Journal of Creative Communications recent issues

Introduction

Bhatia, T. K. — 2009-02-12

Creating a Mock-Western Identity Through English in Japanese Ads: A Study of Occidentalist Invocations

Loveday, L. J. — 2009-02-12

This study focuses on the forms and purposes of English codeswitching behaviour in Japanese advertising discourse today. By investigating a limited set of data, that of Japanese chocolate wrappers, a picture emerges of the way the global commodity of English is exploited primarily as a metaphor invoking a ‘mock-Western’ identity. The various playful techniques Japanese admen employ to achieve these ends are analyzed and illustrated. Among the linguistic ploys uncovered include the extensive use of the Latin alphabets to encode items that are originally part of the Japanese language, the adoption of Western-style names and the exploitation of snappy, short slogans that work like charms. The ideological dimensions behind the commercial discourse are also explored in connection to the theory of global English domination and the common convention of segregating English and Japanese to different spatial zones in the copy layout. Throughout the study, the cosmetic construction of a Western-style identity enhanced by resources drawn from English and the Roman script is referred to by a term coined by the researcher, namely linguistic ‘occidentalization’. Ultimately, it can be concluded from the study that Japanese admen manipulate English in a way that leads to the defusion and containment of its inherent potential threat as a carrier of neo-imperialist domination.

Glocalization and English Mixing in Advertising in Taiwan: Its Discourse Domains, Linguistic Patterns, Cultural Constraints, Localized Creativity, and Socio-psychological Effects

Jia-Ling, H. — 2009-02-12

This article intends to provide a socio-linguistic profile of the role and impact of English in advertising in Taiwan in an era of globalization, by integrating results obtained from discourse analysis, readers’ attitudinal surveys, and copywriters’ interviews. Results show that from copywriters’ advertising design to consumers’ underlying psychology, English has consistently cast its magic spell even on the English-illiterate public. Regardless of one's proficiency or literacy in English, English mixing mainly represents attention-getting, internationalism, premium quality, and the trendy taste of the younger generation, and in addition, a graphic design for real estate advertisers. However, specific socio-psychological features of English correlate with the language ratios of code-mixing in advertising copy, product type, and the public's level of English proficiency. Furthermore, the charm of English is culturally and linguistically constrained. Culturally, English does not agree with the advertising of traditional products. Linguistically, English mixing is best received with the bilingual advertising copy composed of easy-to-read vocabulary. Existing alongside the globalization of the local marketing discourse is the localization of English, which is mainly characterized by verbatim translation of Chinese grammatical structure into English. Participants’ evaluation of localized English patterns correlates with their English proficiency. Overall, in spite of the public's generally low proficiency in English, it is predicted that English mixing will continue to flourish in advertising in Taiwan.

Communicating in China's Lower Tier Markets

Sinha, K. — 2009-02-12

Reaching the Unreachable: Resolving Globalization vs. Localization Paradox

Bhatia, T. K., Bhargava, M. — 2009-02-12

Due to globalization and the need to seek out new markets (sometimes labelled as business to 4-billion [B2-4B]), rural marketing is gaining new importance in India as well as across the globe. This article examines three facets: the marketing, linguistic and advertising of these markets. Our study shows that global companies are engaged in devising new strategies to market their products. Indian media planners have pioneered new media forms (for example, Video Vans) combining conventional and non-conventional advertising to meet the challenge of reaching rural India. The result is that messages are customized effectively to meet their audiences’ regional sensibilities and tastes.

The main focus of this study is on the analysis of the messages in the ‘unconventional’ media and wall advertising. We base our study on an empirical investigation of over 2,000 ads in rural settings. The ads include commercial, social and service advertisements. The findings indicate that the advertisers favour the ‘cooperative’ view as opposed to the ‘competitive’ view. They mix languages and scripts to optimize the strength and appeal of their messages. The strengths and limits of the ‘standardization’ versus ‘adaptation’ strategies are accounted for with special reference to the structural properties of wall ads. The directions for future research are outlined.

Introduction

Bhatia, T. K. — 2008-10-21

The Bilingual Mind and Linguistic Creativity

Bhatia, T. K., Ritchie, W. C. — 2008-10-21

The aim of this article is to focus on the two salient aspects of the capacity of the bilingual mind/brain, namely, its ability to maintain both language separation on one hand and language integration on the other. These two types of bilingual capacity result in language mixing, termed Code Mixing (CM) and Code Switching (CS) in socio-linguistic research. The article reveals various facets of bilingual creativity through language mixing as it manifests itself in the day-to-day verbal behaviour of a bilingual and in global advertising. The article argues that language mixing is essentially an ‘optimizing’ strategy which renders a wide variety of new meaning which the separate linguistic systems are incapable of rendering by themselves.

The Use of English in Advertising in Mexican Print Media

Baumgardner, R. J. — 2008-10-21

This article is an analysis of the use of English in advertising in Mexican newspapers (both classified as well as non-classified advertising in Monterrey's El Norte) and in seven magazines published in the Mexico City. A distinction is made early in the article between the use in advertisements of English borrowings that are an established part of the lexicon of Mexican Spanish as opposed to the use of English as language display (Eastman and Stein 1993). The electronic database of Monterrey's El Norte newspaper is utilized to verify the borrowing frequencies. English as language display in advertisements is analyzed according to the framework of English found in a signature line (product name), attention-getter, slogan, body copy, standing details or illustration (Bhatia 1992, Pillar 2003). As many other studies have shown, this study too shows that advertisers in Mexico use English, which now serves as a worldwide lingua franca, as language display in most structural parts of the advertisements.

Language-Mixing in French Print Advertising

Martin, E. — 2008-10-21

This article examines the use of English in French magazine advertisements from a linguistic and legal perspective. Following an overview of language policy planning in France, French–English mixing in recent advertising copy is described in terms of both bilingual creativity and strategies used to circumvent the 1994 Toubon Law restricting the use of English in the media. This study provides evidence that, despite this legislation, the French advertising industry is continuing to exploit English as both a lingua franca in international campaigns and a pair-language for mixing that has been specifically tailored to French audiences. This ‘Frenglish’ mix involves various linguistic strategies, including bilingual hybridization, orthographic modifications, functional conversion and ‘visual glossing’, among others. The impact of globalization on French advertising discourse is also explored with specific reference to information technology and business terminology. The data presented suggests that Paris agencies are supplying French translations for slogans in compliance with the law while continuing, at the same time, to insert non-translated English in various stages of assimilation in their advertising copy. Despite the government's effort to curb the spread and influence of English in the media, the French advertising landscape continues to reflect consumers’ ever-evolving linguistic behaviour and global trends.

English and American Culture Appeal in Russian Advertising

Ustinova, I. P. — 2008-10-21

The article proposes that Russian advertising discourse offers prospective for examining the changes in Russian language and culture in the context of globalization. It focuses on the use of English in Russian advertising with an analysis of code-mixed samples drawn from recent print, Internet and TV advertisements. Strong evidence emerges that the main source of creativity in Russian advertisements is the mixing of English and Russian. English–Russian language mix is presented in abundance on the levels of words, sentences and phrases in the structural components of Russian advertisements. The proportion of English in advertisements is in alignment with gender and modernity. Nativization and assimilation of English also manifests itself in using Cyrillic script for language transfer. The English usage in the advertisements can be explained by utilitarian reasons, as the brand names and logo in English are promoted all over the world, and by social reasons, as English is a sign of high-quality products, novelty, prestige and even fun. By revealing age-specific English used in advertisements, the attempts are made to redefine a new ethnic identity. The phenomenon is interpreted according to possible ongoing changes of Russian ethnolinguistic identity.

From Linguistic Apartheid to Linguistic Co-habitation: Codeswitching in Print Advertising in Post-apartheid South Africa

Kamwangamalu, N. M. — 2008-10-21

Apartheid South Africa instituted laws that divided not only the communities but also the languages they spoke. Phenomena such as codeswitching (CS) were an anathema for the apartheid state. Now that apartheid is dead, it is perhaps opportune to explore to what extent the political change from apartheid to democracy has permeated South Africa's other institutions, including language. This article investigates the use of CS in print advertising in the post-apartheid South Africa, with a focus on Zulu English CS. In particular, the article seeks to address the following questions: Why do the marketers in South Africa use CS in advertising? What are the syntactic patterns of their CS behaviour? Are these patterns random or rule-governed? Does their use of CS in the advertisements follow a certain order or hierarchy, such that if English occurs in one part of the advertisement it then spreads to the other parts as well, as suggested in Bhatia's (2001) Structural Domain Dependency (SDD) model?

Book Review

2008-10-21

The Bra and the Indian Woman's Notion of Sexuality

Sukumar, S. — 2008-09-16

This is an article about the Indian Woman and her notion of sexuality—studied through an analysis of her relationship with one of the most intimate spaces of her individual—her bra. If I were to say that she is a curious mix of the ‘individual’ and the ‘social’ I would be doing an injustice to her poetry. The Indian Woman is as much self-driven as she is driven by her need to conform to the larger interests of society, she is as much the rebellious teenager as her future mother-in-law, she is a hypocrite and a cynic, and probably more true to herself than most others.

Disclosure and Truth in Physician-Patient Communication An Exploratory Analysis in Argentina, Brazil, India and the United States

Torres, M. B., Rao, N. — 2008-09-16

This article is the result of exploratory research on the communication/relationship between physicians and patients conducted in Argentina, Brazil, India and the United States. The study sheds light on the different strategies, 109 physicians from these four countries use when they tell a patient that s/he has leukaemia. Results from the United States suggest that the American physicians, on an average, tend to tell patients directly and explicitly that s/he has leukemia. In Argentina, Brazil and India, however, data indicate that physicians tend to share the same news with a patient in small doses over time and/or tell a family member before telling the patient. A physician in Brazil referred to this strategy as using ‘halftruths’ strategies when communicating bad news to their patients. The notion of ‘truth’ in physician– patient interaction is analyzed in this article focusing on disclosure, deception, legal, ethical and cultural implications to the topic.

The Interpersonal Communication Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention Strategies and Challenges for Faith-Based Organizations

Muturi, N. — 2008-09-16

This study examines the interpersonal communication approach to HIV/AIDS prevention within Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) in Jamaica. Applying concepts from the social influence and social learning theories, the study examines communication strategies, challenges and concerns that religious leaders face in their communication efforts. Data gathered qualitatively through focus groups and in-depth interviews indicate that FBOs are social and cultural entities with potential to influence knowledge, attitude and behaviour for HIV/AIDS prevention. However, issues related to content, context, culture, the prevailing AIDS-related stigma alongside religious leaders’ personal characteristics hamper their communication initiatives. Capacity building of leaders as HIV/AIDS communicators and behaviour change facilitators and a collaborative effort between FBOs and health organizations would enhance their HIV/AIDS response.

Democracy and Policy Games The New Information Panchayats

Singh, R., Atluri, R. K. — 2008-09-16

This article attempts at creating ways of contextualizing and visualizing the statistical information such as the census and surveys conducted by Bhasha, an Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) working in the tribal belt of Gujarat to construct a critique on the policy making processes. Looking at policy making processes as the methodologies that are used while deciding the relevant measures to be taken for policy formulation and implementation, one will have to try to elaborate on a set of cause and effect modules to determine the reasoning behind the decisions that are made. The reciprocity of these modules will eventually try to bring out the interconnectivity of the cause and effect of policy making. Working with the tabular construct of statistical information, one will initially try to visualize this information for the purpose of drawing inferences out of the data. Once the visualization part has been accomplished, one could proceed towards effective contextualization of these inferences to create a critique on the indices of the Quality of Life (QoL) of the people. These indices would then create the necessary context within which the policy directives could be constructed. It is the transformation of information from the statistical construct to a visual one that could enable broader participation of people in policy making. Looking at the changes in these visualizations in time would warrant a critique on the cause and effect model of policy directives. At the foundational level, the entire process is an exercise in understanding effective ways of communicating the necessity for change and tracing it within the domain of policy making.

Opinion Leadership in Indian Villages and Diffusion of E-Choupal

Kim, D. K., Chitnis, K., Vasanti, P.N., Singhal, A. — 2008-09-16

e-Choupal was initially set up by the Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) in 2000, providing farmers with information about latest market prices of crops, a provision to sell crops directly to buyers and up-todate information on weather and farming practices through its Internet networks. This article analyzes the role of opinion leadership in farmers’ communication networks of farmers in Madhya Pradesh, India, and its strategic use to diffuse a source of innovative-framing information source, e-Choupal. The specific purposes of this study are to identify opinion leaders by using social network analysis and to analyze the attributes of the opinion leaders in the diffusion of e-Choupal in Indian villages.

Our research site was the State of Madhya Pradesh in India where e-Choupal centres were first set up. Our data was collected in 14 villages covered by three e-Choupal centers. Using a sociometric method of social network analysis, 225 Indian farmers’ communication networks were analyzed. As a result, we revealed four network groups and identified opinion leaders in the groups.

The identified opinion leaders were Sanchalaks, who were selected and trained by ITC, and who lived in and owned the house where the e-Choupal system was installed. In terms of diffusion, the Sanchalaks were both, that is, information sources about e-Choupal and key influentials on farmers’ decisions to adopt the innovation. This study also discusses some important social network attributes among Indian farmers, grounded in the diffusion of innovation theory.

Resolving Water Conflicts in Mining Areas of Ghana Through Public Participation A Communication Perspective

Singh, N., Koku, J.E., Balfors, B. — 2008-09-16

Mining as a sector is vital to a country's economic growth but the impact of the activities on environment can be an important cause of concern. In Wassa West district of Ghana, mining as an industry has been promoted in the recent past, but with significant impact on environmental aspects, especially water, leading to conflicts between the local communities and the mining companies. The practical theory of ‘Trinity of Voice’ (TOV) has been proposed for understanding the community-related intricacies underlying multi-stakeholder decision-making processes and proposing a futuristic course of action for effective public participation in the same. This article attempts to understand the causes underlying the mining-related water conflicts in Ghana using the TOV theory. Using this theory, the article proposes a practical framework for enhanced effective participation of members from local host communities that in turn can enable resolving the existing conflicts and preventing the same in future.

Emerging Victorious Against an Outbreak: Integrated Communication Management of SARS in Singapore Media Coverage and Impact of the SARS Campaign in Moving a Nation to be Socially Responsible

Karan, K., Aileen, L., Leng Elaine, P. Y. — 2008-09-16

The emergence of new infectious diseases and the increased emphasis on prevention have expanded the role of communication as a vital component of public health practice. This study examines the integrated crisis management approach, the coverage given by the media, the models of health communication used in dealing with the health crisis as well as the control and preventive measures used in creating awareness and socially responsible behaviour. The study employs the case study, content analysis and survey approaches to investigate these issues. The success of the Singapore Government in battling Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is an example of an effective integrated crisis management approach in dealing with national crises which can be emulated in other countries. In the wake of recent natural disasters and spread of diseases world over, this model of health management can be usefully adapted by other countries as their systematic approach to reduce uncertainties and better manage crises.

Imaginary Homes, Transplanted Traditions: The Transnational Optic and the Production of Tradition in Indian Television

Moorti, S. — 2008-01-14

This article calls for an understanding of Indian television as a transnationally mediated apparatus, rather than examining it as a national enterprise. At the production, distribution and reception levels, contemporary Indian television is enmeshed in an interconnected network of ‘contact zones’; its storylines and rhetorical strategies are shaped by the transnational traffic of programming and peoples, and the national–cultural identity it articulates is transnational in character. Consequently, its programming is, at least, double–sited and offers a double–vision, simultaneously referencing the transnational and the local to produce a global–parochial sensibility. Using the concept of the transnational optic, I analyse prime–time melodramas produced in India as well as in the diaspora to highlight the central role women have come to occupy in narratives about the Indian nation. Although the national and diasporic melodramas offer different definitions of ‘Indian tradition’, it is the figure of the woman who is presented consistently as the ‘bearer of tradition’. Paradoxically, in the melodramas I examine, this ‘traditional’ woman, who is located firmly in the domestic realm, is the primary figure through which the shows stage anxieties concerning national and global issues.

Changing Ambivalences: Exploring Corporate Sponsorship in the New Culturally Diverse Artistic Practices

Saha, A. — 2008-01-14

This article explores the commodification of difference in relation to the corporate sponsorship of the photography exhibition, Changing Faces. At first the article considers how the exhibition's collection of images of British Asian youth challenged stereotypical representations of Asian youth cultures, but then argues that this counter–hegemonic potential was undermined by the corporate sponsorship of telecommunications company 02. Yet that is not to say that the ethics of such explicit commerciality are immediately guaranteed; instead, there is the suggestion that the epistemological outcomes were much more complex. Indeed, the article adopts a cultural economy approach that shifts from dialectical political economy models of the culture industry and stresses the elaborate and entangled relations through which the production of culture is mediated. This article argues that it is only when these micro–processes are identified and then situated within the wider logic of global capitalism that the ethical implications of the corporate intervention in the culturally diverse arts can be more effectively ascertained.

Feeling Good? Look Again!: Feel Good Movies and the Vanishing Points of Liberation in Deepa Mehta's Fire and Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham

Donnell, A. — 2008-01-14

This article discusses two very different South Asian diasporic films that both promise an identity politics congruent with the objectives of postcolonial feminism alongside a distinctive ‘feel good’ factor: Deepa Mehta's Fire (1997) and Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham (2002). Both films explore the pressure that certain ideas of India exert on female subjectivities in the diaspora a.nd at home, and their success as feel good films depends on the viewer's ability to understand and ally themselves with the liberation of the central characters from these pressures. By reading the limits as well as the triumphs invoked by the emotional crescendos of these films and the politics of liberation that they endorse, this article also considers other points of continued silence and struggle (specifically queer diasporic subjects and sex workers), not foregrounded by the visual or narrative persuasions of the films themselves.

Indian Movies, Narratives of Dissent and Objectification

Narain, A. — 2008-01-14

This article examines negative attitudes around Indian films generated in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, to engage in the changing politics of Indian marginality, media representation and political relations towards Indians. By juxtaposing a series of ethnically charged speaking positions ignited by Indian cinema I highlight how the capital is seen as, essentially an Afrocentric space, contested by the shift in political power towards a ‘perceived’ Indian government. These various positions present how Indian films are made synonymous with Indian culture and how that culture is performed, celebrated and disavowed in this urban space.

'UK is Finished; India's too Corrupt; Anyone can become Amrikan': Interrogating Itineraries of Power in Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice

Malik, S. — 2008-01-14

This article attempts to understand the representations of American exceptionalism in Indian diasporic popular film through an analysis of reconfiguration of model minority racialization in Gurinder Chadha's films Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice. The films underscore that the model minority racialization of Indians in the United States is being constructed in transnational South Asian diasporic framework through an engagement with British imperial history and the British colonial subject, and with Indian nationalism. While United States’ imperialist structures invoke model minority racialization in form, they simultaneously evacuate its content through racialization of Indians as potential terrorists. Thus, in a post–9/11 world marked by convergences between racialization processes of Britain and United States, the Indian diaspora is characterized by a project of transnational racial management. The diaspora is, thus, structured by management of anxieties generated by Indian gendered and racialized bodies: anxieties of economic success gendered male are diffused through fear of potential terrorists; anxieties of sexual and cultural purity are managed by racialization of women as native informants, who come to embody continuities between the national and the global.

The Politics of Emotion in British Asian Experiences of Bombay Cinema

Jha, M. R. — 2008-01-14

British Asian subjects articulate their emotional and embodied engagement with Bombay cinema,1 making visible glimpses of their social life. This article scrutinizes the Bombay cinema experience through a sociological, empirical and ethnographic analysis of 24 semi–structured interviews undertaken in London, Manchester and Oldham. I employ the ‘circuit of culture model’ (du Gay et al. 1997; Johnson 1986) to explore the relations between the processes of production, representation, reception and regulation in the diasporic circulation of Bombay cinema. The ambiguous and ambivalent, but clear polarities that define the respondents’ relations with the cinema articulate a dialectical dynamism of affect and criticism. Combining the ‘keeping in touch with back home’ discourses of earlier South Asian generations with other desires of ‘recognition’, ‘visibility’, ‘consumption’ and ‘drudgery of culture’, they convey their understanding of themselves and their world. Some respondents were reflexive about their complicity in the dominant ideologies, and the holding together of the contradictions enabled discussion and debates. The desire for ‘glimpses of ourselves’ is full of contradictions in a neo–liberal global culture, and Bombay cinema practice becomes a site for the postcolonial diasporic imagining of identity. I argue that the contradictory and ambivalent identifications in Bombay cinema experiences are reconfigured to desire a decolonized subjectivity where an inter–subjective sensibility is valued through a prioritizing of an emotional connection and relationality. This, I propose is a critique of Western liberal notions of ‘individual self formation.’

Pantomime Terror: Diasporic Music in a Time of War

Hutnyk, J. — 2008-01-14

I find it increasingly problematic to write analytically about ‘diaspora and music’ at a time of war. It seems inconsequential; the culture industry is not much more than a distraction; a fairytale diversion to make us forget a more sinister amnesia behind the stories we tell. This article nonetheless takes up debates about cultural expression in the field of diasporic musics in Britain. It examines instances of creative engagement with, and destabilization of, music genres by Fundamental and Asian Dub Foundation, and it takes a broadly culture critique perspective on diasporic creativity as a guide to thinking about the politics of hip-hop in a time of war. Examples from music industry and media reportage of the work of these two bands pose both political provocation and a challenge to the seemingly unruffled facade of British civil society, particularly insofar as musical work might still be relevant to struggles around race and war. Here, at a time of what conservative critics call a ‘clash of civilizations’, I examine how music and authenticity become the core parameters for a limited and largely one-sided argument that seems to side-step political context in favour of sensationalized—entrenched—identities and a mythic, perhaps unworkable, ideal of cultural harmony that praises the most asinine versions of multiculturalism while demonizing those most able to bring it about. Here the idea that musical cultures are variously authentic, possessive or coherent must be questioned when issues of death and destruction are central, but ignored.

Communicative Flows between the Diaspora and 'Homeland': The Case of Asian Electronic Music in Delhi

Murthy, D. — 2008-01-14

Indian cities are experiencing significant processes of social, economic and political change, bringing together new configurations of urban identities. This is hardly a new phenomenon. During Imperial rule, nineteenth and twentieth century Bombay, for example, experienced considerably rapid metropolitan reconfigurations (Morris 1991: 235–37). Indian partition is, of course, the most glaring example in contemporary Indian history. However, what is distinct about recent changes in urban India is how they have been shaped by the wide-ranging economic liberalization policies of the early 1990s spearheaded by P.V. Narasimha Rao's Congress Party coalition. The previously socialist sheltered economy was ‘structurally reformed’ as the selected means to avert a near currency collapse.1 Over the last decade, Indian urban centres have seen enormous growth in the forms of upmarket housing (Appadurai 2004: 263), stylish coffee bars such as Baristas and Caf� Coffee Days, the building of high-tech private hospitals (Ray 2003) and other developments targeting the burgeoning middle to upper classes. Indian metropolises have been experiencing massive inflows of national, international and diasporic capital that have transformed the cities at an astonishing pace. New Delhi is no exception to this trend; its society has been the site of deep shifts ranging from kinship to consumption over the last decade (Mathur and Parameswaran 2004). Some very striking shifts have arisen from cultural, political and economic interactions with the diaspora. As India's capital, Delhi has also experienced unique political interactions with the diaspora. The lobbying by first-generation diasporic ‘non-resident’ Indians (NRIs) for dual citizenship is one example.2

'Indian Art' in Trinidad? Ethnicity at its Limits

Wainwright, L. — 2008-01-14

Addressing present day art making in the southern Caribbean island of Trinidad, with specific attention to the notion of a diasporic ‘Indian art’, this article offers a genealogy of some relationships between ethnicity, nationhood and visual imaging. Focusing on the painter and sculptor Shastri Maharaj (b. 1953), who is descended from South Asian indentured migrants to Trinidad, it shows how artists in the Caribbean have negotiated the region's period of strident anti-colonialism to the present. Examples of Maharaj's art comprise works of figuration and landscape, including depictions of local architectural styles and Hindu ritual, as well as more ambiguous and abstract forms, also presented as gallery installations. Paying attention to these the discussion highlights the problematic relations between the exegetical tendency for ‘reading’ such visual materials, and the ambitions of artists seeking to transcend the limits of expectations about ethnicity and cultural difference. In place of those limits it recommends an alternative historiography able to enjoin the critical search among contemporary artists for perceptual and aesthetic agency.

Globalization, God and Galloway: The Islamisization of Bangladeshi Communities in London

Hussain, D. — 2008-01-14

In this article I want to investigate the strategic values of ethnicity, class, religion, global, local and transnational processes as resources for political mobilization, struggle and resistance in the global city. Though some of my argument can be applied to many global cities, I will do this by exploring it in the context of the Islamisization of Bangladeshi communities in the global city par excellance, London. This will be an attempt to analytically link actual state policies, capitalism, transnational and global networks to forms of cultural reproduction, inventiveness and possibilities. This analysis can in turn provide us with an understanding of the role played by migrant communities in the context of a contemporary multicultural Britain. This study is timely. Not only due to the subject matter of the global rise of religious movements, but also because local case studies—not local in the sense of fixed and bounded communities, but as sites from which mobility as well as fixity can be empirically observed—are vitally necessary for elaborating the nature of the contemporary world. This article is aiming to contribute to a conversation, partly public and partly taking place within the political sciences.

'Not Something We're New To. Its Something We Grew To': Reflections on Urban Cultural Identities, Anthropology and Cultural Representations

Smith, H. — 2008-01-14

On a global scale, new images are chasing out the old. Contemporary cultural experiences have new international inflections and connections: ‘households’ cross continents, teenagers in the Philippines don sequinned flares with nostalgia for the days of Elvis, white English city kids use Jamaican Creole and African American slang to articulate their experiences, and British-born second-generation West Indians identify with bhangra music and pan-Africanism. As ‘insights into other cultures... are brought into one's living room’ (McGrane 1989: 115), the ‘scapes’ (Appadurai 1994) that comprise our social and cultural worlds show us that there are multiple ways of knowing, doing and being. As members of families, neighbourhoods, institutions, academies, cities, classes and so on, we are all living in, and engaged in making, an ‘all change world’ (Prescod 1997). In a context of the daily reworking and reconstruction of meaning-making processes, the question becomes ‘how are we to live in the world?’ (Rushdie 1981[1991]: 17). The following discussion looks at how ideas about culture and cultural diversity have changed since Boas’ time; how societies have themselves changed; and how contemporary social research, and the subjects of study, are continually developing ways to understand and represent ‘the diversity of ideologies and discourses that they both consume and engage with’ (Back 1996: 53).

Travels in Negotiations: Difference, Identity, Politics

Brah, A. — 2008-01-14

There are three parts to the article. First, it addresses the figure of the Asian in British cultural formation, charting the major changes in its configuration since World War II. Second, it considers negotiations through the terrain of feminism, with particular reference to the debate between ‘black’ and ‘white’ feminism. And third, it addresses certain debates and issues across the field of difference and identity.

Book Reviews

2008-01-14