Praxistheorien und Normen­forschung in den Internationalen Beziehungen: Zum Beitrag der pragmatischen Soziologie

Abstract

The introduction of practice theories into International Relations (IR) promises new pathways to the study of world politics. This paper discusses how praxeological approaches can inform current debates in IR norm research. It introduces three specific approaches from the family of practice theory and their potential to enrich norm research: (1) Pierre Bourdieu’s nomos, (2) communities of legal practice and (3) the pragmatic sociology of Luc Boltanski. The paper argues that while indeed offering alternative ways for thinking about normativity in world politics, the former approaches perpetuate a structural bias as it has increasingly been criticized in IR norm research. In contrast, the pragmatic sociology offers an innovative approach situated at the interface of structure and agency. The paper concludes that pragmatic sociology in particular can further the already productive debates on norm contestation in IR by using situations of controversy as their analytical starting point.