Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

•       To develop interdisciplinary skills for international political analysis
•       To understand the links and mutual influences between world politics and popular culture
•       To introduce methods relevant to the study of popular culture and world politics

What can we learn about world politics from popular culture? Conventional scholarly representations of world politics present an image of a 'higher' realm of politics, one peopled by elites such as diplomats, heads of state, military officers or, more abstractly, by states-as-actors. Such representations of world politics are typically reproduced in popular culture, such as in spy fiction. However, by virtue of being 'popular', popular culture also presents the possibility of a politics that is not abstracted and insulated from the concerns and experiences of 'ordinary' people. Thus, world politics in popular culture can be both the reproduction of alienated or elite versions of global politics and the critique of that politics.

Outline Of Syllabus

Topics covered are likely to vary from year to year, depending on events. The following outline should indicate a framework for these topics.

1       What is 'world politics'?
2       What is 'culture'? What is 'popular culture' and what are the politics of the popular?
3       World politics and visual methods
4       World politics and the video environment: film, television, internet
5       World politics and aural methods
6       World politics and music
7       World politics and affect
8       World politics and virtual realities: video games, internet
9       The aesthetics of world politics: how we experience and judge the world

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

1 Familiarity with critical approaches to the study of international politics
2 Familiarity with critical theories of popular culture
3 Broad understanding of representations and practices of world politics in popular cultural media
4 Deeper understanding of representations and practices of world politics in a specific medium
5 Explore the uses of research and analytical methods derived from cultural theory, such as visual and aural methodologies, for political analysis

Intended Skill Outcomes

1       Critical analytical skills from contemporary international relations theory
2       Critical analytical skills from contemporary approaches to popular culture
3       Ability to 'read' texts in various media
4       Ability to contribute to group discussion and debate
5       Ability to conduct interdisciplinary research and writing, demonstrating sensitivity to methodological issues

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures and directed readings will introduce students to critical approaches to world politics and theories of popular culture. Lectures will introduce methods for the analysis of the visual, aural, and emotional/affective environments. Seminar discussions will be used to clarify students’ understandings of key concepts and to practice analyses of artefacts of popular culture. Student presentations will develop both analytical skills and practical experience with diverse modes of presentation. The summative assessment will demonstrate the students’ capacity to analyse artefacts from popular culture in terms of their meanings or impacts on world politics, understood broadly.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The summative assessment will demonstrate the students’ capacity to analyse artefacts from popular culture in terms of their meanings or impacts on world politics, understood broadly. The essay will demonstrate research, analysis, and writing skills and the ability to adopt methods developed for the analysis of cultural artefacts for the analysis of world politics. It will demonstrate the students’ grasp of contemporary critical theories of world politics.

The essay should demonstrate the students' grasp of all of the knowledge outcomes but should especially demonstrate a specific reading of an approach to global politics through a particular medium of popular culture (knowledge outcome 4) and how this popular experience or medium demonstrates or problematises the global or the international as a political space. The essay must also demonstrate the students' mastery of relevant and multidisciplinary analytical skills (skills outcomes 1, 2 and 5) as well as the ability to read texts from popular culture (skills outcome 3).

General Notes

The module may be co-taught with a module at the International Relations Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.