ABSTRACT
A‘reconstruction’ of the IR field along constructivist lines involves, first of all, an emphasis on the importance of rules and norms in all social relations. This is what makes constructivism cross-disciplinary. The stress on rules is, furthermore, what connects micro-and macro-levels of analysis to each other and, thereby, as Onuf points out with reference to Wittgenstein, a position that directs our attention from epistemology to ontology. In this concluding section I will focus on three (though not Onuf s ‘magic three’) central points of criticism and suggestions for future constructivist investigations. The first is concerned on the one hand with Onuf s quest for an all-embracing and cross-disciplinary approach to world politics and social analysis and on the other with his curious neglect of an entire bulk of writings in recent post-positivist social theory that explicitly attempts to integrate actor and structure perspectives. What the theorists that I am thinking of here build on is neo-Parsonian systems theory, ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionismin themselves complete and consistent theoretical frameworks that, quite clearly, could have supported any constructivist argument (for an overview see Alexander, Giesen, Munch and Smelser 1987; Knorr-Cetina and Cicourel 1981; see also Powell and Di-Maggio 1991; March and Olsen 1989). Like Giddens, these theoretical perspectives reject both methodological individualism and collectivism in favour of what Knorr-Cetina calls ‘methodological situationalism’ (Knorr-Cetina and Cicourel 1981:2). This implies among other things an acknowledgement of the knowledgeability of social actors parallel to a stress on the influence of macro-structures when the depth of societal transitions is to be assessed. Thus, even though the sociologists for long have emphasized the need to move from a ‘normative’ to a more ‘cognitive’ conception of rules in social theory, Onuf does not in any systematic way draw on this body of work in launching his version of constructivism.27
