Norm Bricolage and Policy Confusion: When Pluralism Undermines International Norm Coherence

Inspired by Beresford & Wand’s (2020) concept of norm bricolage, this research moves beyond the positive view of pluralism to theorize and empirically investigate when and how bricolage produces dysfunctional outcomes—policy confusion, contradictory expectations, or legitimacy crises in IOs. For example, in complex issues like transitional justice or climate governance, how does bricolage by different actors create “normative noise”? By systematically coding cases of norm contestation and tracing their institutional consequences, this project would challenge the assumption that more pluralism always means better governance. It offers a new lens for diagnosing why some international norms fail to gain traction or become sites of persistent conflict.

References:

1. Understanding bricolage in norm development: South Africa, the International Criminal Court, and the contested politics of transitional justice. Alexander Beresford, D. Wand (2020). Review of International Studies.