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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Cultural studies > General
There is a crisis in contemporary postcolonial theory: while an enormous body of challenging research has been produced under its auspices, severely critical questions about the validity and usefulness of this theory have also been raised. This Reader is positioned at the juncture where it can address these contestations. It makes available some of the 'classics' of the field; engages with the issues raised by contemporary practitioners; but also offers several of the arguments that strongly critique postcolonial theory. Although postcolonial theory purports to be inter-disciplinary and frequently anti-foundationalist, traces of disciplinary formations and linearity have continued to haunt its articulations. This Reader, on the other hand, offers a uniquely inter-disciplinary mapping. It is concerned with three main areas: definitional problems and contests including the current challenges to postcolonial theory; the 'disciplining of knowledge', where the multiple resonances of the word 'disciplining' are all engaged; and the location of practice where the relations between intellectual practice and historical conditions are explored. Finally, since the guiding principle of this Reader is simultaneous attention to the enabling and constraining mechanisms of historical realities and institutional practices, the commentary problematizes the writing of histories, the formations of canons, and indeed the production of Readers.
In the early 20th century, a new and distinctive concept of the
audience rose to prominence. The audience was seen as a mass -- a
large collection of people mostly unknown to one another -- that
was unified through exposure to media. This construct offered a
pragmatic way to map audiences that was relevant to industry,
government, and social theorists. In a relatively short period of
time, it became the dominant model for studying the audience.
Today, it is so pervasive that most people simply take it for
granted.
In the early 20th century, a new and distinctive concept of the
audience rose to prominence. The audience was seen as a mass -- a
large collection of people mostly unknown to one another -- that
was unified through exposure to media. This construct offered a
pragmatic way to map audiences that was relevant to industry,
government, and social theorists. In a relatively short period of
time, it became the dominant model for studying the audience.
Today, it is so pervasive that most people simply take it for
granted.
The colonial architecture of the nineteenth century has much to
tell us of the history of colonialism and cultural exchange. Yet,
these buildings can be read in many ways. Do they stand as
witnesses to the rapacity and self-delusion of empire? Are they
monuments to a world of lost glory and forgotten convictions? Do
they reveal battles won by indigenous cultures and styles? Or do
they simply represent an architectural style made absurdly
incongruous in relocation?
This study draws on feminist theory, cultural studies, the philosophy of science, and gay and lesbian studies to problematize the factual scientific discourse about AIDS, and interpret it as a political discourse. Waldby argues that much AIDS discourse relies on an implicit and unconscious equation between sexual health and heterosexual masculinity. In this equation, women, bisexual and gay men are the targets of preventative programmes, while heterosexual men tend to remain unaddressed by such programmes. Drawing upon examples of preventative policies from Australia, Britain and the USA, Waldby investigates the concept of public health and questions whose interests are represented in a "healthy society". It demonstrates the extent to which established ideas about the virus: the immune system, the HIV test and the epidemiology of the disease, rely upon unexamined, conservative assumptions about sexual identity and sexual difference.
Behind every typeface is a story - who designed it, and why? What are its distinctive characteristics, and what cultural baggage does it carry? This book explores fifty of the most remarkable typefaces, dating from the birth of European printing in the fifteenth century (and the type used in the Gutenberg Bible - the first significant book to be printed in Europe) to the present day. It features key examples in the aesthetic development of typography (Caslon, Baskerville, Bodoni) and those fonts which have made a significant impact on the wider world. Many fonts have added style to something culturally important (such as Johnston Sans on the London Underground), or assumed a cultural significance of their own, sometimes by accident. The designer of Comic Sans, for example, created the typeface for use in speech bubbles for a Microsoft programme, never expecting it to become one of the world's favourite - and also most maligned - fonts. Through the fonts this book also examines the often colourful lives of the key designers in the evolution of typography: Johannes Gutenberg, William Caslon, Nicolas Jenson, Stanley Morison and William Morris, among others - including one who threw his unique set of metal type into the Thames to prevent others from misusing it - and the enduring influence they have had on print culture. Of equal appeal to general readers, designers and typographers, this book is a vibrant cultural guide to the aesthetic choices we make in order to spread the word.
A feminist literary theorist, specialist in Rembrandt, and a
scholar with a knack for reading Old Testament stories, Mieke Bal
weaves a tapestry of signs and meanings that enrich our senses. Her
subject is the act of showing, the gesture of exposing to view. In
a museum, for example, the object is on display, made visually
available. "That's how it is," the display proclaims. But who says
so?
Hybrids of Modernity considers the relationship between three western modernist institutions: anthropology, the nation state and the universal exhibition. It looks at the ways in which these institutions are linked, in how they are engaged in the objectification of culture, and in how they have themselves become objects of cultural theory, the targets of critics who claim that despite their continuing visibility these are all institutions with questionable viability in the late 20th century. Through analysis of the Universal Exhibition held in seville in 1992, the themes of culture, nationality and technology are explored. Particular attention is paid to how "culture" is produced and put to work by the national and corporate participants, and to the relationship between the emergence of culture as commodity and the way in which the concept is employed in contemporary cultural theory.
This monograph is a formal account of the structure and organization of a large Japanese advertising agency. Based on a year's fieldwork in a Tokyo-based agency, the book presents a case study of an advertising campaign to outline the complex relations that exist between different divisions (Account, Planning, Marketing, Creative) within an advertising agency, and between the agency and the client, on the one hand, and the agency and media, on the other.
This study examines the significance of representations of masculinity with particular focus on the consumer industries, building a form of cultural analysis that draws together the study of texts and institutions.
The culmination of 15 years of research by a Turkish psychologist
who was educated in the West, this volume examines both the
theoretical and practical aspects of cross-cultural psychology. It
takes a contextual-developmental-functional approach linking the
child, family, and society as they are embedded in culture. A
refreshingly different view, the author presents a portrait of
human development from "the other side"--from the perspective of
the "majority world." In a world seemingly dominated by American
psychology, she proposes the cross-cultural orientation as a
corrective to the culture-boundedness of much of Euro-American
psychology.
A New Role for Museum Educators shows how that learning happens in communities, how volunteers and professionals approach their work, the underlying principles and philosophies that guide the work of museum education, and how these are always evolving to remain relevant. Museum education in its most expansive definition is about communicating messages, creating learning experiences and, at its most aspirational, promoting human development for people of all backgrounds, abilities, and circumstances. This edited volume revisits the legacy of museum education practices, reflecting on the changing context of community and the role of cultural institutions, and provides insights into new directions that museums can take with a visitor-centered mindset. It provides foundational concepts around educational philosophies that guide practice, applied methods and approaches for implementation, and the ethos of an educational institution intended to support community learning and engagement that are essential to provide for the wide-ranging needs of all audiences. International perspectives from a variety of museums are considered, including art museums, children's museums, history museums and historic sites, science museums, botanical gardens, zoos and aquariums. Chapters included thought-provoking reflections on contemporary practices, concrete examples from across the globe, and useful tools for anyone working with public audiences. Grounded in practice and informed by research, this volume will be a go-to resource for arts and cultural organization practitioners, particularly those working in Museum Education. It will also be essential reading for students of Museum Studies, Education, and related fields
This book engages with the ethics and practices of identity formation in a world experiencing identity stress. It engages with crucial questions such as: What models are shaping our view of ourselves and the society in which we live? What images ground our perception of what is true and real? How have the images been historically produced? What are the effects of such models on definitions of self? Should we break free from these images if we get to know what they are? Is it possible to change our models in order to create freer identities? Through a range of distinctive lenses, the essays in the volume deals with the ideas of the 'liminal self', the 'digital self', 'identities in flux', and offers up 'anthropologies of self/selves' that situates current identity processes within their cultures and explores strategies and dilemmas from this perspective. This key volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of literary stories, critical theory, social theory, social anthropology, philosophy, and political philosophy.
This anthology examines maternity in contemporary performance at the intersection of a wide range of topics from nationhood to mental health, queer parenting, embodied dramaturgy, cultural practice, and immigration. Across the breadth of these themes, we interrogate the cultural implications and politics of how we script, perform, receive, and define mothers, challenging many of the normalizing and patriarchal tropes associated with the mother-as-character. This book includes critical essays examining twenty-first century dramatic literature, first-hand ethnographic accounts of motherhood in practice, interviews, feminist manifestos, and artist reflections. In its deliberately curated variety, this collection seeks to resist homogeneity and offer instead a range of approaches to key questions: what versions of motherhood get staged, and why? And what do dramatic representations tell us about the role of mothers in our own fraught contemporary moment? This collection will be of great interest to those in academia who are teaching, researching, or studying in the fields of Theatre and Performance Studies, American Studies, and Feminist and Gender Studies.
This book aims to curate a collection of articles to showcase the latest work and biggest trends shaping the global tourism industry in the past two decades - new technology and the Chinese tourists. While the emergence of new technology continues to propel the evolution of the tourism industry, Chinese tourists as a dominating market have won increasing attention across worldwide destinations. On one hand, the vast advancement of technology has fundamentally shifted the way Chinese tourists travel. On the other hand, the arrival of technologically savvy Chinese tourists has provoked tourism providers and destinations to adopt innovative technology (e.g., mobile payment). Standing on the edge of the third decade of the twenty-first century, the tourism industry and scholarly community are facing unprecedented challenges amidst exciting opportunities. Particularly, this line of research is perhaps timelier than ever, with the pandemic physically distancing people whilst augmenting technology's function in mediating social interactions and connecting lives beyond geographic boundaries. New Technology and Mediated Chinese Tourists will be a great resource for researchers and students of Tourism and Hospitality including those interested to understand how innovation and technology is embedded in the tourism industry. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of China Tourism Research.
"Education Reform and Social Change" is about addressing and
changing the structures, policies, and practices of schools that
differentially advantage white, middle class, native English
speakers over students of color for whom English may be a second or
additional language. It is also about helping people to think
critically about what it is schools do and to consider more
democratic, participatory, and equitable approaches.
Against the powerful image of Japan as a rising economic superpower, or even, in Ezra Vogel's influential formulation a deade ago, "Japan as number 1", this book explores the fragility, hubris and human and environmental costs of Japan's desperate drive for hyperdevelopment. As this economic superpower finds itself drifting, rudderless, through the decade, four seminal events seem to emblemise the enveloping crisis: the Kobe Earthquake, which the author shows to be no mere act of nature, but an event whose consequences are intimately bound up with desperate hypergrowth; The Ayum Rikyo poison gas attack, which struck at Japan's sense of security in its deepest senses (psychological and moral, as well as physical); the collapse of the LDP single-party rule after nearly 40 years, plunging Japan's superstable political system into crises manifested by implausible coalition with little more than a thirst to rule in common; and Japan's inability to come to terms with war respnsibility ever after 50 years, best symbolised by the Comfort Women issue and the government's hapless attempt to come up with an appropriate formula for recognising, apologising and making amends for wartime aggression and crimes. Gavan McCormack addresses these issues - which are political, economic, social cultural and moral in the most profound sense - directly in this book.
Winner of the Bancroft Prize Winner of the David J. Langum Prize Winner of the OAH Liberty Legacy Foundation Award A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "This extraordinary book is a powerful addition to the history of travel segregation...Mia Bay shows that Black mobility has always been a struggle." -Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist "In Mia Bay's superb history of mobility and resistance, the question of literal movement becomes a way to understand the civil rights movement writ large." -Jennifer Szalai, New York Times "Traveling Black is well worth the fare. Indeed, it is certain to become the new standard on this important, and too often forgotten, history." -Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of Stony the Road From Plessy v. Ferguson to #DrivingWhileBlack, African Americans have fought to move freely around the United States. But why this focus on Black mobility? From stagecoaches and trains to buses, cars, and planes, Traveling Black explores when, how, and why racial restrictions took shape in America and brilliantly portrays what it was like to live with them. Mia Bay rescues forgotten stories of passengers who made it home despite being insulted, stranded, re-routed, or ignored. She shows that Black travelers never stopped challenging these humiliations, documenting a sustained fight for redress that falls outside the traditional boundaries of the civil rights movement. A riveting, character-rich account of the rise and fall of racial segregation, it reveals just how central travel restrictions were to the creation of Jim Crow laws-and why free movement has been at the heart of the quest for racial justice ever since.
Originating in Japan early in the 1970s as a simple sing-along
technology, karaoke has become a hybrid media form designed to
integrate mass-mediated popular music, video images, computer
graphics, and the live musical performance of its human users. Not
only has karaoke become a multimillion-dollar entertainment
industry, its varied uses have also evolved into diverse popular
cultural and social practices among many people around the world.
Based on a two-year ethnographic study, this book offers a
penetrating analysis of how karaoke is used in the expression,
maintenance, and (re)construction of social identity as part of the
Chinese American experience. It also explores the theoretical
implications of interaction between the media audience and karaoke
as both an electronic communication technology and a cultural
practice.
In "Culture, Modernity and Revolution" a group of internationally
renowned sociologists from East and West, come together to honor
Zygmunt Bauman. Their essays not only honor the man, but provide
important contributions to the three interlinked themes that could
be said to form the guiding threads of Bauman's life and work:
power, culture and modernity. "Culture, Modernity and Revolution"
is both a remarkable sociological commentary on the problems facing
East-Central Europe and an exposition of some of the key, hitherto
neglected, features of the modern cultural universe.
Sport is far more than a national and international entertainment: it is a source of political identity, morale, pride and superiority. Tribal Identities explores the influence of sport on the nations of Europe as a mechanism of national solidarity promoting a sense of identity, unity, status and esteem; as an instrument of confrontation between nations, stimulating aggression, stereotyping, and images of inferiority and superiority; and as a cultural bond linking nations across national boundaries, providing common enthusiasm, shared experiences, the transcendence of national allegiances, and opportunities for association, understanding and goodwill.
The work and methodology of the Glasgow University Media Group has
become a core part of many media and journalism studies courses,
and their contribution to our understanding of the relationship
between mass media and society is widely acknowledged. In recent
years, their assertion of the role the media plays in shaping the
audience's understanding of current affairs has provided a crucial
counter argument to such theorists of postmodernity as Jean
Baudrillard.
In "Dance, Modernity and Culture," Helen Thomas provides an
original, interdisciplinary, approach to the study of dance. By
examining the development of modern dance in the US during the
inter-war period she develops a framework for analyzing dance from
a sociological perspective. |
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