Constructivist Perspectives on International Political Economy - Hard Facts, Vague Ideas, Responsible Scholarship.

Constructivism has become a fairly accepted theoretical approach within International Relations during the last decades. It is now firmly integrated in the theoretical canon, although mostly in a moderate form which tries to bridge an ontology of constructivism with a loosely positivist stance as regards methodological and epistemological matters. On the other hand, the various debates on constructivist thinking have also built some inroads into International Political Economy. Nevertheless, ambivalence on behalf of much IPE scholars prevails with regard to constructivism. The paper starts by exploring some contours of this ambivalence, engaging the notions of an alleged vagueness and naïve voluntarism, respectively. It then goes on to describe what constructivism in IR stands for as well as what it might stand for. The main section analyzes several ‘constructivist inroads’ into IPE, either in the form of tacit assumptions or explicitly under the label ‘constructivism’; building on that, potentials for constructivism in IPE are explored.The final question tackled relates to eventual implications of the ideas put forth in this paper with regard to scholarly responsibility. I argue that from a discursive constructivist perspective (which inherently requires reflexivity on behalf of the researcher) responsibility above all means to avoid the trap of voluntary constructionism. To use constructivism responsibly also means to show that constructivism is not about inserting some vague concepts and lofty ideas, but is instead at the core of what constitutes IPE. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]