Virtual Talk at the Federal University of Minas Gerais

On June 24, I gave a virtual talk on “Discursive Institutionalism: The Power of Ideas and Discursive Interactions in Theory and Practice” at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. The event took place as part of a series of international seminars with cutting edge scholars that have contributed to the organization of fields of research that are at the heart of the program.

My talk focused on what I call the “fourth” neo-institutionalism in political science, discursive institutionalism, which is a methodological approach to explanation focused on the substantive content of idea and the discursive processes of interaction in institutional context. It is complementary to other institutionalisms including rationalist, historical, and sociological. In my talk, I discussed the philosophical foundations of the approach, the many different methodologies it encompasses, and the nature of ideational and discursive power. I also considered different examples of its application to political economy and democracy.