Description
An innovative avenue of inquiry brings practice theories into conversation with norm research in IR. The focus of this work is to understand how practices contribute to producing social change in the form of norms, defined as understandings of appropriateness. But practice scholars encounter methodological challenges stemming from the fact that practices are typically based on implicit/embodied knowledge that cannot be accessed solely via texts. Scholars therefore often conduct interviews or engage in participant observation. The paper contributes to this literature by arguing that visual analysis presents another useful way of studying practices. I argue that visuality makes practices visible or obscure, on display or hidden and thereby produces normative implications. The paper outlines a hands-on, interpretive approach to studying practices via visuals. It closes with an empirical sketch, analysing practices inherent to a visual depicting the BONUS system, so-called ‘smart’ munitions with autonomous features in targeting, as used by the Swedish delegation in a presentation to the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. The visual makes operating the system appear unproblematic and appropriate by limiting the imagination to an unrepresentative, empty conflict setting that is devoid of humans.
