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.

中文翻译：

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外交学徒，或者我如何成为经合组织的另一名可替换的实习生


通过学徒的身体研究外交实践，我们能学到什么关于外交的知识？本文借鉴卢伊克·瓦奎特（Loïc Wacquant）的著作，认为为了理解国际政治不同实践领域中背景倾向、默示规则和情境知识的形成，研究人员应该将学徒制视为一个概念和一种方法论手段。这一论点基于作者在丹麦驻经合组织代表团实习期间的人种学观察。作为一个概念，学徒制培养了对习得习性过程中所体现的动力的敏感性。学徒期被构造为一种参与性的、有形的社会化过程，通过这个过程，有抱负的人在给定的实践领域中获得或未能获得预期的身份。从方法论上来说，通过学徒的身体研究启蒙实践使学者能够获得隐性知识的传播，同时认识到这些知识是在话语表征和逻辑推理下运作的。在推进这一论点时，本文突出了学徒的形象和学徒经历，作为深入了解外交、其他实践领域以及国际关系中更广泛的社会化领域的社会学习的渠道。