A Sociological Turn in Statebuilding Research?

Abstract

This article reviews three new publications on statebuilding interventions and examines to which degree sociological approaches are applied in the study of external statebuilding. It argues that macro sociology offers a rich set of theoretical and methodological tools that can be fruitfully applied to study the effects of statebuilding interventions.

Political Sociology of International Interventions: Peacebuilders and the Ground

“…In this special issue, we address this shortcoming by offering a political sociology of the 'intervention encounter' (Gilbert 2008), that is, by scrutinizing the everyday interactions among peacebuilders and between peacebuilders and domestic contexts, and by investigating the effects of the ground on peacebuilding organizations, doctrines and decision-making processes, as well as on peacebuilders' trajectories, positions, professional practices and representations. In doing so, we hope to contribute to the sociological turn (Brast 2013), in particular to the emerging sociology of peacebuilding professionals (Bliesemann de Guevara and Goetze 2012; Lefranc 2012; Autesserre 2015; Smirl 2015; Goetze 2017).…”