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Constructivism is regarded as increasingly important in International Relations. More often than not the approach is related to the issue of identity. Constructivism and identity are, however, in a dangerous liaison. This article argues that Alexander Wendt's constructivism needs identity as a central concept but that this very concept threatens to undermine the possibility of his constructivism. It is further suggested that this problem has some relevance to other constructivist approaches positioned in the middle ground between rationalist and reflectivist theorizing. The argument is illustrated with a consideration of the debates around the redefinition of the role of the Federal Republic of Germany to include the possibility of German military involvement abroad.

Ie terme « constructivisme », qui se répand aujourd'hui dans la littérature théorique des relations internationales, dénote une contestation des postulats strictement matérialistes ou individualistes, supposée permettre de mieux comprendre les changements observés dans la politique mondiale. Nous ne cherchons pas ici à en imposer une définition hégémonique, mais à amorcer une discussion « constructive », justement, sur ses possibilités et ses limites. Loin d'occulter ou d'estomper les divergences entre les chercheurs qui ont adopté cette approche, nous tâchons de les clarifier, car nous considérons que cette complexité, voire ces tensions donnent naissance à une « conversation » fructueuse. À cette fin, nous retracerons brièvement les origines interdisciplinaires de l'approche constructiviste en relations internationales en mettant en évidence ses traits distinctifs. Puis nous nous intéresserons plus particulièrement à deux controverses opposant les constructivistes aux autres théoriciens des RI : les origines des intérêts et le rôle des agents de changement. Nous situerons, à cette occasion, le constructivisme par rapport au matérialisme et au rationalisme. Nous proposerons aussi des pistes de réflexion tant sur le fond que sur la méthode. Enfin nous explorerons brièvement les implications de notre discussion en termes d'agents et d'intérêts sur l'identité et le rôle de la société dans la politique internationale.

Le titre est évocateur de l'orientation que prend l'apprentissage et l'enseignement des langues secondes et étrangères aujourd'hui et celui du français en particulier. Au-delà de l'importance d'un premier niveau d'apprentissage, celui de la fonctionnalité, nous sommes de plus en plus conscients que les langues sont une mise en communication interculturelle et que leur connaissance apporte un effet écologique dans l'équilibre et l'harmonie entre les langues. C'est ce que nous appelions l'enseignement de la culture par la langue, courant qui prend aujourd'hui un tout autre sens, celui d'un apprentissage à la fois attentif à l'interculturel et ouvert sur la solidarité, tout comme les mouvements sociaux planétaires (écologie, constructivisme, etc). Dans cette perspective, les méthodologies et les curricula de langues sont déterminants s'ils démasquent les concurrences et attirent l'attention vers des actions et des discours de solidarité. Cette présentation est à la fois théorique, en brossant un tableau des grandes idéologies contemporaines (celles de la solidarité et celles de la concurrence) et pratique, en montrant comment ces idéologies fonctionnent dans la salle de classe de français langue seconde/étrangère et comment l'on peut miser sur la solidarité. De plus, cette interculturalité solidaire dans la didactique doit nécessairement être reflétée dans les politiques linguistiques qui encadrent l'enseignement/apprentissage de langues, particulièrement du français.

Constructivism in discussions about education in Brazil has assumed an increasingly important role and is the justification for government intervention in schools and the basis of its educational policies. This is confirmation of a trend whereby a psychological explanation is transformed into an explanatory principle governing educational issues. The author gives a searching and penetrating analysis of many of the goals of constructivism, which are currently part of every teacher- training program. ; La escalada del constructivismo en el debate pedagógico brasileño, y principalmente la fundamentación de las intervenciones en la escuela y en las estrategias educacionales gubernamentales viene a confirmar una tendencia que consiste en la conversión de una explicación psicológica en principio explicativo dominante de las cuestiones educacionales. Con agudeza y profundidad la autora desnuda muchas de las pretensiones del constructivismo que en la hora actual forman parte del repertorio de experiencias por las que todo educador debe pasar.

The central question of this article is when, how and what do governmental agencies learn from evaluations. A structural constructivist theoretical framework is developed and applied to two case studies, in both of which a report of the Dutch Court of Audit is taken as a starting point. A reconstruction is made of the intra- and interorganizational processes in which the impacts of these evaluations were socially constructed. It appears that an evaluation hardly has any direct effect that can be unequivocally ascribed to it. Rather, evaluations seem to support or counteract debates, tendencies and options already present (or 'under construction') in the interaction among actors involved. Using a structural constructivist theoretical framework we identify mechanisms and conditions that enhance forms of learning processes. The paper concludes with some hypotheses about the genesis of evaluation impact.

Une analyse critique est réalisée sur les implications de la fixation temporelle de la décision, en portant une attention plus spéciale aux décisions non programmées, caractéristiques des états de crises dans les organisations. En signalant essentiellement que la décision, en tant que processus par l'intermédiaire duquel l'organisation construit sa propre réalité, ne doit pas se séparer des processus de constitution de ses propres systèmes de connaissance et d'action organisationnelle. L'on comprend alors, que le processus de décision concerne une organisation historique (l'analyse est fondamentalement diachronique, bien que l'on reconnaisse les phénomènes d'émergence qui donnent lieu à la discontinuité) pour laquelle le temps n'est pas réversible, elle n'est pas déterministe, elle n'est pas « intemporelle » ; cependant, la fonction qui guide le sens dans lequel elle se déplace n'est pas essentiellement déterminée pat le temps mais par la domination de ses buts et/ou de ses politiques. ; A critical analysis is made of the implications of temporary decision-making, paying special attention to non-programmed decisions, these being characteristic of when states of crisis arise in organisations. This article points out that decision-making (being a process through which an organisation constructs its particular reality) cannot be separated from processes of constituting its own systems of learning/ knowledge and organisational action. It is taken then that the decision-making process deals with historical organisation (analysis is fundamentally diachronic, even though phenomena regarding emergency leading to discontinuity are recognised) for which time is irreversible, is not determinist, is not 'atemporal'; however, the function guiding management in which it moves is not essentially determined by time but rather by commanding its purposes and/or policies. ; En este artículo se analizan de manera crítica las implicaciones de la fijación temporal de la decisión, con especial énfasis en las decisiones no programadas, características de los estadios de crisis en las organizaciones. Fundamentalmente se señala que la decisión, como proceso por medio del cual la organización construye su realidad particular, no debe separarse de los procesos de constitución de sus propios sistemas de conocimiento y acción organizacional. Se entiende, entonces, que el proceso de decisión concierne a una organización histórica (el análisis es fundamentalmente diacrónico, aunque se reconocen los fenómenos de emergencia que dan lugar a la discontinuidad) para la cual el tiempo no es reversible, ni determinista, ni 'atemporal'. Sin embargo, la función que guía la dirección en la que ella se mueve no es determinada esencialmente por el tiempo sino por el dominio de sus propósitos y/o políticas.

The aim of this paper is to provide an argument material in order to open up a discussion concerning educational and political strategies within the field of distance education. I would like to argue for the flexible learning within the social constructivistic perspective. Within this context the crucial question is: How should we generate various educational alternatives within the distance educational system? It has been argued that there is a need for alternatives within the system, i.e., a [social] constructivistic approach where we include cultural and other demographical aspects. In this regard we have to deal with the participant's standpoint and in the same time we need to be familiar with the public debate regarding the usage of modem technology. It is therefore crucial to reach all groups in the community and thus a flexibility in the system is required. In the field of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) the best typifications are where the exploration of the new possibilities is represented by the emerging technologies. In such work, there is a desire to build learning environments to support a range of distributed cognitive work, i.e., communities of learners, conceptual learning conversations, and knowledge building communities. Instructional designers are in the initial stages of exploring the commonalities and discontinuities between the varieties of CSCL activities.

This essay prods moral philosophy towards more explicit attention to the political constructions of injustice. I do not appeal to practical or political relevance, but advance a particular kind of constructivist interpretation of moral argumentation (constructivism+) in which our interpretive horizons are extended to include the implicit views of social action, broadly construed—from the macro- to the micro-social, and from the past to the present and the possible—built into philosophical arguments. I challenge the idea that, in order to oppose injustice, we must first articulate and justify a coherent conception of justice and then theorize the social, constitutional, legal, or cultural arrangements through which such justice could be implemented. My argument moves through three levels: 1. contesting the separability of these steps by demonstrating that views of social action are embedded in, not merely derivable from, the well-known formulations of John Rawls in A Theory of Justice. (Thus reconstructed, Rawls is more coherent than most moral philosophers have considered him to be); 2. giving priority to moral justification while leaving the social context in the background, scarcely analyzed, burdens our thinking about in/justice; 3. in order to oppose injustice, it is not the case that we must first articulate and justify a coherent conception of justice.

Tutkimus osallistuu kansainvälisen politiikan alan teoreettiseen keskusteluun konstruktivistisista lähtökohdista käsin. Se tarkastelee kansainvälistä toimijuutta ja identiteetin muotoutumista vuorovaikutussuhteessa muiden toimijoiden kanssa. Toimijuuden kehittyminen nähdään nelivaiheisena prosessina, johon kuuluu itseyden kuvittelu, nimeäminen, esitys/suorittaminen (performance) ja tunnustaminen/tunnistaminen. Esityksellä on olennainen sija. Siinä kollektiivinen toimija asettaa edustajan toimimaan nimissään ja luomaan tai vahvistamaan aktiivista vuorovaikutussuhdetta muihin toimijoihin. Tutkimuksen keskeinen tavoite on teoreettisesti jäsentää kansainvälisten toimijoiden toiminnan tarkoituksia. Tutkimuksen mukaan kansainvälisen toimijan edustaja osallistuu edustamansa kollektiivin identiteetin muotoutumiseen. Konstruktivistisen näkökulman eräs lähtöoletus on, että kollektiivinen identiteetti on ensisijainen suhteessa kollektiivin intresseihin. Näin ollen muotoutumassa olevan kollektiivin asettaman edustajan ensisijainen tehtävä on osallistua edustamansa kollektiivin rakentamiseen. Edustuksella on kuitenkin myös kaksi muuta tarkoitusta. Yhtäältä edustajan toiminta nähdään välineenä yleisesti hyväksyttyjen päämäärien toteuttamiseen toimintaympäristössä. Tämä viittaa toimijan moraaliseen velvoitteeseen vaikuttaa asioiden kulkuun. Toisaalta edustamiseen sisältyy myös sellainen sopimuksenvarainen ulottuvuus, joka ei välttämättä suoranaisesti palvele yleisesti hyväksyttyjä päämääriä, vaan hyödyntää annettua toimintatilaa esimerkiksi edustautuvan kollektiivin omien etujen ajamiseen. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osa käsittelee Euroopan unionin ulkopoliittista edustusta Lähi-idässä. Tutkimusaineistona on käytetty pääasiassa haastatteluja. Hermeneuttinen tutkimusote nostaa aineistosta selkeästi esiin kolme edellä mainittua toiminnan tarkoitusta, joiden teoreettisessa tarkastelussa on tutkimuksen painopiste. Ensinnäkin EU:n Lähi-idän edustajalla voidaan havaita olleen merkitystä EU:n institutionaalisen identiteetin muotoutumisessa sen pyrkiessä kohti laaja-alaista ulkopoliittista toimijuutta. Toiseksi erityisedustajalla on ollut rooli rauhanprosessin edistämisessä, joskin palestiinalaisten toisen kansannousun aikana väkivallan kierre on romuttanut niitä aikaansaannoksia, joita alueella nähtiin Oslon prosessin alettua vuonna 1993. Kolmanneksi voidaan arvioida, että ulkopoliittinen edustus osaltaan myös turvaa edustautuvan kollektiivin ja sen jäsenten intressejä. EU:n kyseen ollessa tämän kolmannen tarkoituksen tukeminen kuitenkin edellyttäisi Lähi-idän erityisedustajalta nykyistä korkeampaa poliittista profiilia sekä unionilta kokonaisuutena sellaista yhtenäisyyttä, jota sillä ei nykyisellään ole. ; The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, it aims at participating in the discussion about theorising institutional identity formation. It focuses on micro-level policy making as an important factor both in identity formation of the entity as a whole and with respect to the environment where the action takes place. Following the Peircean trichotomy of representamen , locus of representation is then scrutinised in more detail so that the focus is on the functions of representative. The primary interest of the research is thus on transformation: first, concerning the represented collective, and second, regarding the extent that the entity can influence its environment through a particular locus of representation. More generally, the thesis is an exercise on how to better operationalise the constructivist claim that identity formation is primary to promoting values and interests in relations with other actors. The evolution of the EU as a whole has been characterised by two major sets of conflicting views about the nature of integration, and also the analyses of the CFSP most often refer to these two dominant paradigms: liberal intergovernmentalism (based largely on neorealist assumptions) and neofunctionalism. I begin the study by an overview of these mainstream theories of European integration. The focus is on neofunctionalism as it, unlike intergovernmentalism, acknowledges transformation in actorness as the loyalties (presumably) gradually shift from the national to the supranational level. However, mainstream approaches in European studies any more than IR in general do not seek to explain the change that is more fundamental than a mere re-evaluation of priorities. The constructivist turn in IR has added identity and norms to the discussion, maintaining that neither rationality and states interests nor spill-over and increasing interdependence as such can explain the logic of change. Although constructivists do not deny the existence of the material world, they argue that both material and social reality become meaningful in interactive processes. The world as we experience it is socially constructed. Changes in social reality occur through interaction that has an influence on those participating in it. This is a significant shift away from more traditional approaches as it implies the primacy of identities over interests. Constructivism has been credited with the aim to understand the centrality of identity in all interaction and transformation that takes place both in the environment of action and actors identities. However, it is characteristic to the wide variety of constructivist approaches that they lack tools to operationalise the metatheoretical assumptions. I suggest that identity formation includes four distinguishable but temporally overlapping phases: imagining, naming, performance, and recognition. After elaborating these phases, I focus on representation as performance, the functions of which are multifaceted contrary to what could be assumed on the basis of the mainstream of IR literature. Representation involves the continuous quest for outside approval of the imagined and named being. Recognition of the self presented in performances is based on the others interpretations. Interpretation of performance involves producing a sign as a representation of a particular object. Thus, besides distinguishing the collective self from the other, existence of otherness is needed in the process of identification also to recognise the identity under construction. The view on representation is greatly influenced by Charles Peirce s sign theory. Peirce maintained that representation involves three components: the represented object, the representative, and interpreters. According to him, the representative has three different functions with respect to the represented object. I claim that these functions can be found in all performances in social reality, including world affairs. Following the Peircean division, I elaborate these dimensions as iconicity, indexicality and symbolicity. The empirical part of the thesis is meant to illustrate the purposes of representation. As for motivation for action, studies in IR mainly focus either on the self-interests of the actors or their values and moral obligation to act. By drawing attention to identity, constructivist orientation assumes that performances of international actors have also a third motive: reconstructing and maintaining the identity of the acting self. External events could therefore be seen as opportunities for identity formation, but often they also include one or both of the other considerations: They may pose a moral obligation to act or they may be treated as an occasion to promote or safeguard self-interests. The case I analyse is the EU s political involvement in the conflictual surroundings of the Middle East. The focus is on the performance of the EU s special representative. Besides discussing the visible results (or lack of them) in peace negotiations and reconciliation, and examining the possible self-interests that are served by the third party involvement, the analysis aims to enrich the discussion by bringing in the third dimension of representation which focuses on the formation of the represented in relation to an external event. The primary sources of the case study illustrating the theoretical framework consist mainly in accounts of the significance of the special envoy s action by foreign policy officials who have been participating in the process. In addition to the non-scheduled structured interviews made for the thesis, the research is supplemented with journalistic accounts and other primary source materials including governmental and EU documents. The primary sources are analysed by means of dialogical hermeneutics, which does not rely on contextual fixity of meaning but allows different interpretations within a given context and emphasises the multidimensional character of a text.

The article argues an extension of "intended applications" of present day radical constructivism to the domain of historical sciences. After a brief presentation of constructivism's core theory of "observing observations", a long exposition is undertaken in which central historical notions like "memory", ,,remembering" or ,,forgetting" are re-defined and adapted to the overall constructivist framework. Further extensions of the notion of memory to the societal level are made, for instance, the new notion of "politics of memory" will be introduced which, hopefully, will offer new insights into the interplay between the physical infrastructures of, horribile dictu, ,,information bases", ,,knowledge utilizations" and the steering mechanisms of societal sub-systems, primarily, but not exclusively, of the economic system. ; The article argues an extension of "intended applications" of present day radical constructivism to the domain of historical sciences. After a brief presentation of constructivism's core theory of "observing observations", a long exposition is undertaken in which central historical notions like "memory", ,,remembering" or ,,forgetting" are re-defined and adapted to the overall constructivist framework. Further extensions of the notion of memory to the societal level are made, for instance, the new notion of "politics of memory" will be introduced which, hopefully, will offer new insights into the interplay between the physical infrastructures of, horribile dictu, ,,information bases", ,,knowledge utilizations" and the steering mechanisms of societal sub-systems, primarily, but not exclusively, of the economic system.

This is a lively and well-written textbook, which will prove a valuable addition to the IR textbook series - mainly because the ideas it covers have changed so fundamentally in the last ten years. Nationalism and ethnicity are uniquely considered within the context of both traditional IR theory and 'new' IR (ie Cold War perspectives). Joireman explains the conflict between primordialism (the view that ethnicity is inborn and ethnic division natural), instrumentalism (ethnicity is a tool to gain some larger, typically material end) and social constructivism (the emerging consensus that ethnicity is flexible and people can make choices about how they define themselves). Case studies are included on Quebec, Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Eritrea. ; https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1157/thumbnail.jpg

This paper sketches the very first research hypotheses and methodological framework for exploring the puzzle why at the peaceful end of the Cold War, more militarist versions of realism and decidedly geopolitical thought have known a comeback in different European countries while not in others. It proposes a constructivism-inspired analysis which, in a sequence, explores geopolitics as an intellectual tradition, an expression of state interests, and of identity politics. It proposes to analyse the actual revival (and/or the lack of) via a sociological process-tracing inspired by already existing institutionalist approaches yet embedded in an application of Bourdieu's field theory to 'foreign policy'. Needless to say that the most important part needs still to be done, both on the methodological level (the concrete framework) and on the comparative empirical analysis which necessarily asks for a collaborative teamwork.

The theoretical discussion usually labelled "Constructivism", which has prevailed in historical and literary studies, in later years, has centered on the problem of the implicit relativity of all descriptions and analysis of social realities – past and presence. Analysing four literary texts more or less concentrating on the history of the Baltic States, the escape of the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians in the wake of the Soviet occupation to Sweden, as well as, on their preceptions of the new "Homeland" and the complicated relations between the Swedes and the Baltic immigrants, the essay is an attempt to illustrate the fundamental complexity of reproducing a clear and un-controversial picture of historical events. Hence, fiction, due to its particular type of explanatory and communicative power, can play a significant, but of course limited, role in explaining this opaque and controversial piece of national history.

This study is concerned with tracing the process of how conflict prevention is moving from the realm of ideas to the field of action. Why is it that, despite historical as well as recent evidence of the infeasibility to prevent wars, the idea of conflict prevention has resurfaced to meet the challenge of the new wars of the post-Cold War era? The study investigates whether the growing interest in preventing the outbreak of violent conflicts marks the coming of age of conflict prevention as an international norm able to induce preventive practices. Adopting a social constructivist perspective, it analyzes the links between ideas, interests, norms and practices. Regarding actors and structures as mutually constitutive, this study advances an analytical framework that draws attention to the pivotal role of the norm entrepreneur in the dynamics of norm evolution. The evolution of a norm pertaining to conflict prevention is traced in the post-Cold War era, and Sweden's activities as an international norm entrepreneur in the EU and the UN are analyzed. It depicts the Swedish efforts to construct, diffuse and institutionalize a norm pertaining to conflict prevention as well as to translate conflict prevention into practice by participating in the preventive UN peacekeeping mission (UNPREDEP) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The analysis reveals that a social constructivist perspective can assist us in investigating the links between ideas, norms, interests and practices. It shows that interests are defined in the context of internationally held norms, and that the growing interest in preventing violent conflicts may be derived from the emergent norm pertaining to conflict prevention. Norms emerge through the efforts of norm entrepreneurs. Through an analysis of Swedish norm entrepreneurship, this study finds that a small state's ability to advocate norms relies on the powers associated with compelling ideas, on presentation of "good" ideas when the time is ripe, and on the use of persuasive rhetoric to convince potential norm followers. Norm diffusion and socialization are found to be interactive processes involving the norm entrepreneur and the norm followers in a mutual learning process that may, as this study demonstrates, shape and reshape the evolving norm. The analysis illustrates how the evolution of the emergent norm pertaining to conflict prevention is facilitated by the construction of a normative fit with the frame of mind of the norm entrepreneur, the normative convictions of the potential norm followers and the existing normative context. Finally, the study demonstrates the interactiveness of norms and practices by analyzing the preventive UN peacekeeping operation in Macedonia. Although that unique preventive peacekeeping mission has not been replicated, and conflict prevention has clearly not become a regular practice, this study suggests that the mission contributed to spur the process of norm evolution by bridging the gap between idea and practice of conflict prevention.

All political scientists offer us their interpretations of the world. Interpretive approaches differ from many others in that they offer us interpretations of interpretations; they concentrate on meanings, beliefs, languages, discourses, and signs, as opposed to, say, laws and rules, correlations between social categories, or deductive models. Of course, this distinction between interpretive approaches and others is not an all or nothing affair: sensible interpretivists allow that the study of laws, correlations, and models can play a role in our exploration of practices; and sensible institutionalists, behavioralists, and rational choice theorists allow that their typologies, correlations, and models can do explanatory work only in so far as they can be unpacked in terms of the actual beliefs and desires of actors. Nonetheless, we can distinguish a family of interpretive approaches to political science that stand out in that they focus on meanings and beliefs – a family that includes decentred theory, ethnography, poststructuralism, practical philosophy, and social constructivism, and that overlaps with other approaches such as the constructivist and ideational forms of institutionalism.