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SoSe 18: From Diffusion to Translation: Norm Adaptation and Resistance in International Relations and the Global South (Part I)

Thomas Risse

Comments

Almost thirty years of research on the origins and effects of international norms have yielded important insights into how and under what conditions legal and other norms enshrined in in-ternational agreements affect domestic change in various target countries. Various socializa-tion, diffusion, and compliance approaches have usually taken a “top down” perspective by investigating how domestic actors internalize, adjust to, and adopt international norms. More recently, localization and vernacularization perspectives (the latter mostly in social anthropol-ogy) have emphasized the agency of local and domestic actors in the process of norm imple-mentation and adaptation. Finally, translation approaches in cultural studies focus on the changes in meanings and interpretations when international norms travel “between the global and the local.” The Projektkurs examines the diffusion of international norms as processes of translation and contestation between the global and the local in the areas of trade, climate change, human rights, and the rule of law across world regions with a particular emphasis on the Global South: How and under what conditions are norms translated “between the global and the local,” lead-ing to various degrees of change in institutions and behavior? In the first part, the seminar covers socialization, compliance, and diffusion research in international relations, work on legal transfers, and translation studies to develop scope conditions for the effects of various trans-lations on institutional and behavioral change. The second part – during the fall term of 2018-19 – will then apply the theoretical arguments to various empirical with regard to international trade and climate change, on the one hand, and human rights as well as the rule of law, on the other hand. Case studies might involve countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia varying colonial legacies, regime type, and degrees of (limited) statehood resulting in different degrees of norms resonance, legal traditions, public arenas, as well as legal and normative pluralism. The Projektkurs is targeted at MA students in the various study programs. Students have to sign up for both parts. close