Making Sense, Making Worlds: Constructivism in Social Theory and International Relations

Nicholas Onuf is a leading scholar in international relations and introduced constructivism to international relations, coining the term constructivism in his book World of Our Making (1989). He was featured as one of twelve scholars featured in Iver B. Neumann and Ole Wæver, eds., The Future of International Relations: Masters in the Making?(1996); and featured in Martin Griffiths, Steven C. Roach and M. Scott Solomon, Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations, 2nd ed. (2009). This powerful collection of essays clarifies Onuf's approach to international relations and makes a decisive contribution to the debates in IR concerning theory. It embeds the theoretical project in the wider horizon of how we understand ourselves and the world. Onuf updates earlier themes and his general constructivist approach, and develops some newer lines of research, such as the work on metaphors and the re-grounding in much more Aristotle than before. Following on from World of Our Making, that emphasized the processes and consequences of world-making-making together, making at cross purposes, making work, making over, this book shifts emphasis, to the twin tasks of making sense of the world we are forever making and finding a sense of purpose in our strivings. This important book will be vital reading for students and scholars of international relations, international relations theory, social theory and law.