Microsoft Word Bueger isa 2007 Seven ways of studying ir draft doc

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(epistemic 
goals) they follow and how they relate to non-community members – what Fleck called 
exoteric 
communities
in contrast to 
esoteric communities
of scholars.
Textbook science – Fleck spoke of 
Populärwissenschaft
(popular science) – forms one type. 
Textbook sciences are constituted of these research practices which are the closest related to 
exoteric communities. Their key objective is 
Anschaulichkeit
(a term difficult to translate: maybe 
imaginary clearness?), to develop images and symbols of a research object to make it 
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I use the plural on purpose here. As the perspectives I discuss are, although related, very different. 
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Several works did not find their space here, but might in a future version of the paper. Most notably 
those are studies from feminism, and subfields of IR. (see also Fn. 4). 

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C. Büger – Seven ways of studying IR 
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comprehensive for exoteric communities. Rather then being interested in specific evidence of 
detailed components, the goal is to provide knowledge of an object by providing imaginaries.
Fleck contrasted this type of research practice with two others, 
Fachwissenschaft in Handbuchform
(specialized science in handbook format) and 
Zeitschriftenwissenschaft
(journal science). The latter 
types focus on evidence and detail, but yet differ. The objective of handbook science is to 
provide critical summaries into an ordered system. Journal science is of a personal and 
provisional character. According to Fleck journal science follows individual standpoints and 
personal working methods in a way that an addition of articles do not make up a unified organic 
whole. Articles are incongruent and contradictory. However, research articles are always related 
to handbook science, as they usually relate themselves to a unified whole, in providing a state of 
the art section or in ‘making a contribution to the literature’. This kind of science is none the less 
always tied to an individual and his work, which becomes obvious in the usage of terms such as 
“I am” and a defensive style of reasoning such as “I attempt to show”, etc. In contrast handbook 
science is de-personalized, detached from personal opinions and works. Therefore terms such as 
“it is”, etc. are used.
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Fleck’s highlights the different objectives of research practices and that they are related to 
different audiences. His distinction is useful as it, first, stresses that textbooks are a very different 
genre then other forms of science and usually not address the esoteric community. Hence we 
shall not expect a high degree of reflexivity or a sophisticated usage of science studies from IR 
textbooks. Nonetheless, also textbooks are in need of an ordering device, which in principle can 
be drawn from science studies resource. Second, some of the publications in my inventory come 
in the format of handbook science (Schmidt 2002?), the majority is, however, journal science.
a) IR textbooks usually start either with a certain definition of the object of analysis of IR (what is 
international relations?), with an introductory discussion of what theory is or can be, or with a 
short historical narrative of what has been, in the view of the authors, the important steps in the 
development of the discipline.
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These introductions also provide the ordering device of the 
books. Either, the device is the history of world politics, and IR developments are described as a 
(causal) reaction to world political events. Or, some interpretation of Kuhn’s ‘paradigm’ is used 
as a more sophisticated version of speaking about theory. Then, or, if the ordering device is more 
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In