Lecture by Antje Wiener at LSEGlobal IR Theory: Contestation Repertoires and Normative Change

16 October 2017

Antje Wiener gave a lecture on "Global International Relations Theory: Contestation Repertoires and Normative Change" as part of the International Theory Workshop series at the London School of Economics which was organised by George Lawson and Kirsten Ainley and mainly addresses PhD students at the Department for International Relations at LSE (Workshop Programme PDF).

Abstract:

If norms lie in the practice and all practice is norm-generative, whose practices count? The lecture discusses this question with reference to global norm conflicts and local contestation. It advances an agency-centred exploratory approach to norms research in order to examine the local-global co-constitution of normative change. Each of the illustrative case scenarios on fundamental rights, torture prohibition and sexual violence prohibition, stages diverse groups of affected stakeholders in a global multilogue. The research demonstrates how diverse local capabilities are revealed through contestation, and the effect these practices have on the global normative structure of meaning-in-use. For example, while the torture prohibition norm may appear ‘robust’ despite some affected stakeholders’ efforts to justify the actual application of novel ‘interrogation techniques’, that finding applies to an empty norm ‘container’, as the moral substance of the norm is effectively discarded.