Apprenticeship in Diplomacy, or How I Became Another Replaceable Intern at the OECD

Abstract

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.