La « logique du praticable » à l’épreuve de la pratique scientifique

Faure, Samuel B. H.; Lequesne, Christian

doi:10.7202/1043263ar

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…There is a huge space to pursue observation of diplomatic practices to understand diplomacy and more generally international relations, despite the obstacle of having access to institutions. Numerous works referring to Practice Theory limit themselves to interviews from outside the institutions, as Samuel Faure and I wrote in a comment of Pouliot's work published in 2018 in the Canadian journal Etudes Internationales (Faure & Lequesne, 2017). Direct observation must be used more to understand the structure of diplomacy.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying Diplomatic Practices Through The Lens Of Direct Observation

Lequesne¹

2019

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In the discussed case, the author explains his chosen method of direct observation for examining the practices of French diplomats. Influenced by the Practice Theory, the author is convinced that International Relations scholars have to undertake more ethnographic fieldwork for the analysis of foreign policy and international relations. This case study explains how the scholar obtained access to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, how he worked inside the institution, and the kind of material he has been able to collect during his observation. Learning Outcomes By the end of this case, students should be able to • Study the daily practices of foreign policy agents to understand the structure of international relations • Study international relations not only as outcomes but as processes and relations • Study the interpretative approach of social sciences driven by qualitative methods Practice Theory and Diplomacy Diplomatic studies owe a significant part of their renewal of the early 2000s to the contribution made by sociology and anthropology to the study of international relations. In an article published in 2002, the Norwegian scholar, Iver B. Neumann, invited theorists of international relations to lessen the abstract analyses written on sovereignty, norms, and power, and rather concentrate upon the practices of agents as well as discourses on the practices (Neumann, 2002). Ten years later, the publication of Neumann's (2012) book At Home With Diplomats: Inside a European Foreign Ministry contributed to restore the practices of diplomats in the understanding of International Relations. On the basis of an ethnographic work inside the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Neumann asked the crucial question: How do daily and routinized diplomatic practices affect the position of the State in international relations and also contribute, in the vein of the English School of International Relations, to the emergence of an international society? Neumann's plea for a new sociology of diplomatic practices took place in the larger movement in social sciences, which aimed to restore the social practices of agents. Authors, such as Neumann (2002, 2012), Adler Nissen (2015), and Pouliot and Cornut (2015), assumed that understanding structural elements of international relations (as institutions, norms, and global order) requires tracing in detail the methodology of how agents develop practices. Institutions in particular can never be reduced to ex nihilo creations that exist just to facilitate collective action or to reduce transaction costs, as neorealist scholars in International Relations often think. Institutions are a result of historical processes, which always engage specific agents.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying Diplomatic Practices Through The Lens Of Direct Observation

Lequesne¹

2019

Self Cite

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“…For instance, Samuel B.H. Faure and Christian Lequesne (2017) critically discussed the relevance of distinguishing a third logic, that is "of practicality" (Pouliot 2008)creating an analytical separation between actors' interests, ideas and practices. Following this critical perspective that first arouse in IR (Bigo 2011), Didier Georgakakis (2021 underlined how political sociology, and especially the classical field theory (Bourdieu 2022), applied to the EU, provides a theoretical framework that encompasses all the preoccupations of the different variants of institutionalism.…”

Section: Sociology Of the Eu And Neo-institutionnalism(s)mentioning

confidence: 99%