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Contestation ‘all the way down’? The grammar of contestation in norm research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2016

Holger Niemann  and
Henrik Schillinger
Holger Niemann*
Affiliation:
Associate Fellow, Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), University of Duisburg-Essen Leuphana University Lüneburg
Henrik Schillinger*
Affiliation:
Researcher, Institute of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen
*
*Correspondence to: Holger Niemann, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststrasse 1, 21335 Lüneburg. Author’s email: holger.niemann@leuphana.de
**Correspondence to: Henrik Schillinger, Institute of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstrasse 65, 47057 Duisburg. Author’s email: henrik.schillinger@uni-due.de
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Abstract

The meaning of norms is empirically contested. Supposing an inherent instability of norm meaning, contestation, therefore, represents a fundamental conceptual challenge to the mainstream view on norms as shared understandings. By offering a grammatical reading of Antje Wiener’s approach to contestation, we examine how norm research addresses this challenge to its theoretical core assumption. We argue that the grammar of Wiener’s approach, despite its reflexive starting point, ultimately reintroduces an understanding of norms as facts and leads to a normative ‘politics of reality’. This effectively turns contestation into a disruption of the ‘normal’ state of norms. Demonstrating the challenges of theorising norms with rather than against contestation, the article concludes that norm research has yet to find ways to account for contestation ‘all the way down’ in order to sustain norms as a productive analytical concept in IR.

Keywords

ContestationNorm ResearchGrammatical ReadingMeaning-in-use
Type
Articles
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 29 - 49
Copyright
© British International Studies Association 2016 

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References

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77 Wiener, A Theory of Contestation, p. 27.

78 Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics, p. 64.

79 Whereas the 2008 monograph refers to transnationalisation and internationalisation, the 2014 monograph includes the terms transnationalisation and globalisation. See Wiener, A Theory of Contestation, p. 56.

80 Ibid., p. 21.

81 Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics, p. 47.

82 Ibid., p. 131.

83 Wiener, A Theory of Contestation, p. 56.

84 Checkel, ‘Norms, institutions, and national identity in contemporary Europe’.

85 At least, Wiener does not offer an argument to explain how encounters could affect the domestic cultural validation of norms.

86 Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics, p. 64.

87 We thank one of the anonymous reviewers for clarifying that point.

88 Zehfuss, Constructivism in International Relations, p. 92.

89 Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics, p. 69.

90 In her 2014 monograph, Wiener shifts her argument from the invisible constitution to a distinction between empirical contestation (‘contestedness’) and contestation as a political practice. However, empirical contestation is still connoted with being unreflected and unintended by political actors. We argue that it is conceptually equivalent to invisibility. See Wiener, A Theory of Contestation, pp. 58–62.

91 Ibid., p. 41.

92 Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics, p. 69.

93 Ibid., pp. 112–13.

94 Ibid., p. 147.

95 Wiener, ‘Contested meanings of norms’ pp. 3–4.

96 Wiener, A Theory of Contestation, p. 33.

97 Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics, p. 85.

98 Such a move yet again points to the accidental rather than deliberate character of contestation and to the ontologisation of norms as fixed meaning. Accordingly, Wiener later distinguishes a (empirical and unintended) practice of contestation, a normative principle of contestedness, and a policy instrument of regular contestation. Wiener, A Theory of Contestation, p. 58.

99 Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics, p. 70.

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102 Ibid., p. 211.

103 Wiener, A Theory of Contestation, p. 59.

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106 Ibid., p. 204.

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112 Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics, pp. 149–50.

113 Ibid., p. 99.

114 Wiener, The Invisible Constitution of Politics, p. 211.

115 Wiener, A Theory of Contestation, p. 60.

116 Ibid., p. 66.

117 This also holds true for the potential of organising principles and ‘regular contestation’ as they explicitly tend to normalise contestation.

118 Epstein, ‘Constructivism or the eternal return of universals in International Relations’, p. 501.

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120 See our earlier discussion on the various perspectives on contestation in constructivist norm research.

121 For example, Renner’s account of reconciliation, in Renner, Discourse, Normative Change and the Quest for Reconciliation or Methmanns examination of climate change discourse, in Methmann, ‘“Climate protection” as empty signifier’ could be understood as applying norms in that direction.

122 Kratochwil, ‘How do norms matter?’.