Abstract
Is there a theory in practice theory? Responding to Bueger and Gadinger’s excellent article, I agree that practice theory is indeed a theory – or a rather a bundle of theories – that can help explain world politics. Bueger and Gadinger distinguish between critical theory and pragmatism as practice theory’s intellectual roots, but as I will argue below, this distinction has drawbacks. I therefore propose a different categorization – between what I call the ‘ordering’ (how practices stabilize the world) and the ‘disordering’ (how practices destabilize the world) perspectives on practices. This distinction is crucial to determining where we look for practices in international relations and how we study them. I will also argue that symbolic interactionism should be included in the practice theory landscape, as it can help us understand the making and unmaking of international orders.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Social Sciences
- Practice Theory
- Practice turn
- International Relations Theory
- Methodology
- symbolic interactionism
- Power
- everyday
- everyday life