Why Popular Culture Matters (for Contemporary Geopolitics)

Kyle Grayson, Newcastle University

CRIPS Annual Lecture, March 4, 6-7.30pm, S0.11

Abstract:

Popular culture is central to how contemporary geopolitics is understood and practiced. Drawing up cultural approaches to geopolitics and a range of contemporary examples from Harry Potter to hip hop, this presentation will provide insights into how popular culture matters, when it matters, where it matters, to whom it matters, and how its myriad influences might be assessed and/or perceived. The central argument is that popular culture's importance for contemporary geopolitics stems from more than its allegorical or metaphorical properties. Rather, if analysts and practitioners are to take geopolitics and the exercise of power seriously, the productive capacities of popular culture in world politics must be an ongoing concern.

Speaker:

Kyle Grayson is a Reader in Security, Politics, and Culture at Newcastle University. His research areas are popular culture and world politics, visuality, and critical geopolitics. He is a co-editor of the UK Political Studies Association's journal POLITICS (SAGE), an associate editor of Critical Studies on Security (Routledge), and a co-editor of the Popular Culture and World Politics Series (Routledge).