Read more
International organizations are the capitals of global governance with many functions from policy making and implementation; to peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction and development. They also organize the international flow of knowledge and have become a key building block of the epistemic foundations of international relations. This book challenges traditional models that treats IOs either as passive, technical infrastructures for states, or 'states bureaucracy', to argue for an understanding of IOs as sites that host practice. Drawing on theorizing from the 'practice turn' in IR theory, organizational studies and science and technology studies, it develops a different understanding of IOs which pays close attention to the diverse actions that perpetuate an IO, including the actions of statesmen, bureaucrats, activists, and researchers. The author uses the United Nations peacebuilding work as a case to demonstrate the value of practice based theorizing and methodology.
Peacebuilding is a paradigmatic case as it expresses many of the challenges of contemporary global governance, including high epistemic uncertainty, weak institutional structures, high liquidity and a multiplicity of actors. Providing a new analytical perspective on IOs this book will be of strong interest to students and scholars of international relations, international relations theory, international organizations and peacebuilding.
List of contents
1. Introduction: International Organizations Practice beyond the State + Bureaucracy Model 2. International Organizations in Practice 3. From Practice Theory to Praxiography 4. IOs and the Circulation of Concepts 5. Performing an IO: The Peacebuilding Commission’s search for Organizational Identity 6. Technologies of Governance at the UN7. Conclusion: Reflexivity and the Theory and Practice of IO Research
About the author
Christian Bueger is Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of Politics at Cardiff University, UK.
Summary
International organizations are the capitals of global governance with many functions from policy making and implementation; to peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction and development. They also organize the international flow of knowledge and have become a key building block of the epistemic foundations of international relations.
This book challenges traditional models that treats IOs either as passive, technical infrastructures for states, or ‘states + bureaucracy’, to argue for an understanding of IOs as sites that host practice. Drawing on theorizing from the ‘practice turn’ in IR theory, organizational studies and science and technology studies, it develops a different understanding of IOs which pays close attention to the diverse actions that perpetuate an IO, including the actions of statesmen, bureaucrats, activists, and researchers. The author uses the United Nations peacebuilding work as a case to demonstrate the value of practice based theorizing and methodology. Peacebuilding is a paradigmatic case as it expresses many of the challenges of contemporary global governance, including high epistemic uncertainty, weak institutional structures, high liquidity and a multiplicity of actors.
Providing a new analytical perspective on IOs this book will be of strong interest to students and scholars of international relations, international relations theory, international organizations and peacebuilding.
