Pragmatic Sociology in International Relations: Tracing Practices of Justification and Critique Before and After the Eastern Enlargement
Abstract
The paper focuses on the European enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and on the shift in the rhetoric that some of the candidate states and members engaged in prior and after the enlargement. The objective is to trace the transition from arguments calling for an open society to those supporting nationalism and populism.
At the same time, the paper suggests that actors who find themselves at the centre of international relations have strong critical capacities, mobilize to coordinate their actions, test different claims against one another, and effect political change. This theoretical approach involves the application of the methodological toolkit provided by the pragmatic sociology of Luc Boltanski and his collaborator Laurent Thévenot.
Boltanski's pragmatic sociology focuses on the critical capacities and the practices of justification that actors engage in, particularly when they find themselves in situations of controversies and conflict. This approach allows an analysis that goes beyond conventional theories such as realism/rationalism or constructivism, which dominate the discipline of international relations, and suggests instead that a sociological approach could uncover interesting investigation paths and lead to new insights.