Social constructivist approaches to the European Union

7 important questions on Social constructivist approaches to the European Union

What do constructivists attack?

Formalized, rationalist versions of IR.

Ranged against rationalism is what?

A range of reflectivist and interpretivist approaches that begin from wholly different premises.

What is the appeal of constructivism - or at least the type of constructivism that has entered the IR mainstream in the last decade?

That is claims to offer a middle way between rationalism and reflectivism.
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As what do constructivists such as Wendy see interests?

As socially constructted rather than pre-given, which means that regularities in the international system are the consequence of collective (or 'intersubjective') meanings,

'Norms' are particularly important in the constructivist vocabulary. As what are norms defined?

As 'collective expectations for the proper behaviour of actors with a given identity' (Katzenstein, 1996: 5).

What do constructivists mean when they talk about the 'constitutive effects' of norms?

That it is through the internalization of norms that actors acquire their identities and establish what their interests are.

To what does the constructivist research agenda in EU studies (which has much in common with that of sociological institutionalism) also pay attention?

To the ways in which European-level norms, ideas, and discourses penetrate into the various national polities that make up the EU.

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