scholarly journals Forensic Fiction and the Normalization of Surveillance

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liv Hausken
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
To Come

Abstract This essay investigates forensic fiction as a trend in televised crime fiction and argues that this trend or subgenre is particularly interesting if we are to understand how surveillance is portrayed in contemporary society. The essay looks particularly into an extremely popular example of forensic fiction, namely CSI and its two spin-offs CSI: NY and CSI: Miami. Through a discussion of the conceptions of knowledge, crime and power, which seem to come forth in the three CSI series, the present article argues that the particular blend of technological optimism, positivism and moralism that can be witnessed in forensic fiction in general, and in CSI in particular, is important to understanding how popular culture lends a certain normalization of surveillance to everyday life

scholarly journals Gender discrimination in societal and familial realms: Understanding agency among Chinese marriage migrant women in Switzerland

2021 ◽  
pp. 011719682098159
Author(s):  
Yali Chen
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Professional Women ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Leftover Women ◽  
Foreign Wives

To understand the agency of Chinese marriage migrant women in Switzerland in their everyday life, the present article examines the reasons why Chinese women marry European men and their post-migratory life in Switzerland. Based on interviews with Chinese marriage migrant women, the article discusses their gendered representations before migration (as “leftover women” or “divorced women”) to being “foreign wives” after migration to Switzerland. Their migration from China to Switzerland also resulted to a change in their roles from “professional women” to “homemakers.” The gender-related discrimination the women encountered from China to their post-migration life in Switzerland demonstrates a continuum of gender discrimination in which they highly exert their agency that has also been enhanced by acts of resistance.

scholarly journals Representation and Agency of Aging Superheroes in Popular Culture and Contemporary Society

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kateřina Valentová
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Graphic Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Cultural Expressions ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Many

The figure of the superhero has always been regarded as an iconic representative of American society. Since the birth of the first superhero, it has been shaped by the most important historical, political, and social events, which were echoed in different comic issues. In principle, in the superhero genre, there has never been a place for aging superheroes, for they stand as a symbol of power and protection for the nation. Indeed, their mythical portrayal of young and strong broad-chested men with superpowers cannot be shattered showing them fragile or disabled. The aim of this article is to delve into the complex paradigm of the passage of time in comics and to analyze one of the most famous superheroes of all times, Superman, in terms of his archetypical representation across time. From the perspective of cultural and literary gerontology, the different issues of Action Comics will be examined, as well as an alternative graphic novel Kingdom Come (2008) by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, where Superman appears as an aged man. Although it breaks the standards of the genre, in the end it does not succeed to challenge the many stereotypes embedded in society in regard to aging, associated with physical, cognitive, and emotional decline. Furthermore, this article will show how a symbolic use of the monomythical representation of a superhero may penetrate into other cultural expressions to instill a more positive and realistic portrayal of aging.

scholarly journals Critiquing Anthropocentrism in Henry Ole Kulet’s Vanishing Herds

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-55
Author(s):  
Pushpa Raj Jaishi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
East African ◽  
To Come

Vanishing Herds (2011) is Henry Ole Kulet’s novel that hovers around the ecological depletion caused by the anthropocentric attitude of the human beings. Set in the East African Savannah, the novel grapples with the critical issue of anthropogenic environmental degradation. The novel is based on the tribulations of a young Maasai couple –Kedoki and Norpisia whose epic journey through the wilderness provides a window through which the destruction of the physical environment can be viewed. Additionally, the text catalogues the challenges faced by a pastoralist community’s attempt to come to terms with the socio-economic realities of a fast-evolving contemporary society. The paper is an attempt to study this novel under the surveillance of green lens and throw light on the ecological destruction especially the clearing of the forest by human self centered endeavors and to critique the anthropocentric attitude of the human beings that render the environment at the verge of destruction.

Some Reflections on Making Popular Culture in Urban Africa

2008 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
AbdouMaliq Simone
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Urban Africa ◽  
The City ◽  
Ways Of Being

Abstract:In contemporary urban Africa, the turbulence of the city requires incessant innovation that is capable of generating new ways of being. Rather than treating popular culture as some distinctive sector, this article attempts to investigate the popular as methods of bringing together activities and actors that on the surface would not seem compatible, and as experimental forms of generating value in the everyday life of urban residents. This investigation, sited largely in Douala, Cameroon, looks at how youth from varying neighborhoods attempt to get by, and at the unexpected forms of contestation that can ensue.

scholarly journals The politics of a ‘Poncy Pillowcase’: Migration and borders in Coronation Street’

Politics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandria J Innes ◽  
Robert J Topinka
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Soap Opera ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
And Gender

This article examines the ways in which popular culture stages and supplies resources for agency in everyday life, with particular attention to migration and borders. Drawing upon cultural studies, and specific insights originating from the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, we explore how intersectional identities such as race, ethnicity, class, and gender are experienced in relation to the globalisation of culture and identity in a 2007 Coronation Street storyline. The soap opera genre offers particular insights into how agency emerges in everyday life as migrants and locals navigate the forces of globalisation. We argue that a focus on popular culture can mitigate the problem of isolating migrant experiences from local experiences in migrant-receiving areas.

Representations of Evil in the Novels Miss Christina, The Snake and Isabel and the Devil’s Waters by Mircea Eliade

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Constantin Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Mircea Eliade ◽  
The Fantastic

"Representations of Evil in the Novels Miss Christina, The Snake and Isabel and the Devil’s Waters by Mircea Eliade. The present article analyzes some representations of evil in the novels Miss Christina, The Snake and Isabel and the Devil’s Waters by Mircea Eliade. In particular, we draw attention to the evil that directly refers to the mysterious dimension and, therefore, outlines a perception that exceeds the mundane experience of everyday life. In this sense, the emergence of unfathomable aspects and phenomena can only be explained in an imaginary approach. This type of representation of evil is perceived within the limits of a manifestation of the supernatural, in an unveiling of the evil through ill-fated, Mephistophelean characters or in the potentiation of “heresies” in the folkloric imaginary. The paper aims to examine how this evil, most often related to some almost occult experiences and fueled by local folklore, is capitalized in the fantastic prose of Mircea Eliade. Keywords: mysterious, fantastic, magical, imaginary, representation, evil, devil "

BEYOND THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE: ANALYZING THE IMAGINATION OF PLACE AND TRAVEL IN EVERYDAY LIFE

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
The Self ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Individual State ◽  
Imaginary World ◽  
Tourism Research ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article advocates a new agenda for (media) tourism research that links questions of tourist experiences to the role and meaning of imagination in everyday life. Based on a small-scale, qualitative study among a group of seventeen respondents of diverse ages and backgrounds currently residing in the Netherlands, we offer an empirical exploration of the places that are of importance for people’s individual state of mind and investigate how these places relate to (potential) tourist experiences. The combination of in-depth interviews and random-cue self-reporting resulted in the following findings: 1) all our respondents regularly reside in an elaborate imaginary world, consisting of both fictional and non-fictional places; 2) this imaginary world is dominated by places which make the respondents feel nostalgic; 3) in this regard, the private home and houses from childhood are pivotal; 4) the ‘home’ is seen as topos of the self and contrasted with ‘away’; 5) the imagination of ‘away’ emerges from memories of previous tourist experiences, personal fantasies and, last but not least, influences from popular culture. We conclude that imagining and visiting other locations are part of a life-long project of ‘identity work’ in which personal identities are performed, confirmed and extended. By travelling, either physically or mentally, individuals anchor their identity - the entirety of ideas about who they are, where they come from and where they think they belong - in a broader, spatial framework.

scholarly journals Film as medium for meaning making: A practical theological reflection

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita L. Cloete
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
The Self ◽  
Practical Theological

The reflection on film will be situated within the framework of popular culture and livedreligion as recognised themes within the discipline of practical theology. It is argued that theperspective of viewers is of importance within the process of meaning-making. By focusing onthe experience and meaning-making through the act of film-watching the emphasis is not somuch on the message that the producer wishes to convey but rather on the experience that iscreated within the viewer. Experience is not viewed as only emotional, but rather that, at least,both the cognitive and emotional are key in the act of watching a film. It is therefore arguedthat this experience that is seldom reflected on by viewers could serve as a fruitful platform formeaning-making by the viewer. In a context where there seems to be a decline in institutionalisedforms of religion, it is important to investigate emerging forms of religion. Furthermore, theturn to the self also makes people’s experiences and practices in everyday life valuableresources for theological reflection. This reflection could provide a theoretical framework forespecially empirical research on how film as specific form of media serves as a religiousresource and plays a role in the construction of meaning and religious identity.

‘To die, to sleep’ – assisted dying legislation in Victoria: A case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1976-1982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Gilbert ◽  
Jane Boag
Keyword(s):  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Australian Society ◽  
Australian State ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Impact

Background: Assisted dying remains an emotive topic globally with a number of countries initiating legislation to allow individuals access to assisted dying measures. Victoria will become the first Australian state in over 13 years to pass Assisted Dying Legislation, set to come into effect in 2019. Objectives: This article sought to evaluate the impact of Victorian Assisted Dying Legislation via narrative view and case study presentation. Research design: Narrative review and case study. Participants and research context: case study. Ethical considerations: This legislation will provide eligible Victorian residents with the option to request access to assisted dying measures as a viable alternative to a potentially painful, protracted death. Findings: This legislation, while conservative and inclusive of many safeguards at present, will form the basis for further discussion and debate on assisted dying across Australia in time to come. Discussion: The passing of this legislation by the Victorian parliament was prolonged, emotive and divided not only the parliament but Australian society. Conclusion: Many advocates for this legislation proclaimed it was well overdue and will finally meet the needs of contemporary society. Protagonists claim that medical treatment should not provide a means of ending life, despite palliative care reportedly often failing to relieve the pain and suffering of individuals living with a terminal illness.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document