Computer games as political discourse

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Machin ◽  
Theo van Leeuwen
Keyword(s):  
Computer Games ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Actor ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entertainment Products ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

The paper analyses how the March 1993 American intervention in Somalia is represented in the movie Black Hawk Down and the computer game of the same name. Using a discourse historical approach, the paper combines three methods: (1) analysis of the ‘special operations discourse’ that underlies both film and game, and social actor analysis of the way the parties involved in the conflict are visually and verbally represented; (2) the political history of the conflict represented in the two entertainment products, and the history of the ‘special operations discourse’ itself; and (3) an account of the collaboration between the US military and entertainment industry in the production of both film and game.

RFID: Human Agency and Meaning in Information-Intensive Environments

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 47-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Katherine Hayles
Keyword(s):  
Product Information ◽  
Credit Cards ◽  
Quantitative Measure ◽  
Rfid Tags ◽  
Environmental Groups ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cloud Atlas ◽  
Time Limitations

RFID tags, small microchips no bigger than grains of rice, are currently being embedded in product labels, clothing, credit cards, and the environment, among other sites. Activated by the appropriate receiver, they transmit information ranging from product information such as manufacturing date, delivery route, and location where the item was purchased to (in the case of credit cards) the name, address, and credit history of the person holding the card. Active RFIDs have the capacity to transmit data without having to be activated by a receiver; they can be linked with embedded sensors to allow continuous monitoring of environmental conditions, applications that interest both environmental groups and the US military. The amount of information accessible through and generated by RFIDs is so huge that it may well overwhelm all existing data sources and become, from the viewpoint of human time limitations, essentially infinite. What to make of these technologies will be interrogated through two contemporary fictions, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Philip K. Dick's Ubik . Cloud Atlas focuses on epistemological questions — who knows what about whom, in a futuristic society where all citizens wear embedded RFID tags and are subject to constant surveillance. Resistance takes the form not so much of evasion (tactical moves in a complex political Situation) but rather as a struggle to transmit information to present and future stakeholders in a world on the brink of catastrophe. Ubik, by contrast, focuses on deeper ontological questions about the nature of reality itself. Both texts point to the necessity to reconceptualize information as ethical action embedded in contexts and not merely as a quantitative measure of probabilities.

‘Depoliticisation’ in the Reform of the Panamanian Security Apparatus

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
CORINNE CAUMARTIN
Keyword(s):  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us

This article examines the unusual public security reform process that took place in Panama in the wake of the US military invasion of December 1989. The changes to the Panamanian security forces that ensued were in equal part a ‘demilitarisation’ process, a police reform and an (imposed) transition to democracy where the political domination of the Panamanian security forces came to an abrupt end. Deploying the concepts of demilitarisation, professionalisation and depoliticisation, the article evaluates the political role and activities of police forces and the nature of their relationship with the main Panamanian political actors through to the present Torrijos administration. It then assesses the implications for wider political processes, suggesting that explanations for the success or failure of reform are unlikely to be found in the examination of the design and implementation of the reform itself, but that broader political processes must be analysed in order to understand the dynamic that underpins it.

The History of Modern Japanese Law

Japanese Law ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 11-23
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Oda
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
History Of ◽  
Japanese Law ◽  
Second World

Japan built its modern legal system on the basis of the codes imported from Europe, namely Germany and France. After the Second World War, there was some influence of US law, e.g. the Constitution and the Code of Criminal Procedure. The new Constitution, which remained unchanged until today, has introduced significant changes in the political and social system of Japan. It was proclaimed that sovereignty rested with the people and not the emperor. The Diet elected by universal election became the supreme body of the state. Another major reform was triggered by the US-Japan Structural Impediments Talks in 1989–1990.

Urban Guajiros: Colonial Reconcentración, Rural Displacement and Criminalisation in Western Cuba, 1895–1902

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
GUADALUPE GARCÍA
Keyword(s):  
Rural Population ◽  
Military Occupation ◽  
The Political ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Cuban Spanish ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The Us ◽  
Forced Relocation

AbstractThis essay examines the Spanish reconcentración of Cuban peasants during the final war of independence. It argues that the forced relocation of the rural population produced negative associations between Cuban guajiros and blackness, criminality and disease that furthered the political interests of the Cuban, Spanish and US militaries. The essay also highlights how the US military occupation that followed independence reinforced the criminalisation of the guajiro and organised existing urban and rural divisions in Cuba.

The History of Personnel and Vocational Testing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Zickar
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
World War I ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Vocational Testing

Personnel and vocational testing has made a huge impact in public and private organizations by helping organizations choose the best employees for a particular job (personnel testing) and helping individuals choose occupations for which they are best suited (vocational testing). The history of personnel and vocational testing is one in which scientific advances were influenced by historical and technological developments. The first systematic efforts at personnel and vocational testing began during World War I when the US military needed techniques to sort through a large number of applicants in a short amount of time. Techniques of psychological testing had just begun to be developed at around the turn of the 20th century and those techniques were quickly applied to the US military effort. After the war, intelligence and personality tests were used by business organizations to help choose applicants most likely to succeed in their organizations. In addition, when the Great Depression occurred, vocational interest tests were used by government organizations to help the unemployed choose occupations that they might best succeed in. The development of personnel and vocational tests was greatly influenced by the developing techniques of psychometric theory as well as general statistical theory. From the 1930s onward, significant advances in reliability and validity theory provided a framework for test developers to be able to develop tests and validate them. In addition, the civil rights movement within the United States, and particularly the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forced test developers to develop standards and procedures to justify test usage. This legislation and subsequent court cases ensured that psychologists would need to be involved deeply in personnel testing. Finally, testing in the 1990s onward was greatly influenced by technological advances. Computerization helped standardize administration and scoring of tests as well as opening up the possibility for multimedia item formats. The introduction of the internet and web-based testing also provided additional challenges and opportunities.

scholarly journals Remediating Global Media in Recent Shakespeare Productions on Romanian Stages

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mădălina Nicolaescu
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
The Tempest ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
New Type

Abstract The paper discusses recent Romanian Shakespeare productions of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Bucharest. It argues that global mass culture, in the form of TV sitcoms and musicals, YouTube clips and computer games, is re-circulated on Romanian stages with the result of re-mediating the older forms of Romanian Shakespeare performances. The paper interrogates the popular character of the new type of productions, which are largely unpolitical and motivated by commercial reasons. The last part of the paper presents a radical deconstruction of Shakespeare’s text in the form of a computer game, which, however, re-introduces the political orientation of older, pre- 1989 performances.

scholarly journals The Political Economy of Canada's Video and Computer Game Industry

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Dyer-Witheford ◽  
Zena Sharman
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
New Media ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Regional Distribution ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
The Political ◽  
Media Industry ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Developmental Dynamics ◽  
Computer Game Industry

Abstract: Video and computer games are a burgeoning new media industry with global revenues rivaling those of film and music. This article, reporting on a three-year SSHRC-funded research project, analyzes the political economy of Canadian involvement in the interactive game business. After an overview of companies, ownership, markets and regional distribution, it discusses the developmental dynamics and contradictions of the Canadian industry in terms of capital, state, and labour. It concludes by reviewing different ways these interweaving forces may ‘play out’ and their implications for policy decisions affecting the Canadian video and computer game industry. Résumé : Les jeux électroniques sont une nouvelle industrie médiatique en plein essor dont les revenus mondiaux rivalisent avec ceux des industries du film et de la musique. Cet article, qui rend compte d’un projet de recherche de trois ans financé par le CRHS, analyse l’économie politique de la participation canadienne à l’industrie du jeu interactif. L’article – suivant une vue d’ensemble des compagnies, de leurs propriétaires, des marchés, et de la distribution régionale – traite des dynamiques du développement ainsi que des contradictions de l’industrie canadienne en fonction de capital, état et travail. En guise de conclusion, l’article passe en revue les diverses manières dont ces trois forces interreliées pourront évoluer et l’impact de celles-ci sur les décisions politiques portant sur l’industrie des jeux électroniques au Canada.

“Different than an infantry unit down in Georgia”: Narratives of queer liberation in the post-DADT military

Sexualities ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 776-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Connell
Keyword(s):  
Officer Training ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Don't Ask Don't Tell ◽  
The Us ◽  
Rotc Cadets ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Unanimous Approval

More than five years out from its implementation, we still know relatively little about how members of the US military and its ancillary institutions are responding to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Contrary to what one might expect given the long history of LGBTQ antipathy in the military, I found in interviews with Boston area Reserve Officer Training Core (ROTC) cadets unanimous approval for the repeal of DADT. When pressed to explain why there was so much homogeneity of favorable opinion regarding the repeal, interviewees repeatedly offered the same explanation: that Boston, in particular, is such a progressive place that even more conservative institutions like the ROTC are spared anti-gay sentiment. They imagined the Southern and/or rural soldier they will soon encounter when they enter the US military, one who represents the traditionally homophobic attitudes of the old military in contrast to their more enlightened selves. This “metronormative” narrative has been critiqued elsewhere as inadequate for understanding the relationship between sexuality and place; this article contributes to that critique by taking a new approach. Rather than deconstruct narratives of queer rurality, as the majority of metronormativity scholarship has done, I deconstruct these narratives of urban queer liberation. I find that such narratives mask the murkier realities of LGBTQ attitudes in urban contexts and allow residents like the ROTC cadets in this study to displace blame about anti-gay prejudice to a distant Other, outside of their own ranks.

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