Communities of Practice in World Politics – Theory or Technology?, Paper presented at the 52nd Annual Conference of the International Studies Association, Montreal, Canada, March 2011

SUMMARY: International Relations theorists and international administrations have both started to employ an approach from organizational theory, the Community of Practice approach. In this paper I investigate how International Relations scholars have translated the concept as a theory useful for conducting practice theory research, and how international administrations have translated it into a governmental technology. To study the translation process I focus on the translation work of three actors, that is Etienne Wenger, Emanuel Adler and Jean-Marie Guéhenno. Over the course of this analysis, I connect what is seemingly unconnected: IR theory and international administrations. Based on this analysis I ask what the implications of such a “dual use” of a concept in science and administration are.

Praxiography in International Relations: Methodological Implications of the Practical Turn, Paper presented at the 3d Conference of the World International Studies Committee (WISC), Porto, Portugal, August 2011

SUMMARY: Political scientists have started to focus on ‘practice’ as the smallest unit of analysis. This paper asks what the methodological implications of the practice turn are. It is argued that the focus on practice does not only imply a certain ‘theory’ but also a certain methodology. I advance the term 'praxiography' to speak about the types of analysis produced by practice researchers. I discuss key guidelines of praxiographic research on two layers: firstly, general research strategies which provide empirical access points for research, secondly, guidelines for data collection in the frame of participant observation, expert interviews, and document analysis. I end in suggesting that while praxiography is context driven, and hence required to be tailored to the research problem, it is important to reflect on the repertoire of tools available to praxiographic research strategies.

Governing Piracy: Macro-Securitization, Governance and Maritime Space, Paper presented at the 52nd Annual Conference of the International Studies Association, Montreal, Canada, March 2011, revised version forthcoming in 2012 (with Jan Stockbruegger)

SUMMARY: Within less than a decade piracy has been turned from a marginal economic problem into a global security problem. A surprising array of international actors addresses piracy and coordinates their activities. In this contribution we interrogates this astonishing story of international cooperation. We argue that what we can observe here is a global security governance arrangement under construction. We conduct a praxiographic analysis of the current counter-piracy governance arrangement. A praxiographic analysis takes as the main unit of analysis practice, that is, collective patterns of action which entail speech and doings. Based on this evidence we carry out what can be called an “informed speculation” about the future of the arrangement. Based on the notion of macro-securitization we develop three different forms of expectations (or scenarios) of what characterizes the piracy governance arrangement: 1) an interest based “alliance” or “coalition of the willing”; 2) as a forming “security community” of cosmopolitan or regional scale; or as a 3) hybrid “global security assemblage”.

Security as Performation. Securitization, Piracy and the United Nations Security Council, mimeo, under revision.

SUMMARY: Piracy has become formulated as a global security problem. This paper reconstructs the process by which piracy was turned into a problem worthy of international attention and action in focusing on the making of Resolution 1816. Resolution 1816 authorized military measure in the Gulf of Aden and Somali territorial sea. Reading this process as a process of securitization the paper presents an advanced version of securitization theory which integrates ideas from Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The first part of the paper provides an overview of the making of Resolution 1816. The second discusses securitization theory and how it can be used to understand the work and global role of the United Nations Security Council. Some major problems are identified which the securitization perspective on its own cannot address, but which deem important for understanding the career of piracy in the Council. To cope with these, the paper introduces ANT and illustrates how its concepts can lead us to a fuller understanding of the piracy case. The paper makes a threefold contribution to the literature. It is the first study detailing how piracy was turned from a private and national issue into a global one. Secondly it advances our understanding of the working of the Security Council and thirdly it adds to the debates on strengthening securitization theory. 

Security Expertise after Securitization, mimeo, under revision (with Trine Villumsen).

SUMMARY: Growing evidence suggests that security analysts partake in games of securitization. Problematizations have become widespread, but solutions have been scarce. This paper argues for the need for practical reflexivity toward the social positioning of the security expert and suggests that several practical dilemmas need to be addressed. To do so, the paper engages with three ‘coping strategies’: The notion of the ‘Organic Intellectual’ based on (Neo-) Gramscian thought; Bourdieu’s concept of the ‘Collective intellectual’; and the vision of an ‘Ironist’ inspired by the work of Richard Rorty and John Dewey. Equipped with these strategies, un-intended securitization may be minimized.

Practical Reflexivity, Dilemmas and Coping Strategies, mimeo, under review (with Trine Villumsen).

SUMMARY: The Paper argues for the importance of practical reflexivity. We identify several practical dilemmas that the academic faces and suggests that grand strategies developed within social theory can assist us to cope with these dilemmas. We discuss seven of these strategies. 

Actor-Networking the Failed State, mimeo, under review (with Felix Bethke).

SUMMARY: The current global situation is characterized by the proliferation of concepts of highly influential but very ambiguous character. One of the features of these concepts is that they span the boundary between research and policymaking. The paper takes the example of the "failed state" and uses actor-network theory to understand its circulation.

Human Security - What's the Use of it? On Boundary Objects and the Constitution of New Global Spaces, mimeo, under review.

SUMMARY: Paper argues that if we view Human Security as a boundary object, the concept offers the opportunity to de-technocratize contemporary security practice and foster participation in security politics. It does so by introducing a novel perspective to IR, the symbolic-interactionist social worlds/area theory.

SUMMARY: Paper discusses what problems of coordination in peacebuilding can be identified. It is suggested to differentiate between different types of coordination problems. A differentiation is made along the different root metaphors used to describe the collective of peacebuilders (community, network, machinery( and the different objects of coordination (functional, spatial, regional, epistemic, private-public, principal-agent). 

SUMMARY: The paper provides an overview of the emerging field of a disciplinary sociology of IR, reviews it and attempts to challenge its achievements. I argue that current disciplinary sociology is an important mean in the current 'intellectual crisis' of IR, but so far is not sufficiently mobilizing the resources of sociology of science and is too narcissistic. I sketch how a disciplinary sociology explicitly drawing on the 'Cultural Studies of Science' (Joseph Rouse) might avoid these tendencies and help re-directing the sociology of IR.