Constructivism, Norms, and the World Bank

Vetterlein, Antje; Park, Susan

Abstract

Constructivists have had a significant impact on analyzing how international organizations (IOs) operate. This chapter establishes the main tenets of constructivism and how it has been taken up by IO scholars and applied to the World Bank. It identifies how constructivism was first used to open the ‘black box’ of IOs, arguing that they are purposeful actors. We introduce the crucial constructivist concept of ‘norms’ to show how both research areas have been mutually influential. Research on the Bank has been at the forefront of advancing insights into IO behavior, as norm consumers and diffusers. Not only does the Bank adopt new norms, but research has also been central to understanding the relationship between norms and policies. Constructivist World Bank scholarship in turn has influenced norms research in International Relations theory (IR), with implications for the future direction of social theorizing such as current research on norm localization and translation.