Apprenticeship in Diplomacy, or How I Became Another Replaceable Intern at the OECD

Abstract

What can we learn about diplomacy by studying its practice through the body of an apprentice? Drawing on the works of Loïc Wacquant, this article argues that to understand the making of background dispositions, tacit rules, and situated know-how in international politics' diverse fields of practice, researchers ought to consider apprenticeship as a concept and a methodological device. This argument is based on ethnographic observations from the author's internship at the Delegation of Denmark to the OECD. As a concept, apprenticeship cultivates a sensitivity to the embodied dynamics at play in acquiring habitus. An apprenticeship is structured as a participatory and corporeal process of socialization through which an aspirant acquires or fails to acquire a prospective identity within a given field of practice. Methodologically, studying practices of initiation through the body of an apprentice enables scholars to access tacit knowledge transmissions while recognizing that such knowledge operates beneath discursive representation and logical reasoning. In advancing this argument, the article foregrounds the figure of the apprentice and the experience of apprenticeship as conduits for gaining insights into social learning in diplomacy, other fields of practice, and the broader domain of socialization in International Relations. © The Author(s) (2024).

Keywords

Author Keywords

Not provided

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole, San Domenico di Fiesole, FI, Italy

Funding & Acknowledgements

Københavns Universitet, KU

An earlier version of this article was presented at BISA 2023, and I am grateful for the comments and questions offered on this occasion. For their careful, constructive, and critical engagement with earlier versions of this work, I would like to thank Anne-Mette Sundahl, Christian Bueger, Constance Duncombe, Dean Cooper-Cunningham, Emilie Fabricius, Frederik B. Jerris, Iver B. Neumann, Jeffrey T. Checkel, Kristin A. Eggeling, Maja I. Stoltz, Matilde B. Hansen, Matthias Humer, Megan MacKenzie, Nora S\u00F6derberg, Olivia H. Hammersh\u00F8y, Rebecca Adler-Nissen, Stefano Guzzini, Stephanie C. Hofmann, Vincent Pouliot, Yevgeniy Golovchenko, participants in the EUI's 2022-2023 seminar \u201CReviewing and Publishing in International Relations\u201D and \u201CInternational Relations Theory Working Group,\u201D students at the University of Copenhagen's 2023 summer school \u201CDiplomacy in the Digital Age,\u201D and the editors and three anonymous reviewers of International Political Sociology. I extend a special thanks to Lene Hansen for spurring me on to turn what started as an internship report into this article and mentoring me along the way, and to my former colleagues at the Delegation of Denmark to the OECD, without whom there would be no article, for their sincere interest, support, and collegiality.

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Apprenticeship in Diplomacy, or How I Became Another Replaceable Intern at the OECD

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