Having completed the course, participants will: gain a conceptual and substantive understanding of how the practice approach has been used within security, diplomatic, and peace studies; be able to critically assess how practice approaches relate to the main theoretical approaches in international relations; be able to evaluate methodological strategies for designing practice-oriented research.

The practice turn focused scholarly attention on the role that habits, understandings, and practices play in shaping international relations.  The premise of this approach is that social reality is constituted by individuals acting upon and in the world, and their ways of doing things and their discursive practices and understandings shape the nature of international relations.  Security, diplomatic and peace studies have been domains in which the practice approach has flourished.  The practice turn has also served an important bridge between the scholarly and practitioner communities. This workshop will situate the practice turn within the broader study of international relations and, in hands-on activities, will help students consider how to incorporate a practice approach into their research projects on security, diplomacy and peace studies.  As such, preparatory work by the participants, including a short paper, is required prior to the workshop.  Participants must be prepared to use moodle as part of the preparatory work for the course.  Following the workshop, participants will complete a 10 page paper incorporating a practice approach.

Pre-requisite:  students should have completed or take concurrently the program’s research design course.

Additional reading, essay themes and further instructions will be given later.  

Max 16 students will be taken to research workshop.

Those accepted  will start  working  at the moodle  one week before, March 27th."