Enterprising Art, Aestheticizing Business

2021 ◽  
pp. 182-208
Author(s):  
Banu Karaca
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Urban Renewal ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Political ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Artistic Interventions ◽  
Economic Expediency

Chapter 6 explores the political economy of art in urban spaces marked by waves of dispossession and social segmentation. Formerly inhabited by minorities, the physical “voids” of Istanbul and Berlin have become nexuses for the enterprising art and aestheticizing business in contexts of urban and national governance that identify art primarily as an economic expediency and tool for urban renewal. Gentrification is just one—but perhaps the most visible—component of this dynamic in which artists are both complicit and resistant. The chapter anchors this discussion in the biennials that both cities host. It shows how these events as proclaimed realms of artistic experimentation have been increasingly streamlined to accommodate normative frames of for-profit enterprise that in turn likens it workings to that of creative labor. I argue that the spectacularization of art in urban space through the format of large-scale arts event has been vital in disavowing the violence of the 1980 coup d’état in Turkey and the specter of Nazism that haunted the lead-up to and aftermath of Germany’s reunification. Finally, the chapter takes a look at the counterstrategies that artists develop to (re)claim urban spaces for artistic interventions as well as for engagements with their difficult pasts.

Space Making as Artistic Practice: The Relationship between Grassroots Art Organizations and the Political Economy of Urban Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1142-1161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shira Zilberstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Social And Cultural Capital ◽  
Art Organizations ◽  
Do It Yourself ◽  
The Relationship

Standard narratives on the relationship between art and urban development detail art networks as connected to sources of dominant economic, social, and cultural capital and complicit in gentrification trends. This research challenges the conventional model by investigating the relationship between grassroots art spaces, tied to marginal and local groups, and the political economy of development in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. Using mixed methods, I investigate Do–It–Yourself and Latinx artists to understand the construction and goals of grassroots art organizations. Through their engagements with cultural representations, space and time, grassroots artists represent and amplify the interests of marginal actors. By allying with residents, community organizations and other art spaces, grassroots artists form a social movement to redefine the goals and usages of urban space. My findings indicate that heterogeneous art networks exist and grassroots art networks can influence urban space in opposition to top–down development.

Digital media communication, intellectual property, and the commodification of language

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-266
Author(s):  
Joseph Sung-Yul Park
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Media Communication ◽  
For Profit ◽  
A Site ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract Focusing on fansubbing, the production of unauthorized subtitles by fans of audiovisual media content, this paper calls for a more serious sociolinguistic analysis of the political economy of digital media communication. It argues that fansubbing’s contentious position within regimes of intellectual property and copyright makes it a useful context for considering the crucial role of language ideology in global capitalism’s expanding reach over communicative activity. Through a critical analysis of Korean discourses about fansubbing, this paper considers how tensions between competing ideological conceptions of fansub work shed light on the process by which regimes of intellectual property incorporate digital media communication as a site for profit. Based on this analysis, the paper argues for the need to look beyond the affordances of digital media in terms of translingual, hybrid, and creative linguistic form, to extend our investigations towards language ideologies as a constitutive element in the political economy.

The social context and politics of large scale urban architecture: Investigating the design of Barcode, Oslo

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bengt Andersen ◽  
Per Gunnar Røe
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Urban Architecture ◽  
Class A ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transnational Companies ◽  
City Centres

The well-known and much investigated rise of urban entrepreneurial policies has fuelled a transformation of urban spaces and landscapes, and has led to changes in the social composition of city centres. This is the case for Oslo, Norway’s capital, where increasingly urban policies are designed to attract transnational companies and those in the creative class. A key strategy to achieve this has been to transform the city’s waterfront through spectacular architecture and urban design, as has taken place in other European cities. Transnational and local architects have been commissioned to design the Barcode, one of the most striking waterfront projects. This article investigates the role of architecture and architects in this process, because architects can be seen as influential generators of urban spaces and agents for social change, and because there is remarkably little published empirical research on this specific role of architects. It is argued that although there was an overall planning goal that the projects along the waterfront of Oslo should contribute to social sustainability, with the implication that planners and architects possessed information about the local urban context and used this knowledge, in practice this was not the case. It is demonstrated that the architects paid little attention to the social, cultural and economic contexts in their design process. Rather, the architects emphasized the creation of an exciting urban space and, in particular, designed spectacular architecture that would contribute to the merits of the firms involved. It is further argued that because of this the Barcode project will not contribute to the making of a just city.

scholarly journals The political-economy of land acquisition and privatization of Birr and Ayehu Farms in Amhara Region, North-West Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asabu Sewenet Alamineh ◽  
Getachew Fentahun Workie ◽  
Nurlign Birhan Moges
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Land Acquisition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Enterprises ◽  
North West ◽  
Local Livelihoods ◽  
North West Ethiopia ◽  
Legal Frameworks

AbstractThe recognition of commercial agricultural investment led to the expansion of large-scale farms through eviction of farmers during the Derg and Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regimes. But anti-dispossession voices and investment driven violence have frequently occurred in post-Derg Ethiopia. This study thus attempts to uncover the political-economy of land acquisition and privatization of Birr and Ayehu farms. The necessary data for the study were collected through interview, questionnaire, focused group discussion and document review. The data collected through questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The findings of the study indicated that the farms were began during the Derg regime as public enterprises, and later privatized to Ethio-Agri-CEFT in a neo-patrimonial modality with a gigantic trend of land acquisition, legal distortion and violation of landholding rights. This poor and neo-patrimonial operation of farms jeopardized local livelihoods, created land use change and evoked stiff public grievance, political upheaval and polarized state–society relations. This indicated that the expansion of farms have brought lopsided development to party affiliated investors by dismantling local livelihoods. Ethio Agri-CEFT thus should respect legal frameworks and adopt inclusive developmental practices for its sustainability and success.

Urban Politics in the United States since 1945

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lily Geismer
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Urban Renewal ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Politics ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Trends ◽  
American Cities

Urban politics provides a means to understand the major political and economic trends and transformations of the last seventy years in American cities. The growth of the federal government; the emergence of new powerful identity- and neighborhood-based social movements; and large-scale economic restructuring have characterized American cities since 1945. The postwar era witnessed the expansion of scope and scale of the federal government, which had a direct impact on urban space and governance, particularly as urban renewal fundamentally reshaped the urban landscape and power configurations. Urban renewal and liberal governance, nevertheless, spawned new and often violent tensions and powerful opposition movements among old and new residents. These movements engendered a generation of city politicians who assumed power in the 1970s. Yet all of these figures were forced to grapple with the larger forces of capital flight, privatization, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, immigration, and gentrification. This confluence of factors meant that as many American cities and their political representatives became demographically more diverse by the 1980s and 1990s, they also became increasingly separated by neighborhood boundaries and divided by the forces of class and economic inequality.

The Political Economy of Carbon Capture and Storage Technology Adoption

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-148
Author(s):  
Elena V. McLean ◽  
Tatyana Plaksina
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Technology Adoption ◽  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Carbon Capture And Storage ◽  
Potential Method ◽  
The Political ◽  
Storage Technology ◽  
And Storage

Carbon sequestration through capture and storage in subsurface porous geologic formations is one potential method for mitigating the problem of climate change due to emission of anthropogenic CO2. In fact, in a world highly dependent on energy derived from hydrocarbons and coal, carbon capture and storage may represent the most promising approach to maintaining industrial development in the present period, while implementing other solutions that will deliver sustainable reductions in CO2 emissions in the long run. Some countries have initiated pilot and large-scale projects to develop and improve carbon capture and storage technology, while others are slow to follow. What explains this variation? We develop a theory of the political economy of technology adoption to explore conditions under which countries are more likely to implement carbon capture and storage projects. We find that the likelihood of such projects depends on governments’ policy positions and industries’ research and development capacity. Data analysis of carbon capture and storage projects provides evidence in support of our theoretical expectations.

scholarly journals For-Profit Universities in the Political Economy of Higher Education

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Pusser
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
The Public ◽  
Higher Education Act ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Education Act

For-profit institutions loom much larger in the political economy of US higher education. In negotiations over the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the for-profit universities and their lobbying organizations have played a unique role in shaping policies affecting all higher education institutions. Can states preserve egulations that protect the public and private benefits of higher education while satisfying the profit demands of an evolving postsecondary market? As with most political contests, much will depend on the ability of a variety of postsecondary stakeholders to become involved in the political arena shaping higher education.

scholarly journals The regional identity politics of India’s new land wars: Land, food, and popular mobilisation in Goa and West Bengal

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 2324-2341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Bo Nielsen ◽  
Heather Plumridge Bedi
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
Recent Decade ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
The Political ◽  
Indian States

India has over the recent decade witnessed a spate of land transfers as Special Economic Zones, extractive industries, or real estate dispossess farmers, land owners, and indigenous groups of their land. As a result, struggles over land have emerged with force in many locations, almost across India. Yet while the political economy and legal aspects of India’s new ‘land wars’ are well documented, the discourses and identities mobilised against large-scale forcible land transfers receive less scholarly attention. We suggest ‘the regional identity politics’ of India’s current land wars to explain the important role of place-based identities in garnering broad, public support for popular anti-dispossession movements. We explore how land, and its produce, are mobilised by anti-dispossession movements in the Indian states of Goa and West Bengal. The movements mobilised land and food not as emblematic of structural changes in the political economy, but first and foremost within a symbolic field in which they came to stand metaphorically for regional forms of belonging and identity under threat. While reinforcing regional solidarity, these identities also contributed to the fragmented and often highly localised nature of India’s current land wars, while also potentially disrupting efforts to sustain organising in the long term.

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