Unit name | Popular Culture and World Politics |
---|---|
Unit code | POLI31378 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Professor. Weldes |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Although the discipline of International Relations (IR) has overwhelmingly ignored popular culture, it is the argument of this unit that popular culture and world politics are inextricably connected in a variety of different ways. For example, popular culture is connected to world politics through relations of representation: e.g., we can investigate the ways in which contemporary Hollywood films depict Muslims or how a TV show like The Wire critiques the war on terror in the guise of the war on drugs. We might, in contrast, examine the global political economy of popular culture: e.g., we might look at the globalisation of the music industry, its corporate capitalist nature, and whether it is possible for radical bands to be subversive, or not. Popular culture can also be a tool deployed by states: e.g., we might investigate how the Nazi regime in 1936 or the Beijing government in 2008 used the Olympic Games to acquire power and prestige. Popular culture is also closely related to national identity: e.g., cricket in the West Indies has been used to construct a particular post-colonial national identity. This unit examines various such interconnections between popular culture, on the one hand, and the theories and practices of world politics, on the other. A central objective of the unit is to introduce students to the analysis of popular culture in its diverse manifestations, and to relate these analyses in diverse ways to our understandings of world politics. The course will cover several approaches to the analysis of popular culture (e.g., structuralism, Marxisms, Feminisms), as well as a range of media and texts (e.g., TV, film, advertising, music).
Aims:
The unit will be taught through blended learning methods, including a mix of synchronous and asynchronous teaching activities
3,500 word essay (100%)