Contestation 'all the way down'? The grammar of contestation in norm research
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In: Review of International Studies, Vol. 43, No. 1, 01.01.2017, p. 29-49.
Research output: Journal contributions › Scientific review articles › Research
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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 -