR) remain ambiguous as discussed by the authors, and it is worth noting that practice approaches entail a distinctive view on the drivers of social relations, arguing against individualistic-interest and norm-based actor models.
Abstract: The core claims of the practice turn in International Relations (IR) remain ambiguous. What promises does international practice theory hold for the field? How does the kind of theorizing it produces differ from existing perspectives? What kind of research agenda does it produce? This article addresses these questions. Drawing on the work of Andreas Reckwitz, we show that practice approaches entail a distinctive view on the drivers of social relations. Practice theories argue against individualistic-interest and norm-based actor models. They situate knowledge in practice rather than “mental frames” or “discourse.” Practice approaches focus on how groups perform their practical activities in world politics to renew and reproduce social order. They therefore overcome familiar dualisms—agents and structures, subjects and objects, and ideational and material—that plague IR theory. Practice theories are a heterogeneous family, but, as we argue, share a range of core commitments. Realizing the promise of the practice turn requires considering the full spectrum of its approaches. However, the field primarily draws on trajectories in international practice theory that emphasize reproduction and hierarchies. It should pay greater attention to practice approaches rooted in pragmatism and that emphasize contingency and change. We conclude with an outline of core challenges that the future agenda of international practice theory must tackle.
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors re-evaluate the paradigm concept by drawing a link to the recent literature on norm change that emphasizes the importance of practice and process, and highlight theoretical difficulties in using the paradigm concepts, as the relation of ideas to practical logics elides the distinctness of paradigmatic frameworks.
Abstract: Thomas Kuhn's concept of paradigm has long been a part of ordinary parlance in political science. Aside from its role in metatheoretical debate, scholars have enlisted the paradigm concept to explain policy change, particularly in the international political economy (IPE) literature. In this context, policy paradigms are defined primarily in ideational terms and with respect to a specific domain of policymaking. We argue that this stance overstates the ideational coherence of policymaking and runs a risk of reification. We re-evaluate the paradigm concept by drawing a link to the recent literature on norm change that emphasizes the importance of practice and process. This analysis highlights theoretical difficulties in using the paradigm concept, as the relation of ideas to practical logics elides the distinctness of paradigmatic frameworks. Without clear boundaries, paradigms lose much of their analytical purchase. While the paradigm concept initially proved useful in highlighting the role of ideas, it is time to recognize its limits in explaining stability and change in policymaking.

1 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
11 May 2020
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the way in which security sector reform (SSR) in Liberia has changed institutional practices of masculinity within the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and the Liberian National Police (LNP).
Abstract: Leseprobe ----- Abstract When it comes to understanding how peacebuilding affects violence-centred masculinities that emerge during civil wars, the literature on gender and post-conflict reconstruction reveals large gaps. To address this shortcoming, the article analyses the way in which security sector reform (SSR) in Liberia has changed institutional practices of masculinity within the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and the Liberian National Police (LNP). Based on interviews conducted during field research in Monrovia in 2017 and the analysis of policy documents, the author shows that, indeed, SSR has contributed to a change of violence-centred masculinities in both institutions. Women are now, to some extent, accepted as part of both organisations. Sometimes they are even regarded as crucial for mission success. Institutionally, citizen orientation has replaced the practice to abuse civilians and, in the case of the AFL, there are now procedures in place that allow for a prosecution of sexual violence. The Liberian case shows that for changes to occur, especially disarmament and demobilisation, vetting, and the development and reinforcement of new institutional cultures via training and legislation are essential. ----- Mannlichkeitsreformen? Uber den durch SSR hervorgerufenen Wandel gewaltzentrierter Mannlichkeiten in Liberias Sicherheitssektor Zusammenfassung In Bezug auf die Veranderung von im Burgerkrieg entstandenen gewaltzentrierten Mannlichkeiten durch Friedensbildungsmasnahmen weist die Forschungsliteratur zu Genderfragen und Peacebuilding nach bewaffneten Konflikten grose Leerstellen auf. Um diese Lucke zu schliesen, analysiert dieser Artikel den Einfluss von Sicherheitssektorreformen (SSR) auf den Wandel von institutionellen Mannlichkeitspraktiken in den Liberianischen Streitkraften (AFL) und der Liberianischen Polizei (LNP). Anhand einer Dokumentenanalyse und mit Hilfe von Interviews, die als Teil einer Feldforschung in Monrovia im Jahr 2017 gefuhrt wurden, wird gezeigt, dass SSR tatsachlich zu einem Wandel gewaltzentrierter Mannlichkeiten in beiden Institutionen beigetragen haben. Frauen werden nun, zumindest teilweise, als Mitglieder beider Institutionen akzeptiert und im Falle der LNP sogar als relevant fur den Erfolg von Einsatzen angesehen. Auf institutioneller Ebene hat Burger/-innenorientierung die vormalige Praktik von Menschenrechtsverletzungen an Zivilist/-innen ersetzt, und im Falle der AFL gibt es nun festgelegte Vorgehensweisen, die die Verfolgung von sexualisierter Gewalt erlauben. Der Fall Liberias zeigt, dass insbesondere Entwaffnung und Demobilisierung, Sicherheitsuberprufungen (vetting) sowie die Entwicklung und Verfestigung neuer Organisationskulturen durch Training und entsprechende Gesetze zentral sind, um Wandel hervorzurufen. ----- Bibliographie: Quest, Hendrik: Reforming Masculinity? The SSR-Induced Change of Violence-Centred Masculinities in the Liberian Security Sector, Femina Politica – Zeitschrift fur feministische Politikwissenschaft, 1-2020, S. 39-54. https://doi.org/10.3224/feminapolitica.v29i1.04

1 citations

01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: A felt, sensed, and experiential notion of the security/insecurity dichotomy as a new way to think about global security (studies) could transform the shape of a number of research programs in security studies.
Abstract: This article draws on two decades of work in feminist security studies, which has argued that gender is necessary, conceptually, for understanding the concepts of war and security; important, empirically, for analyzing causes and predicting outcomes in the field of security; and essential to finding solutions to insecurity in global politics. The work of feminist security studies suggests that one of the most persistent features of the global political arena is gender hierarchy, which plays a role in defining and distributing security. The argument in this article moves from talking about the security of gender to discussing the gendered sources of insecurity across global politics. It then builds on existing work in Feminist Security Studies to suggest a felt, sensed, and experiential notion of the security/insecurity dichotomy as a new way to think about global security (studies). A (feminist) view of “security as felt” could transform the shape of a number of research programs in security studies.

1 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the contribution of International Practice Theory (IPT) scholars to European studies to assess the added value of this research agenda and its potential to become a trading zone where IR and ES/AS scholars can advance understanding of how the local and the global connect.
Abstract: Abstract The so-called practice turn in International Relations (IR) has established a new paradigm that puts practitioners' quotidian doings front and centre of IR theorizing. It is proving to be an influential development also for area studies (AS) that share much of IR's scholarship and objects of study. This is certainly the case for European studies (ES) where the works of International Practice Theory (IPT) scholars has greatly contributed to raise attention to situated, mundane, and everyday practices of EU institutions. This article reviews the contribution of IPT scholars to ES to assess the added value of this research agenda and its potential to become a ‘trading zone’ where IR and ES/AS scholars can advance understanding of how the local and the global connect. It also identifies two challenges that have not been adequately addressed in the extant literature: (1) finding ways to theorize and empirically observe the transition from the level of situated practices to EU-wide doings (generalization challenge); and (2) assessing the exact role of interaction in structuring and transforming both the global and the local (challenge of relationism). The article ends by calling for a global practice theory as a way to tackle these two challenges.

1 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2022

1 citations

References
More filters
Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: Identity in practice, modes of belonging, participation and non-participation, and learning communities: a guide to understanding identity in practice.
Abstract: This book presents a theory of learning that starts with the assumption that engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which we get to know what we know and by which we become who we are. The primary unit of analysis of this process is neither the individual nor social institutions, but the informal 'communities of practice' that people form as they pursue shared enterprises over time. To give a social account of learning, the theory explores in a systematic way the intersection of issues of community, social practice, meaning, and identity. The result is a broad framework for thinking about learning as a process of social participation. This ambitious but thoroughly accessible framework has relevance for the practitioner as well as the theoretician, presented with all the breadth, depth, and rigor necessary to address such a complex and yet profoundly human topic.

30,397 citations

Book
01 Jan 2005
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.
Abstract: Introduction: How to Resume the Task of Tracing Associations PART I: HOW TO DEPLOY CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE SOCIAL WORLD 1 Learning to Feed from Controversies 2 First Source of Uncertainty: No Group, Only Group Formation 3 Second Source of Uncertainty: Action is Overtaken 4 Third Source of Uncertainty: Objects Too Have Agency 5 Fourth Source of Uncertainty: Matters of Fact vs Matters of Concern 6 Fifth Source of Uncertainty: Writing Down Risky Accounts 7 On the Difficulty of Being an ANT - An Interlude in Form of a Dialog PART II: HOW TO RENDER ASSOCIATIONS TRACEABLE AGAIN 8 Why is it So Difficult to Trace the Social? 9 How to Keep the Social Flat 10 First Move: Localizing the Global 11 Second Move: Redistributing the Local 12 Third Move: Connecting Sites 13 Conclusion: From Society to Collective - Can the Social be Reassembled?

9,680 citations

Book
01 Jan 1975
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of the concept of culture on the concepts of man and the evolution of mind in Bali has been discussed in the context of an interpretive theory of culture.
Abstract: Part I * Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture Part II * The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man * The Growth of Culture and the Evolution of Mind Part III * Religion As a Cultural System * Ethos, World View, and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols * Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example * Internal Conversion in Contemporary Bali Part IV * Ideology As a Cultural System * After the Revolution: The Fate of Nationalism in the New States * The Integrative Revolution: Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics in the New States * The Politics of Meaning * Politics Past, Politics Present: Some Notes on the Uses of Anthropology in Understanding the New States PART V * The Cerebral Savage: On the Work of Claude Lvi-Strauss * Person, Time, and Conduct in Bali * Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight

9,103 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The main characteristics of practice theory, a type of social theory which has been sketched by such authors as Bourdieu, Giddens, Taylor, late Foucault and others, are discussed in this paper.
Abstract: This article works out the main characteristics of `practice theory', a type of social theory which has been sketched by such authors as Bourdieu, Giddens, Taylor, late Foucault and others. Practice theory is presented as a conceptual alternative to other forms of social and cultural theory, above all to culturalist mentalism, textualism and intersubjectivism. The article shows how practice theory and the three other cultural-theoretical vocabularies differ in their localization of the social and in their conceptualization of the body, mind, things, knowledge, discourse, structure/process and the agent.

4,669 citations

Trending Questions (1)
HASLAM-SCHAFER-BEAUDET-2021 Introduction-to-International-Development Approaches-Actors-Issues-and-Practices.

The provided paper is titled "The Play of International Practice" and it discusses the core claims and research agenda of international practice theory in International Relations. It does not provide information about the paper "HASLAM-SCHAFER-BEAUDET-2021 Introduction-to-International-Development Approaches-Actors-Issues-and-Practices."