scholarly journals Beyond the platform: Music streaming as a site of logistical and symbolic struggle

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110363
Author(s):  
André Jansson
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Focus Group Study ◽  
Individual Activity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theoretical View ◽  
A Site ◽  
Music Streaming

Research on music streaming has so far tended to normalize a view of streaming as an individual activity solely oriented towards the platform. However, as streaming media have become integral to everyday life and a key metaphor for digital society, we should pay attention to how streaming activities are embedded into social power relations. Furthermore, due to the complexity of streaming infrastructures, we should consider the social implications of ordinary expertise pertaining to the handling of digital streams. To this end, this article advances a theoretical view of music streaming as a form of logistical labour and a part of dwelling. Based on a focus-group study on music streaming, the analysis moves beyond the platform to explore social dominance in a cultural landscape where logistical expertise is increasingly important. The analysis shows how the handling of everyday infrastructures underpins complicit forms of logistical dominance and translates into symbolic violence.

Post-Postracial America

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Landsberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
White House ◽  
Political Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
A Site

A seismic shift in the racial landscape of the United States occurred in 2016. The prevailing discourse about a “postracial America,” though always, in the words of Catherine Squires a “mystique,” was firmly and finally extinguished with the election of Donald J. Trump. Race, in the form of racial prejudice, erupted in Trump’s political rhetoric and in the rhetoric of his supporters. At the same time, the continued significance and consequences of racial division in America were also being asserted for politically progressive ends by the increasingly prominent #blacklivesmatter movement and by the newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, DC, not far from the White House. This article tracks the resurgence of race in the US cultural landscape against the racially depoliticized myth of the “postracial” by focusing first on the HBO television series Westworld, which epitomizes that logic. The museum, which opened its doors against the backdrop of the presidential campaign, lodges a scathing critique of the very notion of the postracial; in fact, it signals the return of race as an urgent topic of national discussion. Part of the work of the museum is to materialize race, to move race and white supremacy to the center of the American national narrative. This article points to the way the museum creates what Jacques Rancière calls “dissensus,” and thus becomes a site of possibility for politics. The museum, in its very presence on the Mall, its provocative display strategies, and its narrative that highlights profound contradictions in the very meaning of America, intervenes in what Rancière calls “the distribution of the sensible” and thus creates the conditions for reconfiguring the social order. In part, it achieves this by racializing white visitors, forcing them to feel their own race in uncomfortable ways. The article suggests that this museum, and the broader emerging discourse about race in both film and television, offers new ways to think about the political work of culture.

scholarly journals UNDERSTANDING BOURDIEU’S DISTINCTION: SOCIAL AND LITERARY CONTESTATION TO GAIN LEGITIMATE POSITION

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-57
Author(s):  
Ganesha Hari Murti ◽  
Nila Susanti
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Coffee Consumption ◽  
Symbolic Capital ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Class Distinction

This writing reveals the subtle domination in the area of literature and social practice which is illustrated through the practice of coffee consumption and also the claims of legitimate authors. Bourdieu examines this sociological space as a field of contestation, so he constructs his sociological project by mapping the type of social power in arena in which every subject wagers his capital to achieve a legitimate position. In the arena, each subject desires to get power either by way of embracing the rule that applies, doxa, or to fight with the practice of the new, heterodox. Following the existing rules are not able to change anything because it dictates the subject to be a disciplined subject. Bourdieu proposes the emerging heterodox because doing resistance to all forms of domination can give birth to the new alternative social structure and preventing the old one to remain in power. Social change is expected because Bourdieu's symbolic power as in symbolic capital tends to provoke symbolic violence. Having symbolic capital enchanting for its power to subtly dominate people with less capital. Oppression becomes natural due to everyday practice normalizing the oppression. shapes the taste of a certain class as class distinction. Bourdieu’s concept of distinction investigates a more sophisticated strategy in the social arena where every agent plays subtle intimidation and indeed domination. 

Perceptions of Masculinity among Male Varsity Rugby Players at Queen’s

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Sheasgreen
Keyword(s):  
Social Power ◽  
Team Sports ◽  
Athletic Administrators ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Masculine Norms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Varsity Athletes ◽  
Sexual Cultures ◽  
Rugby Players

Existing literature on the topic of sport and masculinity has suggested that male varsity athletes model more hegemonic masculine norms (Messner, 2002). In fact, athletic participation has been found to be a predictor of misogynistic and homophobic attitudes (Steinfeldt et al., 2011). It has been argued that these attitudes are further enforced by the fact that the social power possessed by male athletes receives institutional support, which can in turn influence the social and sexual cultures on university campuses (Sanday, 2007). Contact team sports have a reputation for reinforcing hegemonic masculinity more than other sports do (Messner, 2002). Rugby is a particularly aggressive and male-dominated sport (Maxwell & Visek, 2009), however the majority of studies on varsity athletics and masculinity use data from American colleges and focus on contact sports that are historically more prominent in North America such as football and hockey (Steinfeldt et al., 2011; Messner, 2002; Boeringer, 1996). I hope to add to the existing body of research by focusing exclusively on rugby at a Canadian University. To do so, I will conduct interviews with 5 men who are current players on the Queen’s varsity rugby team. I will perform a content analysis on the transcripts of the interviews to assess how male varsity rugby players at Queen’s University understand and express masculinity. I intend to distribute my findings to Queen’s athletic administrators and rugby coaching staff. The findings may contribute to leadership training that addresses gender issues in athletics at Queen’s.

Upsettling Canada in 140 Characters: race relations in the Twittersphere

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Carter
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
The Social ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
Networking Tool ◽  
A Site

This paper is a qualitative content analysis of public tweets made during the Indigenous social movement, Idle No More, containing the #upsettler and #upsettlers hashtags. Using settler colonial theory coupled with previous literature on Twitter during social movements as a guiding framework, this study identifies how settler colonial relations were being constructed on Twitter and how functions of the social networking tool such as the hashtag impacted this process. By examining and analyzing the content of 278 tweets, this study illustrates that Twitter is a site where conversations about race relations in Canada are taking place and that the use of the hashtag function plays a vital role in expanding the reach of this online discussion and creating a sense of solidarity or community among users.

scholarly journals Office Setting as Organizational Structure in “Bartleby the Scrivener”

SAGE Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401769043
Author(s):  
Lori Duin Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Institutional Ethnography ◽  
Interpersonal Dynamics ◽  
Office Setting ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Bartleby The Scrivener ◽  
A Site

This article uses a methodology from the social sciences known as institutional ethnography to analyze the office setting in Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” as a site of social organization. This approach contributes to an understanding of how that office came to adopt specific structures as crucial to its functioning and how, as a consequence of those structures, individuals’ roles within the organization’s hierarchies became constituted. As fieldwork occurs inside of organizations, institutional ethnography also provides a tool for identifying and evaluating linguistic markers for an individual’s placement within a larger organizational structure. This approach to the story seems particularly useful for understanding the interpersonal dynamics at the heart of “Bartleby.” At the same time, it provides a method for identifying the larger institutional process at work in Melville’s story, one that contributes to the reproduction of a system of social relations in the workplace that requires subordination and compliance to insure its success.

scholarly journals Russia in world society: A comparative perspective on international references in parliamentary debates

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Tiaynen-Qadir ◽  
Ali Qadir ◽  
Pertti Alasuutari
Keyword(s):  
International Community ◽  
World Society ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Parliamentary Debates ◽  
World Polity ◽  
World Society Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
A Site

This article explores how international references in parliaments build a synchronized world polity, even in countries that are often portrayed as being at odds with the rest of the world. The article asks whether and how Russian parliamentarians refer to the international community, and how such references compare with parliamentary debates in other countries. The “mesophenomenological” argument developed here connects World Society Theory, which demonstrates global isomorphism, with national studies of Russia, which argue for important national particularities. The empirical analysis draws on a stratified random sample of debates on draft laws in the Russian Duma from 1994 to 2013, comparable to similar samples from six other countries. The results show that: (1) Russian parliamentarians refer to the international community in the same level and the same forms as in other countries; (2) Russian policy-makers rely on the same imageries of the social world to convince their audiences as do other parliamentarians; and (3) this similarity in form remains consistent throughout the period, despite radical changes in national politics. These findings attest to the Russian Duma as a site of world culture, and to the mesophenomenological view that the world polity is highly synchronized through discourses of cross-national comparisons.

The Social Power of the Negro

1967 ◽  
Vol 216 (4) ◽  
pp. 21-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Comer
Keyword(s):  
Social Power ◽  
The Social

scholarly journals On the concept of habitus: Feminist critic of Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-192
Author(s):  
Dejan Petrovic
Keyword(s):  
Action Potential ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Asymmetric Distribution ◽  
Theoretical System

Key contemporary sociological theorists, such as Foucault or Habermas rarely explicitly discussed gender in their studies. This fact has not caused a lack of interest in the critical examination of the theoretical systems of these authors within a feminist perspective. During the 1990?s feminists? attention was drawn to Pierre Bourdieu?s social theory. French sociologist?s study Masculine Domination deals with issues of gender dynamics and its reproduction. In this study the persistence of the asymmetric distribution of social power between women and men is explained by concepts of habitus and symbolic violence. As this article will show, social change cannot be explained by Bourdieu?s concept of habitus, as a key link between social structure and action, due to its reduction of actors to socialized bodies, which are practically deprived of any true action potential. On the other hand, with regard to social activism as a permanent feature of feminist theory, this paper seeks to examine whether critical examination of Bourdieu?s conceptual apparatus achieves to provide the means to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings of the theoretical system of French sociologist. In other words, this article seeks to answer the question whether such a modification of habitus is possible, which will allow for actors whose action is truly structured and structuring, and lead to possible change of existing power relations.

scholarly journals “Buoyant Cartographies”: Strata-Mapping the Detroit River Border

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Taien Ng-Chan
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Border Zone ◽  
City Image ◽  
Detroit River ◽  
Border Zones ◽  
Nature Park ◽  
A Site ◽  
International Border

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> In the early days of September 2018, a group of artists and researchers converged on the Detroit River (an international border between Detroit, Michigan, USA and Windsor, Ontario, Canada) to investigate the “Buoyant Cartographies” that this particular site demanded. As one of the parties involved in this participatory event (along with Lead Investigators <i>In/Terminus Creative Research Group</i> and <i>Float School</i>), my artist-research collective Hamilton Perambulatory Unit (HPU) undertook an experimental mapping project that investigated the different “strata” of the place and the development of a “city-image.” The HPU Strata-Walk is an experimental and performative mapping methodology that focuses on how spatial meaning is created through a “stratigraphic” sensing of a site. The Detroit-Windsor border makes an especially compelling site for a Strata-Walk, in light of the conflicts over borders and walls in the current political environment, which presents an urgent need towards understanding and envisioning alternate possibilities for border zones. As a material site and geo-political space, the Detroit River border particularly benefits from intermedial investigations into spatial meanings and their construction. Notably, the role of folklore and local narratives on the internet and social media (and the erasure of Indigenous knowledge) figures large in developing one's knowledge of place. Experimental cartographies can thus help to develop alternate ways of seeing such sites.</p><p>This presentation is an attempt to trace this particular event of “discovery,” an account of how a place becomes known and how intermedial practices influence the manifestation of space and experience. Inherent in this research is the overarching question of how one begins to decolonize public narratives of place, how gaps and erasures in knowledge can be located in order to demarcate a way forward for further study and action. With these concerns in mind, I conduct a preliminary analysis of the border site through the activities of the HPU and our specific “strata-walking” framework, which focuses on different approaches of mapping-as-process, from phenomenological, ethnographic and cultural landscape reading methodologies to networked, social and digital media research. This performative mapping can shape individual experiences of the border through the revealing of complex networks, flows, and narratives, and point to fissures where alternative imaginings might be possible. I will first begin with a brief introduction to the HPU’s methodologies, before situating them in a survey of relevant literatures around experimental and critical processes of mapping. Then, using photographic and textual documentation, I delve into some very preliminary results of the investigation, focusing on touristic experiences of border crossing as well as a look at the specific “imageability” of Peche Island in the Detroit River, a place of rumour and mystery, now a nature park maintained by the city of Windsor. The overall goal will be to demonstrate the necessity of experimental cartographies in the creation of alternate experiences and more reflexive narratives about the border zone, with the Detroit-Windsor border as a case study.</p>

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