ABSTRACT
Over time, ideational layers usually coalesce into a more encompassing meaning constellation. Meaning constellations are constructed and maintained through communication and discursive processes (Schmidt 2010). As such, they influence how actors interpret the world around them, and, at the same time, animate their actions. The notion “constellation” indicates the durability, multidimensionality and complexity of such ideational frameworks. To evolve as a constellation, a configuration of ideational layers requires some degree of persistence. Moreover, ideas inform our beliefs about “what is and what ought to be” on different levels of abstraction (Schmidt 2010, 3). They take effect on an ontological level as big normative or ideological belief systems or philosophical ideas (Kuhn 1962), generate collective identities, or “imagined communities”, such as nations (Anderson 1983), evolve as programmatic paradigms like Keynesianism or the “politics of austerity” (Blyth 2002, 2013; Hall 1986, 1993), emerge on a more individual level as cognitive ideas or interest-based logics and can, finally, inform the evolution of public policies (Kingdon 1984; Sabatier 1988). Depending on the issue at stake, therefore, meaning constellations consist of ideational components residing on different scales.
