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CONSTRUCTIVISM

Social Construct - norms, ideas, values, interpretation, overlapping subjectivity (intersubjectivity),

a new observed fact wherein the challenge is labelling what it is, introducing a new idea with a certain
level of acceptance

Outline of the Chapter

Origins

 Late 19th century, along with the emergence of the field of sociology –
 Proponents: Durkheim – analysed a social fact, noted for his study about suicide, the value of
individualism in a highly civilized cities, and because of this high level of individualism, people
tend to commit suicide, the lower the social value, the higher the suicide rate. Weber –
protestant ethics, what is the cause of the rise of capitalism, the countries get richer when they
believe more on this protestant ethics
 1950s and 60s – Talcott Parsons introduced “political culture” in PS
 1980s- re-entry of explanations revolving around ideas, norms and culture
 Late 80s – End of Cold War, the term “constructivism” was introduced – was considered as a
behaviour, not just a part of culturalism
 Late 20th century to turn of the millennium – marked by thriving variety in constructivism, used
in analysing different occurrences such as the 9/11.

Core Features

 Constructivism highlights the role of interpretation in human action.


 “Constructivists base their arguments in contingency”
 Constructivist arguments can be deterministic, too.
 Reality is a social construct if we can make it, we can unmake it – results of the constructivist
approach can be earth-shaking, unconventional, given the diverse perspectives of different
people
 If the world is “a world of our making” though difficult we can reconstruct/redefine it.

Varieties of Constructivism

 Modern Constructivism – how much the world is socially constructed is something we can
document; offers a different narrative (construct) of an already scientifically analysed
phenomenon. There is an attempt to relate a certain event to a given scientific explanation,
finds and alternative event then relates it in a scientifically proven event and what would it
cause. I.e., counterfactuals: if this event never happened, would this event occur? If you remove
one explanatory variable, would this variable would take place?
 Post-Modern Constructivism (Interpretive) – connects substantive views of social construction
to an interpretivist epistemology; science itself is a clash among interpretative agendas. Involves
the usage of all your knowledge, relies on observable facts.
 Pp.90-91, structure of the four varieties of constructivism, Marsh and Stoker

Strains can be differentiated along the following dimensions:

 Epistemological (debates about how we acquire knowledge about the world)


 Methodological (methodological diversity: (not just) narrative process-tracing but sometimes in
a combination with large N-comparison, small-N, counterfactuals)
 Different social constructs (socialization – conventional output, persuasion – try to introduce
new ideas, bricolage – out of the observable ideas, finding the overlapping ideas, no sense of
reconciling highly contested ideas, explains why conflicts and clashes occur)

Exercise:

How will different approaches explain the conflictual nature of international politics?

 Why is there anarchy?


 Behavioralist: There is anarchy because of the highly territorial character of states.
 Institutionalist: There is anarchy because of violations of certain formal structures (old
institutionalist)/formal or informal rules (new institutionalist) of states.
 Rational choice theorists: There is anarchy because states pursue their selfish nationalistic
interests
 Constructivist: “Anarchy is what states make of it” Rules and identities are social constructs

Why did the US attack Iraq?

 Behavioralist’s explanation: It was the US response to the 9/11 attacks, any aggrieved state is
likely react in the same manner. (is this measurable?)
 Institutionalist’s explanation: This US is a strong state/ a superpower that acts as the world
police.
 Rational Choice theorists’s explanation: The US was after the oil reserves in Iraq.
 Constructivists’s explanation: The US declared war against terror, it was a pre-emptive attack.

“interpretation and meaning matters for political action.”

-“constitutive power: of constructivist…

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