scholarly journals Te Papa: A Forum for the World?  A Narrative Exploration of a Global Public Sphere

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Philipp Schorch
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Museum Studies ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Empirical Reality ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
The Public Sphere

<p>The reinvention of the museum as "forum" within the new museology and the notion of the "public sphere" are inextricably linked. Both concepts have been theoretically scrutinised in museum studies, critical theory, cultural studies and other academic disciplines, but there is a lack of empirical insights into their actual functioning. This thesis offers an empirical interrogation of the "museum forum" idea. It sheds ethnographic light on cross-cultural encounters in a "cosmopolitanised" world illuminating what it means to experience a museological space and how a public sphere is "lived". Drawing on a long-term narrative study of global visitors to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), this thesis humanises Te Papa as a particular global public sphere, or discursive space. The critical hermeneutic analysis facilitates an understanding of "cross-cultural dialogue" and the "public sphere" as interpretive actions, movements and performances made by cultural actors. By exploring individual experiences instead of totalised abstractions, this study dissects the complexity of cultural worldmaking and politics elucidating "interpretive contests" and their "enunciation". Due to the in-depth empirical insights and their multilayered contextualisation, the "museum forum" evolves from an abstract idea into a concrete discursive world of negotiations. This thesis examines Te Papa as a particular place, space and empirical reality. It interrogates seemingly universal concepts such as "culture" and "politics" producing empirically situated, contextualised and rich theoretical propositions of significance for the human sciences in general as well as critical museum studies in particular.</p>

scholarly journals Te Papa: A Forum for the World?  A Narrative Exploration of a Global Public Sphere

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Philipp Schorch
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Museum Studies ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Empirical Reality ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
The Public Sphere

<p>The reinvention of the museum as "forum" within the new museology and the notion of the "public sphere" are inextricably linked. Both concepts have been theoretically scrutinised in museum studies, critical theory, cultural studies and other academic disciplines, but there is a lack of empirical insights into their actual functioning. This thesis offers an empirical interrogation of the "museum forum" idea. It sheds ethnographic light on cross-cultural encounters in a "cosmopolitanised" world illuminating what it means to experience a museological space and how a public sphere is "lived". Drawing on a long-term narrative study of global visitors to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), this thesis humanises Te Papa as a particular global public sphere, or discursive space. The critical hermeneutic analysis facilitates an understanding of "cross-cultural dialogue" and the "public sphere" as interpretive actions, movements and performances made by cultural actors. By exploring individual experiences instead of totalised abstractions, this study dissects the complexity of cultural worldmaking and politics elucidating "interpretive contests" and their "enunciation". Due to the in-depth empirical insights and their multilayered contextualisation, the "museum forum" evolves from an abstract idea into a concrete discursive world of negotiations. This thesis examines Te Papa as a particular place, space and empirical reality. It interrogates seemingly universal concepts such as "culture" and "politics" producing empirically situated, contextualised and rich theoretical propositions of significance for the human sciences in general as well as critical museum studies in particular.</p>

Take it Outside

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Scheper Hughes ◽  
James Kyung-Jin Lee ◽  
Amanda Lucia ◽  
S.Romi Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Experiences ◽  
The Public Sphere

California is experiencing a proliferation of public religious celebrations like never before. The authors focus on four public celebrations: the throwing of colors during Holi, an annual pilgrimage to Manzanar, the Peruvian celebration of El Señor de Los Milagros, and Noche de Altares. Even as these and many other similar festivals simultaneously represent the irruption and interruption of the sacred in the public sphere, these festivals reflect the multi-religious character of immigration. These public rituals say something about the pursuit of belonging in California and in the United States within an increasingly diverse and multicultural landscape. Those who participate together as intimate strangers are often seeking only a temporary affiliation, perhaps a place for a moment to engage one another beyond the context of the marketplace. In sharing in these religious and cross-cultural experiences, participants become enmeshed in the complicated and vibrant diversity of California, up close and personal, as physical as the bodies encountered there.

Global Constructions of ‘Korupsi’ in a Local Public Sphere: A Cross-Cultural Malaysian Reception Study

2002 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-125
Author(s):  
Tony Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Television News ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Audience Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reception Study ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Audience Responses ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
News Programs

Audience responses to television are at the heart of sense-making in the public sphere. Research on viewers' readings of economic, political and social events in news programs, invariably constructed around the activities of ‘significant’ individuals, is of particular consequence for understanding the functioning of a democracy. This paper is a cross-cultural reception study of how audiences come to interpret the program genre of television news. In a process of comprehension characterised by fusing/feuding horizons of understanding the world, viewers playfully accommodate the meaning of programs in their everyday lives. Analysis of television's reception should be tested against audience activity. Theory must be corroborated. Drawing from a significant literature discussing the phenomenology of ludic experience, the article theorises trans-cultural reception of Western (British) television by Asian (Malaysian) viewers as seriously ‘playful’. Academic assertions are assessed as illuminating audience response.

Te Karere o Poneke: Creating an Indigenous Discursive Space?

Itinerario ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-390
Author(s):  
Lachy Paterson
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
The Public ◽  
Western Model ◽  
The World ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractOver sixteen months in 1857 and 1858, Walter Buller produced a weekly newspaper for Māori of the Wellington region in their own language. Although he was the son of a Wesleyan missionary and an official interpreter, the niupepa was neither a church nor a government publication, although it promoted discourses favoured by both. A number of niupepa had preceded Buller's Te Karere o Poneke, the first appearing in 1842, but his paper was distinctive in the sizable platform he provided for correspondence. Over half of the items printed comprised letters from Māori, many of them commenting on, and occasionally critiquing the colonial milieu.The concept of “public sphere” is heavily theorized, often postulated in acultural terms (although suspiciously European in form) and it is debatable if Te Karere o Poneke's readership and their engagement with the textual discourse meet the theory's required criteria of constituting a public sphere. New Zealand was annexed to the British Empire in 1840, meaning that by 1857 colonization was still a relatively new phenomenon, but with substantial immigration and a developing infrastructure, change was both extensive and dynamic. According to the theory, it may be difficult to apply the concept of “public sphere” to Māori anytime during the changing contexts of nineteenth-century colonialism, and indeed other colonised cultures for whom the advent of literacy, Christianity, market economy and colonial administration had been sudden and unexpected. Of course this does not mean that Māori lacked a voice, at times critical. Using Te Karere o Poneke as a case study, this essay argues that Wellington Māori of 1857 do not readily fit the Western model of the “public sphere”, but they nevertheless utilized the discursive spaces available to them to discuss and evaluate the world they now encountered.

scholarly journals Muslim Young People Online: “Acts of Citizenship” in Socially Networked Spaces

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amelia Johns
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
The Public Sphere

This paper reviews the current literature regarding Muslim young people’s online social networking and participatory practices with the aim of examining whether these practices open up new spaces of civic engagement and political participation. The paper focuses on the experiences of young Muslims living in western societies, where, since September 11, the ability to assert claims as citizens in the public arena has diminished. The paper draws upon Isin &amp; Nielsen’s (2008) “acts of citizenship” to define the online practices of many Muslim youth, for whom the internet provides a space where new performances of citizenship are enacted outside of formal citizenship rights and spaces of participation. These “acts" are evaluated in light of theories which articulate the changing nature of publics and the public sphere in a digital era. The paper will use this conceptual framework in conjunction with the literature review to explore whether virtual, online spaces offer young Muslims an opportunity to create a more inclusive discursive space to interact with co-citizens, engage with social and political issues and assert their citizen rights than is otherwise afforded by formal political structures; a need highlighted by policies which target minority Muslim young people for greater civic participation but which do not reflect the interests and values of Muslim young people.

scholarly journals Shaping the ‘Public Sphere’ in Second Life: Architectures of the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annabel Jane Wharton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Public Sphere

The built environments of immersive worlds have generated a great many publications on construction technologies; much has also been written on the uses of virtual buildings for commercial and educational purposes. Remarkably little research has, however, been devoted to the appearance and effect of digital architectures, the traditional questions asked by architectural historians. This article offers a modest investigation of sites in Second Life that functioned as campaign venues during the 2008 United States presidential election. In the course of describing the symptomatic differences between the sites of the Republicans and Democrats, the author offers observations on buildings’ contribution to the creation of a “public sphere”—that discursive space broadly considered vital to a successful democracy. Though the architectures of the actual and virtual worlds are in some ways utterly divergent, they are, in others, remarkably similar. One of those ways, the author argues, is their agency. In virtual, as in actual settings, architecture manipulates the actions of its users. Buildings, it is posited, condition the movements of avatars and the thoughts of humans, often without their conscious realization.

scholarly journals A Cross-Cultural Newspaper Content Analysis: Smart Cities in Japanese and Slovenian Newspapers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukiko Sato ◽  
Stefan Brückner ◽  
Maja Pušnik
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Newspaper ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Definition Of

The realisation of smart cities has attracted much attention in recent years from private and governmental actors, as a means to make cities more efficient, climate friendly and socially inclusive through the use of modern technology. However, few studies examine how smart cities are framed and understood within the public sphere. The aim of this study is to compare how domestic smart city initiatives are reported in the news of their respective countries, and to clarify the differences and similarities in media content. In this paper, we present the initial findings of our planned long-term comparative news content analysis. As a first step, we analysed national newspaper articles published between 2011 and 2019 in Japan and Slovenia. Our corpus consists of 41 Japanese and 20 Slovenian articles, written in relation to domestic smart city initiatives. In total, we identified 14 themes, five of which were common in both countries, while the remaining nine appeared exclusively in the news of one country. Our conclusions indicate that the news in both countries differ in what application domains of Smart Cities are discussed (e.g. natural resources and energy, transportation and mobility). We establish a procedure for further cross-cultural analyses, necessary to understand how smart cities are framed in the public sphere. Thereby, we contribute to further discussion on the nature and definition of smart cities and how they are communicated.

scholarly journals Young adults and the digital public sphere: a cross-cultural perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 36-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheline Frenette ◽  
Marie-France Vermette
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Motivating Factor

This paper deals with the engagement of young adults in the digital public sphere and attempts to identify some important issues related to the phenomenon as well as some of the challenges for future research. It has often been asserted that the newer generations are disenchanted with traditional party politics and prefer alternative forms of political engagement. Concurrently, it has been stated that, because of their pervasive involvement with ICTs and the unique opportunities they offer, the digital public sphere has become a place of choice for them to enact these newer forms of political engagement. The hypothesis that young adults are part of a digital generation that has redefined its modes of functioning within society has been a motivating factor for a study conducted among university students in four different countries1 to see how these new practices play out in the various spheres of their lives. Among other issues, we explore to what extent and in what ways the Internet has become a new vector for political participation among young adults. We will use part of these data to support our reflection on young adults’ involvement in the digital public sphere and to re-examine the classical premises of what constitutes the public sphere. We conclude by sharing our insights on this phenomenon and discussing further avenues for research in this area.

scholarly journals The Protest, Transformation of the Public Sphere and Notions of Femininity; Women Experiences in Pakistan

sjesr ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
Akhlaq Ahmad ◽  
Farhan Navid Yousaf ◽  
Muhammad Bilal
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Charismatic Leadership ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

This research analyzes women’s participation in a sit-in organized by a mainstream political party, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) in the capital territory of Pakistan. This sit-in continued for 86 days. Taking theoretical insights from Jurgen Habermas and Max Weber, this study looks at women’s experiences during the sit-in. The research discusses how the women transformed this ‘political sit-in’ into the public sphere and created alternative discursive space/s to looked into/evaluate their social, cultural, economic and political conditions and voiced their narratives into the present masculine/ patriarchal political structure of Pakistan. Interpretivist’ epistemology was a guiding methodological application for this research. The data come from 10 women participants. The thematic analysis helps the interpretation. Findings reveal that women exercised their agency as their religious duty, which in turn enabled them to develop their feminine social capital. Women transformed political sit-in into a distinct political space and challenged the traditional notions of Pakistani femininity. They lived in an open space for 86 days without their families, mostly taking decisions at their own, chanting anti-government slogans, having clashes with police, getting married and giving birth. Media facilitated projection, visibility and public support. Women’ commitment to the change disrupted dominant stereotypes about women, their role and voice in Pakistan. Charismatic leadership instrumentalized religious teachings for persuading participants and the advancement of the political agenda of socio-political change in Pakistan.

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