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audreyalejandro.bsky.social
Audrey Alejandro
@audreyalejandro.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.2K following 58 posts
Associate Professor & Methodological Artist
London School of Economics
Discourse, Knowledge, Reflexivity, International Relations

Convener @DoingIPS | PhD Sciences Po Bx
https://www.audreyalejandro.com/publications.html
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audreyalejandro.bsky.social
Audrey Alejandro @audreyalejandro.bsky.social · Mar 13
🔥 New article "Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision" published with @ejir.bsky.social in #openaccess: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

@lsemethodology.bsky.social

#Technique #malecircumcision #expertise #Weber #Foucault #Habermas #VMMC
Abstract to the article "Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision" : How does social actors’ engagement with the technical dimensions of world politics—from material infrastructures to modeling, engineering, bureaucracy, and discourses of expertise—bring about specific social configurations and political effects? To answer this research problem, International Relations scholars have growingly mobilized the idea of technicization to investigate the relationship between knowledge, governance, socio-political reproduction, and social change. However, despite this interest, technicization has been neither conceptualized nor theorized. I argue that this absence limits our understanding of how technicality affects world politics and leads to the literature taking depoliticization as the default interpretation. To address this issue, this article develops three conceptualizations of technicization by distinguishing between the theoretical traditions underpinning this idea across social sciences. I introduce to International Relations the concept of technicization as desociologization based on the Habermassian concepts of technique and practice, which I distinguish from technicization as depoliticization (Weberian) and technicization as disciplinarization (Foucauldian) most commonly encountered in the literature. I illustrate the utility of disentangling these approaches through the case study of the history of the medicalization of male circumcision and its use as a global health anti-HIV policy since 2007. Overall, this article lays solid theoretical foundations for a more structured conversation about knowledge- and discourse-related processes dealing with the technical dimensions of world politics and beyond.
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
lsemethodology.bsky.social
"Are we measuring the right things in the social sciences?"

At an LSE Open Research Panel this week @audreyalejandro.bsky.social said "so many of the tools we rely on to assess research quality are really just proxies, yet our methodological standards drop when we evaluate our own profession"
People sit at the front of a classroom in a panel format. Photo credit: Matteo Maria Galizzi
November 27, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
The workshop "Computational Social Sciences meets Qualitative Research" at #LSE last week was exceptional 🤩Now preparing the Special Issue that is going to be 🔥 so watch this space. Thank you to all the participants and chairs for your great insights and the amazing vibe.
lsemethodology.bsky.social LSE Methodology @lsemethodology.bsky.social · 10d
International workshop bridges computational social science and qualitative research to build new methodological community💡

@audreyalejandro.bsky.social @dandekadt.bsky.social

Read more ➡️ www.lse.ac.uk/methodology/...
people sit around a table and discuss a paper people sit around a table in a grand room two people sit at a laptop and discuss work people stand and talk
November 17, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
📭 Just published: The Case for Asking “What Is This a Case Of?”
My students pushed me to write this — maybe yours will find it useful too.
Curious what you think!
#caseselection #methodology #researchdesign #researchmethods
www.audreyalejandro.com/the-methodol...
@lsemethodology.bsky.social
September 8, 2025 at 9:23 AM
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
The workshop "Computational Social Sciences meets Qualitative Research" at #LSE last week was exceptional 🤩Now preparing the Special Issue that is going to be 🔥 so watch this space. Thank you to all the participants and chairs for your great insights and the amazing vibe.
lsemethodology.bsky.social LSE Methodology @lsemethodology.bsky.social · 10d
International workshop bridges computational social science and qualitative research to build new methodological community💡

@audreyalejandro.bsky.social @dandekadt.bsky.social

Read more ➡️ www.lse.ac.uk/methodology/...
people sit around a table and discuss a paper people sit around a table in a grand room two people sit at a laptop and discuss work people stand and talk
November 17, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
lsemethodology.bsky.social
Day Two of our Computational
Social Science Meets
Qualitative Research workshop has begun and we’re in the iconic Shaw Library 📚⚡️

@lsedatascience.bsky.social
A pull up banner next to a plant A doorway with a poster and people stood inside a room People sat around a table in a grand room
November 14, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
lsemethodology.bsky.social
It’s Day One of our Computational Social Science Meets Qualitative Research workshop ✍️

We kicked things off with the first paper from @audreyalejandro.bsky.social @dandekadt.bsky.social 💡
November 13, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
lsemethodology.bsky.social
@audreyalejandro.bsky.social will be presenting her work on "Reflexivity in Practice" tomorrow, by the Interpretive Methodologies and Methods Group of the American Political Science Association💡

➡️ www.interpretivemethods.com/upcoming-eve...
Audrey Alejandro Discusses Reflexivity in Practice — Interpretive Methodologies and Methods
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series Audrey Alejandro (LSE) will discuss reflexivity in practice. Professor Alejandro studies discourse and knowledge, the role they play in society and…
www.interpretivemethods.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
matthannon.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

What on earth are we doing to our planet?
Thousands of tonnes of toxic landfill liquid added to sewage and spread on English farms
Exclusive: Leachate is tankered to treatment works where it mixes with sewage and industrial effluent
www.theguardian.com
September 12, 2025 at 5:49 AM
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
📭 Just published: The Case for Asking “What Is This a Case Of?”
My students pushed me to write this — maybe yours will find it useful too.
Curious what you think!
#caseselection #methodology #researchdesign #researchmethods
www.audreyalejandro.com/the-methodol...
@lsemethodology.bsky.social
September 8, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
bachl.bsky.social
Very nice location for our 4th DiMES workshop today with @audreyalejandro.bsky.social. Thanks to @jojukao.bsky.social for organizing and @dennmis.bsky.social for setting us up in Villa Engler @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social

www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/en/soziologi...
Pic of villa engler
July 17, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
ejir.bsky.social
Summer is there with a new issue of the European Journal of International Relations- Vol. 31, issue 2!

🧵In this thread you can find all the articles included:

📚Read the full issue here: t1p.de/0grt2
European Journal of International Relations - Volume 31, Number 2
Table of contents for European Journal of International Relations, 31, 2
t1p.de
July 10, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
ejir.bsky.social
🧵4/10

“Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision” by @audreyalejandro.bsky.social

t1p.de/7u0eo
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
t1p.de
July 10, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
🔥 New article "Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision" published with @ejir.bsky.social in #openaccess: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

@lsemethodology.bsky.social

#Technique #malecircumcision #expertise #Weber #Foucault #Habermas #VMMC
Abstract to the article "Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision" : How does social actors’ engagement with the technical dimensions of world politics—from material infrastructures to modeling, engineering, bureaucracy, and discourses of expertise—bring about specific social configurations and political effects? To answer this research problem, International Relations scholars have growingly mobilized the idea of technicization to investigate the relationship between knowledge, governance, socio-political reproduction, and social change. However, despite this interest, technicization has been neither conceptualized nor theorized. I argue that this absence limits our understanding of how technicality affects world politics and leads to the literature taking depoliticization as the default interpretation. To address this issue, this article develops three conceptualizations of technicization by distinguishing between the theoretical traditions underpinning this idea across social sciences. I introduce to International Relations the concept of technicization as desociologization based on the Habermassian concepts of technique and practice, which I distinguish from technicization as depoliticization (Weberian) and technicization as disciplinarization (Foucauldian) most commonly encountered in the literature. I illustrate the utility of disentangling these approaches through the case study of the history of the medicalization of male circumcision and its use as a global health anti-HIV policy since 2007. Overall, this article lays solid theoretical foundations for a more structured conversation about knowledge- and discourse-related processes dealing with the technical dimensions of world politics and beyond.
March 13, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
I develop three conceptualisation of technicization:
1. Technicization as depoliticization (Weberian)
2. Technicization as disciplinarization (Foucauldian)
3. Technicization as desociologization (Habermassian)

It is my first paper that is really a #socialtheory / #politicaltheory paper 😍🤓
Table synthesising the three conceptualisation of technicization introduced in the article
March 13, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
I illustrate the interest of theorising and disentangling these conceptualisation of #technicisation based on the case study of the history of the medicalisation of male circumcision.
Conclusion Throughout its history, male circumcision has remained a social practice embedded in and productive of social norms, for example relating to the management of sexuality. During the first stage of its medicalization, male circumcision was explicitly associated with such social/moral roles. It is during the remedicalization of male circumcision that it became technicized (in the Habermassian sense)—presented as a socially neutral procedure while continuing to perform some of its pre-medicalized social roles and acquiring new ones. On the one hand, the medicalization of male circumcision does not fit a case of technicization as depoliticization. Male circumcision has traditionally been the remit of initiatory and religious authorities before becoming the remit of medical experts, without being the object of public debate. On the other hand, the medicalization of male circumcision does not fit a case of technicization as disciplinarization either. Medicalized male circumcision has been used as a tool of social organization long before the emergence of modern states and their techniques of power—i.e. its non-technicized roles produce social order while pre-existing the emergence of modern forms of governmentality. Moreover, the relation between technicization and knowledge in this case does not follow the Foucauldian model. Rather than regulating behaviors by making an object of governance visible through knowledge, the practice is promoted while knowledge about it is either missing or non-consensual.
March 13, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
lsemethodology.bsky.social
We're also hiring an LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methods👏

We are seeking to appoint an individual with established research interests and teaching experience in qualitative methods 🌎

For more info and to apply➡️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
graphic that reads 'we're hiring: LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methods. Applications close: 27 April 2025. For more information and to apply, please visit www.jobs.lse.ac.uk'
April 3, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
Based on the history of methods & methodological debates in IR, I argue that the current promotion of methods in IR challenges the ‘critical vs non-critical’ divide & argue that pro-methods critical scholarship is currently engaged in a process of de-technicisation of methods.
Methods are generally considered a key dimension of social science research and of the craft of producing knowledge in academic settings. Methods can be understood as sets of techniques and practices that offer overall guidance, structure and coherence regarding how we produce knowledge. They invite us to disclose the underpinnings behind the research choices we make and be explicit about the steps, tasks and procedures through which we conduct research. This entry first defines what falls under the scope of ‘methods’. It then traces the development of methods in International Relations (IR). The third section provides an overview of current debates around the question of methods in IR. The conclusion sketches out the potential implications of and directions for the future of methods in IR.
March 25, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
dandekadt.bsky.social
Just to reiterate, these are really good post-docs: Relatively low teaching load (and the teaching is usually interesting and helpful from a career-perspective), friendly and supportive community, and a focus on helping you produce research and launch a career.

Many very successful alumni!
lsemethodology.bsky.social LSE Methodology @lsemethodology.bsky.social · Apr 1
We're hiring an LSE Fellow in Advanced Quantitative Methods❗

The successful candidate will contribute to the Department’s teaching activities through seminar teaching, methods surgeries, and dissertation/capstone supervision.

For more info and to apply➡️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
graphic that reads 'we're hiring: LSE Fellow in Advanced Quantitative Methods. Applications close: 27 April 2025. For more information and to apply, please visit www.jobs.lse.ac.uk'
April 1, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
📣 Beate Jahn & Sebastian Schindler's new Encyclopedia of #InternationalRelations is OUT!

Very proud to have contributed to the entry "#Methods" that I wrote as an introduction to methods for IR students. DM if you want the manuscript.
www.elgaronline.com/display/book...
www.elgaronline.com
March 25, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
Happy to have become an affiliate of LSE Data Science Institute & pursue there my interest in building the bridge between Computational Social Science and Qualitative Research 🎉 Have a 👀 at this wonderful team of scholars: www.lse.ac.uk/DSI
@lsedatascience.bsky.social @lsemethodology.bsky.social
Data Science Institute
Discover the LSE Data Science Institute that leads and forms the institutional cornerstone of activity in data science at the London School of Economics
www.lse.ac.uk
March 26, 2025 at 10:43 AM
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
Happy to have become an affiliate of LSE Data Science Institute & pursue there my interest in building the bridge between Computational Social Science and Qualitative Research 🎉 Have a 👀 at this wonderful team of scholars: www.lse.ac.uk/DSI
@lsedatascience.bsky.social @lsemethodology.bsky.social
Data Science Institute
Discover the LSE Data Science Institute that leads and forms the institutional cornerstone of activity in data science at the London School of Economics
www.lse.ac.uk
March 26, 2025 at 10:43 AM
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
📣 Beate Jahn & Sebastian Schindler's new Encyclopedia of #InternationalRelations is OUT!

Very proud to have contributed to the entry "#Methods" that I wrote as an introduction to methods for IR students. DM if you want the manuscript.
www.elgaronline.com/display/book...
www.elgaronline.com
March 25, 2025 at 9:54 AM
audreyalejandro.bsky.social
Censorship and anti-democratic governance at the International Studies Association medium.com/@bdsatisa/ce...
Censorship & Antidemocratic Governance at the ISA
The International Studies Association (ISA) claims to be “an organization that is governed by and answerable to its membership.” However…
medium.com
March 23, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
lsemethodology.bsky.social
📣Call for papers!

1️⃣ week left to send your 250-word abstract for @audreyalejandro.bsky.social and ‪@dandekadt.bsky.social‬'s two-day workshop on "Computational Social Science meets Qualitative Research"

Learn more➡️ www.lse.ac.uk/Methodology/...

@lsedatascience.bsky.social
AI generated photograph featuring a group of people sat around a table and code overlayed
March 19, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Audrey Alejandro
lsemethodology.bsky.social
💡 New article

@audreyalejandro.bsky.social‬ latest article focuses on "Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision"

Read more here ➡️
Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision
journals.sagepub.com
March 13, 2025 at 5:15 PM