PSCI 3601 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Operation N, Metatheory, Tacit Knowledge
10 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Constructivism
Lecture 6
• The social construction of reality” (Berger and Luckmann)
• Sociological approach to international relations (inspired by Hegel, Marx, Durkheim,
Weber, Giddens, Habermas, etc.)
• Meta-theory rather than substantive IR theory: focus on meanings, ideas, norms,
communication, culture, practices
• The English School: a precursor to constructivism
The “agent-structure debate” in IR theory:
- agents (states) shape structure and are shaped by it
- the structure of the int’l system is material and ideational
- structure constrains and enables action
• N. Onuf (1989), A. Wendt (1992): “constructivism”
• Context: disciplinary debate in IR; end of the Cold War
• Different types of constructivism
Actors and practices
• State and non state actors
• Practices constitute make actors and social structures
• Example: “war makes states”… and the states system but (diplomacy also “makes states)
Human Nature:
• No essence, but different models of human agency
The social structure of international politics
(1) Anarchy is what states make of it (Wendt)
• Anarchy does not inherently imply selfish interests.
• Anarchy has no reality outside the practices that sustain it.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
