CIAO DATE: 11/03

The State of International Relations Research and Perspectives in Germany

Gunther Hellmann, editor
August 2003

The Dialogical Turn: Constructivist Bridges and their Future by Antje Wiener

Abstract

This contribution raises the question about the value-added of constructivist research for theory building in international relations theory (IR). It characterizes the value-added as the focus on the social that followed constructivists’ communications over social ontologies, illustrated with reference to the role of norms in IR. It is argued that following different basic assumptions which range from the conceptualization of norms as constitutive and regulative for behavior, on the one hand, to the mutual construction of norms and social practices, on the other, it is possible to demonstrate that constructivists have settled into two strands. Both are significantly distinct due to their respective transdisciplinary efforts in addressing the social. While one strand – dubbed the „compliance approach“ – follows a neo-Durkheimian structural understanding of social facts, the other – "societal approach" – works with a Giddensian reflexive understanding of social construction.