POLP203 - Sites of International Politics - 2024/25

This is a module that makes the ‘site’ its prime focus for studying international politics. It explores how sites of international politics – conceived broadly to include courts, cities, museums, streets, internet platforms, and high seas to name a few – are implicated in the construction of global politics. The key concept of the ‘site’ is best conceived as an extended version of the concept ‘field’ used in political sociology to describe a condensation of multifarious arenas and forces, including the ways in which sense-making and memory function to legitimise certain stories and histories at the expense of others. This includes critically thinking about the ‘site’ as an analytical tool against conventional labelling of the world into binaries, including the ‘East’ and the ‘West’.