Contesting the World

Over the past thirty years, norms research has evolved into a significant subfield within International Relations and beyond. 'Contesting the World' delves into the development of norms, exploring their emergence, change and legitimacy on both domestic and international levels. This in-depth volume presents the interpretation-contestation framework, positioning it as the primary theoretical mechanism for understanding norms. Leading scholars spanning diverse sub-fields and epistemological perspectives investigate the crucial aspects of norm development including norm strength, collision and conflict; interaction and linkages; and the illumination of historical norm development through contestation. 'Contesting the World' offers a fresh perspective on norms research, focusing on ideas, social facts, norm adaptation, and the shift towards viewing norms as processes. It is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of norms and their impact on international relations. A fascinating exploration of norms, contestation and the ever-changing world of global politics.

Phil Orchard is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Wollongong and the Co-Director of the UOW Future of Rights Centre. His books include Protecting the Internally Displaced: Rhetoric and Reality and A Right to Flee: Refugees, States, and the Construction of International Cooperation, which won the 2016 International Studies Association Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Studies Section Distinguished Book Award. He is the co-editor, with Alexander Betts, of Implementation in World Politics: How Norms Change Practice (2014), with Charles Hunt, of Constructing the Responsibility to Protect: Contestation and Consolidation (2020).

Antje Wiener holds the Chair of Political Science, especially Global Governance at the University of Hamburg. Before coming to Hamburg she held Chairs in International Studies at Queen's University Belfast and the University of Bath. With James Tully she is co-founding editor of Global Constitutionalism published with CUP since 2012, and she edits the Norm Research in International Relations Series with Springer. Her book Contestation and Constitution of Norms in Global International Relations with CUP (2018) was awarded the International Law Section's Book Prize in 2020. Other books include A Theory of Contestation (Springer 2014) and The Invisible Constitution of Politics: Contested Norms and International Encounters (CUP 2008). She is an elected By-Fellow of Hughes Hall University of Cambridge since 2017, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences since 2011, and a Member of the Academia Europea since 2020.