TY - JOUR

T1 - Contestation 'all the way down'?

T2 - The grammar of contestation in norm research

AU - Niemann, Holger

AU - Schillinger, Henrik

PY - 2017/1/1

Y1 - 2017/1/1

N2 - The meaning of norms is empirically contested. Supposing an inherent instability of norm meaning, contestation, therefore, represents a fundamental conceptual challenge to the mainstream view on norms as shared understandings. By offering a grammatical reading of Antje Wiener's approach to contestation, we examine how norm research addresses this challenge to its theoretical core assumption. We argue that the grammar of Wiener's approach, despite its reflexive starting point, ultimately reintroduces an understanding of norms as facts and leads to a normative 'politics of reality'. This effectively turns contestation into a disruption of the 'normal' state of norms. Demonstrating the challenges of theorising norms with rather than against contestation, the article concludes that norm research has yet to find ways to account for contestation 'all the way down' in order to sustain norms as a productive analytical concept in IR.

AB - The meaning of norms is empirically contested. Supposing an inherent instability of norm meaning, contestation, therefore, represents a fundamental conceptual challenge to the mainstream view on norms as shared understandings. By offering a grammatical reading of Antje Wiener's approach to contestation, we examine how norm research addresses this challenge to its theoretical core assumption. We argue that the grammar of Wiener's approach, despite its reflexive starting point, ultimately reintroduces an understanding of norms as facts and leads to a normative 'politics of reality'. This effectively turns contestation into a disruption of the 'normal' state of norms. Demonstrating the challenges of theorising norms with rather than against contestation, the article concludes that norm research has yet to find ways to account for contestation 'all the way down' in order to sustain norms as a productive analytical concept in IR.

KW - Contestation

KW - Norm Research

KW - Grammatical Reading

KW - Meaning-in-use

KW - Politics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84976286524&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/S0260210516000188

DO - 10.1017/S0260210516000188

M3 - Scientific review articles

VL - 43

SP - 29

EP - 49

JO - Review of International Studies

JF - Review of International Studies

SN - 0260-2105

IS - 1

ER -