1st Edition
Tactical Constructivism, Method, and International Relations
This is a book on methods, how scholars embody them and how working within, from or against Constructivism has shaped that use and embodiment.
A vibrant cross-section of contributors write of interdisciplinary encounters, first interactions with the ‘discipline’ of International Relations, discuss engagements in different techniques and tactics, and of pursuing different methods ranging from ethnographic to computer simulations, from sociology to philosophy and history. Presenting a range of voices, many constructivist, some outside and even critical of Constructivism, the volume shows methods as useful tools for approaching research and political positions in International Relations, while also containing contingent, inexact, unexpected, and even surprising qualities for opening further research. It gives a rich account of how the discipline was transformed in the 1990s and early 2000s, and how this shaped careers, positions and interactions.
It will be of interest to both students and scholars of methods and theory in International Relations and global politics.
Introduction
Brent J. Steele, Harry D. Gould, and Oliver Kessler
Part I: Interpreting Constructivism
1. Third Generation Constructivism: Between Tactics and Strategy
Piki Ish-Shalom
2. A Tactical Guide to Conceptual Analysis
Hannes Peltonen
3. Social Constructivism and Actor-Network Theory: Bridging the Divide
Alexander D. Barder
4. Tactics of a Constructivist Pedagogy
Jamie Frueh and Jeremy Youde
Part II: Discourse, Interpretation and Methods
5. Narrative Analysis as a Tactical Bridge
Jelena Subotic
6. Identities as Tactics: Exposing Relational Foreign Policy as Story
Amy Skonieczny
7. Constructivism, Computational Social-Relational Methods, and Multiple Correspondence Analysis David M. McCourt
Part III: Constructivism and the Interpretive Methods of the Self
8. When Home is Part of the Field: Experiencing Uncanniness of Home in Field Conversations
Xymena Kurowska
9. A Reflexivity that Works for Us: Ethics Beyond Norms
Jack Amoreux
10. Feminist Curiosity as Method: On (Limits to) Tactical Uses of Constructivism
Anne-Marie D’Aoust
11. Researching within the Instability of Meaning: Decolonial Voices and Practices
Marcos Scauso
12. Constructing a Scholar on the Road Less Travelled
deRaismes Combes
13. Tactics All The Way Down: The Politics of Exteriority in Constructivism
Brent J. Steele
Part IV: Construction and the Interpretation of History and Texts
14. How To Do (Differing) Things With Words: World-Making and (or) Meaning-Making
Harry D. Gould
15. Stubbornly Stumbling into Making History: Constructivism and Historical International Relations
Halvard Leira and Benjamin de Carvalho
Biography
Brent J. Steele is Francis D. Wormuth Presidential Chair and Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah, USA.
Harry D. Gould is Associate Professor of International Relations at Florida International University, USA.
Oliver Kessler is Associate Professor at the University of Erfurt, Germany.
