Time, Space & German Soft Power: Toward a spatio-temporal turn in diplomatic studies?

Soft power is an increasingly important concept that attempts to explain how states and organisations shape shared interests across national borders and between political, economic, social and cultural spaces. However, many of the theoretical and methodological flaws identified by scholars engaging with the term are familiar to Media & Communications research, and particularly to the sub-field termed 'cultural imperialism' during the 1970s and 1980s. This article builds upon the insights of research that explores contemporary theoretical innovations upon the cultural imperialism field, and applies it to a case study of German soft power. The aim is to explore the usefulness of the 'spatio-temporal turn' as a way of interpreting the epistemological and ontological consequences of German soft power strategies. The study includes empirical material on the recent Land of Ideas and Year of Germany campaigns.