Nation, Identity, and Power in the Critical Cultural Studies Tradition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Caballero Mengibar
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Power Functions ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The People

The concepts of nation and identity are intimately linked to how power functions in society. At its core the nation is associated with some sort of “authentic” cultural location. Speaking of the nation often implies cultural homogeneity and a sense of national unity. Critical cultural studies contest this view of the nation and the consequent construction of a coherent identity. The nation and its identities are neither univocal nor culturally homogenous, nor do the people have a socially cohesive experience. The nation is the product of cultural practices of representation between “Us” and the “Other,” all contained in stored societal knowledge and disseminated in discourses. The knowledge contained in discourses about the nation and its people, critical cultural followers argue, produce and reproduce a very particular type of truth contained in social categories such as sex, gender, age, race, ability, and class. The nation and its identities following a cultural critical tradition have been studied by an array of interdisciplinary theoretical approaches but most notably by postmodernists, postcolonialists, critical feminists, and multiculturalists. At their core, they all share the belief that the nation and its identities are socially constructed and that obscured social relations of power contained in discourses of nationhood can be uncovered. They also share a commitment to denouncing discrimination and inequality and enhancing the voices of the margins, the subalterns, and the multicultural identities contained in and transcending the nation. Critical cultural scholarship examines the interarticulation of power and culture. Central to critical studies is the critical examination of discourses seeking to uncover the socially constructed machinery of power with the end goal of enacting social change. The terms nation and identity are political in nature and thus are highly interrelated with power.

Marxist Traditions in Cultural Studies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Artz
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Relations Of Power

Cultural studies seeks to understand and explain how culture relates to the larger society and draws on social theory, philosophy, history, linguistics, communication, semiotics, media studies, and more to assess and evaluate mass media and everyday cultural practices. Since its inception in 1960s Britain, cultural studies has had recognizable and recurring interactions with Marxism, most clearly in culturalist renderings along a spectrum of tensions with political economy approaches. Marxist traditions and inflections appear in the seminal works of Raymond Williams and E. P. Thompson, work on the culture industry inspired by the Frankfurt School in 1930s Germany, challenges by Stuart Hall and others to the structuralist theories of Louis Althusser, and writings on consciousness and social change by Georg Lukács. Perhaps the most pronounced indication of Marxist influences on cultural studies appears in the multiple and diverse interpretations of Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony. Cultural studies, including critical theory, has been invigorated by Marxism, even as a recurring critique of economic determinism appears in most investigations and analyses of cultural practices. Marxism has no authoritative definition or application. Nonetheless, Marxism insists on materialism as the precondition for human life and development, opposing various idealist conceptions whether religious or philosophical that posit magical, suprahuman interventions that shape humanity or assertions of consciousness, creative genius, or timeless universals that supersede any particular historical conjuncture. Second, Marxism finds material reality, including all forms of human society and culture, to be historical phenomenon. Humans are framed by their conditions, and in turn, have agency to make social changing using material, knowledge, and possibilities within concrete historical conditions. For Marxists, capitalist society can best be historically and materially understood as social relations of production of society based on labor power and capitalist private ownership of the means of production. Wages paid labor are less than the value of goods and services produced. Capitalist withhold their profits from the value of goods and services produced. Such social relations organize individuals and groups into describable and manifest social classes, that are diverse and unstable but have contradictory interests and experiences. To maintain this social order and its rule, capitalists offer material adjustments, political rewards, and cultural activities that complement the social arrangements to maintain and adjust the dominant social order. Thus, for Marxists, ideologies arise in uneasy tandem with social relations of power. Ideas and practices appear and are constructed, distributed, and lived across society. Dominant ideologies parallel and refract conflictual social relations of power. Ideologies attune to transforming existing social relations may express countervailing views, values, and expectations. In sum, Marxist historical materialism finds that culture is a social product, social tool, and social process resulting from the construction and use by social groups with diverse social experiences and identities, including gender, race, social class, and more. Cultures have remarkably contradictory and hybrid elements creatively assembled from materially present social contradictions in unequal societies, ranging from reinforcement to resistance against constantly adjusting social relations of power. Five elements appear in most Marxist renditions on culture: materialism, the primacy of historical conjunctures, labor and social class, ideologies refracting social relations, and social change resulting from competing social and political interests.

scholarly journals Modern Tendencies In The Ethnic Relations Of Kuramas

2020 ◽  
Vol 02 (12) ◽  
pp. 17-21
Author(s):  
Laylo Kushmanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Popular Literature ◽  
Ethnic Relations ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Entire Group ◽  
Tianshan Mountain ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
The People

The article highlights the issues, such as Kurama ethnicity ( or “ethnic group of Kuramas”), which is involved in the Uzbek nation, its ethnic composition, the identity sense of the Kuramas in terms of unity of the people, the attitude to the Uzbek national unity and transformational processes. Corresponding issues are presented as material for ongoing scientific analysis based on field materials and, where appropriate, scientific and popular literature data. The core meaning of the term “kurama” is explined by the fact that this ethnic group is of the polycomponent. To be specific, it is feasable to promote the idea that the genetic composition of Kuramas has a common root with Karluk, Kipchak and Oguz ethnicities, since the period of Turkish commonality. Subsequently, after the end of the Turkish commonality and the formation of independent Turkic fraternal nations, the ethnic union of the Uzbek, Turkmen, Kyrgyz and Kazakh peoples began in Central Asia. In particular, the main core of the Uzbek nation began with the Karluk branch, while the Uyghur ethnos grew in the same process with the Uzbek ethnic genesis, and the subsequent stages of development in the border areas were independent. However, the bond of historical ties between the two branches has not been ripped up. The article also analyses the issues of genetic memory of Kuramin residents of different villages along the streams of mountain and rivers. Thus, a survey conducted among the residents of Lashkarak Sai shows that the older generation practically began to forget the tribal origins of not only individual families, but also the entire group of residents of the compact community of the village. As for the inhabitants of Ertashsay, which originates from the Karakush peak, dividing the Tianshan mountain ranges into Chatkal and Kurama, they partly associate themselves with the traditional 92 Uzbek tribes. However, this information of Ertashsay residents is contraindicated for data on the genetic mixing of the Kuramis, consisting of Uzbek-Kazakh-Kyrgyz components. Our observations on the formation of the names of certain groups of Kuramins are interesting. Thus, the inhabitants of a number of villages, who have retained the memory of family ties in the past, are now known by various nicknames given to them from other villages. For example, Ezma top (chatty), Kal topi (bald), Zhanghirok topi (bells), Pulat topi (steelworkers), Toq topi (fed), etc. In addition, some groups of Kuraminians got their names from their place of residence: Kuramin residents Kurboz, Badrangi, Chelenovul, Ajir ovul, Samguron ovul, Guldirama soy, Kara kishlak, Soyogzi, etc. In general, in the ethno-cultural situation of the Kuramin people, there is a gradual tendency to smooth out the previously stable traditional forms of life, social relations and purely Kuramin rituals and customs, which merge with the general Uzbek ones, since the Kuramin people mostly identify themselves as Uzbeks.

scholarly journals Plights of Marginalised Limbu Community in Subba’s “Laato Pahaada” [Dumb Hill]

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
Jiwan Kumar Rai
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Education System ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
The People ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Mainstream Culture

The title story “Laato Pahaada” [“Dumb Hill”] selected from Upendra Subba’ s anthology of stories Laato Pahaada [Dumb Hill] represents plights – pains, sufferings, tortures and difficulties – of ethnic Limbu community at the margin under the dominance of mainstream culture and various forms of repressive and ideological state apparatuses. So, this study aims to find out the responsible factors that compel the ethnic Limbu community to remain illiterate and go through numerous pains, sufferings, tortures and humiliation. Similarly, it aims to analyse how the illiterate and poor Limbu people suffer and get tortured by the cultural practices and apparatuses of the state power. In order to achieve the designed objectives and reach to a conclusion, Cultural Studies has been used as an overall theoretical approach. Particularly, Althusser’s concepts of ideology – repressive and ideological state apparatuses, and Michel Foucault’s idea of discourse and power have been used as theoretical tools for the analysis of the text. This study provides a new insight to see and understand the plights of the people at the margin from a new perspective; and to realize about the importance of marginalized cultures. Innocent Limbu people go through sufferings of illiteracy, poverty and difficulties due to the mono-cultural values and mono-lingual education system of state power which are effectively practiced by the means of both repressive and ideological apparatuses.

scholarly journals Te Atiawa Paake: Reflections on the playgrounds of my life

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kura Marie Teira Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Woman Teacher ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Kaupapa Māori ◽  
Cultural Flexibility ◽  
Distribution Of Power

<p>This thesis is about constructing an indigenous autobiographical narrative of my life as an Aotearoa/New Zealand Te Atiawa Iwi Paake, adult, Maori woman teacher, claiming Maori/Pakeha identity.  Three Maori theoretical approaches underpin the thesis: Kaupapa Maori; Mana Wahine, Maori Feminism; and Aitanga. Kaupapa Maori takes for granted being Maori; Maori language, te reo Maori; and tikanga, Maori cultural practices. Whakapapa, Maori descent lines and Pakeha genealogy connect with Maori/Pakeha identity. Mana Wahine, Maori Feminism, is about how Maori women live their lives and view their worlds. Aitanga relates to the distribution of power and Maori as active participants in social relationships.  Eight decades of problematic, complex, multi-layered, multi-sited, multi-faceted life experiences of one Maori woman teacher are explored. Memories and events are presented through a metaphor of ‘play’ in a socially constructed milieu of power relationships, language and dialogic encounters reflected upon and analysed. Three main recurring themes of Whakapapa and Identity, Cultural Navigation and Cultural Flexibility, Resilience and Endurance, are woven into the thesis fabric.</p>

scholarly journals Te Atiawa Paake: Reflections on the playgrounds of my life

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kura Marie Teira Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Woman Teacher ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Kaupapa Māori ◽  
Cultural Flexibility ◽  
Distribution Of Power

<p>This thesis is about constructing an indigenous autobiographical narrative of my life as an Aotearoa/New Zealand Te Atiawa Iwi Paake, adult, Maori woman teacher, claiming Maori/Pakeha identity.  Three Maori theoretical approaches underpin the thesis: Kaupapa Maori; Mana Wahine, Maori Feminism; and Aitanga. Kaupapa Maori takes for granted being Maori; Maori language, te reo Maori; and tikanga, Maori cultural practices. Whakapapa, Maori descent lines and Pakeha genealogy connect with Maori/Pakeha identity. Mana Wahine, Maori Feminism, is about how Maori women live their lives and view their worlds. Aitanga relates to the distribution of power and Maori as active participants in social relationships.  Eight decades of problematic, complex, multi-layered, multi-sited, multi-faceted life experiences of one Maori woman teacher are explored. Memories and events are presented through a metaphor of ‘play’ in a socially constructed milieu of power relationships, language and dialogic encounters reflected upon and analysed. Three main recurring themes of Whakapapa and Identity, Cultural Navigation and Cultural Flexibility, Resilience and Endurance, are woven into the thesis fabric.</p>

KUALITAS PELAYANAN DALAM PEMBANGUNAN INFRASTRUKTUR DI KECAMATAN CIAWI, KABUPATEN BOGOR

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Muhamad Alfian ◽  
Nandang Saefudin Zenju ◽  
Irma Purnamasari
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Service ◽  
National Development ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
National Unity ◽  
The People ◽  
Driving Wheel ◽  
Alternative Routes ◽  
The City ◽  
Quality Infrastructure

Infrastructure development is an integral part of national development and the driving wheel of economic growth. Infrastructure also has an important role in strengthening national unity and unity (Bappenas: 2009). The banjarwaru, banjarwangi, and telukpinang highways are the access roads traversed by 8 villages including alternative routes for the cicurug-sukabumi area. This road is always passed by the people who headed to the city. Therefore, the benefits of this road is very important because it is often passed from the cicurug-sukabumi area due to the diversion of traffic flow so that the intensity of high road users.In this study the author uses the theory of Ridwan and Sudrajat. Quality of service is the level of incompatibility between expectations with customer desires and also the perceptions of these customers. Quality of service here can be assessed by looking at the dimensions. These dimensions include the quality of service, the ability of officials, and service convenience. During the observation to the community through the survey to direct approach with the community, most people complained that the development service to build the kecamatan should be further improved and the results of this study showed that the Quality Assessment of Service in Road Infrastructure Development in Ciawi Sub-district Bogor Regency is categorized Fair Good this is because the assessment of the quality of development services by the Subdistrict Apparatus itself and from the community assess the ability of District Officers still have to be improved in conducting the service and its implementation.Keywords: Service Quality, Infrastructure Development.

scholarly journals Understanding the “Grievance Studies Affair” Papers and Why They Should Be Reinstated: A Response to Geoff Cole

2021 ◽  
pp. 004912412110099
Author(s):  
Helen Pluckrose ◽  
James Lindsay ◽  
Peter Boghossian
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Fat Studies ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Retracted Article

In April, 2020, Dr. Geoff Cole published, “Why the ‘Hoax’ Paper of Baldwin (2018) Should Be Reinstated.” We are the authors of the “Baldwin” paper published in Fat Studies. The paper satirized theoretical ideas within Fat Studies as part of a larger project to demonstrate the lack of rigor in certain theoretical approaches to cultural studies. In this response, we agree with Cole that our project should not be understood as hoaxes and that the retracted article should be reinstated, but defend our methods.

scholarly journals ANTROPOLOGIENS HEMMELIGHED: Refleksioner over etnografens rolle i studiet af hemmelige ritualer

1995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Kordt Højbjerg
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Object A ◽  
Scientific Object ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Object Of Study

Christian Kordt Højbjerg: The Secret of Anthropology. Reflections on the Ethnographer’s Role in the Study of Secret Rituals. The article gives an account of an apparently hopeless effort to study men’s secret association and its masked figure among the Loma in Guinea. The secret mask is purposely withheld during the ethnographer’s stay, and he is not allowed to assist in the meetings of the men’s society taking place in the sacred grove. However, the student possesses prior knowledge about the mask, and information from the meetings is transmitted constantly. Therefore, nothing is in faet held secret to the ethnographer, and the leaders of the men’s association seem to be aware of it. Still, secrecy is being practiced by the people chosen as the object of study. An essential aspect of secrecy is hereby revealed. Despite its emptiness, it is efficient in its patteming of social relations. The methodological point is that in anthropology, subjectivity can be a means to objectivity. Not by focusing too exelusively on the observing scientist, but rather in the sense that the staging of the ethnographic encounter by the anthropologist produces a miscalculation permitting an understanding of the scientific object. A sort of role inversion is taking place. The anthropologist realizes that he has become the victim of an illusion about the nature of secrecy, and that he has been subjected to the practice of secrecy. This lived experience leads to a concluding observation about the common but reversed strategies of staging inherent in secrecy and anthropology. While secrecy deliberately and inevitably reveals a part of itself in order to conceal, anthropology is on the contrary inevitably concealing reality when constructing its object. But just as secrecy implies concealment, anthropology is compelled to unmask reality, at least as a regulative principle, if it is not to lose its status as a scientific discipline.

scholarly journals A Spirit of Urban Capitalism: Market Cities, People Cities, and Cultural Justifications

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin T. Smiley ◽  
Michael Oluf Emerson
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Economies ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The People

Diverse urban theories discuss how economic processes shape conceptions of a city, but less research focuses on how pragmatic situations of urban life contribute to the characterisation of cities. We argue that pragmatic justifications reify socially constructed meanings of cities by creating a “spirit of urban capitalism.” This framework conceives of two spirits: the market city, which aligns with neoliberal assumptions, and the people city, which foregrounds a resident-focused model. Using case studies of Copenhagen and Houston, we showcase how these conceptions of cities are justified by elites and residents, and thereby build empirical scaffolding connecting urban economies and cultures.

scholarly journals SEJARAH DESA TALAGA BESAR KECAMATAN TALAGA RAYA KABUPATEN BUTON TENGAH (1977-2017)

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dade Prat Untarti
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Historical Criticism ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Historical Methods ◽  
The Village ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRAK: Permasalahan pokok dalam penelitian ini adalah: (1) Apa latar belakang terbentuknya Desa Talaga Besar Kecamatan Talaga Raya Kabupaten Buton Tengah? (2) Bagaimana berkembangan Desa Talaga Besar Kecamatan Talaga Raya Kabupaten Buton Tengah Tahun 1977-2017? Metode sejarah tersebut adalah: (a) Pemilihan topik (b) Heuristik (Pengumpulan Data) (c) Verifikasi (Kritik Sejarah) (d) Interpretasi (e) Historiografi (kritik sejarah). Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa: (1) Desa Talaga Besar awalnya hanya dijadikan tempat untuk berkebun atau bercocok tanam, misalnya menanam jagung dan ubi kayu sebagai makanan pokok masyarakat setempat dan pada umumnya masyarakat Buton. Karena seiring berjalannya waktu dan peradaban serta jumlah penduduk semakin bertambah banyak. Pemerintah daerah berinisiatif memekarkan desa Talaga Besar menjadi desa definitif. Faktor-faktor yang mendukung terbentuknya Desa Talaga Besar ini ialah: (a) Adanya peranan pemimpin yang selalu memberikan motivasi kepada warga untuk aktif dalam setiap kegiatan yang sifatnya membangun. (b) Faktor pendukung diantaranya faktor geografis (wilayah), faktor demografi (penduduk), dan faktor ekonomi. (2) Perkembangan Desa Talaga Besar dalam bidang ekonomi, sebagian besar masyarakat Talaga Besar menggantungkan hidupnya di bidang pertanian dan perdagangan yang telah dilakukan dan dikembangkan secara turun temurun. Di bidang sosial, hubungan sosial kemasyarakatan antara warga Desa Talaga Besar cukup harmonis. Di bidang pendidikan, perkembangan pendidikan di Desa Talaga Besar pada khususnya dan Kecamatan Talaga Raya pada umumnya mengalami perkembangan pendidikan yang boleh dikatakan sudah cukup baik dan infrastruktur lebih baik bila dibandingkan dengan keadaan sebelumnya. Kata Kunci: Sejarah, Desa, Talaga BesarABSTRACT: The main problems in this study are: (1) What is the background of the formation of Talaga Besar Village, Talaga Raya District, Buton Tengah Regency? (2) How did the development of Talaga Besar Village, Talaga Raya District, Buton Tengah Regecy Year 1977-2017? The historical methods are: (a) Selection of topics (b) Heuristics (Data Collection) (c) Verification (Historical Criticism) (d) Interpretation (e) Historiography (historical criticism). The results of this study indicate that: (1) Talaga Besar Village was originally only used as a place for gardening or farming, for example planting corn and cassava as a staple food for the local community and in general the Buton people. Because over time and civilization as well as the population increases. The regional government took the initiative to split the village of Talaga Besar into a definitive village. The factors that support the formation of the Talaga Besar Village are: (a) There is a role of leaders who always motivate citizens to be active in any constructive activity. (b) Supporting factors include geographical factors (region), demographic factors (population), and economic factors. (2) The development of Talaga Besar Village in the economic field, most of the Talaga Besar people depend their lives on agriculture and trade which have been carried out and developed for generations. In the social field, social relations between the people of Talaga Besar Village are quite harmonious. In the field of education, the development of education in the village of Talaga Besar in particular and the Talaga Raya sub-district in general experienced a development of education which was arguably quite good and the infrastructure was better when compared to the previous situation. Keywords: History, Village, Great Talaga

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