Practicing Constitutionalism is an interdisciplinary research network whose aim is to explore the social and political practices that give form to contemporary constitutional orders. The network is led by the Núcleo de Teoría Social, Universidad Diego Portales (Principal Sponsoring Institution) and the Centro de Investigación en Teoría Política y Social, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (Associate Sponsoring Institution), in collaboration with the Janey Program in Latin American Studies, The New School for Social Research (Principal International Sponsoring Institution) and the Institutional Transformations in European Political Economy Research Cluster, Copenhagen Business School (Associate International Institution).

The interdisciplinary collaboration of our research network is guided by the hypothesis that constitution-making is materially and symbolically embedded in concrete practices of critique and self-formation of society. Accordingly, our network builds upon a number of questions:  What counts as constitutional within a political community? Who enacts the power to constitute? How is constitutional change socially organized and put into motion? These questions are a central concern for us insomuch as they embody a defining feature of the constitutional experience: namely, the interrelated nature of conceptual, political, and practical struggles to define, reconstruct and constitutionalize democratic forms of coexistence.

The intellectual focus of the network will be on exploring the relations between constitutions, constitutional practices and democratic forms of life. This will translate into specific areas of collaborative work which are consistent with the research interests of the members of the network: 1) Constituent power, constitutional practices and radical democracy; 2) Democratic legitimacy and forms of constitutional change; 3) Global constitutionalism, social justice and human rights. 

The network Practicing Constitutionalism seeks to bring into dialog different perspectives about the challenges involved in constituting democratic forms of life: from empirically oriented research to theoretical and normative analyses, from historically oriented sociology to political philosophy. The main results of this collaboration are:

1) In terms of academic production: the development of conceptual and methodological innovations for the analysis of “constitutional practices” in comparative and socio-historical perspective; the organization of two academic seminars.

2) In terms of training and scientific interaction: inclusion of postgraduate students in the network and creation of a collaborative scientific framework for the promotion of young researchers;

3) In terms of strategic planning: development of a research agenda between participant centers for future cooperation and grant applications.