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From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing:
Demonstrating the Process of Reconceptualization
Eleanor Knott (LSE) and Audrey Alejandro (LSE)*
Accepted: 30 July 2024, Global Studies Quarterly
Abstract
In collecting data, analyzing data, or writing-up, researchers can nd that the concepts
they had decided to use and the available concepts in the literature are mismatched with
what they seek to explore and/or explain. This misalignment between concepts and ob-
servations can create analytical and theoretical blind spots, foreclosing the opportunity to
delve deeper into and articulate the specicities and complexities of what they observe.
Researchers experiencing such misalignment of concepts need strategies to help them
reconceptualize existing concepts, which we hope to provide here to help researchers de-
velop more nuanced and better-adapted concepts that provide more analytical, theoretical,
and empirical leverage. This article suggests a four-step process of reconceptualization, a
method for developing and iterating the concepts we employ in designing, conducting, and
writing-up research. This method of reconceptualization addresses a gap in the existing lit-
erature on concepts by providing a new, practical, accessible, and pedagogically-oriented
solution for this problem of misaligned concepts. We illustrate how to implement recon-
ceptualization by working with the concept of ‘local’ and offer two examples of how we
reconceptualized this concept in two projects in Dominica and Moldova. We show how, by
reconceptualizing an initial concept, we can move forward in developing new and recon-
ceptualized concepts. Hence, this article also offers two concepts: ‘local-international’ and
‘internationalized local’, that are more attuned to what we observe and richer in their em-
pirical and analytical potential.
Introduction
There are as many ways to conduct an empirical research project as there are researchers. But
most follow a similar pattern: they start by formulating their research problem that outlines
the issue of interest. Then, they conduct a literature review and identify a gap in the literature
that aligns with the research problem. Subsequently, they design their research by formulat-
ing their research question, identifying concepts that pertain to their object of interest, thinking
about how empirically to observe (or operationalize) their concepts of interest, and developing
a data collection and data analysis strategy. After iterating these stages, they set upon con-
ducting the research. However, at various stages, whether in collecting data, analyzing data,
*Correspondence: e.k.knott@lse.ac.uk
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
or writing-up, researchers might identify a conceptual misalignment where they identify that
concepts they had set upon using, and the available concepts in the literature, fall short, lack
nuance, or are mismatched with what they seek to explore, explain, and/or make legible. Here,
researchers have a choice: to keep using the concept despite the misalignment or develop
better-attuned concepts. Researchers might often opt for the rst choice. But, doing so might
misrepresent what we are observing, and diminish our analytical richness and our capacity to
articulate it.
On the other hand, if researchers want to develop better-attuned concepts, to date there
has been little practical guidance. This lacuna might be acceptable for some researchers, but it
can be a challenge if not a source of struggle for many. We argue that researchers experiencing
such misalignment of concepts need strategies to help them reconceptualize existing concepts,
to help them develop better-attuned concepts that are more aligned, and have better empirical,
analytical, and theoretical leverage.
This article provides such methodological and pedagogical guidance by suggesting a new
four-step process of reconceptualization, a method for developing and iterating the concepts
we employ in designing, conducting, and writing-up research. This method is designed to
be a practical, accessible, and pedagogically-oriented solution. Our point of departure is not
that developing concepts is a new idea (since it is not). Instead, our point of departure is that
researchers often need guidance on developing, adapting, and innovating existing concepts.
Our method of reconceptualization bridges two bodies of literature. First, we draw inspira-
tion from Sartori Sartori (1970), who cautions against stretching concepts by taking them down
the “ladder of abstraction”. Second, we take inspiration from linguistic approaches to concepts
for their reexive attention to the use of language (Guzzini 2013; Berenskoetter 2017; Ish-
Shalom 2021). These approaches may seem antagonistic since they view language differently
and typically relate language to concepts, and vice versa, in ways that otherwise appear con-
trasting.1Inspired by our methodological and pedagogical impetus, we aim to bring together
these two diverging approaches. In doing so, we demonstrate the areas in common across
these two seemingly diverging approaches. We also demonstrate the need for practical and
accessible solutions to concepts that supersede scholarly disagreements over language. In
designing this process of reconceptualization, we take an ecumenical and pluralistic stance on
how scholars might conceive of the relationship between concepts and language. However
one approaches this relationship, we intend for reconceptualization to help provide guidance
that otherwise might not exist.
Hence, our rst aim for reconceptualization is that it is widely accessible, especially to those
whose projects do not require them to be or become experts in the use of language. Assistance
for developing and adapting concepts should not only be the purview of linguistically-oriented
scholars. After all, all scholars can experience the problem of misalignment regardless of
1. These diverging approaches might seem to model the two stages of Wittgenstein’s approach to language,
from his early rst approach (his “picture theory of language”), to his later approach, which critiqued such an ap-
proach, inspired much of postmodern scholarship, and took a “meaning in use” approach to language (Fierke 2010;
Grimmel and Hellmann 2019; Epstein 2013). Those inspired by and aligned with Wittgenstein’s later approach
can see those aligned with his earlier approach as ostensibly wrong or mistaken. We take a more pluralist ap-
proach where we aim to provide guidance to reconceptualization regardless of one’s own approach to language,
or expertise therein.
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
whether they devote themselves to language or not. Second, we aim that reconceptualiza-
tion is useful and relevant regardless of one’s epistemic priors. Positivist, interpretivist, and
critical scholars can all experience challenges regarding concepts and deserve accessible and
implementable guidance.
Turning to the ‘local’, the example we take in this article, we also see how scholars can often
critique this concept in terms of how we understand its relations to other concepts like ‘inter-
national’. Yet, they keep ‘local’ intact as a concept. Thus, we seek to offer a process that can
help innovate and alter existing concepts, not least when they are misaligned to understand,
analyze, and explain the complexities of the social world. As a result of reconceptualization,
we can better attune our concepts to what we observe and seek to explain. In doing so, this
article offers two new concepts: ‘local-international’ and ‘internationalized local’.
This article proceeds, rst, by briey reviewing Sartori’s and linguistic approaches to con-
cepts to show that drawing these together provides a solid foundation for reconceptualization.
Second, we detail the four-step process of reconceptualization. Third, we demonstrate how to
implement reconceptualization via two examples of how we came to reconceptualize ‘local’. In
each, we trace how we realized we needed to reconceptualize this concept and the steps we
took to reconceptualize it. We show how, by reconceptualizing an initial concept, we can move
forward in developing a reconceptualized concept that is more attuned to what we observe
and richer in its empirical and analytical potential.
Existing Approaches to Working with Concepts
This section reviews two existing approaches in political science and IR to working with con-
cepts: those inspired by Sartori’s ladder of abstraction and those that follow a more linguistic
and reexive approach to concepts. Here, our goal is not an exhaustive review of all relevant
literature within or beyond these approaches. Instead, our goal is to bridge these approaches
that can often seem quite disparate, to unpack how each engages with concepts, and to con-
sider how each offers solutions for developing concepts.
The Ladder of Abstraction
For Sartori (1970), concepts function descriptively as “data containers” and as the rst step of
research design, preceding measurement and empirically deploying such measurements. Sar-
tori (1970) advocated a taxonomic approach to concepts. A taxonomic approach is borrowed
from the natural sciences, where biologists seek to distinguish between and thereby classify
different species. Using this metaphor, for Sartori, concepts need distinct attributes that allow
one concept (A) to have distinct attributes so that it is mutually exclusive and can be discrimi-
nated from another concept (B). We could also see this approach as a medical diagnostic tool
to distinguish between condition A’s common symptoms (attributes) from those of condition
B.
To maintain this taxonomic approach, Sartori (1970) cautioned against concept stretching,
where a concept’s denition gradually expands to enable more cases to be tted within that
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
concept. The result would be that we cannot determine between an instance of one concept (A)
or another (B). Sartori’s solution was the “ladder of abstraction”, as a process of moving from
more universalizing rst-order concepts to more specic second-order sub-types of concepts.
Sartori’s ladder of abstraction has been particularly inuential among positivist scholars in
political science and IR (Gerring 1999; Collier and Gerring 2009; Mair 2008; Schmitter 2008;
Kasten 2017). For example, (Collier and Levitsky 1997) provide a prominent example by taking
the concept of ‘democracy’ down the ladder of abstraction to introduce sub-types of democracy
“with adjectives” (such as “hybrid democracy”).
Sartori’s technique of a “semantic eld” is especially useful for helping scholars rene, spec-
ify, and articulate a concept’s sub-types (Masullo 2021), including more critical scholars (see
Herborth 2022). Identifying a concept’s semantic eld helps us identify the attributes of the
initial concept and contrasting concepts (Rauta 2021). Hence, we can determine where the
boundary lies, for example, between ‘peace’ (initial concept) and ‘war’ or ‘conict’ (contrasting
concepts). To identify a concept’s semantic eld, we pinpoint those concepts and terms related
to the initial concept, such as synonyms (alike terms) and antonyms (opposite terms). Here,
‘conict’ and ‘war’ are antonyms within the semantic eld of ‘peace’, or ‘authoritarianism’ is an
antonym within the semantic eld of ‘democracy’.
Three limits, however, persist in Sartori’s approach that we address in developing our
method of reconceptualization. First, Sartori’s approach can take concepts – and the dichotomies
they imply (e.g., democracy and authoritarianism) – at face value. Instead, (Collier and Adcock
1999, 545) advise a more “graded approach” of using “multiple cut-points”, and a more iter-
ative approach to concept specication that responds to cases and observations (Adcock and
Collier 2001). Second, Sartori’s taxonomic approach can be too restrictive by assuming clear
boundaries between concepts as if all cases of a concept must share the same “dening prop-
erties” (Collier and Mahon 1993). Collier and Mahon (1993) suggest a looser approach where
all instances do not necessarily have to share all properties of an ideal type form of a concept.
Third, Sartori’s approach, including his adherents cited here, aligns more with a positivist ap-
proach to research. Hence, its usefulness can be limited for post-positivist researchers – e.g.,
those within interpretivist and critical traditions – who may have a different understanding of
the relationship between a researcher and their object of analysis, and the language they use
to describe such an object.
These limits highlight how, in developing the method of reconceptualization, we need to
offer tools that allow for (1) iteration when developing and redeveloping concepts, (2) concepts
to exist beyond – and also across – a binary, and (3) be relevant for researchers regardless of
their epistemologies (i.e., whether they are positivist or post-positivist). Hybrid concepts, for
example, that combine elements pertaining to terms within an otherwise opposing binary (or
spectrum) – such as democracy and authoritarianism, or peace and war – are both possible and
productive, and we aim to provide tools for developing them.
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
Linguistic Approaches to Concepts
Since the linguistic turn in IR, scholars taking a linguistic approach to concepts critique Sar-
tori for taking the language used in concepts at face-value rather than interrogating it (Bevir
and Kedar 2008; Çapan and Grzybowski 2022). Proponents of this approach emphasize con-
cepts’ central and necessary communicative role in providing the “language” and “frameworks”
of what we seek to explain and understand (Berenskoetter 2017, 152). Here, concepts are
the “ontological building blocks of theory” (Guzzini 2013, 535). Chiey, linguistic approaches
highlight the socio-political and spatio-temporal embeddedness of concepts and underline the
need to understand and situate a concept’s meaning within its broader socio-political contexts
(Somers 1995; Guzzini 2013; Owens 2016; Wilkens and Kessler 2021; Mitrani 2021).
First, linguistic approaches highlight how language matters because if we fail to contextu-
alize concepts, we can miss their role in guiding, determining, or constraining what we observe
in the rst place (Reus-Smit 2016; Powel 2020). We can overlook how norms, morals, and
preferences are embedded in concepts. For example, linguistic approaches argue that con-
cepts of ‘peace’ and ‘war’, or ‘democracy’ and ‘authoritarianism’, are not neutral terms devoid
of context. Rather, they are embedded in moral hierarchies that position one as more desir-
able, superior, and in opposition to, the other. If we fail to account for these norms, or explore
their origin, we can repeat these dichotomies uncritically, without accounting for the messier
and more nuanced reality that does not align with such neat dichotomies (Ish-Shalom 2021,
16).
Second, language matters when translating and using concepts across different socio-
political contexts and languages. We should not expect one concept to work equally or be
transposable from one context to another (Costa Lopez et al. 2018). Indeed, scholars pre-
cisely study the process of “vernacularization” whereby global norms, such as human rights,
are translated by actors into everyday practices and discourses in different contexts (Merry
2005; Zimmermann 2016). The solution offered by linguistic approaches is to prioritize a
more reexive and critical engagement with the concepts we use, often via conceptual analysis
(Reus-Smit 2016; Berenskoetter 2017; Wilkens and Kessler 2021).
However, this solution has two limitations for our purposes. First, to our knowledge, lin-
guistic approaches do not provide practical tools for researchers who seek to adapt existing
concepts to situations that do not t (or develop new concepts). Instead, linguistic approaches
offer conceptual analysis as a solution, a method for analyzing the history of how a concept
has been used in the social world by actors (Peltonen 2019). Conceptual analysis, for example,
might unravel a concept theoretically (Berenskoetter 2017), expose how the meaning of con-
cepts has changed over time (Bueger 2021), or analyze the looseness, vagueness, and hollow-
ness of many concepts in use (Mitrani 2021). But conceptual analysis does not meet the needs
of all: many researchers want to employ concepts, rather than prioritize analysis of them or
commit to training in conceptual analysis. The method of reconceptualization, therefore, needs
to be accessible by all those who seek to rene their own use of concepts and implementable
within the design of a specic project, rather than constitute a secondary project on its own.
Stemming from this rst limitation is a second limitation whereby linguistic approaches,
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
principally, align with post-positivist epistemologies (e.g., interpretive and critical); that is to
say, they are harder to implement for positivist scholars, just as Sartori’s approach is harder
to implement for post-positivist scholars. We aim to build bridges between Sartori’s and lin-
guistic approaches and, more concretely, between positivist and post-positivist approaches.
Hence, reconceptualization needs to be implementable by a broad range of scholars, regard-
less of their epistemic priors.
Having reviewed these two bodies of literature in terms of how they approach concepts
and noted their limitations, we now shift to how we build the method of reconceptualization
by bridging these two approaches.
Beyond Sartori’s and Linguistic Approaches to Concepts: A Frame-
work for Reconceptualization
Reconceptualization is a method for adapting, innovating, and iterating the concepts we em-
ploy in the context of designing, conducting, and writing-up research, after we identify a con-
ceptual misalignment, i.e., we identify that the initial concept is neither the best analytical nor
linguistic tool to describe, understand, analyze, and/or explain what we seek. On the one hand,
we bridge Sartori’s and linguistic approaches to concepts. Our method of reconceptualization
emphasizes that these two approaches are not as disparate as they may appear. One may
emphasize language and socio-political contexts more than the other, but those inspired by
Sartori are also attentive to language (e.g., considering a concept’s semantic elds).2On the
other hand, we take these approaches further by offering a method that is accessible, imple-
mentable, and exible to researchers’ different needs and constraints.
First, reconceptualization builds on Sartori’s emphasis on a conceptual “ladder of abstrac-
tion” by moving down from universalizing rst-order concepts to more specic second-order
concepts. Our starting point is a concept’s semantic eld: its antonyms and synonyms. Second,
drawing on linguistic approaches to concepts, we also emphasize attention to language and
discourse and a need to be reexive about how concepts are used and their socio-political con-
texts. Third, however, our method of reconceptualization moves beyond only considering lan-
guage and discourse. In particular, we advocate for incorporating a “sociological imagination”
(Mills 2000) to consider actors’ socio-political practices and behaviors (alongside discourses)
where relevant to our concept and what we seek to explore.
One key aim of reconceptualization is to offer less restrictive options than a taxonomic ap-
proach. Therefore, when reconceptualizing, we encourage researchers to be attentive to (po-
tentially) unhelpful binaries, i.e., terms positioned as if they are opposing, when considering a
concept’s semantic eld (e.g., peace vs. war). Such binaries may imply that concepts are mu-
tually exclusive. However, as we engage in reconceptualization, we can consider and create
hybrid sub-types that might blur the boundary between existing concepts.
2. Indeed, adherents of both have raised similar concerns, for example concerning the potential for reifying con-
cepts (see Collier and Adcock 1999, 545;Bevir and Kedar 2008; Kaczmarska 2019; Çapan and Grzybowski 2022).
Adherents in both approaches are also often inspired by Wittgenstein’s approach to language, e.g., “family resem-
blances” (see Collier and Mahon 1993; Fierke 2002).
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
Reconceptualization as a Cumulative Four-Step Method
Reconceptualization consists of four steps. At each step, the researcher should ask themselves:
does this reconceptualized concept improve the initial concept? If yes, the researcher can stop
and employ their reconceptualized concept; if no, the researcher should proceed to the next
step.
Step 1. Identify conceptual misalignment. This realization might occur at any stage of the
research process (e.g., collecting data, analyzing data, writing-up). When we identify a mis-
alignment – a mismatch between the concept we are using and what we seek to explore or
explain, between our concept and research problem, or a shortcoming in the concept for our
needs – we should progress to step 2. If we do not identify a misalignment, we might not
need reconceptualization and can continue with the initial concept. Still, we can return to this
process if we identify a misalignment later in the research process.
Step 2. Identify the initial concept’s semantic eld to map concepts to which the initial con-
cept may be related. In this step, we need to evaluate the concept’s linguistic and conceptual
synonyms and antonyms by reviewing its dictionary denitions. We should also review exist-
ing literature on those concepts we identify as belonging in its semantic eld. One of these
alternative concepts from the semantic eld might offer an improvement versus the original
concept; if not, they should proceed to step 3.
Step 3. Evaluate existing sub-types of the initial concept and concepts in the semantic eld.
If available, we should review existing literature on these sub-types. If unavailable, we should
still review existing relevant literature to help us develop our own sub-types. If existing sub-
types are unsuitable, we should think creatively in developing our own sub-types of the con-
cept that match what we seek to explain. Researchers might identify or innovate a sub-type
that is an improvement on the initial concept, at which case they can stop; if not, they should
proceed to step 4.
Step 4. Consider hybrid sub-types. Hybrid sub-types nest within the initial concept. How-
ever, they also combine attributes from other concepts in the semantic eld (e.g., antonyms).
In doing so, hybrid sub-types can blur existing binaries in ways that might be helpful. Again,
existing hybrid sub-types may be available; in which case, we should review relevant litera-
ture on these existing sub-types. If these existing hybrid sub-types do not exist, we should
think creatively in developing our own sub-types of the concept that align with what we seek
to explain. Researchers might identify or innovate a hybrid sub-type that improves the initial
concept, and they can stop. But, we still might not be convinced that the options we produced
are sufcient. At this point, we recommend exploring alternative concepts and, if needed, re-
turning to step 2 of the process of reconceptualization with this alternative concept.
For ease, we present these steps in a owchart (Figure 1). We also offer examples of what
reconceptualization might look like for ‘democracy’ and ‘peace’ (Table 1). Here, we provide
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
some non-exhaustive but illustrative examples of antonyms within the semantic eld. For
other concepts, synonyms might be more useful.
Figure 1: Figure 1 Flow chart of Steps of Reconceptualization
Determining if and when an improvement has been achieved, necessary to stop the pro-
cess of reconceptualization, is relative to the starting point (step 1) and, where relevant, the
results of the previous steps. What an improvement entails also depends on the researcher’s
intentions, how they intend to deploy their concept, and their epistemic assumptions. The aim
is not to nd the perfect concept. Every concept involves tradeoffs between what we seek to
explain, understand, analyze, and/or make legible and the terminology we use to do so. Rather,
an improvement can be seen as a reduction in these tradeoffs or a more satisfactory balance
between them. In particular, we might examine whether our new concept helps us reach a
closer, or richer, approximation of whatever phenomenon we seek to describe or give meaning
to. Here, we have unpacked what we mean by an ‘improvement’ in abstract terms. The exam-
ples that follow from our projects in Dominica and Moldova demonstrate what we mean more
concretely.3
3. We thank the reviewer for prompting us to unpack what we mean by an improvement.
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
Table 1: Examples of Reconceptualization
Identify Semantic Field of First-
Order Concepts (step 2)
Second-Order Concepts (Examples)
“Classic” sub-types (step
3)
Hybrid sub-types (step 4)
Initial Democracy Parliamentary democracy Illiberal democracy
Federal democracyaHybrid democracy
Semantic
eld
Authoritarianism Quasi-authoritarian regime
Competitive authoritarianismb
Initial Peace Positive peace Hybrid peacec
Negative peace Everyday peace
Liberal peace
Illiberal peace
Semantic
eld
War Intrastate warsdTransnational conicte
Interstate war Proxy war
Conventional war Remote warfare
Irregular war Cyber warfare
Conict Ethnic conict
Religious conict
aFrom Collier and Levitsky (1997)
bFrom Levitsky and Way (2002)
cFrom Mac Ginty (2010)
dFrom Jackson (2007)
eFrom Twagiramungu et al. (2019)
Reconceptualization in Action: Two Examples of Reconceptualizing
‘Local’
To demonstrate reconceptualization in action, we provide two examples of reconceptualizing
‘local’ for research projects in Dominica and Moldova. In both examples, continuing to use
‘local’ without reconceptualizing it would have weakened our analytical leverage. We demon-
strate how we reconceptualized ‘local’ into two more attuned hybrid sub-types of ‘local’ –
(1) ‘local-international’, and (2) an ‘internationalized local’ (Table 2). These reconceptualized
hybrid sub-types helped us to overcome the problems with the initial concept of ‘local’ and
develop a richer and more precise analysis.
We came together having both experienced this misalignment of the concept of ‘local’ with
what we observed and sought to explain. Hence, the impetus of this article was our shared
challenge and desire to provide and develop reconceptualizing solutions. However, beyond our
individual experiences, if we experienced this conceptual misalignment across these different
projects, these difculties may resonate with others.
Dominica and Moldova also have a common feature: they could easily be designated as
what Nossal (2001) calls IR “uninteresting Others” due to their liminal position in world pol-
itics. We consider that the marginal interest in these cases within IR makes them especially
instructive for reconceptualization and IR’s broader reexive aims of decentering from priv-
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
ileged and dominant ways of seeing the world (Thakur 2021); hence, these cases might –
maybe more than others – take us to unexplored cognitive spaces. We write the examples
that follow in the rst person and trace through the four steps of reconceptualization in each
to t this article’s methodological ambition and take ownership of our experiences, struggles,
and solutions.4
Table 2: Examples of Reconceptualization for ’Local’
Identify Semantic Field of First-Order Con-
cepts (step 2)
Second-Order Concepts (Examples)
“Classic” sub-types (step 3) Hybrid sub-types (step 4)
Initial Local Local actors Local-international
Local scale Internationalised local
Local community
Local/everyday experiencesa
Semantic eld InternationalbInternational actors
International scale
International community
aThese examples are developed from Alejandro and Knott (2022)
bHere we focus on ‘international’ as within the semantic eld of ‘local’, the initial concept. One could equally
select other concepts within the semantic eld of ‘local’, such as ‘regional’, ‘global’, or ‘national’, depending the
emphasis of one’s topic. We focus on ‘international’ since this concept was the main obstacle in our research
projects and, hence, is the starting point of our demonstration of using the process of reconceptualization.
Existing Conceptualizations of ‘Local’
Before we identify the misalignment of our concept and what we seek to explain (step 1, dis-
cussed below for each case), we start by conceptualizing (i.e., dening) the concept. This step
entails conducting a literature review that examines and brings together how previous schol-
arship has dened this concept. This section plots what this might look like for researchers via
the example of ‘local’. Given that ‘local’ is a highly used concept in IR, our intention is not to
provide an exhaustive conceptualization of ‘local’. Rather, we engage with some major contri-
butions in IR that conceptualize and dene ‘local’. We also seek to map the semantic eld of
‘local’ which is crucial for step 3 of reconceptualization (see below for execution of step 3 in
each case and Table 2).
Within peacebuilding, Paffenholz (2015, 861) conceptualizes ‘local’ as “everyday resis-
tance against the hegemonic international liberal actor”.5For Mac Ginty (2015, 851), ‘local’ is
“a system of beliefs and practices that loose communities and networks may adopt”. In Mac
Ginty’s understanding, ‘local’ may have territorial or extra-territorial characteristics. Mean-
while, Kochanski (2020, 28) denes ‘local’ as “subnational”, e.g., something in relation to the
“district, commune, or village levels”. For Kyselova and Axyonova (2024), ‘local’ refers to “in-
siders” whose “epistemic stances are grounded domestically”; for example, they conceive of
a civil society organization inside a conict situation (e.g., Ukraine) as typifying “local”. It is
also worth mentioning how scholars caution against instrumentalized or romanticized (or in-
4. Writing in the rst person is common when discussing, and demonstrating reexivity (Davies 2012;
Humphreys 2005), research choices, and practices (Subotic 2020).
5. See Randazzo (2016) for a critique of eliding ‘local’ and ‘everyday’ as concepts.
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Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
strumentalizable) denitions of ‘local’ to avoid permitting actors from claiming something is
authentic by referring to it as ‘local’ (Mac Ginty 2015).
Here, we can identify a lack of agreement between scholars regarding what ‘local’ means.
For some, this is a problem. For example, Kochanski (2020, 28) recommends a “shared concep-
tion” of what ‘local’ is to ensure analytical equivalency. For other scholars, this plurality points
to the elasticity of ‘local’ and other concepts like ‘international’ Mac Ginty and Richmond 2013,
770; see also Turnbull 2000, 773). Instead, Mac Ginty and Richmond (2013, 770) dene ‘local’
relationally: being what national and international are not. They also highlight that what is
‘local’ also interacts with what is not ‘local’ via “transnational, traversal” connections (770). In
contrast, Alejandro and Knott (2022) identify four different registers of ‘local’ as: (1) a class
of actors, (2) a space, scale, and level, (3) community, and (4) as experiences of the everyday.
In other words, ‘local’ can refer to different things, even with the same publication. In turn,
registers are often implicit and taken for granted, rather than made explicit, in how scholars
dene ‘local’ (Alejandro and Knott 2022).
Running through these conceptualizations is scholars’ awareness, and often critique, of
how ‘local’ is dened “in opposition” to other concepts (Paffenholz 2015, 861), such as ‘inter-
national’. Hence, ‘local’ and ‘international’ are often constructed as if they are “binary oppo-
sites” (858). Such binaries are not neutral facts and have important consequences that need to
be acknowledged. For example, Danielsson (2020, 1088) argues that this binary treats ‘local’
and ‘international’ as if they are “pre-formed and ontologically distinct” (see also Hameiri and
Jones 2017).
Finally, recent scholarship on ‘local’ has taken this relational approach further (Randazzo
2016; see also Hunt 2017). Millar (2021, 302), for example, suggests a “trans-scalar ap-
proach” to “reach beyond the local” by situating it in relation to “decisions, actions, and policies
at higher scales – the national, international, regional, and global” and then observing the in-
teractions across these scales. Similarly, but conversely, Mac Ginty (2019, 235, 242) suggests
the notion of “circuitry” to connect “the local and the non-local”, including “hyper-local” and
“extra-local” scales that relate to “home and everyday”. These approaches keep the concept
of ‘local’ intact. While they suggest approaches to innovate ‘local’, they do so by suggest-
ing ways to relationally connect ‘local’ and other concepts. However, sometimes, we need an
approach that alters concepts by reconceptualizing them rather than preserving them. Some-
times – like in the examples of ‘local’ we provide below – these concepts do not t whatever
way we innovate their relationship to other concepts.
This brief literature review helps us identify concepts in ‘local’s semantic eld, such as ‘in-
ternational’, ‘regional’, ‘national’, and ‘global’. In the case of ‘global’, scholars have also ob-
served unhelpful ‘local’/ ‘global’ binaries (see Taylor 2005; Johnson 2016). While ‘interna-
tional’ is only one of the main concepts within the semantic eld of ‘local’, it is also our focus
of the examples that follow in Dominica and Moldova. In these projects, the binary of ‘local’
and ‘international’ represented the main obstacle, including in the discourse that we observed
in each. Hence, we focus on this binary to demonstrate how we used the process of reconcep-
tualization.
11
Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
Dominica: From ‘local vs. international’ to ‘local-international’
Step 1. Identify misalignment between the concept and what we seek to explore and ex-
plain
As part of a research project in the Commonwealth of Dominica (hereby Dominica), I (Audrey)
conducted a thematic analysis of the discourses made by protesters calling for the resignation
of the Dominican Prime Minister and its government in February 2017 (YouTube 2017). The
protests erupted in the capital, Roseau, after the broadcasting of the CBS 60 minutes episode
‘Passports for Sale’ on American TV focusing, among other cases, on Dominica’s Citizenship
Based on Investment (CBI) program and the selling of Dominican diplomatic passports to high
prole international criminals. I identied three main issues raised by ‘local’ actors:
•The emergence of an unproductive economic system. The speakers alleged that inter-
national corruption (resulting from the opacity of the CBI Program and the diplomatic
passport scandals) had fueled clientelism to the detriment of investment in the local
economy (agriculture and tourism) and infrastructure (for example roads and hospitals),
resulting in the impoverishment of the general population.
•The normalization of criminality within the local community. The speakers accused the
government of banalizing insecurity by lacking transparency and accountability, engag-
ing with international criminals, and using national bank accounts for money laundering.
•The undermining of Dominica’s identity and reputation. The speakers underlined how
the government’s irresponsible actions created a political crisis of condence within the
country and damaged Dominica’s international reputation.
While these results made sense, I was not fully satised with using the term ‘local’ to
describe them. To put it bluntly, it felt analytically lazy and not doing justice to the complexity
and specicity of the Dominican context. I did not disagree with my results. But my discourse
appeared, implicitly, to carry assumptions that contradicted my informal knowledge of the
situation (which is detailed under step 4).
Step 2. Identify the initial concept’s semantic eld
I noticed that I spontaneously anchored my analysis around the use of ‘local’ and its oppo-
sition to ‘international’. Local actors had protested their government’s instrumentalization of
a loophole in international law. They accused the government of beneting from an interna-
tional cash ow generated by CBI, which disrupted local governance and enabled high-prole
international criminals to hide in local communities due to a lack of local regulations, etc. I,
therefore, identied ‘international’ as the main concept in the semantic eld that I had to work
with to reconceptualize ‘local’ in a way that was more satisfactory and analytically nuanced.
12
Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
Step 3. Evaluate existing sub-types of the initial concept and concepts in the semantic eld
Reviewing the literature engaging with ‘local’, I could not nd any sub-types that would ad-
dress the misalignment I perceived between the common use of ‘local’ (as a spatial dimension
in binary opposition with ‘international’) and the specic context I was studying.
Step 4, Consider hybrid sub-types
Similar to step 3, I could not identify specic hybrid concepts related to ‘local’ in the literature
that would t my case. I decided to pinpoint the nature of my discomfort more precisely to
develop a hybrid concept more attuned to the context I was investigating.
On the one hand, the smallness of Dominica’s population and territory (the country respec-
tively ranks 186th and 174th in the world, in size terms, with 72,000 inhabitants and an area
of 750km2) makes living in Dominica a spatially, socially, and administratively local experience.
The country has two towns and is organized through two levels of governance (10 parishes
and a central government). The smallness of the population leads to a high level of informal-
ity regarding the knowledge necessary to govern and a low level of regulation. For example,
while agriculture employs 40% of the workforce, farmers generally do not keep accounts, and
agricultural technicians and the Secretary of Trade assess the country’s productive capacities
visually.6
On the other hand, the smallness of Dominica’s national market and production, as well as
the historical legacy of its export-oriented agricultural model, have made Dominica a hyper-
internationalized economy. Since 2001, Dominica has scored on the Trade Openness Index
( 90%), similar to Sweden (compared to 27% for the US), characteristic of a country with a
small national market that is well-integrated into the global economy. Unlike Sweden, how-
ever, the value of imported goods relative to GDP was 114% between 2008 and 2014 (com-
pared to 29% for Sweden), reecting the dependence of small island-states on foreign goods.
Despite the high percentage of Dominicans working in agriculture, the sector only contributes
to 22% of GDP (2017), and agricultural products represent 22% of the imports (2015) due to
the absence of a national agro-processing industry (Central Intelligence Agency 2019; World
Trade Organization 2019). Since the mid-1990s, Dominica diversied its economy by becom-
ing an offshore nancial center and selling its citizenship via investment programs, furthering
its integration in the globalized economy.
As a one-island micro-state, the country-case itself is both very ‘local’ and very ‘interna-
tional’, a specicity that the dichotomy ‘local’ vs. ‘international’ fails to capture. Indeed, it is
precisely because of the local-internationality of the Dominican context that it has become a
world leader in the CBI industry, which has allowed the issues denounced by the protesters to
thrive. Namely, Dominica combines a high level of localness (favoring conditions of informality
and absence of regulation) and high international economic integration (partly produced due to
the smallness of its national market). Moreover, the localness and internationality partly pro-
duce each other. For example, the high level of economic internationalization is encouraged by
6. Interviews with the Secretary of Trade, members of the Ministry of Agriculture and the National statistician
conducted in July-August 2018.
13
Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
the smallness of the national market.
Above all, the spatialization of Dominica’s bordering experience epitomizes the collapse of
the analytical value of the ‘local’ vs. ‘international’ binary. The furthest one can ever be from
Dominica’s territorial borders is around 20km. Analyzing the protesters’ concerns through a ‘lo-
cal’ – conceptually dichotomized from its alleged ‘international’ antagonist – would articially
disentangle, in seemingly separate spaces, situations that emerge from the very jointness of
localness and internationality in Dominica.
In this context, characterizing the problems raised by the protesters as ‘local-international’
seemed to capture both the nuances and complexity of the situation and the experiences of
the actors I was studying more accurately. Hence, this new hybrid concept improved on the
starting point (‘local’) and any alternatives identied in the semantic eld in later steps (e.g.,
‘international’). And, ‘local-international’ was an improvement because it carried with it more
specicity and accuracy to capture the simultaneity of localness and internationalness in this
context. As such, we dene ‘local-international’ as situations in which ‘local’ and ‘international’
spaces, actors, or issues are intertwined, if not enmeshed.
Reconceptualizing ‘Local’ in Moldova to Study Mayoral Elections: An ‘Internation-
alized Local’
Step 1 Identify misalignment between the concept and what we seek to explore and explain
In Moldova, I (Ellie) struggled while studying what I assumed to be ‘local’ politics, namely may-
oral elections in Moldova’s capital, Chişinău. Over several electoral cycles, neither politicians
nor media, neither Moldovan nor Western media, characterized these mayoral elections as ei-
ther ‘local’ or as concerning ‘local’ issues. For example, in portraying the 2015 run-off mayoral
election, journalists portrayed it as a race between “Pro-European and pro-Russian politicians”
(EurActiv 2015). Similarly, in 2018, one mayoral candidate was depicted as “pro-Moscow”
(Ion Ceban), while the other (Andrei Nastase) was described as “pro-European” (RFE/RL’s
Moldovan Service 2018).
In short, I observed the infusion of geopolitical and international narratives, east vs. west,
within seemingly ‘local’ elections. The emphasis on a candidate’s geopolitical positioning –
above all else – was striking. Such an infusion of a candidate’s geopolitical positioning did not
represent untruths. But these representations skated over, perhaps deliberately, a candidate’s
other policy positions that pertained to more Moldova-specic (e.g., support or opposition to
government, support or opposition to anti-corruption reform) or city-specic issues. Moreover,
this ‘international’ infusion of mayoral elections was highly political and a form of politics that
I needed to draw attention to, rather than erase, ignore, or simplify.
For these reasons, ‘local’ was insufcient to capture these nuances. To use ‘local’ alone to
describe how Moldovan elections were being characterized would lack nuance and analytical
rigor and be a blunt tool to describe these representations.
14
Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
Step 2 Identify the initial concept’s semantic eld
Situating ‘local’ within its semantic eld in this context (Table 2), the most obvious alternative
concept to consider would be ‘international’. However, substituting ‘international’ for ‘local’
would not capture the nuances of what was being represented via these mayoral elections.
First, these elections were held within a city rather than a cross-border context. Realizing
it would be a mischaracterization to label city elections as ‘international’ was itself useful for
understanding that reconceptualization, and further reconceptualization, was needed.
Second, media representations did not characterize a ‘local’ that was juxtaposed to, or con-
tending with, ‘international’. According to these representations, ‘local’ did not even nest within
‘international’. Instead, ‘local’ was hollowed out by and portrayed as subservient to ‘interna-
tional’.
Situating the concept in its semantic eld helped me identify that the issue was one of a
relationship between ‘local’ and ‘international’ rather than a separation between these con-
cepts. For my purposes, ‘local’ and ‘international’ did not exist within a conceptual binary, and
in further the steps of reconceptualization, I had to move beyond this binary.
Step 3. Evaluate existing sub-types of the initial concept and concepts in the semantic eld
In moving to step 3, the same problem was repeated as in step 2. Existing sub-types of ‘local’
and ‘international’ – e.g., ‘local’ actors or ‘international’ actors – did not improve the initial con-
cept of ‘local’. I needed a concept that challenged the binary of these concepts and allowed
me to articulate a relationship between these concepts.
Step 4 Consider hybrid sub-types
Hence, I needed to progress to step 4 to consider potential ways to innovate concepts within
the ‘local’ and ‘international’ binary. In doing so, I returned to what I observed: a ‘local’ hol-
lowed by an international. What I required was a more hybrid concept to express this rela-
tionship.
Working iteratively, I eventually came to the solution of an ‘internationalized local’. This
reconceptualized concept allowed me to signal and capture both the (1) hybrid relation be-
tween ‘local’ and ‘international’, and (2) hollowing relationship of ‘international’ vis-à-vis ‘lo-
cal’.
The reconceptualized concept of ‘internationalized local’ was an improvement because it
enabled me to interrogate how and why ‘local’ is imagined as a geopoliticized and hollow
reality in Moldova and understand the potential strategies that underpin how this idea is
maintained. For example, until we conceptualize an ‘internationalized local’, we cannot grasp
Moldovan politics: this ‘internationalized local’ represents a convenient but strategic scapegoat
used by Moldovan politicians. For those seeking votes, an ‘internationalized local’ helps many
mayoral candidates to portray themselves as passive to external geopolitical forces rather than
accountable to voters on issues within Moldova, such as poverty and corruption.
15
Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
Reconceptualizing ‘local’ and ‘international’ through the lens of an ‘internationalized local’,
therefore, helped me illuminate and articulate Moldovan politics in a new way, where ‘local’ is
hollowed out by and subservient to ‘international’. In turn, we dene ‘internationalized local’
as a relational concept, where international is the object acting on and disempowering ‘local’
as the subject. And ‘internationalized local’ was an improved concept relative to the starting
point of ‘local’ because it was a sharper instrument to articulate the complex nuances of this
situation in a language that could be legible and resonate more broadly.
Conclusion
This article and the process of reconceptualization that it offers originated from a shared strug-
gle among two researchers who found that extant concepts in existing literature were not
well aligned with what they sought to explore or explain. We could have continued to use
the initial concept, ‘local’. However, doing so would have misconstrued the situation that we
were observing, blunted our analytical nuance, and prevented us from leveraging arguments
grounded in these contexts. Instead, we mobilized this struggle to develop a process of ren-
ing, improving, or developing new concepts that are better attuned, more aligned, and have
better empirical, analytical, and theoretical leverage – the process of reconceptualization.
We aim for this four-step process to be useful and implementable by a broad spectrum
of researchers across IR, regardless of topic, method, or methodology. This process builds
on and bridges existing literature on concepts across different camps of IR and political sci-
ence. In particular, this process offers an approach for researchers who seek to use concepts
in a sociologically- and linguistically-oriented way without having to devote themselves, their
research projects, and their training to conceptual analysis.
Through two cases, we illustrate how to go about reconceptualizing an initial concept as
well as the results of such reconceptualization. Firstly, this article offers a new way to rene,
improve, and develop concepts; specically, we offer guidance on what this process entails.
The idea and principles of reconceptualization may not seem groundbreaking. We see this as
a strength of the method whereby we are formalizing something that many researchers may
already agree with, and hence should resonate and be relatable. In turn, reconceptualization
can be helpful for a broad audience that spans both positivist and post-positivist scholars by
providing and specifying what this otherwise confusing and time-consuming process might
look like.
Second, this article offers two new concepts: ‘local-international’ and ‘internationalized
local’. Grounded in our collective research in Dominica and Moldova, these concepts offer a
new way to understand ‘local’ and its relationship to ‘international’ outside of a presumed
binary. Furthermore, we offer a decentered approach to how these new concepts were derived
in the rst place. In turn, we offer something for relational discussions of ‘local’. And we offer
something for relational discussions beyond ‘local’ by demonstrating that sometimes we need
to move beyond keeping concepts intact and start innovating the concept itself, rather than
only how we talk about or situate it.
16
Knott & Alejandro From Conceptual Misalignment to Reconceptualizing
Our intention is not to suggest the reconceptualization of ‘local’ (or ‘international’, ‘national’,
or ‘global’) ends here. Rather, we aim for this article to be the beginning of a conversation
about the need to develop better-attuned concepts and that explores what the results of such
attunement might look like, not least in spaces far away from privileged and mainstream ways
of thinking and doing IR.
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