29 - 31 March 2023
Practice theorizing has become one of the most widely discussed developments in the study of world politics (Adler and Pouliot 2011; Drieschova et al. 2022). While practice theory is a broad and heterogenous family, the advent of this interdisciplinary research direction has given scholars from across the world new inspiration to probe new frameworks and methodologies and to draw attention to the often overlooked everyday actions of world politics that are currently being explored in a broad variety of fields (Bueger and Gadinger 2018). In the course of its development in IR, the practice turn itself is subject to fundamental transformation: If the practice accounts of Pierre Bourdieu, Etienne Wenger and Bruno Latour were particularly influential in the first wave of studies, practice theorizing today stands for broader cross disciplinary conversations with social theory, science and technology studies, organization studies, narratology and anthropology. Practice theorizing has become one of the most widely discussed developments in the study of world politics (Adler and Pouliot 2011; Drieschova et al. 2022). While practice theory is a broad and heterogenous family, the advent of this interdisciplinary research direction has given scholars from across the world new inspiration to probe new frameworks and methodologies and to draw attention to the often overlooked everyday actions of world politics that are currently being explored in a broad variety of fields (Bueger and Gadinger 2018). In the course of its development in IR, the practice turn itself is subject to fundamental transformation: If the practice accounts of Pierre Bourdieu, Etienne Wenger and Bruno Latour were particularly influential in the first wave of studies, practice theorizing today stands for broader cross disciplinary conversations with social theory, science and technology studies, organization studies, narratology and anthropology.
Output of the project
The first aim of the project is to publish an edited volume (hopefully with Cambridge/Oxford UP), in which the contributions of the authors’ workshop represent the broad spectrum of the critical conversation. A second aim will be to collect a spectrum of contributions as exemplary voices and organizing a forum (edited by Gadinger and Kessler) in one of the IR journals such as “International Theory”. The ongoing results of the project will be presented at the EISA conference (Potsdam, 2023) as part of the section “International Practices”, which provides a good opportunity for continuing the conversation.
Adler, Emanuel and Vincent Pouliot (eds) (2011). International Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bueger, Christian and Frank Gadinger (2018). International Practice Theory. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan.
Drieschova, Alena, Christian Bueger and Ted Hopf (eds.) (2022). Conceptualizing International Practices. Directions for the Practice Turn in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
