Description
My proposed contribution explores how feminist and de-colonial activists contest nuclear weapons governance “from below”, particularly in an increasingly digital world. Drawing on practice theory and norm contestation scholarship, the research explores how feminist and de-colonial actors contest nuclear ordering and norms through bottom-up practices. Methodologically, it utilises praxiography, digital ethnography, and participatory workshops. Preliminary findings reveal actors critiquing a ‘nuclear habitus’ — a gendered and hierarchical field maintained through technostrategic discourse and institutional gatekeeping — and the development of corresponding counter-practices through which feminists reimagine nuclear politics. In this process, they are frequently constituting their contestation practices through combining activism, academia, and art. I am contributing to the conferences’ aim for making IR ‘fit for the future’ through three theoretical and methodological advancements: First, foregrounding micro-practices of contestation, the research contributes to rethinking global nuclear ordering and re-centres to governance from below. Second, through digital ethnography, I develop a toolkit for analysing and reflecting upon new activist practices in a digital world, and contribute to understanding how digitalisation changes hierarchical dynamics in ‘the international’. Third, through conducting workshops with activists and artists, I widen IR’s understanding of ‘expertise’ and use futuring as a stimulus: imagining the future, either utopias or dystopias, has proven an effective method for groups to engage in discussions.
