Constructivism Flashcards
What does constructivisim say about the international system?
things we consider as fundamental truths about the international system have been constructed over time
human interaction is shaped by _________ not just material ones
ideational factors
ideational factors become _______ over time within society
concretized
once ideational factors become concretized what happens?
they are collectively held and people begin to take them to be objective truths
What does constructivism say about realities?
they are constructed
Where does constructivism draw insights from?
draws insights from sociology and psychology, not economics
T or F: anarchy is not constructed
false
What are some examples of constructed realities?
-money, sovereignty, rights
What does the idea of a constructed reality mean?
means that they have no material reality but exist because people believe they exist and act accordingly
Collective understandings have ________
causal power
What does having causal power mean for collective understanding?
it means that they can shape IR outcomes
-this can cause us to overlook the fact that theu have no existence
constructivism is a general theory of _________
social life and social change
In addition to being a general theory, what other kind of theory is constructivism?
a critical theory
What does constructivism seek to explain/reveal?
how IR has been shaped by things we take for granted have actually been developed
Constructivists argue that norms play a key role in __________
shaping our perceptions and behaviours
What are norms shaped by?
powerful social, political, and cultural actors
T or F: norms evolve over time
true
Desscribe human rights as a norm generally
- relatively new in human history
- 1948 Universal Declaration of human Rights laid out a set of definitions of rights
- rights of ethnic, racial, religious minorities, women, children are increasingly respected
- idea of rights has become more powerful and more widely-shared
Who works to reshape existing norms?
“norm entrepreneurs”
describe slavery as a norm
- African slavery was an important component of European colonial economies
- Britain abolished slavery in 1833, US abolished slavery in 1865, Brazil abolished in 1888: the norms started to change
- quasi-slavery persisted in colonial Africa well into the 20th century
- today, racial and ethical ideas that supported slavery are widely repudiated
- racism has morphed to take other forms
- this is an example of norms changing drastically and influencing international and domestic politics overtime
describe women’s suffrage as a norm
- 1893: New Zealand grants women full voting rights
- 2005: Kuwait grants women limited voting rights
- ideas that we have come to take for granted have been the results of long struggle
- norms were spread
- outliers are shamed
Who is the constructivist scholar we studied?
Wendt
How is Knowledge constituted?
- post-modernists have argued that what we consider to be knowledge is shaped by “truth claims” made by powerful actors
- “history is written by the victors”–this shapes what we know
- power relations are reflected, enacted, and reified
define structure
the configuration of the global system, anarchy, distribution of power
define process
interaction and learning between and within states that gradually gives rise to new modes of behaviour, new norms
define exogenous
defined by outside
define endogenous
defined from within
identity and interest are _______
fluid, dynamic, and endogenous
for constructivists, identities and collective cognitions are ___________
“mutually constitutive”
Institutions as “structures” built of _________
identities and interests
actors are socialized to participate in ______ and to buy into ________
institutions and buy into a collective knowledge
institutions “do not exist ______________”
apart from actors’ ideas about how the world works
“self-help” world due to ______, not structure
process
self-help and power politics are ________, not essential features of anarchy
institutions
interstate relations are intersubjectively constituted, which means they are _________
based on conceptions of self and other
where does identity always exist?
within a specific, socially-constructed world?
state behaviour is what?
social interaction
anarchy is a what process?
interactive process between two subjects
What is an example of intersubjectivity between states?
states act defensivley, prepare for the worst, distrust each other
- other states then conform to these assumptions
- these interactions create a self-fulfilling prophecy
Is identity fixed?
no, it’s defined in relation to others and historically contingent
Identity is ________
mutually constituted
what is an example of identity being intersubective?
during the Cold War, to be American was not to be soviet, to be capitalist meant to not be communist, to be democratic meant to not be authoritarian
states identities and interests are _______
endogenous, as they are shaped through interaction
is constructivism a bottom-up or top-down view?
bottom-up
constructivists argue that states can create community by ______
uniting around common goals and interests
What do realists argue about community?
that states will form coalitions or alliances out of convenience and that true “community” is impossible
