scholarly journals The limits of practice: why realism can complement IR’s practice turn

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Joseph ◽  
Milja Kurki
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Knee Jerk ◽  
Practice Turn

This paper argues that the current calls for a practice turn in International Relations (IR) while positive in many respects, are problematic and potentially limiting because they are premised on a confused understanding of the role of philosophy and realist philosophy in particular and a restricted view of the role of sociological investigation. This arises from the problematic tendency to lapse into advocacy of an anti-realist philosophical and sociological imagination. We suggest that the problems that practice theorists point to should lead not to knee-jerk anti-realism but rather can motivate a reinvigorated conversation with realism. This entails revisiting the role of philosophy, realism, and sociology in the study of practices. We argue that far from being antithetical to practice theory, a reconsideration of realist philosophy helps make sense of the role of practice and provides those advocating practice theory with better tools to deal with the challenges which motivated the development of these theoretical stances. Reconsidering realism entails, however, a reconsideration of a wider social ontology within which practice takes place, and openness to the role of philosophical and theoretical abstractions in teasing out the role of practice.

scholarly journals Institutional rhythms: Combining practice theory and rhythmanalysis to conceptualise processes of institutionalisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 922-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Blue
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Practice Turn ◽  
Theories Of Practice ◽  
Temporal Organisation

The practice turn in social theory has renewed interest in conceptualising the temporal organisation of social life as a way of explaining contemporary patterns of living and consuming. As a result, the interest to develop analyses of time in both practice theories and practice theory-based empirical research is increasing. Practice theorists draw on theories of time and ideas about temporal rhythms to explain how practices are organised in everyday life. To date, they have studied how temporal experiences matter for the coordination of daily life, how temporal landscapes matter for issues of societal synchronisation, and how timespace/s matter for the organisation of human activity. While several studies refer to, draw on, and position themselves in relation to ideas about temporal rhythms, those working with theories of practice have yet to fully utilise the potential of Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis for explaining the constitution of, and more specifically, changes within, social life. I argue that rhythmanalysis can be effectively combined with practice theory to better articulate the ways in which practices become connected through what I describe as processes of institutionalisation. I argue that this combination requires repositioning the role of time in theories of practice as neither experience, nor as landscape, but, building on Schatzki’s work on The Timespace of Human Activity, as practice itself. Drawing on Lefebvre’s concepts of arrhythmia and eurhythmia, and developing Parkes and Thrift’s notion of entrainment, I illustrate how institutional rhythms, as self-organising, open, spatiotemporal practices emerge, endure, and evolve in ways that matter for both socio-temporal landscapes and temporal experiences.

scholarly journals A pragmatic methodology for studying international practices

2019 ◽  
pp. 175508821987917
Author(s):  
Sasikumar S Sundaram ◽  
Vineet Thakur
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Science Inquiry ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Practice Turn

Practice turn marks an important advancement in International Relations theorizing. In challenging abstract meta-theoretical debates, practice theorizing in International Relations aims to get close to the lifeworld(s) of the actual practitioners of politics. Scholars from different positions such as constructivism, critical theory, and post-structuralism have critically interrogated the analytical framework of practices in international politics. Building upon these works, we are concerned with a question of how to examine the context of international practices that unfolds in multiple ways in practitioners’ performances. Our central thesis is that a distinct pragmatic methodology offers an opportunity to keep with the practice turn and avoid the problematic foundational moves of mainstream practice theorizing. This involves foregrounding three interrelated processes in examining practices: the role of exceptions in the normal stream of performances, normative uptake of the analysts, and the semantic field that actors navigate in political performances. We argue that this methodology is predicated on its usefulness to interpret practices through reflective social-science inquiry.

scholarly journals The art of aiming at a moving target: A critique of Lechner and Frost’s Practice Theory and International Relations

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
NORA STAPPERT
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Considerable Degree ◽  
Moving Target ◽  
Practice Turn ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
Epistemological Sophistication

Abstract:How can we account for the normative dimension of international practices? Silviya Lechner and Mervyn Frost’s Practice Theory and International Relations answers this question by proposing, with a considerable degree of epistemological sophistication, what the authors call ‘normative descriptivism’, which they combine with a focus on ‘macro practices’. In this contribution, I start by examining the authors’ engagement with IR’s practice turn, and the insights this engagement may offer on the underlying objective of their approach. I then turn to Lechner and Frost’s decision to eclipse history. The contribution concludes by using the evolution of international law as a cursory illustration of the types of analyses Lechner and Frost’s approach would lead to. It thereby emphasises potential challenges inherent in the authors’ combination of internalism as rooted in individual self-consciousness and a focus on ‘macro practices’, including the possibility that it might limit the potential to critically question the standard that becomes identified as universal.

Stepping out of the social world: A lonely call for more philosophy in the practice turn

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 212-219
Author(s):  
AMY SKONIECZNY
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Social World ◽  
Philosophical Perspective ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Turn ◽  
Sociological Approaches ◽  
Empirical Methodology

Abstract:Practice Theory and International Relations will challenge all you’ve come to know about the practice turn in international relations. It will ask you to question how you define practices and call for more precision. It will challenge your starting point of ground-up actions in everyday life and look at practices from above. It will push you to rethink your empirical methodology and call out sociological approaches as misconceived. And yes, it will ask you to reread Hegel and bring philosophy back in to your practice theorising. In short, it will make a lonely, and for many, unwanted call for a U-turn in the field. In this review, I’ll take up this call for a U-turn back to philosophical foundations, and ask what is gained and what is lost in rethinking practice theory from a philosophical perspective.

Gendering the practice turn in diplomacy

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 140-165
Author(s):  
Catriona Standfield
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Practice Turn ◽  
And Gender ◽  
New Research ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Thinking Tools

International Relations has developed an exciting new research agenda on diplomatic practice, drawing largely on the theories of Pierre Bourdieu. However, it largely ignores Bourdieu’s theory of patriarchy, as well as extensive feminist Bourdieusian analysis. These are analytical tools that can be used to understand how diplomacy reproduces itself as a masculinized field. They are ‘practice theory’ as well and should be incorporated into our research on diplomatic practice. My aims here are to recover feminist practice theory for a diplomatic studies audience and to indicate how we can develop an interdisciplinary research agenda on gender and diplomacy. The first part of the article provides an overview of practice theory in diplomatic studies and discusses Bourdieu’s overlooked contributions regarding gender. I then use Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ of field, habitus and practice to examine diplomacy and gender using examples drawn from the literature, as well as from some primary sources. Throughout, I show how feminist sociologists have developed his ideas to create sophisticated approaches to studying the persistence of patriarchy. This does not capture all the ways in which diplomacy is gendered, but these tools reveal the limitations in our current understanding of diplomatic practices. I conclude with suggestions for future interdisciplinary research that takes gender seriously.

scholarly journals Affect, practice, and change: Dancing world politics at the Congress of Vienna

2020 ◽  
pp. 001083672095446
Author(s):  
Felix Rösch
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
External Conditions

How do practices change? To approach this in practice theory (PT) is a widely debated question. This article brings PT in conversation with the study of emotions in International Relations by considering the role of affect in practice changes. For it is affect that permeates the placiotemporal and bodily constellations during practice performances, continuously provoking changes in and through practices. In initiating this conversation, this article adds to current PT literature by arguing that world political transformations not only find their origin in external conditions, identified as such through individual reflection, but also in affective dynamics of the everyday. To elaborate this more theoretical argument, this article evolves against the empirical backdrop of dancing as an everyday international practice at the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815). Affect that permeated dances in Vienna not only substantiated changes in this practice but, with the waltz replacing the minuet as the preferred dance among international political decision-makers, also changes through it occurred. While the minuet embodied collective sentiments of a transboundary European elite, the waltz helped to further national imaginations of world politics.

Towards a ‘theory of the gap’: Addressing the relationship between practice and theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-182
Author(s):  
MAREN HOFIUS
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Abductive Reasoning ◽  
Philosophical Investigation ◽  
Practice Turn ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract:In their ground-breaking philosophical investigation of the ‘practice turn’ Lechner and Frost prompt a standpoint debate in international relations theory, which touches upon the relationship between practice theory and its subject matter. Lechner and Frost decidedly opt for an internal standpoint, which promises to understand a social practice in terms of the meaning-in-use of its participants. This article argues that the internalist promise will ultimately remain unfulfilled, however, for the aim of collapsing the distinction between the ‘language of action’ and ‘language of observation’ is epistemologically impossible. Taking such an ‘internal’ perspective not only underestimates the problem of the double hermeneutic. It also disregards the gap between theory and practice. Any social enquiry that fails to acknowledge this gap inevitably becomes externalist, for it misses to reflect on its own normative presuppositions. The way ahead is to address this gap reflexively by way of a triple hermeneutics that is bolstered by abductive reasoning.

Michael Kelly, Hilary Footitt, Myriam Salama-Carr (eds.): The Palgrave Handbook of Languages and Conflict

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ľubomír Zvada
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Speakers Of Other Languages ◽  
War And Conflict ◽  
Almost All

This Handbook maps the contours of an exciting and burgeoning interdisciplinary field concerned with the role of language and languages in situations of conflict. It explores conceptual approaches, sources of information that are available, and the institutions and actors that mediate language encounters. It examines case studies of the role that languages have played in specific conflicts, from colonial times through to the Middle East and Africa today. The contributors provide vibrant evidence to challenge the monolingual assumptions that have affected traditional views of war and conflict. They show that languages are woven into every aspect of the making of war and peace, and demonstrate how language shapes public policy and military strategy, setting frameworks and expectations. The Handbook's 22 chapters powerfully illustrate how the encounter between languages is integral to almost all conflicts, to every phase of military operations and to the lived experiences of those on the ground, who meet, work and fight with speakers of other languages. This comprehensive work will appeal to scholars from across the disciplines of linguistics, translation studies, history, and international relations; and provide fresh insights for a broad range of practitioners interested in understanding the role and implications of foreign languages in war.

Contemporary Machiavellian theses "The strategy of the role of the absurd state as a model"

2020 ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Ali Hussein Hameed ◽  
Saif Hayder AL.Husainy
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Information Revolution ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Area Of Influence ◽  
The Right ◽  
Modern Technologies

In the anarchism that governs the nature and patterns of international relations characterized by instability and uncertainty in light of several changes, as well as the information revolution and the resulting developments and qualitative breakthroughs in the field of scientific and advanced technological knowledge and modern technologies.  All of these variables pushed toward the information flow and flow tremendously, so rationality became an indispensable matter for the decision maker as he faces these developments and changes. There must be awareness and rationality in any activity or behavior because it includes choosing the best alternative and making the right decision and selecting the information accurately and mental processing Through a mental system based on objectivity, methodology, and accumulated experience away from idealism and imagination, where irrationality and anarchy are a reflection of the fragility of the decision-maker, his lack of awareness of the subject matter, his irresponsibility, and recklessness that inevitably leads to failure by wasting time and Effort and potential. The topic acquires its importance from a search in the strategies of the frivolous state and its characteristics with the ability to influence the regional, and what it revealed is a turning point in how to adapt from the variables and employ them to their advantage and try to prove their existence. Thus, the problem comes in the form of a question about the possibility of the frivolous state in light of the context of various regional and international events and trends. The answer to this question stems from the main hypothesis that (the aim which the frustrating state seeks to prove is that it finds itself compelled to choose several strategies that start from the nature of its characteristics and the goals that aim at it, which are centered in the circle of its interests in the field of its struggle for the sake of its survival and area of influence).

THE USE OF THE TRANSLATION METHOD IN MASTERING THE TERMS

2019 ◽  
pp. 87-95
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
English Language ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
General Classification ◽  
Optimal Methods ◽  
Foreign Companies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Problems Of Translation

The article is devoted to the role of Tourism terminology in linguistics and the issue of general classification, peculiarities in the expression and translation of terms related to tourism in English into Uzbek and Russian, as well as the choice of the most optimal methods for translating terms in accordance with the requirements of this professional sphere. The terminology of the English language tourism is distinguished by its brightness, versatility. Tourism terms are formed under the influence of a generalized lexical layer of language and perform a specific functional function.Tourism terms are formed through the affixation method (prefixation, suffixation, circumphixation) and get rich through the process.The terminology of English Tourism is distinguished by its content and structural features, forming a part of the language vocabulary from the linguistic point of view. Texts in the field of Tourism take into their composition concepts of Tourism and interpret them in their content. They will be mainly in the form of advertising, as well as enlighten information about a particular region or place, create informational precedents and ensure their manifestation in the social cultural presence. The relevance of the study of the problems of translation of terms in the field of tourism has been investigated, mainly due to the development of international relations, expansion of cooperation between local and foreign companies, as well as the increase in this area of communication.

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