scholarly journals Auteurs & Amateurs: Toward an Ethics of Film Criticism

UNITAS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 93 (01) ◽  
pp. 17-36
Author(s):  
Joel David
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Film Criticism ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Active Film ◽  
Local Experience ◽  
Or Practice

Film criticism in the active film industries of Asia mimics the Western models on which film production is premised as well. The problem of sifting through and determining what constitutes film criticism first encounters the question of motive, admittedly an ethical one: is the critique independent enough to be taken as an evaluation free from the promotional requisite of the film being reviewed? From this distinction between serious commentary and presumably disposable publicity comes a hierarchy of writing on cinema, policed by a growing cadre of commentators on social networks and affirmed by instructors of communication and institutions that seek to bestow recognition for quality achievements. In ascending order, these would be film reporting (including gossip writing), promotions, reviewing, and criticism. I would argue, however, that this ground-level upward-gazing perspective impedes the larger envisioning of the discursive fields of film and culture. Criticism, in the industrially fostered operations of media, also serves its own promotional function, no matter how badly its practitioners claim to disavow the notion. What it promotes are the schools of thought and/or practice that give rise to theories that predetermine writers’ and artists’ orientations. This paper aims to consider the various dominant schools in Asian practice, with focus on the Philippines, and to determine ways in which film theories may be made more responsive to local experience.

Conceptualizing International Labor Migration: A Structuration Perspective

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Goss ◽  
Bruce Lindquist
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Labor Migration ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Anthony Giddens ◽  
Theory Of Structuration ◽  
International Labor Migration

This article applies the theory of structuration to international labor migration using case study material from the Philippines. It first provides a brief review of the functional and structural approaches to understanding labor migration and the theoretical impasse that has been created between them. It then reviews several attempts to resolve this impasse, including systems and networks approaches; these solutions are rejected on theoretical and empirical grounds. We suggest that migrant institutions may be a more appropriate mid-level concept than households or social networks to articulate various levels of analysis. We develop this concept in the context of the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens and attempt to apply this to the Philippines, concluding that this framework is eminently suited for further research on international labor migration.

scholarly journals Social Networks and the Targeting of Vote Buying

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cesi Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Vote Buying ◽  
Family Ties ◽  
Political Cooperation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Electoral Strategies ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
Buying In

The social networks of voters have been shown to facilitate political cooperation and information transmission in established democracies. These same social networks, however, can also make it easier for politicians in new democracies to engage in clientelistic electoral strategies. Using survey data from the Philippines, this article demonstrates that individuals with more friend and family ties are disproportionately targeted for vote buying. This is consistent with the importance of other social factors identified in the literature such as reciprocity, direct ties to politicians, and individual social influence. In addition, this article presents evidence supporting an additional mechanism linking voter social networks to the targeting of vote buying: social network–based monitoring. Voters with larger networks are both more sensitive to the ramifications of reneging on vote buying agreements and are primarily targeted for vote buying in contexts where monitoring is necessary.

scholarly journals Dr Dario Llinares in Conversation with Dr Sarah Atkinson

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Llinares ◽  
Sarah Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Film Criticism ◽  
Film Production ◽  
The Core ◽  
Expanded Cinema ◽  
Mobile Cinema ◽  
Recent Monograph ◽  
Historical Antecedents ◽  
Networked Society

Dr Dario Llinares interviews Dr Sarah Atkinson about the core themes addressed in her recent monograph Beyond the Screen: Emerging Cinema and Engaging Audiences (Bloomsbury, 2014). The conversation explores the context for new conceptualisations of cinema, which encompass and reflect the myriad ways film can be experienced beyond the auditorium in a digitally networked society. They also explore the historical antecedents for embodied cinema, discuss examples of expanded, extended and mobile film spectatorship, and postulate as to the effect of these transformations for film production, criticism and scholarship.     KEYWORDS Expanded Cinema; Film Criticism; Film Theory; Digital Technology; Mobile Cinema; Spectatorship

scholarly journals Piano at the ground level

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Laura Camargo ◽  
Gabriela Tenorio
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Experience ◽  
Potential Problems ◽  
Potsdamer Platz ◽  
Contemporary Architecture

<p>From observing the current dynamics of cities and the development of contemporary architecture, great criticism arises in response to the creation of iconic buildings as formal experiments that do not contribute to the local experience. Motivated by this criticism, this paper aims to analyse and understand the importance and the participation of architecture in the construction of a better public realm. The analytical method seeks to understand, evaluate and manipulate the main attributes of a public space based on the features that make it a platform for public life. The analysis focuses on the public realm in three areas of study- the space resulting of the interaction between the buildings, the interstitial space and the constructed spaces. The projects chosen to analyse consisted on iconic buildings by the architect Renzo Piano, due to his international recognition - a body of work shaped by the contexts in which they operate. The projects are situated in global cities and propose new configurations of public space: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Potsdamer Platz, Berlin; and Saint Giles Court, London. The analysis seeks the features that make architecture successful in the sense that it aggregates people and creates interesting spaces that favour human permanence; the paper evaluates whether the projects of Renzo Piano display these features. Each project has its own particularities. Starting with the dimensions, each project contributes to the public space at a different scale. Nevertheless, the variables analysed were the same for each context, and the effects were considered regarding the proportions and the programmatic possibilities offered by each. After understanding the site and its history, the study of the public life and its local attributes, this paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each building and how they contribute to the specific place. The interpretation of the results took into account not only the present, but also the lifetime of each project, raising some potential problems or successes for the future. It is possible to conclude that the three projects contribute positively to the public space, stimulating urban improvements and constitute good-practice examples, each at a different intensity.</p>

scholarly journals Policing Cyberspace: Understanding Online Repression in Thailand and the Philippines

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-145
Author(s):  
Fernan Talamayan
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
State Control ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
Control And Management ◽  
Biopolitical Power

Social networking sites have become increasingly relevant in the study of democracy and culture in recent years. This study explores the interconnectedness of social networks, the imposition of state control, and management of social behavior by comparing various literature on the operation of repression in Thai and Philippine cyberspaces. It examines the overt and covert policing of daily interactions in digital environments and unpacks governmental technologies’ disciplinary mechanisms following Michel Foucault’s notion of government and biopolitical power. Subjugation in the context of social networks merits analysis for it sheds light on the practice of active and passive self-censorship—the former driven by the pursuit of a moral self-image and the latter by state-sponsored fear. In tracing various points of convergence and divergence in the practice of cyber control in Thailand and the Philippines, the study found newer domains of regulation of social behavior applicable to today’s democracies.

Undermining State Authority in the Philippines

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-149
Author(s):  
Melissa M. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Ground Level ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The South ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
State Authority ◽  
Territorial Claim ◽  
1960S And 1970S

This chapter discusses Malaysia’s use of subversion as an instrument of extortion against the Philippines during the late 1960s and 1970s. Upon Malaysia’s independence, the Philippines asserted a territorial claim over part of Malaysia’s territory of Sabah. Malaysia considered this claim to be without merit and a threat to its territorial integrity. Unable to resolve the dispute, Malaysia turned to subversion. It cooperated with Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines to weaken Manila’s hold over its periphery as a means to persuade the Philippines into abandoning the Sabah claim. The chapter illustrates the deleterious effects of subversion on Philippine state authority in the South, thus showing the “ground-level” consequences of foreign interference. Its focus on Malaysia and the Philippines also demonstrates that states that are not territorially contiguous can use subversion to undermine state authority.

scholarly journals Local-Scale Bat Guild Activity Differs with Rice Growth Stage at Ground Level in the Philippines

Diversity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodi L. Sedlock ◽  
Alexander M. Stuart ◽  
Finbarr G. Horgan ◽  
Buyung Hadi ◽  
Angela Como Jacobson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Growth Stage ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Bat Activity ◽  
Arthropod Predators ◽  
Background Clutter ◽  
Pest Suppression

High-flying insectivorous bats, as wide-ranging generalist insectivores, are valuable consumers of high-altitude migrating pests of rice in Southeast Asia. Here, we documented the behavior of relatively low-flying bats over irrigated rice to elucidate their potential role as predators of rice-associated pest insects in the Philippines. Specifically, we tested the local-scale effects of rice stage, particularly seedling and late vegetative stages, and time of night on acoustic activity of bats foraging near ground level within three functional guilds (based on foraging distance from background clutter). We also monitored bat activity from two 50 m-high towers to assess the vertical extent of relatively low-flying guilds, as well as document high-flying bat guild presence and temporal behavior. At ground level, the most active guild biased their activity and feeding over early growth stage fields, but also foraged at tower level. Activity of the bat guild adept at foraging closest to vegetation did not vary with time of night or rice stage and was absent from tower recordings. High-flying bats were predictably rare at rice level, but exhibited high foraging intensity at 50 m. Given the well-documented, sequential arrival of insect guilds with growth stage, these data suggest that at ground level edge-space bats may be important consumers of detritivores (e.g., mosquitoes). Moreover, our data suggest that just as habitat heterogeneity enhances the services of arthropod predators, these management practices also enhance bat activity and, presumably, their contribution to pest suppression.

scholarly journals ‘We’re Sending you Back’: Temporary Skilled Labour Migration, Social Networks and Local Community

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Mayes
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Mining Operation ◽  
Local Network ◽  
Migrant Networks ◽  
Skilled Labour ◽  
Local Experience

This paper contributes to the emergent literature on the temporal and dynamic constitution of temporary skilled migrant networks, foregrounding under-researched interrelations between migrant and non-migrant networks. It does so through examination of the lived experience of transnational, temporary skilled labour migrants resident in Ravensthorpe in rural Western Australia (WA) who were confronted with the sudden closure of the mining operation where they were employed. As a result they faced imminent forced departure from Australia. Drawing on qualitative data collected in Ravensthorpe three weeks after the closure, this paper foregrounds the role of this shared, profoundly socially-disruptive event in the formation of a temporary, multi-ethnic migrant network and related interactions with a local network. Analysis of these social relations foregrounds the role of catalysing events and external prompts (beyond ethnicity and the migration act) in the formation of temporary migrant networks, along with the importance of local contexts, policy conditions and employer action. The social networks formed in Hopetoun, and associated mobilisation of social capital, confirm the potential and richness of non-migrant networks for shaping the migrant experience, and foreground the ways in which these interrelations in turn can shape the local experience of migration, just as it highlights the capacity of community groups to act as social and political allies for temporary migrants.that would require migrants to depart after a set number of years and instead recommend a pathway to permanent residence based on duration of stay.

Looking Through the Rearview Mirror

2021 ◽  
pp. 244-280
Author(s):  
James S. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Film Criticism ◽  
Film Production ◽  
French Cinema ◽  
French Film ◽  
Queer Representation ◽  
Rearview Mirror

Probing the continuities and discontinuities of queer representation and expression in the vast, multiform corpus of French cinema up to 1945, this chapter celebrates moments of queer visual and auditory intimacy and pleasure in both celebrated and little-known or neglected films. It aims to prove that early French cinema, despite its all-too-evident heterosexist matrices and repressive tendencies (notably the negative and often highly crude, fetishizing stereotypes of the “homosexual,” “lesbian,” and “cross-dresser”), also discloses unpredictable and non-normative aesthetic spaces or “interzones”—of filiation, desire, and sensation—that resist easy categorization (social, cultural political), elude the gender fixities of the period, and are rich in radical ambiguity and queer suggestion, even subversion. A new, materialist, queer aesthetics and historiography is proposed that ties early French film production and spectatorship to abiding aspects of the French cinematic tradition such as cinephilia and film criticism.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document