The World Politics of Disco Elysium

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Vic Castro (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Nicholas Kiersey (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA)

The World Politics of Disco Elysium

Vic Castro (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Nicholas Kiersey (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA)

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Hardback

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English

Routledge
30 June 2025

Social & political philosophy; Popular culture; International relations; Digital animation; Games development & programming

Series: Popular Culture and World Politics

The World Politics of Disco Elysium analyzes the distinctive political claims and original arguments on a wide range of international political issues of the highly-acclaimed Marxist video game Disco Elysium (2019), which takes place in a speculative fictional world anchored in a post-Soviet Estonian perspective.

Disco Elysium (2019) has been repeatedly acclaimed as one of the best video games of all time. This detective role-playing game unfolds in a city ruined by a failed communist revolution and occupied by a foreign coalition. Furthering recent work in International Relations and popular culture, this book claims that the ""cognitive estrangement"" of speculative fiction can produce theoretical and political novelty, beyond merely reflecting existing political dynamics. By placing a metaphor for the Estonian capital Tallinn at the centre of a world, Disco Elysium produces an estranged Estonian perspective on world politics that challenges dominant Anglo-American views of International Relations, while also undermining the opposition between a coherent West and a colonized Rest. The contributors, from International Relations and Cultural Studies, discuss the game’s claims on topics such as capitalism, (neo)liberalism, foreign intervention, law enforcement, fascism, colonialism, gender, disability, violence, memory, revolutionary politics, the European Union, political realism and international security.

The World Politics of Disco Elysium will be of great interest to students and scholars researching the politics of popular culture, post-Soviet politics, non-Western International Relations, as well as game studies and cultural studies.

Edited by: Vic Castro (University of Copenhagen Denmark), Nicholas Kiersey (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 670g
ISBN: 9781032583631
ISBN 10: 1032583630
Series: Popular Culture and World Politics
Pages: 260
Publication Date: 30 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Vic Castro is an independent scholar with a PhD in political science (2024) from the University of Copenhagen. Their work has been published in journals including Security Dialogue and European Journal of International Security. They are a former Communications Officer for the STAIR section of ISA. Nicholas Kiersey is Professor of Political Science at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His research addresses austerity, biopolitics and the crises of the neoliberal capitalist state. He is currently working on a book about socialist governmentality and the cultural political economy of the end of capitalism.