Cultural Studies

This article traces the development of Ananda Coomaraswamy's aesthetic theory through his anti-colonial critique of Indian music and dance traditions. Greatly influencing his thoughts were the performances of his then wife, the tambura player Ratan Devi, and her collaborator, the dancer Roshanara.

L’ultimo volume di studi dell’EPZ (Centro Europeo di Studi Pirandelliani), vuole contribuire ad allargare l’interesse della critica pirandelliana ad aspetti teorici che tengano conto del ruolo del Sud italiano nella geopolitica mondiale odierna. La premessa ai lavori sull’opera di Luigi Pirandello presenti in questo volume è la presa d’atto della specificità di alcuni luoghi, nei quali i rapporti tra culture differenti si fanno più espliciti, luoghi di frontiera a cui il Sud d’Italia appartiene di diritto. Le linee guida di questa miscellanea s’ispirano alle più innovative tendenze di quella parte della ricerca letteraria che ha elaborato un discorso sui Sud del mondo più adatto a rappresentare i processi di negoziazione culturale permanenti, che caratterizzano il mondo globalizzato in cui viviamo. Utilizzando mezzi d’indagine diversi i saggi analizzano alcuni aspetti dell’opera pirandelliana che possano farsi strumento di comprensione di un mondo dove il concetto di Sud, in letteratura e non solo, si è ampliato, un mondo da ri-disegnare.

Feminist cultural studies researchers have produced a rich body of work showing how postfeminism and therapy cultures pervade a range of media. However, receiving less attention are questions of exactly how the neoliberal technologies of self implicated in these two cultural persuasions ‘land’, and are practised in everyday life. In this article, we forward an identity practice approach to understand the interrelated cultures of therapy and postfeminism using data from a qualitative investigation of women’s friendships in Aotearoa New Zealand. We are interested in how the cultural resources concerning postfeminism and the ‘psy complex’ are used flexibly within friendship interactions in concert with other identities, such as national identities and caring identities. Overall, aligning with previous feminist analyses of media artefacts, we find that as postfeminist and therapeutic subjectivity-making entwine with the moral orders of women’s friendships, women carry out their self-sur...

This article discusses uses of alternative forms of media and information communication technologies (ICTs) by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and advocacy organizations for underprivileged and marginalized groups in China, specifically rural-to-urban migrant workers. Drawing from the conceptual framework of alternative media and ICTs for social change, I analyze a local NGO's community newspaper for migrant workers and an online advocacy media organization targeting female migrant workers. The two cases present sustainable and organized modes of alternative media production that enable deliberative spaces for migrant workers' collective expression. Analyzing semi-structured interviews with editors and migrant worker-authors, as well as published articles and reader responses, I examine thematic content and processes of production and distribution. Migrant workers' articulations through alternative media constitute a daily mode of activism and resistance. Demonstra...

The purpose of this research is to study the attention paid by the YLE Sápmi radio audience to news published on the website. The study is based on the attention economic theory. YLE Sápmi is a regional indigenous radio channel of the public Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. The attention data consist of web comments and Facebook likes. The most commented news focused on the Sámi area or culture, often associated with ethnic tensions. On the radio website, the comments were from time to time highly controversial, while Facebook likes show support towards positive cultural developments. This study contributes to knowledge on the research potential of the attention data on social media websites. This research method not only enables the study of themes interesting for the audience, but also how the media itself channels discussions in certain directions.

... Husserl, of course, would say that Hume and Kant and Brentano all failed to achieve the transcendental reduction, but that is merely to say that Hume, Kant, and Brentano all failed to recognize that consciousness might have contents that are not really contents. ...

This is an important book for many different kinds of scholars. It is a major work in visual communication, and has won praise for its innovative reading of photographs as texts. It speaks to me more as a work of journalism history. For others, it will be a book about ...

In Spanish, the first meaning of the term 'turba'is that of a residual, dark substance used for fuel ('peat'in English) and were it not for this marginal utility it would be a synonym for the abject. It is only in its second meaning that it refers to the idea of a confused and ...

Discussions of contemporary Venezuelan politics are often confined to Chávez's larger than life image: the authoritarian demagogue or the uncompromising man of principles, the saviour or the destroyer of the motherland, the skilful or the crude communicator, the brave revolutionary who confronted Empire or the illusionist who recast old ideologies, el zambo impertinente or the incarnation of los de abajo; all of these have captured the imagination of intellectuals, artists and, of course, the Venezuelan electorate. Chávez's death, and the massive expressions of popular mourning that followed, only added to this tendency to read the last decade as the ‘Chávez Era’.

Discussions of contemporary Venezuelan politics are often confined to Chávez's larger than life image: the authoritarian demagogue or the uncompromising man of principles, the saviour or the destroyer of the motherland, the skilful or the crude communicator, the brave revolutionary who confronted Empire or the illusionist who recast old ideologies, el zambo impertinente or the incarnation of los de abajo; all of these have captured the imagination of intellectuals, artists and, of course, the Venezuelan electorate. Chávez's death, and the massive expressions of popular mourning that followed, only added to this tendency to read the last decade as the ‘Chávez Era’.

In Spanish, the first meaning of the term 'turba'is that of a residual, dark substance used for fuel ('peat'in English) and were it not for this marginal utility it would be a synonym for the abject. It is only in its second meaning that it refers to the idea of a confused and ...

Luis Duno-Gottberg es profesor asociado de estudios caribeños y cine en Rice Univerity. Actualmente escribe sobre la representación mediática de colectivos populares en términos de sujetos pre-políticos, en el contexto de la Revolución Bolivariana. Es autor de Solventar las ...