Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Connecting the Local and the Global: International Practice Theory as a Trading Zone for International Relations and Area Studies Scholars

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
International Relations and Area Studies

Part of the book series: Contributions to International Relations ((CIR))

  • 185 Accesses

Abstract

International Practice Theory (IPT) has established a new paradigm that puts practitioners’ quotidian doings front and centre of International Relations (IR) theorising. It is proving to be an influential development also for Area Studies (AS) that share much of IR’s scholarship and objects of study. This is certainly the case for European Studies (ES) as the works of IPT scholars have raised attention to situated, mundane and everyday practices of EU institutions. This chapter reviews the contribution of IPT scholars to ES to assess the added value of this research agenda and its potential to become a “trading zone” where IR and AS scholars can advance their understanding of how the local and the global connect. It also identifies two challenges that have not been adequately addressed in the extant literature: (1) finding ways to theorise and empirically observe the transition from situated to global practices (generalisation challenge); and (2) assessing the exact role of interaction in structuring and transforming both the global and the local (challenge of relationism). The chapter ends by calling for a Global Practice Theory (GPT) as a way to tackle these two challenges.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Confront, for example, the works cited in this chapter with the ones discussed by Bueger and Gadinger to take stock of the practice turn (Bueger & Gadinger, 2018).

  2. 2.

    Rebecca Adler-Nissen, for example, has been a member of the board of the Danish European Community Studies Association (ECSA-DK) between 2013 and 2017.

  3. 3.

    It can be argued that this applies more in general to the role of constructivism in AS, as per the discussion by Teti (2007).

Reference lists

  • Acharya, A. (2014). Global international relations (IR) and regional worlds: A new agenda for international studies. International Studies Quarterly, 58(4), 647–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acharya, A. (2016). Advancing global IR: Challenges, contentions, and contributions. International Studies Review, 18(1), 4–15. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viv016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adler, E. (2004). Communitarian international relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adler, E. (2008). The spread of security communities: Communities of practice, self-restraint, and NATO’s post—Cold war transformation. European Journal of International Relations, 14(2), 195–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adler, E. (2009). Europe as a civilizational community of practice. In P. J. Katzenstein (Ed.), Civilizations in world politics: Plural and pluralist perspectives (pp. 67–90). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adler, E., & Pouliot, V. (2011). International practices. International Theory, 3(1), 1–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adler-Nissen, R. (2014a). Opting out of the European Union: Diplomacy. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107337916

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Adler-Nissen, R. (2014b). Symbolic power in European diplomacy: The struggle between national foreign services and the EU’s external action service. Review of International Studies, 40(4), 657–681.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adler-Nissen, R. (2016). Towards a practice turn in EU studies: The everyday of European integration special issue: Another theory is possible: Dissident voices in theorising Europe. Journal of Common Market Studies, 54(1), 87–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adler-Nissen, R., & Drieschova, A. (2019). Track-change diplomacy: Technology, affordances, and the practice of international negotiations. International Studies Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqz030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adler-Nissen, R., & Kropp, K. (2015). A Sociology of knowledge approach to European integration: Four analytical principles. Journal of European Integration, 37(2), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2014.990133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aris, S. (2021). International vs. area? The disciplinary-politics of knowledge-exchange between IR and Area Studies. International Theory, 13(3), 451–482. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1752971920000184

  • Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning (Second Printing edition). Duke University Press Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, D. (2009). Writing the world: Disciplinary history and beyond. International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), 85(1), 3–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy, A. J. (2016). The humanisation of security? Towards an international human protection regime. European Journal of International Security, 1(1), 112–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bicchi, F. (2011). The EU as a community of practice: Foreign policy communications in the COREU network. Journal of European Public Policy, 18(8), 1115–1132. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2011.615200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bicchi, F. (2016). Europe under occupation: The European diplomatic community of practice in the Jerusalem area. European Security, 25(4), 461–477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bicchi, F., & Bremberg, N. (2016). European diplomatic practices: Contemporary challenges and innovative approaches. European Security, 25(4), 391–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bigo, D. (2000). When two become one: Internal and external securitisations in Europe. In M. Kelstrup & M. Williams (Eds.), International relations theory and the politics of European integration: Power, security and community (pp. 171–204). Taylor & Francis Group. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sdub/detail.action?docID=166031

  • Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice. Stanford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brandenburg, N. C. (2017). eu mediation as an assemblage of practices: Introducing a new approach to the study of EU conflict resolution. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 55(5), 993–1008. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12532

  • Bremberg, N. (2016). Making sense of the EU’s response to the Arab uprisings: Foreign policy practice at times of crisis. European Security, 25(4), 423–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2016.1236019

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bueger, C. (2012). From epistemology to practice: A sociology of science for international relations. Journal of International Relations and Development, 15(1), 97–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bueger, C. (2016). Doing Europe: Agency and the European Union in the field of counter-piracy practice. European Security, 25(4), 407–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2016.1236020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bueger, C. (2018). Territory, authority, expertise: Global governance and the counter-piracy assemblage. European Journal of International Relations, 24(3), 614–637. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066117725155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bueger, C., & Gadinger, F. (2007). Reassembling and Dissecting: International relations practice from a science studies perspective. International Studies Perspectives, 8(1), 90–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bueger, C., & Gadinger, F. (2015). The play of international practice. International Studies Quarterly, 59(3), 449–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bueger, C., & Gadinger, F. (2018). International practice theory. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chamlian, L. (2019). European Union Studies as power/knowledge dispositif: Towards a reflexive turn. Culture, Practice & Europeanization, 4(2), 59–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, S., Mandaville, P. G., & Bleiker, R. (2001). The Zen of international relations: IR theory from East to West. Palgrave. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10487878

  • Cornut, J. (2017). Practice turn in international relations theory. In The International Studies Encyclopedia. Wiley-Blackwell. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191842665.001.0001/acref-9780191842665-e-0456

  • D’Amato, S., Dian, M., & Russo, A. (2022). Reaching for allies? The dialectics and overlaps between International Relations and Area Studies in the study of politics, security and conflicts. Italian Political Science Review, Early view.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Franco, C. (forthcoming). The logic of narrativity: Recasting the role of language in international practices.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Franco, C. (2022). Turning towards practices: On the common ground of international relations and European studies. Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana Di Scienza Politica, 52(2), 172–186. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2022.11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Franco, C., & Gelot, L. (forthcoming). Recasting norm contestation as a transnational field’s struggle: The case of Human Rights contestation in the EU-AU strategic partnership.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deneckere, M. (2019). The uncharted path towards a European peace facility (Discussion Paper No. 248). ECDPM. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/plmrep/COMMITTEES/SEDE/DV/2020/02-17/1101_uncharted-path-towards-a-European-Peace-Facility-ECDPM_EN.pdf

  • Diez, T. (2005). Constructing the self and changing others: Reconsidering `normative power Europe’. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 33(3), 613–636. https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298050330031701

  • Ekengren, M. (2018). Explaining the European Union’s foreign policy: A practice theory of translocal action. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108381451

  • Epstein, C. (2013a). Theorizing agency in hobbes’s wake: The rational actor, the self, or the speaking subject? International Organization, 67(2), 287–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, C. (2013b). Constructivism or the eternal return of universals in International Relations: Why returning to language is vital to prolonging the owl’s flight. European Journal of International Relations, 19(3), 499–519.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, C., & Wæver, O. (forthcoming). The turn to turns in international relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fawcett, L., Hall, T. H., Hurrell, A., & de Estrada, K. S. (2020). Contributor introduction: Does international relations need area studies? St Antony’s International Review (STAIR), 16(1), 175–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fierke, K. M., & Jabri, V. (2019). Global conversations: Relationality, embodiment and power in the move towards a Global IR. Global Constitutionalism, 8(3), 506–535. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045381719000121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (2007). In M. Senellart, F. Ewald, & A. Fontana (Eds.), Security, territory, population. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245075

  • Frost, M., & Lechner, S. (2016). Two conceptions of international practice: Aristotelian praxis or Wittgensteinian language-games? Review of International Studies, 42(02), 334–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gahrn-Andersen, R. (2019). But language too is material! Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 18(1), 169–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galison, P. L. (1999). Reflections on image and logic: A material culture of microphysics. Perspectives on Science, 7(2), 255–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Godefroy, B., & Chinitz, D. (2019, August 29). More good than harm: Why the EU must learn from others’ mistakes to ensure better protection of civilians through European peace facility (EPF) activities. Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC). https://civiliansinconflict.org/blog/epf-ensure-civilian-protection/

  • Græger, N. (2016). European security as practice: EU–NATO communities of practice in the making? European Security, 25(4), 478–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2016.1236021

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, C. (1993). The capability-expectations gap, or conceptualizing europe’s international role. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 31(3), 305–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5965.1993.tb00466.x

  • Hofius, M. (2016). Community at the border or the boundaries of community? The case of EU field diplomats. Review of International Studies, 42(5), 939–967. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210516000085

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huelss, H. (2017). After decision-making: The operationalization of norms in International Relations. International Theory, 9(3), 381–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hui, A. (2017). Variations and the intersection of practices. In A. Hui, T. R. Schatzki, & E. Shove (Eds.), The nexus of practices: Connections, constellations and practitioners (pp. 52–67). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katzenstein, P. J. (2002). Area studies, regional studies, and international relations. Journal of East Asian Studies, 2(1), 127–137. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1598240800000709

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kauppi, N. (2003). Bourdieu’s political sociology and the politics of European integration. Theory and Society, 32(5–6), 775–789.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kauppi, N. (2018). Constructing transnational fields. In N. Kauppi (Ed.), Toward a reflexive political sociology of the European Union: Fields, intellectuals and politicians (pp. 69–88). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71002-0_4

  • Kauppi, N., & Madsen, M. R. (2014). Fields of global governance: how transnational power elites can make global governance intelligible. International Political Sociology, 8(3), 324–330. https://doi.org/10.1111/ips.12060

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Köllner, P., Sil, R., & Ahram, A. I. (2018). Comparative area studies. What it is, what it can do. In A. I. Ahram, P. Köllner, & R. Sil (Eds.), Comparative area studies: Editors methodological rationales and cross-regional applications (pp. 3–26). Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurki, M. (2011). Governmentality and EU democracy promotion: The European instrument for democracy and human rights and the construction of democratic civil societies1. International Political Sociology, 5(4), 349–366. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-5687.2011.00139.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuus, M. (2014). Geopolitics and expertise: Knowledge and authority in European diplomacy. John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuus, M. (2015). Symbolic power in diplomatic practice: Matters of style in Brussels. Cooperation and Conflict, 50(3), 368–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, H. (2020). Normative power Europe or capability–expectations gap? The performativity of concepts in the study of European foreign policy. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 58(4), 962–977. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12998

  • Latour, B. (1996). On interobjectivity. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3(4), 228–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leander, A. (2008). Thinking tools. In A. Klotz & D. Prakash (Eds.), Qualitative methods in international relations: A pluralist guide (pp. 11–27). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230584129_2

  • Lequesne, C. (2015). EU foreign policy through the lens of practice theory: A different approach to the European External Action Service. Cooperation and Conflict, 50(3), 351–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836715578742

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manners, I. (2002). Normative power Europe: A contradiction in terms? JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 40(2), 235–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5965.00353

  • Manners, I. (2006). Normative power Europe reconsidered: Beyond the crossroads. Journal of European Public Policy, 13(2), 182–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501760500451600

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mérand, F. (2006). Social representations in the European Security and defence policy. Cooperation and Conflict, 41(2), 131–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836706063659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mérand, F. (2010). Pierre Bourdieu and the birth of European defense. Security Studies, 19(2), 342–374. https://doi.org/10.1080/09636411003795780

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mérand, F., & Rayroux, A. (2016). The practice of burden sharing in European crisis management operations. European Security, 25(4), 442–460. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2016.1236022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ralph, J., & Gifkins, J. (2017). The purpose of United Nations Security Council practice: Contesting competence claims in the normative context created by the responsibility to protect. European Journal of International Relations, 23(3), 630–653. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066116669652

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices: A development in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ringmar, E. (2016). How the world stage makes its subjects: An embodied critique of constructivist IR theory. Journal of International Relations and Development, 19(1), 101–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosamond, B. (2007). European integration and the social science of EU studies: The disciplinary politics of a subfield. International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), 83(2), 231–252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schatzki, T. R. (1997). Practices and actions: A Wittgensteinian critique of Bourdieu and Giddens. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 27(3), 283–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swidler, A. (2001). What anchors cultural practices. In K. Knorr Cetina, T. R. Schatzki, & E. von Savigny (Eds.), The practice turn in contemporary theory (pp. 83–101). Taylor & Francis Group. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sdub/detail.action?docID=235322

  • Teti, A. (2007). Bridging the gap: IR, middle east studies and the disciplinary politics of the area studies controversy. European Journal of International Relations, 13(1), 117–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066107074291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiilikainen, T. (2019). Theory of European integration as a challenge to IR theories. Global Affairs, 5(4–5), 477–484. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2020.1722957

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. H., & Boyns, D. E. (2001). The return of grand theory. In J. H. Turner (Ed.), Handbook of sociological theory (pp. 353–378). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-36274-6_18

  • Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wiener, A. (2018). Contestation and constitution of norms in global international relations (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Chiara De Franco

Authors
  1. Chiara De Franco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chiara De Franco .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University, The Hague, The Netherlands

    Silvia D'Amato

  2. Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Matteo Dian

  3. School of International Studies & Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Venezia, Italy

    Alessandra Russo

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

De Franco, C. (2023). Connecting the Local and the Global: International Practice Theory as a Trading Zone for International Relations and Area Studies Scholars. In: D'Amato, S., Dian, M., Russo, A. (eds) International Relations and Area Studies. Contributions to International Relations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39655-7_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation