Suchergebnisse

Iran is undergoing a period of socio-political transformation joined to a cultural space that despite binding censorship regulations, circumnavigates restrictive bans and, in the world of film, generates award winning, critically acclaimed masterpieces. In the course of this two-day conference, participants will investigate cinema in Iran as part of Iran's rich media and cultural ecology. The conference brings together international scholars on topics, which explore: The contemporary political and industrial context in which films are produced, distributed, and consumed in Iran and the ways in which formal and informal censorship structures and practices impact the industry; Film as both a formal and informal information conduit in closed or censored societies; Cinematic circulation and flows among and between the Iranian Diaspora and Iranians in Iran; The role of Iranian cinema as public diplomacy and public debate surrounding film in Iran; The political economy of film in Iran, including piracy and do-it-yourself (DIY) cinematic production such as YouTube; The role of cinema vis à vis television: subject migration, professional migration, content regulation ; Cinema in Iran: Circulation, Censorship and Cultural Production , conference, ICI Berlin, 16–17 December 2011

Within this article, public service media and community media will be compared with regard to their potential to provide access, interaction and participation of civil society. These potentials will be identified at the level of organizational structures as well as the level of content production and evaluation. The theoretical considerations finally lead to the question whether and how the concept of public value as participation of civil society and accountability of media organizations is applicable to different forms of media organizations and which problems could arise out of that. By discussing how different dimensions of participation are realized within public service media and community media in the Austrian media market, we want to show how different structural prerequisites can also lead to different materializations of participation. In the end, this leads to the conclusion that public service media and community media in Austria do not only realize participation in different ways but thereby also fulfill their roles and tasks in democratic societies differently. We argue that instead of trying to apply a common framework, the output of and values created by public service media and community media have to be evaluated and measured in particular ways.

Arguing that questions of power expressed through aesthetic form are too often left out of current approaches to digital culture, this article revives the modernist aesthetic category of glamour in order to analyze contemporary forms of platformed cultural production. Through a case study of popular feminism, the article traces the ways in which glamour, defined as a beguiling affective force linked to promotional capitalist logics, suffuses digital content, metrics, and platforms. From the formal aesthetic codes of the ubiquitous beauty and lifestyle Instagram feeds that perpetuate the beguiling promise of popular feminism, to the enticing simplicity of online metrics and scores that promise transformative social connection and approbation, to the political economic drive for total information awareness and concomitant disciplining, predicting and optimizing of consumer-citizens, the article argues that the ambivalent aesthetic of glamour provides an apt descriptor and compelling heuristic for digital cultural production today.

This book looks at questions of intellectual property rights (IPR) -- historically, culturally, and politically -- and their relationship to law and the state. Arguing that the idea that intellectual property is another kind of property right (that is, that IP is a thing to be owned) exists in parallel with the idea that intellectual property is the consequence of a cultural process, Andrews discusses intellectual property rights within the context of cultural studies, treating them as an object through which intersecting cultural and political issues can be understood.

This essay explores the role of Istanbul's 'cultural productions' as components of the city's structure and texture. Istanbul is a city of tensions generated by its countless conflicting and divergent flows which are constantly influenced by socio-economic political and cultural fusions and confusions. It is constantly expanding both horizontally and vertically as evidenced by its central and peripheral settlements illegal dwellings and squatted lands. With each and every new inhabitant further cumulative cultural input is added to the city which also blends social exclusion and transgression (together with axiomatic de facto regulations). The city 'operates' as a jumbled mode of excessive information ; the repetitive collapse and replenishment of this information overload opens up diverse 'realities'. Within this picture 'cultural productions' of the city have emerged as indicators of inhabitants' reactions exposing ways of coping with/surviving in the city. These cultural productions are locally temporarily and spontaneously produced. Consequently this essay investigates how such cultural productions have been processed by the inhabitants of the city since the 1980s and specifically focuses on the latest research and project models navigating through projects undertaken by academics artists and architects who correspond and have connections with international institutions - most notably in the field of contemporary art. Resume Cet essai examine le role des 'productions culturelles' d'Istanbul en tant que composantes de la structure et de la texture urbaines. Cette ville est faite de tensions generees par un nombre infini de flux contradictoires et divergents influences en permanence par des fusions et confusions socio-economiques politiques et culturelles. Elle ne cesse de se developper tant au plan horizontal que vertical comme le montrent ses implantations centrales et peripheriques ses habitats illegaux et ses terrains squattes. Chaque nouvel habitant apporte une contribution culturelle cumulative a la ville qui melange egalement exclusion sociale et transgression (ainsi que des regles axiomatiques de fait). La ville 'fonctionne' comme un enchevetrement d'informations excessives: l'effondrement et la reconstitution reiteres de cette surcharge d'informations revelent diverses 'realites'. Dans cette representation les 'productions culturelles' de la ville sont apparues comme des indicateurs des reactions des habitants traduisant leurs manieres d'affronter la ville et d'y survivre. Les modalites de ces productions sont locales temporaires et spontanees. L'etude s'interesse donc au traitement de ces productions culturelles par les habitants depuis les annees 1980 et porte en particulier sur les modeles de recherches et de projets les plus recents en passant par des travaux d'universitaires d'artistes ou d'architectes qui correspondent et ont des liens avec des institutions internationales notamment dans le domaine de l'art contemporain.

How free can intellectuals (writers ; poets ; and artists) continue to exist in a political system that exercises a huge amount of pressure ; control ; and censorship ; forcing them to conform to its heavily skewed ideological and historical perspectives? The core question of a dispute among Iraqi intellectuals since 2003 has been: Who has the right to speak for Iraq? This question underlines the need to delve deeper ; it touches upon the urgency of re-examining the political and cultural dynamics of Baathist rule ; the cultural institutions of which provided a restrictive framework within an overall atmosphere of intimidation ; control ; and surveillance. During this time ; Iraqi intellectuals took on various attitudes ; varying from compliance and collaboration ; to resistance to the system or outright exile. The rift between Iraqi intellectuals is mostly between those on the "inside" and those on the "outside." This paper discusses the relationship between intellectuals and power and the peculiarities of Iraqi cultural production in Baathist times ; and then analyses the role of intellectuals through two case studies ; debating the strategies of survival and complicity.

by Cheung Hiu Wan. ; Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. ; Includes bibliographical references (leaves [135-140]). ; Abstracts in English and Chinese. ; Acknowledgement ; Abstract ; List of figures ; Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction ; Chapter 1.1 --- Scope of Study --- p.1 ; Chapter 1.2 --- Literature Review --- p.3 ; Chapter 1.3 --- Methodology --- p.13 ; Chapter 1.4 --- Structure of the Thesis --- p.17 ; Chapter Chapter 2. --- Historical Development of Comics in China ; Chapter 2.1 --- Comics History before1949 --- p.24 ; Chapter 2 . 2 --- Comics under the Reign of Chinese Communist Party --- p.29 ; Chapter 2.3 --- Beijing Cartoon after the Open Door Policy --- p.31 ; Chapter 2.4 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.39 ; Chapter Chapter 3 . --- Interaction with the Leaders of Beijing Publishing House ; Chapter 3.1 --- Leaders´ةExpectation for Beijing Cartoon --- p.41 ; Chapter 3.2 --- The Discrepancy between the Senior and Junior Editors --- p.51 ; Chapter 3.3 --- Editors' Comments on Interaction with the Leaders of the Beijing Publishing House --- p.54 ; Chapter Chapter 4. --- Interaction with the Senior Artists ; Chapter 4.1 --- Cartoon Art Festival98 --- p.57 ; Chapter 4.2 --- The Invasion of Japanese Comics --- p.59 ; Chapter 4.3 --- The Essence of Comics with Chinese Features --- p.63 ; Chapter 4.4 --- The Expected Role of the Chinese Government --- p.67 ; Chapter 4.5 --- The Editors´ة Comments on Cartoon Art Festival98 --- p.68 ; Chapter 4 . --- 6 Concluding Remarks --- p.70 ; Chapter Chapter 5. --- Interaction with the Junior Artists ; Chapter 5.1 --- Social Status of the Junior Artists --- p.12 ; Chapter 5.2 --- Cooperation with Beijing Cartoon --- p.11 ; Chapter 5.3 --- Why do they Join the Comics Business --- p.79 ; Chapter 5.4 --- Agreement and Terms of Payment --- p.87 ; Chapter 5.5 --- Summer Camping: Market Mechanism and Autonomy in Artists' Creation --- p.88 ; Chapter 5.6 --- The Editors' Expectation on the Roles of The Artists --- p.96 ; Chapter 5.7 --- Artists' Comments on the ...

This study addresses how Sahrawi authors are employing social media in support of the Sahrawi cause. Via new media literary studies and theories of postcolonial nostalgias, this article demonstrates how Sahrawi digital interventions differ from, and capitalize on, competing political and historical discourses. The focus centers on the Sahrawi blog hosted by El País, analyzing its use of communal poetry, nostalgic discourse, and transnational appeal to communicate and support Sahrawi political and literary goals.

Students enter schools today amid difficult, rapid social change, their sexuality and gender partly formed by family, peers, and the media. We are only beginning to understand the complex articulation between schooling, wider learning networks, and sexual/gender subjectivities. Current empirical and theoretical work in mas- culinity, sexuality, and education in England enables us to go beyond critiques of the New Right and re-engage critically with emerging social democratic models of education and to reconnect education with wider theoretical debates in the social sciences and political movements in civil society. Aujourd'hui, les jeunes entrent à l'école dans une période difficile, marquée par des changements sociaux rapides; leur perception de la sexualité et du sexe est déjà partiellement formée par leur famille, leurs pairs et les médias. Nous ne faisons que commencer à comprendre la jonction complexe entre l'école, les réseaux plus vastes d'apprentissage et les subjectivités ayant trait à la sexualité et au sexe. Les travaux théoriques et empiriques actuels sur la masculinité, la sexualité et l'éducation en Angleterre nous permettent de dépasser les critiques de la nouvelle droite, de réanalyser de façon éclairée les nouveaux modèles d'éducation de la démocratie sociale et de relier l'éducation aux débats théoriques plus vastes suscités par les sciences sociales et les mouvements politiques dans la société civile.

This paper analyses the 2010-11 employment dispute surrounding the filming of The Hobbit in Aotearoa New Zealand, in which issues of precarity and market citizenship were illuminated in the context of transnational film production and labour relations. The case is examined in relation to theories of cultural work, legal studies and feminist political economy and in particular, draws on Fudge's (2005) concepts of industrial and market citizenship and "citizenship at work". This dispute refracts and distills some of the links between precarity and market citizenship that cut across regional, national and supra-national boundaries. I use the case to argue for a renewed attention to forms of transnational labour organisation in studies of precarious cultural work.

Viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana akateeminen pelitutkimus on keskittynyt kasvavassa määrin pelituotannon eri osa-alueisiin, kuten teollisuuden rakenteisiin, tuotantomalleihin ja työolosuhteisiin. Tämä väitöskirja tutkii kriittisen tutkimuksen lähtökohdista tuoretta riippumattoman pelituotannon aluetta, pelien joukkorahoittamista. Pyytämällä tuotantorahoitusta suoraan tukija-faneilta, pelintekijät ovat kyenneet ohittamaan perinteisen peliteollisuuden veräjänvartijat, pelijulkaisijat. Joukkorahoituksen käyttäminen vaikuttaa kuitenkin monilla tavoilla pelintekijöiden päivittäiseen työhön, tuotantoverkostoihin ja pelien myyntiin ja vastaanottoon. Yhdistellen pelitutkimusta, poliittista taloustiedettä, kulttuurintutkimusta ja monimenetelmällistä metodologiaa tämä väitöskirja käsitteellistää pelien joukkorahoituksen 'tuotantologiikaksi', joka vaikuttaa pelituotannon jokaiseen osaalueeseen. Sivuuttaessaan perinteiset pelijulkaisijat pelintekijöiden täytyy omaksua monia uusia taitoja ja tehdä paljon ylimääräistä työtä. Tukija-faneilla on projekteissa monia muitakin rooleja rahoittamisen lisäksi, ja tuotantoprosessiin osallistutaan monesta muustakin syystä kuin vain rahoitettavan pelin saaminen. Samalla kun pelien joukkorahoituksesta on tullut standardisoidumpaa ja ammattimaisempaa, monet tukija-fanit ovat alkaneet suhtautua siihen ennakkotilaamisen muotona, joka aiheuttaa ristiriitoja joukkorahoittamiseen liitetyn altruistisen eetoksen kanssa. Väitöskirjan diskussio-osiossa pelien joukkorahoittaminen kontekstualisoidaan osaksi 'kulttuurisen tuotannon platformisaatiota', jossa pelinkehityksen ja talouden osatekijät kytkeytyvät keskuksena toimivaan alustaan ja sen sidosryhmäverkkoon. Pelien joukkorahoitus paljastuu tutkimuksessa ristiriitaiseksi alueeksi, jossa yhdistyvät epävarmat työolot, lupaukset emansipatorisesta tuotantomallista, kaupallistumisprosessi ja uudenlaiset käyttäjien osallistumismahdollisuudet. ; The recent decade has seen an increasing number of 'game production studies', with critical examinations on industry structures, production models and labour issues. This study critically examines an emerging area of independent production of digital games, games crowdfunding. Asking funding directly from 'backer' audiences, game developers have been able to sidestep the publishers of the traditional game industry. However, crowdfunding has had a myriad of repercussions for everyday game work, production networks, and how games are received and sold, amongst other things. Through a mixed-methods approach combining elements from game studies, critical political economy and cultural studies, this dissertation conceptualises games crowdfunding as a production logic that affects every area of game production. In getting rid of the traditional publisher, developers need to acquire a lot of new competencies and shoulder a lot of work previously handled by the publishers. Backers are found to possess several other roles beyond just funding and hold a wide variety of participation motivations beyond just acquiring the crowdfunded game. As projects have become more professional, many backers treat crowdfunding as a form of pre-ordering. In the discussion, games crowdfunding is contextualised as a form 'platformisation of cultural production', with game development and economics revolving around a central platform and intermediaries connected to it. The production model is revealed as a site of tension between alternative production opportunities, precarious game work, commercialisation and emerging user opportunities. Further studies are needed to understand the full gamut of games crowdfunding, including small campaigns.

Third wave feminism is located historically in relation to de-industrialization in the 1980s and the 1990s' boom in information technologies and transnational finance, which exponentially increased disparities of wealth and power worldwide. Given the global context of third wave feminism's emergence, this article argues for a consideration of the many forms and expression of feminism the world over, and of the ways they converge with and diverge from western feminisms, both politically and culturally. After briefly discussing the economically oppressive and culturally homogenizing tendencies of globalization, the article looks at the democratizing potential of today's global media networks. I end with analyses of recent work by Lília Momplé and Nadine Gordimer which demonstrate how these texts grapple with questions of neocolonial domination and unprecedented flows of capital, labor, commodities, and culture as they affect women and are addressed by feminists in Africa.

Interpretations of culture in Hong Kong have tended to portray the city in terms of the vanishing present, in some combination of the instant, fleeting and disappearing. This article redresses such language of lack to consider instead how the idea of precariousness in the realm of the cultural has been less a condition of cultural production than a cultural strategy. Street art, including alternative performance art and political graffiti, has made the city itself the site of roving cultural production: walls, street surfaces and passageways accommodate forms of expression that the city's cultural institutions have only more recently and uneasily embraced. In these different modes of time-space, contemporary alternative art occupies transitory territory and locates its 'precariousness' in lack of definitive status and uncertain future – mimetic conditions of defining culture in Hong Kong society itself. Its measures, by contrast, emerge in Jacques Rancière's distribution of the sensible: the ways in which they render what is visible, knowable and ultimately sayable. As objects generating negotiation, such contemporary cultural projects anticipate instabilities of the present, identify hegemonic political economic logics and seek modes of resistance. Within these perspectives, this discussion juxtaposes two simultaneous events: the exhibit 'Memories of King Kowloon' on the historic graffiti of Tsang Tsou-choi, and the stenciled graffiti of Ai Weiwei in public space during April and May 2011.

In this article, I discuss how globally circulated forms of creative cultural production and digital technologies are appropriated by minority ethnocultural activists in Russia, and how these processes result in new forms of expression of ethnic culture and reinterpretation of minority cultural heritage. I focus on creative cultural and digital initiatives that have emerged within the last 5-7 years in an autonomous region of the Russian Federation: the Republic of Tatarstan. These initiatives were launched by young grassroots activists and entrepreneurs who are Tatars – an ethnic group that predominantly resides in the Republic of Tatarstan. As a republic with a certain degree of autonomy under the Russian federal legislation, Tatarstan has been the centre of the Tatar classic cultural production (theatre, music, arts, and literature), as well as of the Tatar language education. Under the policies of centralization and cultural unification Russia has pursued under the presidency of Vladimir Putin (2000 onwards), most of the political autonomy arrangements that Tatarstan achieved in the 1990s have been dismantled. The new restrictive ideological climate in Russia has repercussions for activism around ethnocultural questions, such as preservation of minority language and identity. At the same time, dissemination of transnational forms of cultural production and the advancement of digital technologies in Russia contribute to innovative cultural developments in the regions. Adapting these global formats and genres to the local cultural activities, the young members of the Tatar community develop new forms of ethnocultural activism. They produce alternative ways of representing and articulating ethnic identity, which depart sharply from the Soviet-born templates of representing ethnic culture. The urban activities these groups pursue allow for the depoliticization of ethnocultural activism in the conditions of an increasingly restrictive ideological and political climate in which minority activism is often equated with separatism.

2011 Spring. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Letterboxing is a 150 year old hobby that involves treasure hunting, clues, hiking and orienteering. From its roots in the Dartmoor region of England, this practice migrated to the United States in the 1990s and burst into popularity through the use of online resources to connect, educate, and inspire letterboxers. North American letterboxing is a modern incarnation of this old practice that combines the connective power of digital media with the traditional artistry and creativity of this hobby. By providing opportunities for both production and consumption, letterboxing creates its own system of value that can mediate, resist and reinforce capitalistic structures. Using engaged ethnography, interviews, and a broad-scale survey, this thesis draws on theories from political economy, art, and community-building to discuss the ways in which these hobbyists use virtual and traditional letterboxes to creates value. Examining both the production and consumption of letterboxing practices provides insight into how this hobby is both reflective of and distinct from broader American systems of value creation.