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Global Governance
Political ScienceGlobal Governance

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Global Governance

The Invisible Constitution of Politics

This project focuses on the contested meanings of norms in a world of increasing international encounters. Here, Antje Wiener argues that cultural practices are less visible than organisational practices, but are constitutive for politics and need to be understood and empirically 'accounted' for. By comparing four elite group’s interpretations of norms such as democracy and human rights in the EU, she shows how they can mean different things, even to these frequently travelling elites.

The project has been supported by various British Academy grants, a fellowship at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Studies (HWK), Delmenhorst, a fellowship as ‘Guest of the President’ at the Science Centre for Social Research (WZB) in Berlin as well as the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA). 

The project was completed in 2008 and the findings have been published in:

  • Wiener, Antje (2008). The Invisible Constitution of Politics: Contested Norms and International Encounters, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (available as ebook and paperback (2012); read the I•CON review).
  • Wiener, Antje (2007). The Dual Quality of Norms and Governance beyond the State: Sociological and Normative Approaches to Interaction, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 10(1): 47-69 (Journal Website & pdf).
  • Wiener, Antje (2007). Contested Meanings of Norms: A Research Framework, Comparative European Politics 5(S1): 1-17 (Journal Website & pdf).
  • Wiener, Antje (2007). Das Normative in der Internationalen Politik: Unsichtbare Konsequenzen von Institutionenbildung?, Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen 14(1): 183-190 (Journal Website & pdf).
  • Wiener, Antje (2007). Fact or Artefact: Analysing Core Constitutional Norms in Beyond-the-State Contexts (Comment), Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1308-1313 (Journal Website & pdf).
  • Wiener, Antje (2007). Relazioni Internazionali e Costruttivismo: Puzzles e Promesse, Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, xxxvii, 25-54 [English Version published in ConWEB Webpapers on Constitutionalism and Governance Beyond the State 6/2006 (Journal Website & pdf)].
  • Wiener, Antje (2005). Umstrittenheit im Integrationsprozess: Widerstand = Scheitern?, Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen 12(2): 117-124 (Journal Webseite & pdf).