Descending Even Further...

As Erin and I have begun wading into the pool of constructivist theory that we need to explore before starting on the pirate-y part of our pirate research, we've been rather surprised to see what an incestuous little family we've stumbled into. It's been fun, and vastly interesting to see who keeps citing whom and which scholars invariably end up in the acknowledgment section of everyone's books. One great example relates to Erin's last post about Jutta Weldes's fabulous quote on the importance of studying popular culture. This morning, I began reading the Harry Potter and International Relations book, edited by Daniel Nexon and Iver Neumann. (On a brief side note, as someone who dearly loves Harry Potter, I am totally reading this one all the way through for fun as much as research!). Jutta Weldes herself is mentioned in the acknowledgments section, but the best part is that the introduction contains a slightly more accessible version of her quote on popular culture that Erin just brought to our attention:

International-relations theorists often neglect second-order representations. They also view first-order representations as relatively unproblematic expressions of the "facts" of international politics. The speeches and debates of political elites are often the "stuff" of our investigations, whereas we usually treat books, films, and television as afterthoughts or indirect commentary on political events. For many purposes, there is nothing wrong with this mode of analyzing the social world. At the same time, both speeches and television dramas are representations of social life, and they interact with one another in a variety of important ways. We need to keep in mind that, for many people, second-order representations are often more significant sources of knowledge about politics and society. Popular entertainment not only commands a larger audience than the news or political events, but it frequently has a more powerful impact on the way audiences come to their basic assumptions about the world. (pg. 7-8)