[KS] Book: Visual Politics and North Korea

[David Shim]

Dear colleagues,

Allow me to promote a book of mine that is now available (sorry for 
cross posting):

*Shim, David (2014), /Visual Politics and North Korea -- Seeing is 
Believing/, London: Routledge. *

Website: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415839488/

A description of the book can be found below.

*Description*:

In the realm of international relations, there are seemingly few states 
like North Korea. Whether it is the country's human rights situation, 
its precarious everyday life or its so-called foreign policy of coercion 
and nuclear brinkmanship, no matter what this 'pariah' nation says and 
does it affects the state and stability of regional and global politics. 
But what do we know about North Korea and how do we come to know it? 
This book argues that visual imagery plays a decisive role in this 
operation. By discussing two exemplary areas -- everyday photography and 
satellite imagery -- the book takes into account the role of images in 
the way that particular issues related to North Korea are understood in 
contemporary geopolitics. Images work. They do something by evoking a 
particular perspective of what is shown in them, allowing only specific 
ways of seeing/and/knowing. In this sense, images are deeply political. 
Individual methodological usages in the book can provide a procedural 
basis from which to start or rethink further studies on visuality, both 
in IR and beyond. It also opens an innovative path for future studies on 
East Asia, making the book attractive to a range of specialists and thus 
holding an appeal beyond the boundaries of a single discipline.

*Review*:

David Shim's book/Visual Politics and North Korea/is a timely and 
welcome intervention in the fields of International Relations, Asian 
Studies and Visual Culture. By taking the politics of seeing seriously, 
Shim reveals how North Korea's geopolitical status as a pariah state has 
been visually figured, secured and reproduced. What makes this book 
particularly innovative is its attention to contrasting scales of 
visuality as Shim juxtaposes the practices of everyday photography with 
the asymmetries produced by satellite imagery. While Shim's focus is on 
the case of North Korea, the book provides wide-ranging insights about 
the relationship between visuality and global politics. In that 
sense,/Visual Politics and North Korea/will be invaluable for critical 
scholars exploring the multiple intersections of seeing, knowing, 
globalization and power.

Dr. Debbie Lisle, School of Politics, International Studies & 
Philosophy, Queen's University Belfast, UK.

-- 
Dr. David Shim
Assistant Professor

University of Groningen
Faculty of Arts
Department of International Relations and International Organization

Oude Kijk in't Jatstraat 26
9712 EK Groningen
The Netherlands

Tel. +31 50 363 7896
Fax: +31 50 363 7253
Room: 1315.0508

Email: david.shim at rug.nl
http://www.rug.nl/staff/david.shim/
http://www.rug.nl/let/htir

New Publication!
Visual Politics and North Korea - Seeing is Believing,
London: Routledge (series 'Interventions'),
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415839488/

Rising South Korea: A Minor Player or a Regional Power?
Pacific Focus, 28, 3,
forthcoming (with Patrick Flamm)

Imaging North Korea: Exploring its Visual Representation in International Politics,
International Studies Perspectives, 14, 3,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-3585.2012.00493.x (with Dirk Nabers)

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