Search Results

Cultural Centers: History, Architecture, and Public Space

Daniela Sandler

in Counterpreservation: Architectural Decay in Berlin Since 1989

This chapter focuses on independent, nonprofit cultural and art centers. Cultural centers such as the Haus Schwarzenberg—the primary focus of this chapter—as well as Schokoladen and the defunct ... More

This chapter focuses on independent, nonprofit cultural and art centers. Cultural centers such as the Haus Schwarzenberg—the primary focus of this chapter—as well as Schokoladen and the defunct Tacheles may look similar to Hausprojekte at first glance, with a juxtaposition of graffiti and posters over eroded walls, odd sculptures, architectural fragments, grime, and overgrown ivy. However, these spaces are composed with more forethought and coordination, and undergo significant (but selective) repairs, refurbishment, and even preservation measures. These cultural centers also articulate the meaning of their dilapidation clearly and self-consciously in pamphlets, websites, and interviews. They demonstrate that counterpreservation can be premeditated and self-reflective, and not just an ad hoc, opportunistic tactic.Less

The History of Romantic Love in Sub-Saharan Africa: between Interest and Emotion: Raleigh Lecture on History

Megan Vaughan

in Proceedings of the British Academy Volume 167, 2009 Lectures

This chapter looks at the history of romantic love in Sub-Saharan Africa. This text comes from a lecture given at the British Academy's 2009 Raleigh Lecture on History. This text attempts to explore ... More

This chapter looks at the history of romantic love in Sub-Saharan Africa. This text comes from a lecture given at the British Academy's 2009 Raleigh Lecture on History. This text attempts to explore some of the methodological and theoretical issues involved in an historical study of love in Africa. It argues that romantic love in Africa is not simply an extension of an imperialist cultural and political project and that emotional regimes cannot be divorced from economic circumstances. It explains that though the configurations of interest and emotion take specific forms in African societies, there is nothing peculiarly African about the evident need of individuals to balance realism and idealism in their emotional lives.Less

Introduction

Catherine A. Stewart

in Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers' Project

This introductory chapter outlines the goals and challenges of the Federal Writers’ Project’s endeavor during the 1930s to collect the ex-slave narratives, and examines a ghost story one ex-slave ... More

This introductory chapter outlines the goals and challenges of the Federal Writers’ Project’s endeavor during the 1930s to collect the ex-slave narratives, and examines a ghost story one ex-slave told to a white FWP interviewer, as a means of illustrating ex-slaves’ use of the oral tradition of signifying. It contends that the WPA slave narratives are an important source for understanding how debates during the 1930s over African Americans’ civil rights, and competing memories of slavery and emancipation, impacted New Deal cultural projects and employment opportunities for African Americans, and shaped the narratives themselves. The project marked an important moment when the federal government invited African Americans to contribute to the historical record. Complicating this effort was the racial divide of Jim Crow segregation and competing perspectives on Civil War remembrance.Less

Digital building heritage

Nick Higgett and Jenny Wilkinson

in Heritage as Community Research: Legacies of Co-Production

This chapter explores the complexities of working on jointly funded digital cultural heritage projects and the challenges and benefits of partnership collaborations. In the Digital Building Heritage ... More

This chapter explores the complexities of working on jointly funded digital cultural heritage projects and the challenges and benefits of partnership collaborations. In the Digital Building Heritage project, researchers at De Montfort University worked with community partners in order to bring history back to life through the use of digital technologies in 3D computer animation, 3D printing, 3D modelling, and mobile geo-location. An evaluation of the researchers' experience of co-production and collaborative working highlights the importance of setting clear, feasible objectives and outcomes according to the resources available, including plans for user testing, maintaining regular communication, consideration of proposed digital product usage, and promotion. The chapter then considers the way in which this type of practice-based research can lead to academic outcomes suitable for audit programmes like the UK's Research Excellence Framework.Less

Introduction

Vera John-Steiner

in Creative Collaboration

This book aims to understand the psycho-social dynamics of forming long-term collaborations and creative partnership—intellectual and artistic collaboration and co-construction of knowledge—that is ... More

This book aims to understand the psycho-social dynamics of forming long-term collaborations and creative partnership—intellectual and artistic collaboration and co-construction of knowledge—that is part of a broader grasp of a cultural-historical project in human sciences. Through general observations of long-term collaborations, interviews, Q-sort commentaries, and biographical information, the book has developed theoretical approaches and models explaining collaboration. In addition it is useful to identify emotional and cognitive collaborative dynamics or to undermine long-term success and to document how experienced thinkers engage in joint efforts in a societal culture geared towards individual achievement. In the context of the dynamic interdependence, the research in this book stresses on Vygotsky's culture-historical psychology and feminist theory.Less

Introduction: Being English

Simon Featherstone

in Englishness: Twentieth-Century Popular Culture and the Forming of English Identity

This chapter introduces the concept of Englishness. It identifies the common expressions of the national question, and shows the growing interest of the English in ‘who they are’. It studies the ... More

This chapter introduces the concept of Englishness. It identifies the common expressions of the national question, and shows the growing interest of the English in ‘who they are’. It studies the academic approaches to the questions of Englishness, as well as England's invasion of popular nationalism. The chapter determines that while Englishness Studies remains to be a fantasy, there are other academic perspectives on England that can form an informal cultural project.Less

Conclusion

Janet Newman

in Remaking governance: Peoples, politics and the public sphere

This chapter reviews the contribution of the book to theorising the remaking of governance both in terms of the constitution of new governable subjects and new sites and possibilities of social ... More

This chapter reviews the contribution of the book to theorising the remaking of governance both in terms of the constitution of new governable subjects and new sites and possibilities of social agency. It argues that governance shifts are profoundly political in that they reshape the public realm of welfare-state provision and redraw citizenship rights and responsibilities. It offers novel ways of conceptualising the ‘people’ around imaginary unities of interest or identity. It also opens up the possibility of changing the terrain of political engagement and action. It suggests a politics of the social rather than a view of politics as separate from society. It explores how new tactics of governance rest on cultural projects concerned with reconstituting peoples and publics as governable entities, while also holding on to the idea that these cultural projects are subject to contestation, struggle, and dissent.Less

(Post)Colonialism, Anthropology and the Magic of Mimesis

in Interdisciplinary Measures: Literature and the Future of Postcolonial Studies

This chapter addresses the theoretical problem of the relationship between mimicry and mimesis. Although used interchangeably by many anthropologists, these two terms serve different functions when ... More

This chapter addresses the theoretical problem of the relationship between mimicry and mimesis. Although used interchangeably by many anthropologists, these two terms serve different functions when it comes to cultural studies. Their differences are studied through the cultural studies project, of which the goal is to redefine culture as an arena for the everyday practices of conflicting social groups and to turn the exoticist gaze of anthropology back on the viewer so that the study of culture might begin at home. Cultural studies, in moving between connected disciplines, emphasize both the relational nature of cultural production and the contingencies that affect all forms of cultural exchange. This chapter emphasizes the importance of anthropology to cultural studies because it offers an understanding of the global effects of cultural practices that cultural studies often lacks.Less

Coda

in The Rape of Mesopotamia: Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum

This chapter discusses the future of the National Museum of Iraq. The museum has been reduced from a repository into a prison for antiquities, with little prospect to reopen for years to come. There ... More

This chapter discusses the future of the National Museum of Iraq. The museum has been reduced from a repository into a prison for antiquities, with little prospect to reopen for years to come. There is no group showing interest to devote the resources needed to help Iraq salvage what remains of its archaeological heritage before it is entirely broken up and its jumbled remnants disappear altogether into warehouses, dealers' galleries, and the living rooms of the well-to-do. The U.S. government allocated $13 million for the Iraq Cultural Heritage Project but it focuses solely on professional development for conservators and other museum professionals and does not provide any funding to improve the security of archaeological sites.Less

Introduction: The Neighborhood Consensus

Luigi Tomba

in The Government Next Door: Neighborhood Politics in Urban China

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to examine the everyday practices of power in Chinese neighborhoods. The book brings into the discussion such issues as housing ... More

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to examine the everyday practices of power in Chinese neighborhoods. The book brings into the discussion such issues as housing privatization, hegemonic cultural projects connected practices, economic and social engineering, social conflicts, and the ideology of urban modernity to reveal the connection between changes in residential practices and China's overall modernization project. It identifies five different rationalities connected with this level of governance: social clustering, micro-governing, social engineering, contained contention, and exemplarism. The remainder of the chapter explains the meaning of the terms “neighborhood” and “neighborhood consensus.” An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less

Enduring Competition: German Theater in Argentina, 1946–1965

Robert Kelz

in Competing Germanies: Nazi, Antifascist, and Jewish Theater in German Argentina, 1933-1965

This chapter tracks the trajectory of Argentina's German theaters against a changing political landscape and new waves of European emigration. In the postwar period, director Paul Walter Jacob ... More

This chapter tracks the trajectory of Argentina's German theaters against a changing political landscape and new waves of European emigration. In the postwar period, director Paul Walter Jacob endeavored to attract all German speakers to the Free German Stage; however, his failed efforts at reconciliation underscored the polarized environment in the Argentine capital. Without ever renouncing fascism, Ludwig Ney adopted a strategy of interculturalism to succeed professionally in Peronist Argentina. German-speaking artists from across the political spectrum embarked on cross-cultural projects, and their transformative impact on theater in Argentina is still evident today. Meanwhile, in its crusade against communism, the West German embassy intervened at both stages. Carefully staged depictions of German heritage and reconciliation reflected a specious contrivance, contingent on edited memories of the recent past. The intractable animosity ultimately led to a move away from German dramatists in favor of canonical European playwrights, such as William Shakespeare.Less