Enacting meaning-in-use: Qualitative research on norms and international relations

Review of International Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 175-193

  Wiener, Aantje ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 67749114250     PISSN: 02602105     EISSN: 14699044     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0260210509008377     Document Type: Article

References (100)

1. The term 'international realm' is used instead of 'world politics' so as to offer a terminology which works as a reference frame for international lawyers and political scientists alike.
2. For example constitutionalists struggle with multi- or internationality whilst international relations scholars struggle with formal validity in the anarchic environment of international politics.
3. Deidre Curtin, 'Betwixt and Between: Democracy and Transparency in the Governance of the European Union', in J. A. Winter, D. M. Curtin, A. E. Kellerman and B. de Witte (eds), Reforming the Treaty on European Union - The Legal Debate (The Hague/Boston/London: Kluwer Law International, 1996), pp. 95-121.
4. Compare the legalisation literature, the constitutionalisation literature and the constructivist literature on norms in international relations more generally (detailed references in the following sections). K. W. Abbott et al., 'The Concept of Legalization', International Organization, 54:3 (2000), pp. 401-19.
5. Elvira Rosert and Sonja Schirmbeck, 'Zur Erosion internationaler Normen: Nukleares Tabu und Folterverbot', Nachwuchstagung der Sektion Internationale Politik der DVPW, 26-28 May 2006, Arnoldshain.
6. T. Risse, ' "Let's Argue!"Communicative Action in World Politics', International Organization 54:1 (2000), pp. 1-39.
7. Stephen C. Ropp and Kathryn Sikkink (eds), The Power of Human Rights. International Norms and Domestic Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
8. Jutta Weldes and Diana Saco, 'Making State Action Possible: The United States and the Discursive Construction of "The Cuban Problem", 1960-1994', Millennium, 25:2 (1996), pp. 361-95.
9. Ruth Wodak, Disorders of discourse (London: Longman, 1996). Stefan Titscher, Michael Meyer, Ruth Wodak and Eva Vetter, Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis (London: Sage Publishing, 2005). Jan Kruse, Seminar-Reader: Introduction to Qualitative Interview Research, unpublished manuscript (Freiburg: University of Freiburg, 2007).
10. This article defines constitutionalism as an academic approach which entails two goals. On the one hand, it sets parameters for studying the process of constitutionalisation empirically. On the other hand, it provides a framework for normative discussion about the role and purpose of a constitution as a democratically conceived instrument that seeks to keep politics at bay, see Snyder 1990; Preuss 1994; Weiler 1999).
11. James Tully, Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
12. Jeffrey T. Checkel, 'Why Comply? Social Norms Learning and European Identity Change', International Organization, 55:3 (2001), pp. 553-88.
13. Alastair Iain Johnston, 'Treating International Institutions as Social Environments, International Studies Quarterly, 45:4 (2001), pp. 487-515.
14. Eric Wyler, 'From "State Crime"to Responsibility for "Serious Breaches of Obligations under Peremptory Norms of General International Law"?', European Journal of International Law, 13:5 (2002), pp. 1147-60.
15. Christian J. Tams, 'Do Serious Breaches Give Rise to Any Specific Obligations of the Responsible State?, European Journal of International Law, 13:5 (2002), pp. 1161-80.
16. Note that the expression to make meaning 'accountable' is derived from Harold Garfinkel's ethno-methodological approach to capture the indexicality of meanings by making it visible. Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967).
17. It is therefore not to be confounded with research on governance which conceptualises accountability as an organising principle of legitimate governance, in Mark Bovens, 'New Forms of Accountability and EU-Governance', Comparative European Politics, 5:1 (2007), pp. 104-20.
18. Sonja Puntscher-Riekmann, 'In Search of Lost Norms: Is Accountability the Solution to the Legitimacy Problems of the European Union?, Comparative European Politics, 5:1 (2007), pp. 121-37.
19. See, for example, Schutz 1932; Garfinkel 1967; Berger and Luckmann 1991; Doty 1993; Weldes and Saco 1996; and Milliken 1999.
20. This type of case study focuses on exploration as opposed to description or the investigation of explanatory theories. For the distinction, see Titscher et al. (2005, p. 44).
21. Anthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1984).
22. See Table 1, condition 1 below.
23. Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, 'International Norm Dynamics and Political Change', International Organization, 52:4 (1998), pp. 887-917.
24. Note that this conceptualisation is distinct from Max Weber's concept of 'affectional action' (Gerth and Mills 1946, p. 56).
25. Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967).
26. See for example, Roxanne L. Doty, 'Foreign Policy as Social Construction: A Post-Positivist Analysis of US Counterinsurgency Policy in the Philippines', International Studies Quarterly, 37:3 (1993), pp. 297-302;
27. Weldes and Saco, 'Making State Action Possible: The United States and the Discursive Construction of "The Cuban Problem", 1960-1994', Millennium, 25:2 (1996), pp. 361-95;
28. Milliken, 'The Study of Discourse in International Relations: A Critique of Research and Methods', European Journal of International Relations, 5:2 (1999), pp. 225-65;
29. Fierke, 'World or Worlds? The Analysis of Content and Discourse, Qualitative Methods, 2, Symposium: Discourse and Content Analysis, 1 (2004), pp. 36-9;
30. and Diez, 'Constructing the self and changing others: Reconsidering "normative power Europe"', Millennium-Journal of International Studies 33:3 (2005), pp. 613-36.
31. Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967).
32. Gerhard Hauck, Geschichte der soziologischen Theorie. Eine ideologiekritische Einführung (Rowohlt: Reinbeck bei Hamburg, 1984).
33. See Shapiro and Bonham 1977, p. 165; Weldes and Saco 1996, p. 369.
34. Jeffrey T. Checkel, 'Why Comply? Social Norms, Learning and European Identity Change', International Organization, 55:3 (2001).
35. See Kratochwil 1989; Weldes and Saco 1996; Reus-Smit 1997, 2003.
36. Monica Colombo, 'Reflexivity and Narratives in Action Research: A Discursive Approach', Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 4:2 (2003),
37. Robert Jackson, The Global Covenant. Human Conduct in a World of States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 [2000]), pp. 19-20.
38. Martha Finnemore and Stephen J. Toope, 'Alternatives to 'Legalization': Richer Views of Law and Politics', International Organization, 55:3 (2001), pp. 743-58.
39. Jutta Brunnée and Stephen J. Toope, 'International Law and Constructivism: Elements of an Interactional Theory of International Law', Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 39:1 (2001), pp. 19-74.
40. Brunnée and Toope, Legitimacy and Persuasion: The Hard Work of International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (in preparation).
41. Jutta Weldes, 'Bureaucratic Politics: A Critical Constructivist Assessment', Mershon International Studies Review, 42 (1998), pp. 2216-25.
42. Friedrich V. Kratochwil and John G. Ruggie, 'International Organization: A State of the Art on an Art of the State', International Organization, 40:4 (1986), pp. 753-75.
43. Peter Niesen and Benjamin Herborth (eds), Anarchie der kommunikativen Freiheit. Jürgen Habermas und die Theorie der internationalen Politik (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2007).
44. Charles Tilly, 'Reflections On the History of State-Making', in Charles Tilly (ed.), The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975), pp. 3-83.
45. The italics are used to stress the consideration of relations between different national entities and/or their representatives. This literal application of the term indicates the constitutive role of nations in the United Nations system of civilised nations; see, for example, Habermas (2004), p. 117. It stands in contrast with the term 'transnational' indicating a situation in which national boundaries are blurred.
46. Charles Tilly, 'Reflections On the History of State-Making', in Charles Tilly (ed.), The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975), pp. 3-83.
47. Charles Tilly, 'Two Callings of Social History', Theory and Society, 9:5 (1975), pp. 679-681 (special issue).
48. Uwe Puetter and Antje Wiener, 'Accommodating Normative Divergence in World Politics: European Foreign Policy Coordination', Journal of Common Market Studies, 2007, 45:5 (2007), pp. 1063-86.
49. Thomas Risse, ' "Let's Argue!"Communicative Action in World Politics', International Organization, 54:1 (2000), pp. 1-39.
50. Nicole Deitelhoff and Harald Müller, 'Theoretical Paradise - Empirically Lost? Arguing with Habermas', Review of International Studies, 31:1 (2005), pp. 167-80.
51. James G. March and Johan P. Olsen, Rediscovering Institutions. The Organizational Basis of Politics (New York: The Free Press, 1989).
52. M. Griffiths and T. O'Callaghan, T, International Relations. The Key Concepts (London: Routledge, 2003).
53. Whether or not such international conflict of meanings must necessarily be considered as a problem that requires solving through harmonisation, or, whether it might actually be used to establish routine procedures of contestation so as to enhance legitimacy remains to be addressed from a normative theoretical standpoint. The issue would lead beyond the limited space of this article. It is addressed elsewhere in some detail. Antje Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics: Contested Norms and International Encounters (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
54. Robert Jackson, The Global Covenant. Human Conduct in a World of States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 [2000]), pp. 19-20.
55. See Article 38 (1) c of the Statute of the International Court of Justice.
56. Friedrich V. Kratochwil, Rules, Norms, and Decisions. On the conditions of practical and legal reasoning in international relations and domestic affairs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
57. Kratochwil, Leaving Sovereignty Behind. An inquiry into the politics of post-modernity. Presentation at the Normative International Relations Speakers Series, University of Bath, 15 November 2007, European University Institute Florence, unpubl Ms.
58. For such a distinct assessment of accountability see for example Bovens (2007) and Puntscher-Riekman (2007), respectively.
59. Robert Jackson, The Global Covenant. Human Conduct in a World of States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 [2000]), pp. 19-20.
60. James Tully, Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
61. That is, '[m]eanings produced through a discourse "pre-exist their use in any one discursive practice"', or '[. . .] by any one individual. Discursive practices, in turn, are social acts, enabled by a discourse, through which some relevant aspect of the world is actively defined and constituted', Weldes and Saco (1996), pp. 343-4;
62. cf. Fiske (1987), p. 14; emphasis added by author.
63. See for example King, Keohane and Verba (1992);
64. Tarrow (1995), p. 473
65. and Lustick (1996), p. 616.
66. As Tarrow notes '[T]riangulation is particularly appropriate in cases in which quantitative data are partial and qualitative investigation is obstructed by political conditions' (Tarrow 1995, p. 473). My turn to triangulation reflects a lack of quantitative data - hence the invisible constitution of politics - and, the additional problem of generating data based on the qualitative method.
67. This approach follows the research design and experience documented in Schneider (2001).
68. Gary King, Robert O. Gary and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994).
69. Jutta Weldes and Diana Saco, 'Making State Action Possible: The United States and the Discursive Construction of 'The Cuban Problem', 1960-1994', Millennium, 25:2 (1996), pp. 361-95.
70. Hannelore Bublitz (ed.), Das Wuchern der Diskurse. Perspektiven der Diskursanalyse (Frankfurt/Main: Campus. 1999).
71. Jens Schneider, Deutsch Sein - Das Eigene, das Fremde und die Vergangenheit im Selbstbild des vereinten Deutschland (Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2001).
72. Anne Huffschmid, Diskursgerilla: Wortergreifung und Widersinn. Die Zapatistas im Spiegel der mexikanischen und internationalen Ö ffentlichkeit (Heidelberg: Synchron Publishers, 2004).
73. Typically, in this type of case study, interviewees will remain anonymous and interview evaluation proceeds on a strict anonymity basis that is, providing letter-coded reference only.
74. For this distinction of three different uses of language, see, for example, Irving M. Copi, Introduction to Logic (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1964),
75. cf. Donald Kalish, 'Review of 'Introduction to Logic' by Irving M Copi', The Journal of Symbolic Logic, 29:2 (1964), pp. 92-3.
76. See also the distinction of different types of speech acts as 'directive', 'assertive', 'commissive', and 'expressive' as well as a group of 'declaratives', in Jacqueline Nastri, Jorge Pena and Jeffrey T. Hancock, 'The Construction of Away Messages: A Speech Act Analysis', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11 (2006), pp. 1025-45.
77. See Holbrook, Krosnick, Carson Mitchell (2000), '[E]motive meaning' indicates attitudes and feelings associated with the use of a word, phrase, or sentence, in contrast with its literal significance. See, for example, Brandt's definition, '[T]o say a word has 'blind emotive meaning' is to say it has a dispositional capacity to arouse emotive effects of substantial order, in certain circumstances, independently of any alteration the hearing of it introduces into the cognitive field (except for the sensory presence of the word itself)';
78. Richard B. Brandt, 'Stevenson's Defense of the Emotive Theory', Philosophical Review, 59:4 (1950), pp. 535-40.
79. Since '[M]any of the most common words and phrases of any language have both a literal or descriptive meaning that refers to the way things are and an emotive meaning that expresses some (positive or negative) feeling about them. Thus, the choice of which word to use in making a statement can be used in hopes of evoking a particular emotional response', Garth Kemmerling, Philosophy and Logic (2002) (emphasis added by author): [accessed 29 October 2007].
80. This should also note the interviewees' socio-cultural context based on the question about their respective living and working circumstances during the decade prior to the interview, that is following an additional question prior to the interview such as 'How many times a month do you generally engage in international interaction, that is in spoken language'?
81. See Titscher et al. (2005), p. 156.
82. Ibid.
83. See Weldes and Saco (1996); Milliken (1999).
84. See Fairclough (1992); Titscher et al. (2005), p. 150.
85. For example, as an alternative to the positivist 'set of labels which can be compared to the world, Wittgenstein demonstrates that language is constitutive for the world', K. M. Fierke, Changing Games, Changing Strategies (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), p. 3.
86. Jürgen Gerhards, 'Dimensionen und Strategien öffentlicher Diskurse', Journal für Sozialforschung, 32:3/4 (1992), pp. 307-18.
87. The oppositions are rendered by single documents which are identified as 'the language practice of predication - the verbs, adverbs and adjectives that attach to nouns', Milliken (1999), p. 232.
88. Ibid., p. 234.
89. For such findings, see for instance Antje Wiener The Invisible Consitution of Politics: Contested Norms and International Encounters (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), Ch. 5.
90. Karl W. Deutsch (1956).
91. Karl W. Deutsch, 'The Growth of Nations: Some Recurrent Patterns of Political and Social Integration', World Politics, 5:2 (1953), pp. 168-195.
92. Ursula Hoffmann-Lange, 'Eliten in der modernen Demokratie', in Ursula Hoffmann-Lange, Eliten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1990), pp. 11-27;
93. Norman Fairclough, 'Discourse and Text: Linguistic and Intertextual Analysis within Discourse Analysis', Discourse and Society, 3 (1992), pp. 193-217.
94. Bernhard Peters, 'Public Discourse, Identity and the Problem of Democratic Legitimacy', in Eriksen (ed.), (2005), pp. 84-123.
95. Peter J. Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Post War Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
96. Frank Schimmelfennig, The EU, NATO and the Integration of Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
97. Note that this choice is made primarily to provide a structure for the interview and keyword organisation. It does not assume to present an exclusive relationship between a particular policy area and a particular norm. The point is rather to demonstrate that, despite their all-pervasiveness, norms do retain different meanings to individuals.
98. Uwe Puetter and Antje Wiener, 'Accommodating Normative Divergence in World Politics: European Foreign Policy Coordination', Journal of Common Market Studies, 45:5 (2007), pp. 1063-86.
99. Thomas Risse, ' "Let's Argue!"Communicative Action in World Politics', International Organization, 54:1 (2000), pp. 1-39.
100. Martin Marcussen, Thomas Risse, Daniela Engelmann-Martin, Hans-Jochen Knopf and Klaus Roscher, 'Constructing Europe? The Evolution of French, British and German Nation-State Identities', Journal of European Public Policy, 6:3 (1999), pp. 614-33 (special issue).