India’s Dalits Search for a Democratic Opening in the Digital Divide

Author(s):  
P. Thirumal ◽  
Gary Michael Tartakov

This chapter seeks to recognize and read the marginal presence on the Internet of India’s most oppressed and stigmatized community, the Dalits, simultaneously as acts of resistance and acts of constituting both self and community. It is an exploratory exercise in writing the social history of technological media in general, and the Internet in particular. The medium of Internet, unlike most associated with script and print that preceded it, offers emerging users access without the censorship of either established authorities or canons of authoritative formal regulation. More significantly, it provides the Dalit community, heretofore excluded from all but the most marginal voice in civil society, with an entrance into the national discourse. And quite as important, it furnishes them with their first meaningful media platform for a nationwide internal discourse, which they have previously been denied.

2013 ◽  
pp. 852-871
Author(s):  
P. Thirumal ◽  
Gary Michael Tartakov

This chapter seeks to recognize and read the marginal presence on the Internet of India’s most oppressed and stigmatized community, the Dalits, simultaneously as acts of resistance and acts of constituting both self and community. It is an exploratory exercise in writing the social history of technological media in general, and the Internet in particular. The medium of Internet, unlike most associated with script and print that preceded it, offers emerging users access without the censorship of either established authorities or canons of authoritative formal regulation. More significantly, it provides the Dalit community, heretofore excluded from all but the most marginal voice in civil society, with an entrance into the national discourse. And quite as important, it furnishes them with their first meaningful media platform for a nationwide internal discourse, which they have previously been denied.


Author(s):  
Christopher Houston

Abstract: Despite the ceaseless efforts of what its supporters name the “Atatürk Cumhuriyeti” (Atatürk Republic), Kemalism is seen by many as a discredited ideology and an oppressive political practice. This chapter explores the social history of Kemalism since 1923 and the background to its now decades-long crisis of legitimacy. It compares the orthodox narrative concerning the Kemalist project with its various deconstructive accounts, many of which zero in on the years after the First World War and the 1920s and 1930s as foundational in present-day conflicts. These orthodox and heterodox histories, allied to the interests of different groups, do politics by another means. The chapter then traces how the power struggle over Kemalism’s futures is developing. Rather than pontificate about what the state or civil society should do, it concludes by drawing attention to emerging lineaments of change in existing civil society and social conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 1850-1862
Author(s):  
James Lull

We communicate to survive. The social history of our species can be characterized by how we continuously expand our ability to connect with others. Television and the Internet function as unique resources people creatively use to fulfill their social needs and build communities. But they do so in very different ways. By placing television and the Internet in evolutionary perspective, this commentary compares the form, content, and contexts of how the two technologies are used as culturally embedded social resources. The methodological challenge of generating empirical data to reveal how the Internet is used socially is addressed. Quantitative and qualitative assessments, especially ethnography, play complementary roles in describing how multi-modal Internet users construct the social contacts and relationships that shape their everyday lives in the Communication Age.


This collection of essays, drawn from a three-year AHRC research project, provides a detailed context for the history of early cinema in Scotland from its inception in 1896 till the arrival of sound in the early 1930s. It details the movement from travelling fairground shows to the establishment of permanent cinemas, and from variety and live entertainment to the dominance of the feature film. It addresses the promotion of cinema as a socially ‘useful’ entertainment, and, distinctively, it considers the early development of cinema in small towns as well as in larger cities. Using local newspapers and other archive sources, it details the evolution and the diversity of the social experience of cinema, both for picture goers and for cinema staff. In production, it examines the early attempts to establish a feature film production sector, with a detailed production history of Rob Roy (United Films, 1911), and it records the importance, both for exhibition and for social history, of ‘local topicals’. It considers the popularity of Scotland as an imaginary location for European and American films, drawing their popularity from the international audience for writers such as Walter Scott and J.M. Barrie and the ubiquity of Scottish popular song. The book concludes with a consideration of the arrival of sound in Scittish cinemas. As an afterpiece, it offers an annotated filmography of Scottish-themed feature films from 1896 to 1927, drawing evidence from synopses and reviews in contemporary trade journals.


2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-7

In this opening issue of volume 31 we are presented with both nuanced and bold entry into several long enduring issues and topics stitching together the interdisciplinary fabric comprising ethnic studies. The authors of these articles bring to our attention social, cultural and economic issues shaping lively discourse in ethnic studies. They also bring to our attention interpretations of the meaning and significance of ethnic cultural contributions to the social history of this nation - past and present.


Author(s):  
Miguel Alarcão

Textualizing the memory(ies) of physical and cultural encounter(s) between Self and Other, travel literature/writing often combines subjectivity with documental information which may prove relevant to better assess mentalities, everyday life and the social history of any given ‘timeplace’. That is the case with Growing up English. Memories of Portugal 1907-1930, by D. J. Baylis (née Bucknall), prefaced by Peter Mollet as “(…) a remarkably vivid and well written observation of the times expressed with humour and not little ‘carinho’. In all they make excellent reading especially for those of us interested in the recent past.” (Baylis: 2)


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