Building participatory counternarratives: Pedagogical interventions through digital placemaking

2021 ◽  
pp. 135485652199195
Author(s):  
Jordan Frith ◽  
Jacob Richter
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Clemson University ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Pedagogical Interventions ◽  
Dominant Narratives

Places are filled with stories, with histories that shape how people understand the nature of a place. Places are unique sets of trajectories – each with a story – coming into contact. However, just as much as places are defined by their histories, they are also shaped by the histories that are forgotten, or far too often, actively suppressed through dominant narratives. After all, dominant media of spatial, public memory – for example, plaques and public monuments – often reproduce dominant narratives of a place, narratives created by the powerful. This project examines how digital placemaking can be deployed through locative technologies to push back on dominant spatial narratives and make places more polyvocal in consequential ways. In particular, through a project at Clemson University, we examine how locative storytelling applications can help students intervene in traditional narratives of place to engage with social justice and alternative histories.

The conceptual heritage of public relations: using public memory to explore constraints and liberation

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-392
Author(s):  
W. Timothy Coombs ◽  
Sherry J. Holladay
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Dominant Narratives ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Development And Evolution

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe three foundational concepts that contribute to conceptual heritage of the field of public relations (publics, organizations and relationships). Conceptual heritage is positioned as a type of shared public memory, a dominant narrative, that encourages adherence to the past whilst recognizing that counter-narratives can pose useful alternatives to foundational concepts. Design/methodology/approach The approach is a selective literature review that describes three dominant concept categories and presents more recently developed alternative concepts and approaches to illustrate how public memory is subjective and evolving. Findings The concepts of publics, organizations and relationships have grounded the dominant narrative and development of the field of public relations. Though these concepts continue to be influential as researchers rely upon and expand upon their legacies, counter-narratives can spur the innovation of ideas, measurement and practice. Research limitations/implications The paper focuses on only three major foundational concepts selected by the authors. The importance of these concepts as well as additional examples of the field’s conceptual heritage and evolution could be identified by different authors. Practical implications The analysis demonstrates how the public memory contributes to the development and evolution of the field of public relations. Counter-narratives can offer appealing, subjectively constructed challenges to dominant narratives. Originality/value This paper describes and critiques public relations’ conceptual heritage and argues that conceptually and methodologically-based counter-narratives have contributed to its evolution.

Decolonizing Development Education and the Pursuit of Social Justice

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 31-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhana Sultana
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
International Development ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Development Education ◽  
Popular Discourse ◽  
Institutional Politics ◽  
Dominant Narratives

Decolonization has become a popular discourse in academia recently and there are many debates on what it could mean within various disciplines as well as more broadly across academia itself. The field of international development has seen sustained gestures towards decolonization for several years in theory and practice, but hegemonic notions of development continue to dominate. Development is a contested set of ideas and practices that are under critique in and outside of academia, yet the reproduction of colonial power structures and Eurocentric logics continues whereby the realities of the global majority are determined by few powerful institutions and a global elite. To decolonize development's material and discursive powers, scholars have argued for decolonizing development education towards one that is ideologically and epistemologically different from dominant narratives of development. I add to these conversations and posit that decolonized ideologies and epistemologies have to be accompanied by decolonized pedagogies and considerations of decolonization of institutions of higher education. I discuss the institutional and critical pedagogical dilemmas and challenges that exist, since epistemological, methodological, and pedagogical decolonizations are influenced by institutional politics of higher education that are simultaneously local and global. The paper engages with the concept of critical hope in the pursuit of social justice to explore possibilities of decolonizing development praxis and offers suggestions on possible pathways forward.

scholarly journals Mashing up, remixing, and contesting the popular memory of Hillary Clinton

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber Davisson
Keyword(s):  
Public Memory ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Viral Video ◽  
Popular Memory ◽  
Dominant Narratives ◽  
The Way

This essay looks at the viral video "Rebel Girl," released in 2015, which was produced by fans of Hillary Clinton. Following the trajectory of the video, one can see the potential for fan mashups to make arguments that subvert dominant narratives of public memory and, conversely, the way the way mainstream media moves to subsume outsider voices.

Social justice practice: A narrative inquiry perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Caine ◽  
Pam Steeves ◽  
D Jean Clandinin ◽  
Andrew Estefan ◽  
Janice Huber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Relational Understanding ◽  
Dominant Narratives ◽  
Justice Practice

Narrative inquiry is both phenomenon and methodology for understanding experience. In this article, we further develop our understandings of narrative inquiry as a practice of social justice. In particular, we explore ways in which social justice issues can be re-framed and re-imagined, with attention to consequent action. Drawing on work alongside Kevlar, a youth who left school early, we explore our understandings. Being grounded in pragmatism and emphasizing relational understanding of experience situate narrative inquiry and call us to think narratively with stories. This allows for movement away from dominant narratives and toward openings to imagine otherwise in dynamic and interactive ways.

scholarly journals The ARt of Inequality: A Youth Social Justice Exhibition in Augmented Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anisa Bora ◽  
Grace Choi ◽  
Thomonique Moore ◽  
Rongwei Tang ◽  
Yiming Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Digital Art ◽  
Art Activism ◽  
Digital Arts ◽  
Arts Activism ◽  
Dominant Narratives

The substantive development in the role of augmented reality (AR) technologies in public spaces provides new opportunities for digital arts and arts activism as a means of increasing awareness of critical social issues. However, because of the digital divide and dominant narratives in the museum, there is an existing racial and socioeconomic gap in (digital) art, activism education, and museum curation. In this paper we present a curriculum that aims to empower high-school-aged youth from minoritized backgrounds through art activism in museum spaces via the development and exhibition of augmented reality art pieces that address social justice issues relevant to youth interests and experiences.

“History is Illuminating”: Public memory crises and collectives in Richmond, Virginia

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1173-1184
Author(s):  
Katie Logan
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
American South ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Community Action ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Historic Monument ◽  
The American South ◽  
Dominant Narratives

Amid the Black Lives Matter protests and calls to remove Confederate statuary in Richmond, Virginia, during the summer of 2020, the History Is Illuminating project constructed public signs that replicated the traditional historical markers used throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. The signs were placed along Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue in conversation with the still-standing Confederate monuments. They challenged the monuments’ representation of public memory by re-introducing narratives about prominent Black Richmonders and informing readers of the Jim Crow legislation that enabled the monuments to be constructed and venerated. This edited and condensed interview with organizers from the project describes the multiple crises of collective memory that public historians confront in the American South, as well as the strategies the History Is Illuminating project used to counter dominant narratives about public memory. Finally, the interview highlights the importance of community action and a multiplicity of public memory projects in order to ensure a democratic approach to collective memory.

scholarly journals Complex non-profit collaboration: A Case Study of The Advocacy Initiative

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 5121
Author(s):  
Anna Visser
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Voluntary Sector ◽  
The State ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Social Justice Advocacy ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
To Come ◽  
Dominant Narratives

In 2008 in Ireland there was a real sense that social justice advocacy, by non-profit organisations, was under threat from the state. The experience of many advocates and their organisations was that the state was actively working to silence advocacy. However there were no or few spaces where the non-profit sector (in Ireland often referred to as the community and voluntary sector) could reflect and dialogue about social justice advocacy: the threats it faced, its purpose, methodologies, effectiveness, assumptions, and legitimacy. Where spaces did exist there were low levels of trust and not always room for dissent from dominant narratives (Murphy 2014). The Advocacy Initiative was established to provide the opportunity for the sector to come to grips with these challenges and consider more deeply its advocacy function. 

scholarly journals RelationCRIPs with Dramaturgy: The Intervention of the Dramaturge in Devised CRIP Theatre

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 179-196
Author(s):  
Tonya Rae Chrystian
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Canadian History ◽  
Social Models ◽  
Community Theatre ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
The Status ◽  
Dominant Narratives ◽  
Mixed Communities

Disability theatre has a complex Canadian history according to disability studies scholar Kirsty Johnson, and “Canadian artists with disabilities have found many and provocative ways to ‘get on stage’” (Johnson 4). The formation of disability art and theatre is as multifaceted and diverse as disability itself, but there will always remain a part of the process that must confront the ableism and exclusion perpetuated by the social models of oppression both on and offstage.  As disability theatre seeks to challenge dominant narratives, relocate the status of the disabled body, and positively re-imagine the value of disability, one of the important components is the role that dramaturgy can play in the formation of disability theatre, particularly in the case of devised CRIP theatre. This paper will explore some of the interventions and approaches dramaturgy may subsume to support the creation of experiential theatre that expresses the lives and narratives of disabled and mixed communities. The arguments explored in this paper will be supplemented with material taken from the collaborative production of Love in the Margins that was part of the 2016 Chinook Series in Edmonton, Alberta, becoming the first professional presentation of disability theatre in Edmonton.  This paper will also explore topics such as the role of playwriting and dramaturgy in devised, experiential, and social-justice theatre, how the word “professional” can be inclusively re-defined, and the problems, processes, and ethical questions of journeying from devised community theatre to professional theatre. 

Ecosocial Theory, Embodied Truths, and the People's Health

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Krieger
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Health Impacts ◽  
Unsafe Sex ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Ecosocial Theory ◽  
Joint Health ◽  
Dominant Narratives

This book employs the ecosocial theory of disease distribution to combine critical political and economic analysis with a deep engagement with biology, in societal, ecological, and historical context. It illuminates what embodying (in)justice entails and the embodied truths revealed by population patterns of health. Chapter 1 explains ecosocial theory and its focus on multilevel spatiotemporal processes of embodying (in)justice, across the lifecourse and historical generations, as shaped by the political economy and political ecology of the societies in which people live. The counter is to dominant narratives that attribute primary causal agency to people’s allegedly innate biology and their allegedly individual (and decontextualized) health behaviors. Chapter 2 discusses application of ecosocial theory to analyze: the health impacts of Jim Crow and its legal abolition; racialized and economic breast cancer inequities; the joint health impacts of physical and social hazards at work (including racism, sexism, and heterosexism) and relationship hazards (involving unsafe sex and violence); and measures of structural injustice. Chapter 3 explores embodied truths and health justice, in relation to: police violence; climate change; fossil fuel extraction and sexually transmitted infectious disease: health benefits of organic food—for whom? ; public monuments, symbols, and the people’s health; and light, vision, and the health of people and other species. The objective is to inform critical and practical research, actions, and alliances to advance health equity—and to strengthen the people’s health—in a deeply troubled world on a threatened planet.

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