Cultural Politics

Space hijacking and the anarcho-politics of leisure

by Paul Gilchrist

Co-authored with Neil Ravenscroft. Published in Leisure Studies, 2012.

Political scientists, social movement theorists and cultural geographers have made us aware of forms of... more Political scientists, social movement theorists and cultural geographers have made us aware of forms of micro-political resistance that have challenged the privatisation, corporatisation and securitisation of the city. An increasing tactical feature of such resistance has been the deployment of leisure practices and performances to challenge the dominant norms and ideologies governing the use of urban space. This paper focuses upon a case study of a creative intervention organised by a London-based group of anarchists. We consider the tactics employed by the Space Hijackers – a group of self-styled ‘anarchitects’ who have been prominent in questioning the spatialities of everyday urban life through leisure activity and creative protest opportunities. We assess the deliberately liminal tactics employed by the Space Hijackers, situated betwixt and between the normative social regulation of public space and a ‘pre-figurative’ or utopian vision of its future. Through the case study and a review of some prominent attempts to define the leisure–politics relationship, this essay highlights a need to further interrogate the nature and uses of leisure within micro-political struggle and citizen movements that seek to affect social change, and so continues the dialogue about how we are to understand ‘leisure politics’.

Grievances Against the GOP from a (former?) Republican Woman by Katie German

by Feminism and Religion

Originally posted on the Feminism and Religion Project
This article is cross-posted at Confessions of a Thinking Woman.

I was raised in a conservative, Republican, military family. I support personal freedom and personal responsibility. I... more I was raised in a conservative, Republican, military family. I support personal freedom and personal responsibility. I support the military. I support a balanced budget. I support individual rights and the constitution. I support small government. But I find myself increasingly separated from the Republican Party, and this is why:

I cannot align myself with a party that repeatedly acts to restrict the rights of women, to deny women protection from abuse and violence, and to trample the rights of women to make their own medical decisions. I cannot support a party where individual rights and freedoms are only protected for people with a penis (so long as they are not gay).

The Legacy of Original Intentions: The Non Violence of Wonder Woman by Nick Pumphrey

by Feminism and Religion

Originally posted on the Feminism and Religion project

What would a superhero comic be without Pow, wham!, Zap, and even a Boom! (insert your own campy sound bites from... more What would a superhero comic be without Pow, wham!, Zap, and even a Boom! (insert your own campy sound bites from Batman).  Oddly enough, when psychologist William Marston created the character of Wonder Woman, he did not intend for her to be a violent character.  When villains shot their mere bullets, she simply would deflect them with her indestructible bracelets.  Instead of stooping to the level of her attackers, she would wield the lasso of truth, capture her foes, and force them to admit their malevolent deeds.  Meanwhile, creator William Marston was actually developing the first polygraph using changes in blood pressure as exemplified in Wonder Woman’s lasso.  Wonder Woman was not the first female superhero; however, she was the first non-violent one.  While other writers like Siegel and Shuster (Superman’s creators) were using their religion as inspiration, Marston drew on the women of his life as example.  He intended to have a peaceful, warrior woman, who was more than equal on grounds of “sex,” and could stop the tyranny created by war and hatred (i.e. men) without having to embrace it.  He wanted an example for young girls to idolize and a way for boys to embrace feminine power. 

"Polémique et politique. La réception des peintures restaurées à Paris (1795-1815)", Histoire de l'art, 68, 2011, p. 65-73.

by Noémie Etienne

The Attack on Yeats

by Jonathan Allison

Globalization and Culture: Placing Ireland

by G. Honor Fagan

‘Ernst Bloch’ entry in Encyclopedia of Political Science (2010)

by Christian Garland

‘Ernst Bloch’ in Encyclopaedia of Political Science (Washington DC: CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE) eds. Kurian, G.T. Alt, J.E. Chambers, S. and Garrett, G.
http://www.cqpress.com/product/Encyclopedia-of-Political-Science.html

Cyber-libertarianism 2.0: A discourse theory/critical political economy examination

by Lincoln Dahlberg

2010, Cultural Politics 6(3): 331-356

Governing by Numbers? Obstacles and opportunities for cultural indicators in policy

by Emma Blomkamp

Presented at Making Culture Count: Rethinking measures of cultural vitality, wellbeing and citizenship, Melbourne, 3rd May 2012

If governance is as much an art as a science, then what role should numerical indicators play in policy making?more If governance is as much an art as a science, then what role should numerical indicators play in policy making?

“What’s measured matters” is a common assumption in the practice and theory of governance.  Following the hegemony of economic measures of progress and the short-lived social indicators movement, numerous frameworks of cultural and community indicators are now emerging. Variously touted as tools for identifying problems, capturing values, monitoring progress and evaluating outcomes, these indicators have a range of potential policy applications. Representing and responding to complex socio-cultural outcomes in numerical form is full of challenges, though.

Just as painting by numbers is hardly considered a form of “high art”, the use of indicators to guide policy-makers may fall short of “good governance”. This presentation explores the potential for cultural indicators to inform and improve evidence-based policy and democratic accountability, while also considering the pitfalls of “governing by numbers”. By giving a broad critical overview of the origins and applications of cultural indicators, the presenter will thus problematise these devices, before considering concrete examples where they have been, or might be, put to good use by policy-makers.

Museología, sociología e historia crítica de los museos: nuevas perspectivas

by Julien Bastoen

To be published in 'Museo y Territorio' (Museo del Patrimonio Municipal, Málaga, Spain), #3

En la actualidad, bajo la influencia de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, las nociones de... more En la actualidad, bajo la influencia de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, las nociones de red, comunidad e interactividad nunca han sido más importantes en el debate sobre la proyección social de los museos1. Sin embargo, no deberíamos olvidar que su impacto social fue siempre importante, aunque se revele complicado estimarlo con precisión, al considerar períodos anteriores al siglo XX. La teoría del actor-red, fue elaborada en la década de los ochenta por investigadores del Centro de Sociología de la Innovación en la Escuela de ingenieros de minas de París, entre los cuales destacan: Bruno Latour y Michel Callon. Dicha teoría ha sido originada por investigaciones llevadas a cabo en los campos de las innovaciones sociotécnicas, la evaluación y el análisis dinámico de las políticas de investigación, así como de estudios sobre cultura, medios de comunicación y usuarios. Supone una lectura interaccionista, relativista y reflexiva de los procesos de innovación científica y tecnológica. Esta lectura resulta no sólo de la observación in situ de los actores, sino también del análisis y modelización de las controversias que suelen anunciar o acompañar las innovaciones. Uno de los pilares de la teoría del actor-red es el principio de simetría: primero, los actores no-humanos son tan importantes como los actores humanos; y segundo, tan importante es el fracaso como el éxito a la hora de explicar la evolución de un proceso de innovación.

La teoría del actor-red fue la base epistemológica para el desarrollo de un proyecto de colaboración internacional, el Mapping controversies on science for politics (Macospol), cuyo objetivo principal es el experimento de herramientas visuales para que sea accesible y entendible lo complejo de las controversias científicas, tecnológicas y socioculturales, mediante la modelización de las interacciones entre los actores humanos y no humanos. En el marco del mismo proyecto, un grupo de investigación situado en Mánchester y dirigido por una pupila de Bruno Latour, Albena Yaneva, ha desarrollado herramientas visuales para mapear la polémica que surgió entorno al proyecto de construcción del Estadio Olímpico de Londres. La misma Albena Yaneva publicó en 2009 una memoria de investigación que abre – estamos convencidos de ello – nuevas oportunidades para la museología crítica. Llevó a cabo un estudio sociológico entre 2001 y 2004 en la firma de arquitectura OMA, a quien le habían encargado el diseño del proyecto de ampliación del Museo Whitney de Arte Estadounidense en Nueva York. Le dejaron observar el proceso creativo (design process) a la luz del análisis de las “cajas negras”, o sea, conjuntos de huellas gráficas, hemerográficas y bibliográficas recopiladas por los arquitectos con el fin de documentar las controversias que habían levantado los anteriores proyectos de ampliación del ya polémico edificio de Marcel Breuer. Su análisis se encaminaba de forma paralela hacía la reconstrucción de la trayectoria social de la sede del Museo Whitney a lo largo de varias décadas; esa trayectoria, la plasmaron las interacciones de un conjunto muy heterogéneo de actores individuales e institucionales (curadores, administradores, artistas, conservadores, arquitectos, ingenieros...) y no-humanos (reglamentos de planificación, programas de arquitectura, etc.).

De hecho, el estudio que realizó Albena Yaneva desde el punto de vista de una firma de arquitectura, lo hubiera podido llevar a cabo desde el punto de vista de los profesionales de museos. Sin embargo, lo que vale para estudiar controversias contemporáneas en torno a innovación museográfica, ampliación o creación de museos, puede que no valga para analizar controversias decimonónicas. Dado que el estímulo de la reflexividad de los profesionales en situación de interacción es la condición del éxito de la investigación sociológica, ¿cómo compensar la ausencia de testigos vivos de los procesos de innovación/creación y de las controversias que los acompañaron? A modo de respuesta, proponemos dos enfoques complementarios en el mismo caso, el Musée du Luxembourg, a fin de comprobar las condiciones de posibilidad de la aplicación en el campo de la historia crítica de los museos de las herramientas conceptuales y visuales usadas por la sociología de la innovación.

Ensembles permanents et temporaires de sculpture contemporaine en plein air à Paris depuis les années 1960 : un panorama critique

by Julien Bastoen

Published in: 'Arte en el Espacio Público: Barrios artísticos y revitalización urbana' (Blanca Fernandez and Jesus Pedro Lorente, eds). Zaragoza (Spain): Prensas universitarias de Zaragoza ('Modos de ver'), 2009, 63-79

La question des espaces servant d’écrin à des ensembles de sculpture moderne et/ou contemporaine à Paris met en jeu... more La question des espaces servant d’écrin à des ensembles de sculpture moderne et/ou contemporaine à Paris met en jeu les relations passionnantes entre l’art et l’espace urbain. Pour ce qui concerne le territoire français, un bref tour d’horizon de la bibliographie consacrée à la sculpture en plein air suffit à prendre la mesure du déséquilibre qui règne entre la relative profusion d’ouvrages – le plus souvent des actes de rencontres interdisciplinaires – consacrés à la sculpture publique monumentale et la pénurie d’études – excepté quelques monographies spécifiques – dédiées aux groupements de sculptures modernes et/ou contemporaines, permanents ou temporaires, librement accessibles au public urbain. La région parisienne, foyer historique du développement de la sculpture en plein air en France, n’échappe pas à ce constat.
Paris demeure cependant la ville de France qui compte le plus grand nombre de groupements permanents de sculpture en plein air. Si les ensembles historiques (Luxembourg, Tuileries) ont repris vie depuis les années 1990 avec l’addition d’œuvres des cinquante dernières années ou l’organisation d’expositions temporaires, d’autres ensembles se sont développés à l’initiative de partenariats public-privé (La Défense) ou de personnalités (Musée de sculpture en plein air de la Ville de Paris) dès le début des années 1970. Ce regain d’intérêt pour la sculpture monumentale est à mettre en relation avec l’extension de la loi du 1%, avec l’action menée par le Service de la Création artistique fondé en 1962 par André Malraux, et enfin, avec la création du fonds de la commande publique en 1982, géré par le Centre national des arts plastiques.
En presque quarante ans, quelle a été l’évolution de ces ensembles en matière de statut, de gestion, de contenu, d’impact social, économique ou médiatique ? Quels ont été les artisans de cette évolution ? Y a-t-il encore une dimension expérimentale dans les nouvelles manifestations dédiées à la sculpture contemporaine ? A qui profite ce renouveau de la sculpture qu’on constate en France depuis les années 1960 ? Voici autant de questions auxquelles nous tenterons d’apporter une réponse dans cette contribution.

La résurrection des Tuileries, ou la tentation de l’hyperréalité

by Julien Bastoen

Published in 'Criticat', #5 (2010/03)

Disparu il y a plus d’un siècle du paysage parisien, le palais des Tuileries continue de défrayer la chronique. Le... more Disparu il y a plus d’un siècle du paysage parisien, le palais des Tuileries continue de défrayer la chronique. Le projet de sa reconstruction, défendu depuis une dizaine d’années par un comité ad hoc, suscite une controverse qui trouve des échos non seulement dans les prémices mêmes de ce débat après 1871, mais aussi dans les nombreux cas de répliques d’édifices disparus qui caractérisent notre époque fétichiste et mercantile.

Faux et usages du faux. Quand le clonage architectural redécouvre ses origines : le cas du palais des Tuileries à Paris

by Julien Bastoen

Published in 'Penser et pratiquer l’esprit du lieu' (Célia Forget, ed.). Québec: Presses de l’université Laval, 2011, 71-84

Destroyed by arson during the bloody Commune de Paris in 1871, the Palais des Tuileries was finally cleared down after... more Destroyed by arson during the bloody Commune de Paris in 1871, the Palais des Tuileries was finally cleared down after twelve years of heated debate on its eventual reconstruction, despite interventions by Viollet-le-Duc and Haussmann. Today, the absence of a monument on this site could be seen as a sign of national amnesia, resulting from a selective recollection of the past for political purposes. Drawing on the renewed interest on the concept of memory on the part of researchers, a group of scholars and philanthropists are seeking to remedy this perceived necglect by proposing nothing short of recreating an architectural clone of the palace for the cultural industry, a project that would be sacrificed on the altar of political consensus. Prior to examining the relevance of rebuilding a forgery to resuscitate the spirit of the place, it may be wise to analyze the ideological mechanisms and motives behind the various reparation, restoration and reconstruction projects of the years 1870 and 1880.

Violence sits in places? Cultural practice, neoliberal rationalism, and virulent imaginative geographies

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2011. Violence sits in places? Cultural practice, neoliberal rationalism, and virulent imaginative geographies. Political Geography. 30 (2), 90-98.

Through imaginative geographies that erase the interconnectedness of the places where violence occurs, the notion that... more Through imaginative geographies that erase the interconnectedness of the places where violence occurs, the notion that violence is 'irrational' marks particular cultures as ‘other’. Neoliberalism exploits such imaginative geographies in constructing itself as the sole providence of nonviolence and the lone bearer of reason. Proceeding as a ‘civilizing’ project, neoliberalism positions the market as salvationary to putatively ‘irrational’ and ‘violent’ peoples. This theology of neoliberalism produces a discourse that binds violence in place. But while violence sits in places in terms of the way in which we perceive its manifestation as a localized and embodied experience, this very idea is challenged when place is reconsidered as a relational assemblage. What this re-theorization does is open up the supposed fixity, separation, and immutability of place to instead recognize it as always co-constituted by, mediated through, and integrated within the wider experiences of space. Such a radical rethinking of place fundamentally transforms the way we understand violence. No longer confined to its material expression as an isolated and localized event, violence can more appropriately be understood as an unfolding process, derived from the broader geographical phenomena and temporal patterns of the social world.

There grows the neighbourhood’: Green citizenship, creativity and life politics on eco-TV

by Tania Lewis

Published in International Journal of Cultural Studies May 2012 vol. 15 no. 3

“Red Laughter”: On Refined Weapons of Soviet Jesters

by Serguei Alex. Oushakine (Сергей Ушакин)

Social Research Vol. 79 : No.1 : Spring 2012

When the Party Comes Down: The CPGB and Youth Culture, 1976-1991

by Evan Smith

Twentieth Century Communism: A Journal of International History, 4, 2012 (in press)

Book Review -- Cultural Governance and Resistance in Pacific Asia (William Callahan)

by Tyrell Haberkorn

Published in Journal of Asian Studies 66.2 (May 2007): 533-534.

Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. Forthcoming. Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia. Journal of Agrarian Change.

The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of... more The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation. The discrepancy between such orally recognized antecedents and the written word of law have been at the heart of the recent wave of dispossessions that have swept across the country. Contra the standard critique that corruption has set the tone, this paper argues that evictions in Cambodia are often literally underwritten by the articles of law. Whereas ‘possession’ is a well-understood and accepted concept in Cambodia, a cultural basis rooted in what James C. Scott refers to as ‘orality’, coupled with a long history of subsistence agriculture, semi-nomadic lifestyles, barter economies, and–until recently–widespread land availability have all ensured that notions of ‘property’ are vague among the country’s majority rural poor. In drawing a firm distinction between possessions and property, where the former is premised upon actual use and the latter is embedded in exploitation, this article examines how proprietorship is inextricably bound to the violence of law.

Hoodie Politics: Trayvon Martin and Racist Violence in Post-Racial America

by Henry Giroux

Examines the lager political, social, economic and racial context of the killing of Trayvon Martin. Also criticizes... more Examines the lager political, social, economic and racial context of the killing of Trayvon Martin. Also criticizes the often narrow analyzes of the issue in the mainstream media.