Suchergebnisse

Die Ereignisse der letzten vier Jahre auf den globalen Finanzmärkten sind aus der Perspektive der Internationalen Politischen Ökonomie einzigartig: Innerhalb weniger Monate hat sich das Platzen der spekulativen Blase auf dem amerikanischen Immobilienfinanzierungsmarkt zur wohl größten Finanzkrise seit Ende des zweiten Weltkriegs entwickelt. Dabei erstaunt weniger das Platzen der Blase selbst - Blasenbildung allein ist nichts außergewöhnliches. Was die Internationale Politische Ökonomie in praktischer wie auch theoretischer Sicht aber vor Probleme stellt, ist die unaufhaltsame Ausbreitung und Hartnäckigkeit der Krise. Dieser Band versucht die Komplexität und die unterschiedlichen Kräfte der Krise in den Blick zu bekommen.

This article argues that constructivism has not engaged with the concept of contingency sufficiently. While such noted constructivists as Onuf, Kratochwil, and Wendt often refer to 'double contingency', it is the concept of 'norms' rather than 'contingency' that is used to characterise constructivist theorising in International Relations (IR). In this article, I outline how moderate and radical constructivists differ in their take on norms and thereby establish how the problem of contingency is actually at the core of constructivist theorising. The discussion then shows how Kratochwil, Onuf, and Wendt have made use of double contingency while moderate constructivists have re-introduced the single actor to show how norms 'cause' action. The third part moves beyond the double contingency framework. By differentiating 'the social' from 'society', this section shows that a 'third' position can be identified. The concept of 'triple contingency' then could be a way ahead for the theoretical discussion on constructivism itself.

This article explores the relevance of failure for constructivism. Starting from the constructivist focus on 'language in use', it conceptualises 'failure' as a concept rather than as an observed end or result. Instead of explaining or understanding some empirical failure, the primary questions now become how this concept is being used, and what performative consequences can be observed from this use. As such, the article's first section develops three 'uses' or 'notions' of failure: failure as a 'wrong representation' of an objectively given reality; failure to produce an inter-subjective understanding that allows actors 'to go on'; and failure as 'mode of organisation' that highlights its discursive grammar, or rules of formation, and the importance of social imaginaries grounding this process. The article's second section then reconstructs the performance of 'failure' in the context of global finance and shows how the market, as a social imaginary, determines questions of authority and expertise. In doing so, this article points to the need for a socio-political economic analysis of economics, and the performance of its concepts, models, and assumptions.

This introduction positions The Status of Law in World Society in the context of Friedrich V. Kratochwil's previous contributions to International Relations. It outlines how Kratochwil has replaced the rhetorical tradition that featured prominently in Rules, Norms and Decisions by practice theories and pragmatism in his new book. It then provides an overview of the nine new Meditations contained in The Status of Law, and introduces each contribution to this Forum.

This contribution explores The Status of Law in World Society by looking at the practice turn in particular. Without challenging Kratochwil's interest in practices per se, this contribution poses two questions: first, it acknowledges that the 'practice turn' itself is, like every intellectual movement, ambiguous with conflicting trends and developments. One of these ambiguities, however, concerns the position of the observer. Leaving this position undefined, the practice turn transports this ambiguity into constructivism with important repercussions on what constructivists assume to know and where the boundaries of their possible critique are. Second, this contribution asks whether there is a conflict between an interest in practices and the question of order. In particular, the latter incorporates the question of the 'third' that Kratochwil acknowledges, but does not develop in more detail.

The current financial crisis shows that dynamics of global finance are irreducible to some individual rationality. Rather, the crisis evidently raises questions about the changing constitutive rules of finance itself. It thus points to the question of how changes within finance made the crisis possible in the first place. Taking this as a vantage point also raises the question about 'the political' in finance: instead of reducing politics to the action of states or some interest, pursuit of power or whatever, this contribution pursues a constructivist approach and suggests to locate the political at the level of sense-making. Adapted from the source document

AbstractThe current economic crisis challenges the constitutive rules of global finance. Despite its various roots, dynamics, and consequences, the current reform debate is surprisingly limited in scope: it focuses on possible changes of Basle II and thus banking regulation only. This article suggests that the reason for this 'gap' can be found in the idea of asymmetric information. The idea that the asymmetric dispersion of information is the 'real' cause of the crisis is reiterated constantly in public documents. However, the argument rests upon two assumptions: that crises are exogenous to otherwise efficient and stable markets, and that finance is an autonomous field where the primary focus of the current reform can then concentrate on its laws. It is thought that it is enough to reform financial markets to stabilise the global economy. This article suggests that this belief is utterly misguided and argues that a more comprehensive picture of the current turmoil needs to abandon exactly these two assumptions. To pursue such an avenue, this article provids an interpretation of Hayek's social theory.