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Intro -- Acknowledgements -- About the Book -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Chapter 1: Perspectives on Mediated Shame of Class and Poverty in European Contexts -- Intersections of the Study of Class and Media -- A Socio-Cultural Approach to Class and Poverty -- Shame and Shaming -- The European Perspective of Class and Poverty as Objects of Shame -- Chapter Overview -- References -- Chapter 2: 'Benefits Scroungers' and Stigma: Exploring the Abject-Grotesque in British Poverty Porn Programming -- Broadcasting Benefits: An Explosion of 'Poverty Porn' -- Beyond the Borders: The Abject and the Grotesque -- Methodology: Abject-Grotesque Frame Analysis -- Animating the 'Benefits Mum' -- Internalising 'Scrounger' Stigma -- Embodying Abjection -- Us and Them, Self and Other: Maintaining the Boundaries -- Transgressing Limits -- Transferring or Reinforcing Stigma? -- Conclusion: The 'Benefits Scrounger' as an Abject-Grotesque Figure -- References -- Chapter 3: Neural Attunement to Others: Shame, Social Status, and Rewarded Viewing in Reality Television in Sweden -- Neuroscience and Media Engagement -- Misconduct on Lyxfällan -- Shame and Devaluation -- The Work of Dis-identification: Feelings-in-Common -- Scorn, Self-Worth, and Social Comparison -- Emotional Memories: Neural Attunement to Others -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 4: Shame, (Dis)empowerment and Resistance in Diasporic Media: Romanian Transnational Migrants' Reclassification Struggles -- Shame and Reclassification Struggles in Transnational Contexts -- Shame and Reclassification Struggles in Public Culture and Discourses: Romanian 'Badanti' and 'Strawberry Pickers' -- Corpus and Analytical Framework -- Findings and Discussion: Reactions to Shame as Forms of Empowerment and Resistance -- Deprivation, Shame and Emigration.

This article studies the internet media communication of 12 organizations representing Czech trade union, feminist, human rights and environmental movements. Drawing on Foucault's concept that discourse has a formative influence resulting in a specific system of statement allocation, the study investigates the discursive characteristics of activists' communication. The research is methodologically based on a quantitative exploration of co-occurrences of frequent lexical items. The computer-assisted text analysis reveals an important characteristic of the communication — an internal split in two discursive areas: on the one hand, the 'conditions area', dedicated to phrasing the existential conditions of subjects of contest or protection, and, on the other hand, the 'contention area', referring to strategies and negotiation with movement opponents. In the study's interpretation, the discourse constrains activist organizations to communicate both about the life conditions of actors/subjects and about their claims and negotiations, but in large measure separately.

In modern liberal society, a person is considered a 'sacred' entity and any violation of their dignity should produce embarrassment not only on the side of the ashamed individual but in those co-present as well. In our research, we studied public shaming in reality television (RTV), a recent popular culture product, in order to understand the mechanism that transforms otherwise degrading shaming into popular entertainment. The analysis drew on the classical concept of the 'degradation ceremony' (H. Garfinkel) and it covered three RTV programmes originating in different cultural contexts. We discovered that it is strong situational ritualisation of shaming which substantially attenuates the harmful consequences of being shamed for participants' selves and thus protects viewers from uncomfortable feelings. In RTV, the shaming takes the form of a purposively unaccomplished degradation ceremony, which consists of the creation of an extraordinary situation, typification of participants, emphasis on the shared values in whose name the shaming is done, and participants' reflexive performance in the show. The results suggest that in RTV, the social practice of the status degradation ceremony is transformed into a cultural practice of systematic shaming without real identity degradation, which makes it possible for shaming to become global mediatised entertainment.

In our research, we examined how, if at all, a neoliberal responsibilisation of individuals is under way in the Czech Republic – a society characterised by low trust in its institutional system. Drawing on Giesler and Veresiu's model of three-step consumer responsibilisation, we carried out a qualitative analysis of data generated primarily through an originally designed card-matching game and individual interviews, further complemented with field observation. The findings revealed that distrust in market institutions is generally a barrier to responsibilisation of citizens, leading to several kinds of semi-responsibilised subjectivities instead: restrained subjectivity, partially neoliberally responsibilised subjectivity, and economically responsibilised subjectivity. Lack of confidence in established institutions may effectively weaken or change the process of neoliberal responsibilisation of individuals, in particular in non-economic areas such as the environment, health, and social solidarity.