Research

Rethinking the Body in Global Politics: Bodies, Body Politics, and The Body Politic in a Time of Pandemic

Kandida Purnell · 2021 · London and New York: Routledge

‘It is a tour de force of contemporary debates in inter-national relations (IR)–including on emotion, affect, the body, embodiment, necropolitics, ontological security, and auto-ethnography; it seems that every turn in IR in the last 20 years is here, with some Hobbes and Shakespeare added. This is a book brimming with thoughts and ideas on how we can under-stand the body in global politics.’ Professor Sophie Harman, Queen Mary University of London, UK

“Purnell masterfully interweaves the global and the local, demonstrating how the materiality of bodies is essential to properly understanding the functioning of international politics. Making inroads into rethinking the ontology of bodies by examining topics ranging from war to global health, she demands that we consider how the body is itself a contested site, materially and rhetorically disassembled in ways that are politically significant. By drawing on auto-ethnographic and rich textual methods, she offers an incisive and reflective contribution that is sure to provide a model for narrative work in global politics.” Dr Jessica Auchter, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, USA.

“Rethinking the Body in Global Politics is one of the most exciting, inspiring and disruptive books I have read. Bodies might have been neglected by the discipline of International Relations, but there is no escaping the body here. Kandida Purnell takes us on a valuable detour outside the usual disciplinary frames to draw attention to the processes (dis-)embodiment that render certain bodies so vulnerable to death and injury. In doing so, she adds some much needed theoretical flesh and empirical muscle to our once barren disciplinary bones.” Dr Thomas Gregory, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

‘The book is highly enriched with different aspects, structures and theories of the body politic and international relations which can be a great use for researchers, policymakers, and students of political science, IR, and other social sciences which can also be an important element for the process of nation-building in pandemic times.’ Dr Nupur Pattanaik, Central University of Odisha, India

REVIEW ARTICLES

Sophie Harman in International Feminist Journal of Global Politics (2022)

Nupur Pattanaik in Political Studies Review (2021)

When This is Over: Reflections on an Unequal Pandemic

Amy Cortvriend, Lucy Easthope, Jenny Edkins & Kandida Purnell · 2023 · Bristol University Press, Policy Press

“A timely meditation on crisis, response, resilience and death in the 21^stcentury. A must-read.” Toni Haastrup, University of Stirling

“A powerful and moving cycle of reflective and analytical moments, different voices coming together to make sense, rummaging through personal archives and memory and finding anguish, despair and even hope.” Yoav Galai, Royal Holloway, University of London

“Hugely illuminating and harrowing, laying bare how loss, burden, sacrifice and grief were mediated by existing systemic inequalities and discrimination.” Andreas Papamichail, Queen Mary University of London

“An insightful, multidisciplinary tribute to the UK lives disrupted and lost by the COVID-19 pandemic…. A poignant reminder of the worldwide shared collective trauma, [which will] hopefully inspire us to ensure we’re better prepared for future pandemics.” Adam Kamradt-Scott, Dr Jiang Yanyong Visiting Professor, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health

“Empathetic and urgent … an essential resource to challenge our ambivalent return to ‘normality’ and the inequities and inequalities on which it is founded and conceals.” Katharine Millar, London School of Economics and Political Science