POLB80H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Scientific Modelling
Document Summary
Core constructivist assumptions: international relations are socially constructed. The concept of sovereignty is a social construct. The international system is a social construct. International institutions are social constructs: because humans created these social constructs, we can also change them and be changed by them. The entire experience of international relations is the product of human social interactions! Causation vs. mutual constitution: causal constructivists. Employ a social scientific model of causality. They design models wherein x y, but they use independent variables that other ir theories often overlook, such as norms, ideas, and social identities: other constructivists. Use a different method of developing theory, which emphasizes how the actors and their social systems are mutually constituted through their iterated social interactions. These scholars draw the causal arrows both ways. What"s causal according to constructivists: identities, ideas, norms, rules, social signals, institutions. Mutual constitution: identities and interests are mutually constituted what i am shapes how i behave .
