I’ve always wondered, when I hear how my lecturers describe who their influences were, whether I will have one of these ‘There was this one day…’, or ‘I was inspired by Person X…’ moment. Yesterday, I believe it happened.

But first, I should go back in time to a month or so earlier. I presented at the Geographical Imaginations conference, and was struck at how monotonous postmodernism seemed to be. Not so much the content of the presentations (including my own), but the way in which theoretical approach was so blandly covered – unanimously, by all who presented.

Postmodernism typically goes: ‘there is more uncertainty in X than first seemed’, and we should question the basis from which this uncertainty arose, and critique our productions of knowledge. Well, no. Not any more. Alastair Bonnett, my supervisor, commented that it would have been refreshing to see a structuralist, and I agree. Or at least, someone dedicated to discarding this supposedly fashionable analytic costume.

My housemate is doing an MA in International Politics here, and we therefore had a mutual interest in politics, and, seeing this seminar advertised:

Despite All Critique:
World Politics and Western Reason Revisited (presented by Rob Walker, a proponent of realism – and, apparently a big cheese on the IR scene)

We felt we just had to go. Why indeed do we feel the need to doubt ourselves and our methods of analysis? This has only led to more uncertainty, not less. Not to mention a very dystopian outlook in analysis. Why, as Walker, unforgettably put it, does modern political science seem dedicated to eradicating the historical consciousness?

I have always admired realism, for its certainty of itself. This PhD has been about soul searching, and I feel that I was lured by the modality of the ‘fashionable’ way of doing geography (if I even call myself a geographer anymore; which I don’t) at undergraduate and even at Master’s level. But that I really am more of a realist; even if I didn’t know it.

This is not to say that I believe the pendulum has swung completely. I do believe Postcolonial (more neocolonial) critique is important, especially in this new age of empire. But I hope that this seminar at the very least, will help my writing to become more mature and balanced, and at the very most, become more sure of itself and more real and pragmatic – for this is where I believe the future lies.

Over and out

X