Uses and Abuses of Field Theory

This paper discusses some of the trends in the social scientific research that presents itself as field theoretical. Current, mostly English language field analysis, construction, or “theory” in sociology, IR and European studies misses a lot of the original import of the structural constructivist approach. This literature reduces field analysis into a superficial objectifying exercise when it should be, following its methodological positions, a tool used to reflexively demystify social reality by revealing the power dynamics behind it. Field analysis should be seen as part of a critical, historically, socially and conceptually bound scholarly exploration of the social conditions of knowledge production. To counter an expanding isomorphic and “mainstreamed” interpretation of field analysis these dimensions need to be reintroduced into the scholarly discussion.