Practical Reflexivity and Political Science: Strategies for Relating Scholarship and Political Practice

The simplistic but still influential, idea of a clear-cut boundary between science and politics does not capture the complexities of the ongoing “dialogue between science and politics”. Perhaps it never did. Critical Social Science from Mannheim to Kratochwil has made this painstakingly clear. Within IR and Security Studies, arguments about reflexivity abound and a range of dilemmas has surfaced as a consequence, making it intricate for the critical researcher to engage with practice. This contribution suggests systematization and strategies for tackling these dilemmas through a focus on practical reflexivity: The reflexivity about the social and practical positioning or ‘situatedness’ of researchers in their concrete interactions with the world of (policy) practice in which they juggle these pertinent dilemmas.