Teaching urban spaces and world politics: Perdido Street Station and pedagogies of production | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Politicizing Artistic Pedagogies: Publics, Spaces, Teachings
  • ISSN: 2042-793X
  • E-ISSN: 2042-7948

Abstract

This article explores teaching international politics, international political economy (IPE) and urbanism through a reading of China Miéville’s novel, . The novel as an artefact of popular culture affords a critical encounter with the production of space for students of international politics and IPE. Departing from prevailing approaches to understanding the urban in relation to the international that tend to focus on networks and , the article offers a reading of the novel as demonstrating the of space. The article links a critique of the hierarchical relations between teacher and student to critiques of the subordination of labour to design and planning, both of which render invisible the work of producing knowledge and space. Through an analysis of the political struggles over the formal and real subsumption of labour in , the article argues that studying the politics of urbanism in relation to the international through artefacts of popular culture can disrupt the invisibility of work.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • AHRC Grant, ‘Translating Ferro/Transforming Knowledges of Architecture, Design, and Labour for the New Field of Production Studies’ (Award Project Reference AH/T009292/1)
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/aps_00060_1
2021-11-01
2024-05-02
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Bair, J.. ( 2005;), ‘ Global capitalism and commodity chains: Looking back, going forward. ’, Competition & Change, 9:2, pp. 15380.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bruff, I.. ( 2021;), ‘ Moving to new generational beats: Lived experiences of capitalism, student-led (re)makings of knowledge, and the evolution of critical research agendas. ’, Capital & Class, article first , https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0309816821997119. Accessed 19 October 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Coe, N. M., and Yeung, H. W-C.. ( 2015), Global Production Networks: Theorizing Economic Development in an Interconnected World, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Cowen, D.. ( 2014), The Deadly Life of Logistics: Mapping Violence in Global Trade, Minneapolis, MA:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Davies, M.. ( 2010;), ‘ “You can’t charge people for saving their lives!” Work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ’, International Political Sociology, 4:2, pp. 17895.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Ekman, S.. ( 2018;), ‘ Map and text: World-architecture and the case of Miéville’s Perdido Street Station. ’, Literary Geographies, 4:1, pp. 6683.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Ferro, S.. ( 2016;), ‘ Dessin/Chantier: An introduction. ’, in K. L. Thomas,, T. Amhoff, and N. Beech. (eds), Industries of Architecture, New York:: Routledge;, pp. 94105.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Ferro, S.. ( 2018;), ‘ Concrete as weapon. ’ (trans. A. Fiuza, and S. Kapp.), Harvard Design Magazine, 46, pp. 833.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Freire, P.. ( 1985), Pedagogy of the Oppressed, London:: Penguin;.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Gereffi, G.,, Humphreys, J., and Sturgeon, T.. ( 2005;), ‘ The governance of global value chains. ’, Review of International Political Economy, 12:1, pp. 78104.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Gordon, J., and Miéville, C.. ( 2003;), ‘ Reveling in genre: An interview with China Miéville. ’, Science Fiction Studies, 30:3, pp. 35573.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Grayson, K.,, Davies, M., and Philpott, S.. ( 2009;), ‘ Pop goes IR? Researching the popular culture-world politics continuum. ’, Politics, 29:3, pp. 15563.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Kapp, S.. ( 2016;), ‘ Construction sites of utopia. ’, in K. L. Thomas,, T. Amhoff, and N. Beech. (eds), Industries of Architecture, New York:: Routledge;, pp. 12534.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Khalili, L.. ( 2020), Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping in the Arabian Peninsula, London:: Verso;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Lefebvre, H.. ( 1991a), The Production of Space (trans. D. Nicholson-Smith.), Oxford:: Blackwell;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Lefebvre, H.. ( 1991b), Critique of Everyday Life, vol. 1, London:: Verso;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Marx, K.. ( 1976), Capital, vol. 1 (trans. B. Fowkes.), New York:: Vintage;.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Miéville, C.. ( 2000), Perdido Street Station, London:: Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Rancière, J.. ( 1991), The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation, Stanford, CA:: Stanford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Rancière, J.. (ed.) ( 2010;), ‘ Ten theses on politics. ’, in Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics, London:: Bloomsbury;, pp. 2744.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Sassen, S.. ( 2013), The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, Princeton: NJ:: Princeton University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Shapiro, M. J.. ( 2013), Studies in Trans-Disciplinary Method: After the Aesthetic Turn, New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Davies, Matt. ( 2021;), ‘ Teaching urban spaces and world politics: Perdido Street Station and pedagogies of production. ’, Art & the Public Sphere, 10:2, pp. 21124, https://doi.org/10.1386/aps_00060_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/aps_00060_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error