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Evaluating Geopolitical Impact through the Concept of Social Performance: The Case of a Mormon General Conference  

Ethan, Yorgason (Department of Geography. Kyungpook National University)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Geographical Society / v.45, no.5, 2010 , pp. 669-687 More about this Journal
Abstract
Critical scholarship has shown itself much more adept at identifying and analyzing the content of religious geopolitics than its impacts or effects. This article suggests ways in which the concept of social performance can be used to more carefully consider the effects of religious geopolitics. Judith Butler's identity-oriented notion of performativity is usually geographers' point of entry into issues of performance. But its strong poststructuralist distrust of agency limits its power among those who question poststructuralism's grounding beliefs. This article illustrates the added utility of other theories of performance-particularly the recent pragmatic, dramaturgical, and non-poststructuralist theorization of social performance by the cultural sociologist Jeffrey Alexander-in evaluating the impact of religious geopolitical action. It does so through the case of a recent, particularly geopolitically laden Mormon General Conference. It concludes, through Butler and Alexander, that this General Conference likely accomplished significant geopolitical work. But it also, mainly through Alexander, argues that this work likely had limited capacity to motivate new or additional geopolitical action. Its power was more to reinforce than transform.
Keywords
critical geopolitics; performance studies; Mormonism; religion; Jeffrey Alexander;
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