[Interpretationandmethods] CfP - Institutionalising Discourse

[Philip Liste]

Dear all,

We are organising a panel on "Institutionalising Discourse" for the conference of the World International Studies Committee in July 2008 in Ljubljana. We would be glad to have one or two more papers on the panel. Thus, we encourage anyone interested in this topic to send us a paper proposal for our panel (find a short description below). Please contact us (freistein at hsfk.de and (!) liste at hsfk.de) for any further questions you might have. We would be very grateful if we could get a short abstract until Thursday evening (November 29). 

We sincerely apologise for sending this CfP around on such short notice!


Best regards,
Katja Freistein
Philip Liste


Conference Website: http://www.wiscnetwork.org/call_for_papers.php


WISC - Panel Abstract: Institutionalising Discourse

While recent interpretive (or discourse theoretical) scholarship in IR has elaborated on different topoi of international affairs, research that explicitly takes issue with the construction of meaning within (international) institutions and/or the characteristics of institutionalised modes of discursive reproduction of meaning is still rare. Although motives of institutionalised discourses can be traced, for example, in the work of Foucault and a whole array of Foucault-inspired "governmentality" research, post-structuralist writings at large do not provide interpretive IR with guidance. Institutions are noticeably absent in research that is based on the ideas of thinkers like Derrida or Laclau and Mouffe.

What could be the solution? This certainly depends on the perspective: "institutions" could be framed as a concept, that is as a signifier floating within the discourse, or as a bureaucratised sector of a (world) societal discourse, or as realms of institutionalised power.
The aim of the panel is both to discuss theoretical notions of institutions within a discourse-oriented framework and to contribute to a better understanding within interpretive studies about the discursive politics of international institutions.


_______________________________
Philip Liste
Research Associate
Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (HSFK)
Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF)
Leimenrode 29
60322 Frankfurt am Main
+49-(0)69-959104-40
liste at hsfk.de