Challenges for National Political Science Associations: The Political Studies Association of the UK

This article reviews the contribution of the discipline of Cultural Studies to that of Politics. It suggests that the study of popular culture opens up the realm of politics in a way that challenges the traditional boundaries of the discipline. By treating culture as ‘ideology’, Cultural Studies directs attention to the sites in which meaning is produced and contested. This in turn undermines any clear distinction between politics and culture and consequently demands a broader approach to ‘the political’ than has traditionally been taken by political science.

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Paul Ricoeur, visual hermeneutics and political science: An ‘incompatible relation’?

for(e)dialogue ◽

10.29311/for(e)dialogue.v1i1.529 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 15-26

Author(s):

Nikos Kaplantzis

Keyword(s):

Political Science ◽

Communicative Action ◽

Critical Hermeneutics ◽

The Political ◽

Visual Theory ◽

Visual Research ◽

Political Studies ◽

Iconic Image ◽

Opening And Closing ◽

The Relationship

As a response to calls for political research to do more than refer to visuals and for visual research to focus on the political, this paper discusses a Ricoeurian narrative-communicative action approach to the construction of political space applied to images, even though, until today, very little attention has been given to Ricoeur’s conception of the relationship between hermeneutics and visual theory. An updated reworking of Paul Ricoeur's critical hermeneutics offers a better basis for reconstructing visual (political) studies by sharpening the focus on the ideas of embodied imaginary and iconic augmentation. Ricoeur offers an explicit connection to visual political studies in the direction of pointing out the ways in which images, scenes, and narratives attempt to convey ideology, balancing a hermeneutics of suspicion with a hermeneutics of faith, illustrating the aporias, the opening and closing of possibilities from iconic image to ideograph and identity.

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CONSTRUCTIVISM GOES QUANTUM: THE APPROACH REFORM

MGIMO Review of International Relations ◽

10.24833/2071-8160-2016-6-51-7-13 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 7-13

Author(s):

T. A. Alekseeva ◽

A. P. Mineev ◽

A. V. Fenenko ◽

I. D. Loshkariov ◽

B. I. Ananyev

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Political Science ◽

Quantum Physics ◽

The Political ◽

Ir Theory ◽

Analytical Philosophy ◽

Political Processes ◽

Political Studies ◽

The Way

The article deals with the evolution of constructivist paradigm of international relations. The issue is of utmost importance in terms of the search for theoretical alternatives in the IR thinking. First, we are giving basic introduction of constructivism on the basis of historical and hermeneutical approaches. There is no doubt that the paradigm has faced different theoretical challenges and a lot of critics which has to be addressed. The authors reconsider some constructivist theories and notions in Alexander Wendt's works and the way Wendt tried to reinforce and reassure the constructivist paradigm. This allows us to claim that quantum turn in recent Wendt's work was almost inevitable. Second, the article attempts to answer a question whether the fundamentals of quantum physics are relevant when speaking about social and political processes. At first glance, quantum physics approach has nothing in common with the theory of politics and the theory of international relations. However, there are some grounds to believe that certain problem issues of the political science and IR theory are not deadlocks. In the second part of the article we use the unleashed and underestimated potential of analytical philosophy. To conclude, we believe that today there are more questions than answers but the quantum paradigm is expected to be the important part of the political studies and IR theory as well.

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