In Conversation with Xymena Kurowska and Anatoly Reshetnikov

What are ‘tricksters’ and how do they exert power in international politics? This podcast takes a closer look at political actors that seek to undermine order and sow confusion around their actions by employing contradictory logics. Discussing their article ‘Trickstery: pluralising stigma in international society’, which won the EISA’s Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award in 2022, Xymena Kurowska (Central European University) and Anatoly Reshetnikov (Webster Vienna Private University) shed light on ‘trickstery’ as a form of behavior that appears to simultaneously conform with and deviate from dominant norms. In conversation with Felix Berenskötter (SOAS University of London), Xymena and Anatoly explain how digital ethnography of folklore scholars and their research on the Russian blogosphere and foreign policy inspired them to develop the concept and introduce it to the field of International Relations. Tune in for an insightful contribution that intriguingly advances IR’s conceptual orbit.

strong textXymena Kurowska

Anatoly Reshetnikov

Kurowska, X., & Reshetnikov, A. (2018): Neutrollization: Industrialized trolling as a pro-Kremlin strategy of desecuritization. Security Dialogue, 49(5), 345–363. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010618785102

Morozov, V. (2015). Russia's postcolonial identity: A subaltern empire in a Eurocentric world. Springer.

Felix Berenskötter