Sensible Politics : Visualizing International Relations Visualizing International Relations

Abstract

Visual images are everywhere in international politics. But how are we to understand them? Callahan uses his expertise in theory and filmmaking to explore not only what visuals mean, but also how visuals can viscerally move and connect us in “affective communities of sense.” Sensible Politics explores the visual geopolitics of war, peace, migration, and empire through an analysis of photographs, films, and art. It then expands the critical gaze to consider how “visual artifacts”—maps, veils, walls, gardens, and cyberspace—are sensory spaces in which international politics is performed through encounters on the local, national, and world stages. Here “sensible politics” isn’t just sensory, but looks beyond icons and ideology to the affective politics of everyday life. This approach challenges the Eurocentric understanding of international politics by exploring the meaning and impact of visuals from Asia and the Middle East. Sensible Politics thus decenters our understanding of social theory and international politics by (1) expanding from textual analysis to highlight the visual and the multisensory; (2) expanding from Eurocentric investigations of IR to a more comparative approach that looks to Asia and the Middle East; and (3) shifting from critical IR’s focus on inside/outside and self/Other distinctions. It draws on Callahan’s documentary filmmaking experience to see critique in terms of the creative processes of social-ordering and world-ordering. The goal is to make readers not only think visually, but also feel visually—and to creatively act visually for a multisensory appreciation of politics.