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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
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29 Apr 2020

255 citations


Additional excerpts

  • ...146 Bueger & Gadinger 2015....

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  • ...325 Adler & Pouliott, 2011; Bueger & Gadinger 2015....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: 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.

166 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the multiple synergies between international practice theory and diplomatic studies and suggest what a practice theory of diplomacy may look like, discussing a variety of existing works through their common objective to explain the constitution of world politics in and through practice.
Abstract: This introductory article explores the multiple synergies between international practice theory and diplomatic studies. The timing for this cross-fertilizing exchange could not be better, as the study of diplomacy enters a phase of theorization while practice scholars look to confront the approach to new empirical and analytical challenges. The article first defines diplomacy as a historically and culturally contingent bundle of practices that are analytically alike in their claim to represent a given polity to the outside world. Then the key analytical wagers that practice theory makes are introduced, and debates currently raging in the discipline are briefly reviewed. Next, it is suggested what a practice theory of diplomacy may look like, discussing a variety of existing works through their common objective to explain the constitution of world politics in and through practice. Finally, a few research avenues to foster the dialogue between diplomatic studies and practice theory are outlined, centered on...

156 citations


Cites background from "The Play of International Practice"

  • ...Others, however, warn against ‘the risk of falling back into a trivial, simplistic understanding of practice as synonymous to political action or “what practitioners do”’ (Bueger and Gadinger, 2015: 3)....

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01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: The authors examines power in its different dimensions in global governance and proposes a taxonomy that alerts scholars to the different kinds of power that are present in world politics and demonstrates how these different forms connect and intersect in global Governance in a range of different issue areas.
Abstract: This edited volume examines power in its different dimensions in global governance. Scholars tend to underestimate the importance of power in international relations because of a failure to see its multiple forms. To expand the conceptual aperture, this book presents and employs a taxonomy that alerts scholars to the different kinds of power that are present in world politics. A team of international scholars demonstrates how these different forms connect and intersect in global governance in a range of different issue areas. Bringing together a variety of theoretical perspectives, this volume invites scholars to reconsider their conceptualization of power inworld politics and how such amove can enliven and enrich their understanding of global governance.

155 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that attention to three issues, namely affect, space and time, holds promise to further develop micropolitical perspectives on and in International Relations, particularly on issues of power, identity and change.
Abstract: This article posits empirical and political reasons for recent ‘micro-moves’ in several contemporary debates, and seeks to further develop them in future International Relations studies. As evidenced by growing trends in studies of practices, emotions and the everyday, there is continuing broad dissatisfaction with grand or structural theory’s value without ‘going down’ to ‘lower levels’ of analysis where structures are enacted and contested. We suggest that empirics of the last 15 years — including the war on terror and the Arab Spring — have pushed scholars into increasingly micropolitical positions and analytical frameworks. Drawing upon insights from Gilles Deleuze, William Connolly and Henri Lefebvre, among others, we argue that attention to three issues — affect, space and time — hold promise to further develop micropolitical perspectives on and in International Relations, particularly on issues of power, identity and change. The article offers empirical illustrations of the analytical purchase of t...

132 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1995

382 citations

Book
01 Jan 1993

368 citations


Additional excerpts

  • ...Connecting “practice,” “acting,” and “knowing” implies understanding knowledge as “knowing from within” (Shotter 1993:7)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The study of practices has a long theoretical history and draws on a wide range of methods as discussed by the authors, which is the background for the five articles presented in this special issue by explaining its background and providing one narrative of the theoretical background on which both its editors and the authors of its articles, in one way or another, draw and to which the latter make explicit or implicit reference.
Abstract: The study of practices has a long theoretical history and draws on a wide range of methods. This introductory essay sets the stage for the five articles presented in this Special Issue by explaining its background and providing one narrative of the theoretical background on which both its editors and the authors of its articles, in one way or another, draw and to which the latter make explicit or implicit reference.

349 citations


"The Play of International Practice" refers background in this paper

  • ...…transcendence of the division between such levels, such as that we are able to understand practice as taking place simultaneously both locally and globally, being both unique and culturally shared, ‘here and now’ as well as historically constituted and path-dependent” (Miettinen et al. 2009:1310)....

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  • ...Practice theory hence aims at allowing “the transcendence of the division between such levels, such as that we are able to understand practice as taking place simultaneously both locally and globally, being both unique and culturally shared, ‘here and now’ as well as historically constituted and path-dependent” (Miettinen et al. 2009:1310). The question of scale has driven some substantial empirical research on how scales are made. Authors including Tsing (2005) or Latour (2005) have shown how actors combine heterogeneous elements to make the global and universal....

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  • ...Miettinen et al. (2009) provide a careful reminder that the practice turn was always primarily motivated by empirical concerns....

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Book ChapterDOI
20 Jun 2005
TL;DR: The question of whether there is some sort of hierarchy among cultural practices, and whether and how some cultural practices organize, anchor, or constrain others, was raised by.
Abstract: Recent conceptions of culture as ‘practice’ have made great headway (see Williams 1973; Ortner 1984; Greenstone 1993; Biernacki 1995). But they have also brought new obscurities in their wake. Most important among these is the question of whether there is some sort of hierarchy among cultural practices, and whether and how some cultural practices organize, anchor, or constrain others.

339 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare the conceptualizations of the realm of the material or non-cultural in different versions of 20th-century cultural theory and propose a post-Wittgensteinian theory of social practices.
Abstract: The article compares the conceptualizations of the realm of the material or non-cultural in different versions of 20th-century cultural theory. It distinguishes between three phases of historical development: First, the classical sociology of knowledge-in the works of Mannheim and late Durkheim-understands the material as a separate realm of social structures, which acts as the foundation for the realm of symbolic orders. The instabilities of this theoretical option of a materialist-culturalist double are resolved in radical culturalism, which appears in different versions in (post-)structuralism, phenomenology, constructivism etc. and which interprets the non-cultural as objects of knowledge or symbolic objects. The problematic neo-Kantian subject-object-distinction in these approaches is the target of a third, novel culturalist option of dealing with material entities: In the work of Bruno Latour, these entities are rehabilitated as artefacts or things that are necessary, effective components of social practices or networks. Latour's approach should be embedded in the wider framework of a post-Wittgensteinian theory of social practices as it is formulated above all by Theodore Schatzki.

335 citations

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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."