Suchergebnisse

This special issue of International Political Sociology consists of a symposium of papers that demonstrate the possibilities applying the political sociology of Pierre Bourdieu to international studies, both theoretically and empirically. The papers are all derived from a panel entitled "A Different Reading of the International" organized at the 2010 ISA Annual Conference in New Orleans. Correspondingly, the main claim of this special issue is that the sociology of Bourdieu provides a different look at the international, one that is highly productive for further transforming international studies. Our interest in developing this specific symposium has moreover been spurred by the general momentum which Bourdieusian sociology currently is experiencing with respect to both international and European studies (for references, please see the individual chapters). In this growing literature, one can now distinguish between a grouping of more sociologically informed studies and an emergent body of political science research which draws on Bourdieusian concepts. This symposium has a more sociological orientation than is usual in international studies, which is still very much dominated by political science reasoning. It also insists on the need to conduct empirical research using a specific set of thinking tools derived from Pierre Bourdieu's sociology as a means for providing a new reading of the international. Our goal is, however, not to provide a history of Bourdieusian ideas or to celebrate Pierre Bourdieu as yet another rising star in the pantheon of fashionable French thinkers for the IR market. We also resist treating Bourdieu as a philosopher cutoff from his empirical research on "examples" that seem irrelevant for IR specialists, or presenting a ready-made and condensed version of Bourdieu for an IR audience in search of minor adjustments in the division of labor between soft constructivism and mainstream realism. Adapted from the source document.

La recherche sociologique sur l'Union européenne offer une alternative indispensable aux habituelles approches de l'UE dominées par l'économie, le droit, les relations internationales et les sciences politiques. Toutefois, jusqu'à présent, cette alternative sociologique a surtout consisté en l'adaptation de la terminologie sociologique telle que « construction sociale » ou « identité » et en l'introduction de nouveaux objets de recherche, telles que les conventions sociales réglementant la sécurité nationale ou les constructions discursives de l'Europe. Mais la sociologie fournit également les munitions intellectuelles pour une réévaluation bien plus fondamentale de certaines des presuppositions ontologiques et épistémologiques de la recherche sur l'UE, ainsi que pour une reconstruction de l'objet d'étude. Dans cet article, nous allons développer ce cadre d'analyse sociologique alternatif en explorant des notions clés telles que la rationalité et la réflexivité. À notre avis, ce sont là les outils indispensables pour expliquer ce qui reste l'une des plus grandes énigmes pour les études européennes, à savoir : comment l'Europe s'est-elle formée par l'interaction des institutions européennes et des acteurs dans le jeu de Bruxelles et à travers les frontières nationales. Ces présuppositions ontologiques et épistémologiques empêchent un grand nombre de recherches fondées sur les mêmes présupposés et les dualismes qu'ils produisent (individu-institution, socialisation-calcul stratégique, supranational-national...) de développer une description plus complexe et plus « consistante » de l'intégration européenne.

From militant to entrepreneu-rial environmental practice:
on the construction and trans-formation of a Danish field of environmental expertise

By tracing the trajectories of holders of environmental expertise, this article attempts to understand the social construction of environmental protection measures in Denmark. The focus is not on these measures, per se, but rather on them as the product of inter-professional battles in, out and around that state. With an analytical starting point in the reflexive sociology developed by Pierre Bourdieu, the social space in which these struggles are taking place is seen as an open fluid field constituted by a mixture of loosely connected symbolic practices occupying different (and changing) positions within the field of state power. The article argues that the environmental space was initially dominated by a group of older lawyers and social scientists and was reconstructed by the arrival of young engineers and biologists, who came from the radicalized parts of the university milieu and similar social networks. The environmental field has recently developed in several directions. The original experts are still involved in the mainstream technical way of dealing with the environment. At the same time they are links to a new generation of environmental experts engaged in market-oriented symbolic investments in eco-management and accountancy. The success of the environmental movement has caused both renewed interest and a diffusion of the groups of agents at the same time.