POLS 2920 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Simulacrum, Post-Structuralism, Identity Politics

• School: York University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 2920
• Professor: Jean Michel Montsion

Document Summary

Going beyond structuralism to question binary oppositions and representation that maintain these structures. Simulacrum and interpretations (simulacrum= emphasizes the representations of reality) Analyses done utilizing this theory are quite specific. Representations are both arbitrary and not arbitrary. The relations between knowledge and power reproduce modes of special control. Links between academic knowledge about security and representations/practice of war. It is important to have a critical attitude towards the field of ir if it depicts academic knowledge as separate from the real-life" actions and representations of international politics. Representations and interpretations about international politics are based on relations between power & knowledge (found in specific histories, interests) It is shaped by identity politics, and the ways in which we are asked to see and contribute to ir. Highlighting the continuity of colonial and racialized patterns in international politics. Said: orientalism, or european knowledge about the orient", that maintains subordination [orient are irrational, weak] [tried to destroy reps]