Experiencing RoboCop(s): An “amateur” reading of violence and (dis)order; human/non- human relations; and critique

arry Potter, Battlestar Galactica, zombies and other popular culture ‘products’ are no longer bizarre objects of research. Still, the attention mostly focuses on their role as representations of something out-there. Their potential agency is recognized in relation to world politics, but there is little interest in their ability to challenge and complement researchers’ representations and methods. In this contribution I argue in favor of charting the multiple ways in which popular culture advances its own framing of politics. The aim is not only to understand how specific products support or question security practices, but also how a popular culture experience can originally contribute to critical security studies. I engage with two Robocop films (1987 and 2014). I claim no expertise in cinema studies: I rather adopt an “amateur” perspective (to quote Rancière). Through a back and forth between my story as researcher and as spectator, I re-engage with these two movies in relation the following themes: violence and (dis)order; human/non- human relations; and critique. I present the security practices and the strategies of description adopted in the movies. Then, I juxtapose Robocop(s) to my experience of critical security studies, highlighting what, and how, we may learn as spectators of popular culture