Practice Theory and International Relations

Lechner, Silviya; Frost, Mervyn

doi:10.1017/9781108645775

Cited by 37 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 116 publications

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“…Acknowledging the ritual features of deterrence illuminates central emotive, political and material dynamics of this international security macro practice (cf. Lechner and Frost, 2018), which remain unaccounted for in traditional deterrence scholarship and conceptually schematic in the existing social theorizations of deterrence. Such dynamics include the affective and political performativity of deterrence, along with the symbolic ladenness and mobilization of particular spaces and weaponry in the practice of deterrence.…”

Section: Ritual Approach In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

A ritual approach to deterrence: I am, therefore I deter

Mälksoo

2020

European Journal of International Relations

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How can ritual help to understand the practice of deterrence? Traditional deterrence scholarship tends to overlook the active role of deterring actors in creating and redefining the circumstances to which they are allegedly only reacting. In order to address the weight of deterrence as a symbol, collective representation and strategic repertoire, this article proposes to rethink deterrence as a performative strategic practice with ritual features and critical binding, releasing and restraining functions. I posit a ritual account of deterrence to better grasp the performance, credibility and the presumed effect of this central international security practice. An understanding of deterrence as a ritual-like social practice probes the scope of rational deterrence theory, replacing its ‘I think, therefore I deter’ presumption with a socially and politically productive ‘I am, therefore I deter’ logic. Drawing on the example of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s enhanced Forward Presence, the proposed conceptualization of extended deterrence as an interaction ritual chain in allied defence, solidarity and community-building offers novel insights about the deterrence and collective identity nexus. Extended deterrence has much more than deterrence at stake: how an alliance practices deterrence tells us more about the alliance itself than about the nature of threats it responds to. The tripwire posture of the enhanced Forward Presence highlights the instrumentality of ritualization for mediating ambiguity in extended deterrence.

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Section: Ritual Approach In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

A ritual approach to deterrence: I am, therefore I deter

Mälksoo

2020

European Journal of International Relations

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“…It is one thing to find that ‘science’ is ‘an interpretive enterprise’ like any other practice (Lechner and Frost 2018: 208). Given their Wittgensteinian leanings, Lechner and Frost’s aim to rid science of its superior claim to knowledge, if not truth, seems hardly surprising.…”

Section: Iii: Practice and Theory: Two Distinct Language Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an IR discipline that is still pervaded by an intellectualist science that strives for objectivity, this is a highly rewarding move. Yet, it is another thing to argue that these two practices can be collapsed into one and that ‘we must go no further than describing the self-understandings of the practice participants observed’ (Lechner and Frost 2018: 211, emphasis added).…”

Section: Iii: Practice and Theory: Two Distinct Language Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Without doubt, we must work with theory in the sense of ‘sensitising concepts’ or instruments (Blumer 1954: 7) to avoid ‘superimpos[ing] an “explanation from the outside”’ (Lechner and Frost 2018: 211). In the last instance, however, we cannot get around what Geertz (1973: 15) has poignantly called the ‘imaginative act’, indeed ‘fiction’, that is involved when theorists engage in second- or even third-order theorising.…”

Section: Iii: Practice and Theory: Two Distinct Language Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 3 See, for instance, 73–5 in Lechner and Frost (2018) where Bourdieu’s ethnography of the Kabyle practice of gift exchange functions as an example of externalism.…”

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Towards a ‘theory of the gap’: Addressing the relationship between practice and theory

Hofius¹

2020

Glob. Con.

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Abstract:In their ground-breaking philosophical investigation of the ‘practice turn’ Lechner and Frost prompt a standpoint debate in international relations theory, which touches upon the relationship between practice theory and its subject matter. Lechner and Frost decidedly opt for an internal standpoint, which promises to understand a social practice in terms of the meaning-in-use of its participants. This article argues that the internalist promise will ultimately remain unfulfilled, however, for the aim of collapsing the distinction between the ‘language of action’ and ‘language of observation’ is epistemologically impossible. Taking such an ‘internal’ perspective not only underestimates the problem of the double hermeneutic. It also disregards the gap between theory and practice. Any social enquiry that fails to acknowledge this gap inevitably becomes externalist, for it misses to reflect on its own normative presuppositions. The way ahead is to address this gap reflexively by way of a triple hermeneutics that is bolstered by abductive reasoning.

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Practice Approaches in International Political Theory

Hofius¹

2021

Perspectives on International Political Theory in Europe

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Practice Theory and International Relations

Cited by 37 publications

References 116 publications

A ritual approach to deterrence: I am, therefore I deter

A ritual approach to deterrence: I am, therefore I deter

Towards a ‘theory of the gap’: Addressing the relationship between practice and theory

Practice Approaches in International Political Theory

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