CH9. Social Constructivism
여러부운 힘내세요오오~
Ga Young Park
Various versions of Constructivism but..
Common concerns
How ideas define the int’l structure.
How this structure shapes the identities interests and foreign policies of states
How state and non-state actors reproduce that structure- and at times transform it.
Making and remaking of world politics.
1. States around similar ways for organizing their domestic and int’l life
2. How norms become international and institutionalized
- Globally accepted to the point that they constrain what states and non-state actors do
& influence their ideas of what is legitimate behavior
Comparison to Rational Choice(합리주의자)
Rational choice
- social theory that offers a frame work for understanding how actors operate with fixed reference
which they attempt to maximize under a set of constraints.
- no claims about the actual patterns of world politics.
ex) Neo liberalism subscribe to rational choice but they arrive at rival claims about patterns of
conflict and cooperation in world politics because they make different assumptions about the effects
of anarchy.
Constructivism
Social theory, not a substantive theory of int’l politics
 Broadly concerned with the relationship b/w agents and structure
Have different arguments regarding the rise of sovereignty and the impact of human rights norms on
states.
“ Constructivism is about human consciousness and its role in int’l life”(Ruggie)
According to Wendt Focusing on human consciousness suggests
 Commitment to idealism and holism
1. Idealism
It demands that we take seriously the role of ideas in world politics.
The word is defined by material and ideational force.
Ideas social
Mental maps- shaped by collectively held ideas such as knowledge, symbols, language,
and rules.
Idealism does not reject material reality but instead observe that the meaning of construction of
that material reality is dependent on ideas and interpretation.
Balance of power does not objectively exist out there waiting to be discovered; instead states
debate what the balance of power is, what its meaning is, and how they should respond.
CH9. Social Constructivism
여러부운 힘내세요오오~
2. Holism (or Structuralism)
The world is irreducibly social and cannot be decomposed to the properties of already existing actors.
Holism does not deny agency but instead recognize that agents have some autonomy and their
interactions help to construct, reproduce, and transform those structures.
Ex) cold war
Structure locked up US and USSR to fight to the death
But, leaders or both sides creatively transformed their relations and with it, the very structure
of global politics.
Core observation of constructivism
1. Social construction of reality
Emphasis on the socially constructed nature of actors and their identities and interests
Actors are not born outside and prior to society
- Actors are produced and created by their cultural environment. Nurture
2. How knowledge (symbols, rules, concepts, and categories) shapes
How individuals construct and interpret their world.
Knowledge- historically produced, culturally bounded.
With this knowledge  individuals can construct and give meaning to reality.
3. Things that frequently taken for granted
Concerns with the origins of those social construct that how appear to us as natural and now part
of our social vocabulary
Ex) sovereignty did not always exist. It is a product of historical forces and human interpretations.
Human interpretation that can force history to change course
Ex) 9.11 Bush administration arguably transformed the direction of world politics
How actors make their activities meaningful?
 Attempt to recover the meanings that actors give to their practices and the objects that they
construct.
Culture
Informs the meaning that people give to their action (<-> Realists: constrains action)
Culture is fractured and because society is comprised of different interpretations of what is
meaningful activity
How to define particular activities?
Development, human rights, security, humanitarian intervention, sovereignty, etc.
Social Facts
Things whose existence is dependent on human agreement.
Brute facts  exist without human agreement
Social facts They will only exist only when agreement exist and their existence shapes how we
categorize the world and what we do. Ex) money, refugees, terrorism etc.
CH9. Social Constructivism
여러부운 힘내세요오오~
Social construction of reality shapes what is viewed as legitimate action
Constitutive
Regulative
:Logic of consequences
: Logic of appropriateness
Attributes action to the anticipated costs and How actors are rule-following, worrying about
benefits mindful that other actors are doing just whether their actions are legitimate
the same
However,
Not necessarily competing
Appropriate and legitimate can affect the possible costs of different actions
More illegitimate a possible costs of different actions
The higher the potential cost for those who proceed on their own
Constructivism vs. Rational Choice
Actors
Interests
Effect of the environment
Logic
Constructivism
Social
Constructed by the environment
and interactions
Constrain and regulate the
actions of already constituted
actors
+ Construct the actors’
identities and interests
Logic of consequences to
understand behavior
+ logic of appropriateness
Rational Choice
Pre-social
Fixed
Constrain and regulate the
actions of already constituted
actors
Logic of consequences
understand behavior
to
Alternative way of thinking “power”
Most int’l relation theorists think power as
- ability of one state to compel another state to do what it otherwise would not
material technologies: important
military power & economic statecraft
Constructivists think
- forces of power go beyond material and can be ideational
Even great power will frequently feel the need to alter their polices in order to be viewed as
legitimate or bear consequences.
CH9. Social Constructivism
여러부운 힘내세요오오~
Legitimacy
Constraining power of legitimacy
Effects of power go beyond the ability to change behavior
: Power includes how knowledge, the fixing of meanings and the construction of identities allocate
differential rewards and capacities.
Social Constructivists
They have largely positioned their claims against 2 neos.
& they clarfiied the differences by contrasting constructivism and rational choice.