Popular Culture Family Relations And Issues Of Everyday Democracy

Visions of Belonging explores how beloved and still-remembered family stories—A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I Remember Mama, Gentleman's Agreement, Death of a Salesman, Marty, and A Raisin in the Sun—entered the popular imagination and shaped collective dreams in the postwar years and into the 1950s. These stories helped define widely shared conceptions of who counted as representative Americans and who could be recognized as belonging. The book listens in as white and black authors and directors, readers and viewers reveal divergent, emotionally textured, and politically charged social visions. Their diverse perspectives provide a point of entry into an extraordinary time when the possibilities for social transformation seemed boundless. But changes were also fiercely contested, especially as the war's culture of unity receded in the resurgence of cold war anticommunism, and demands for racial equality were met with intensifying white resistance. Judith E. Smith traces the cultural trajectory of these family stories, as they circulated widely in bestselling paperbacks, hit movies, and popular drama on stage, radio, and television. Visions of Belonging provides unusually close access to a vibrant conversation among white and black Americans about the boundaries between public life and family matters and the meanings of race and ethnicity. Would the new appearance of white working class ethnic characters expand Americans'understanding of democracy? Would these stories challenge the color line? How could these stories simultaneously show that black families belonged to the larger "family" of the nation while also representing the forms of danger and discriminations that excluded them from full citizenship? In the 1940s, war-driven challenges to racial and ethnic borderlines encouraged hesitant trespass against older notions of "normal." But by the end of the 1950s, the cold war cultural atmosphere discouraged probing of racial and social inequality and ultimately turned family stories into a comforting retreat from politics. The book crosses disciplinary boundaries, suggesting a novel method for cultural history by probing the social history of literary, dramatic, and cinematic texts. Smith's innovative use of archival research sets authorial intent next to audience reception to show how both contribute to shaping the contested meanings of American belonging.

This book advances alternative approaches to understanding media, culture and technology in two vibrant regions of the Global South. Bringing together scholars from Africa and the Caribbean, it traverses the domains of communication theory, digital technology strategy, media practice reforms, and corporate and cultural renewal. The first section tackles research and technology with new conceptual thinking from the South. The book then looks at emerging approaches to community digital networks, online diaspora entertainment, and video gaming strategies. The volume then explores reforms in policy and professional practice, including in broadcast television, online newspapers, media philanthropy, and business news reporting. Its final section examines the role of village-based folk media, the power of popular music in political opposition, and new approaches to overcoming neo-colonial propaganda and external corporate hegemony. This book therefore engages critically with the central issues of how we communicate, produce, entertain, and build communities in 21st-century Africa and the Caribbean.

The City Makers of Nairobi re-examines the history of the urban development of Nairobi in the colonial period. Although Nairobi was a colonial construct with lasting negative repercussions, the African population’s impact on its history and development is often overlooked. This book shows how Africans took an active part in making use of the city and creating it, and how they were far from being subjects in the development of a European colonial city. This re-interpretation of Nairobi’s history suggests that the post-colonial city is the result of more than unjust and segregative colonial planning. Merging historical documentation with extensive contemporary urban theory, this book provides in-depth knowledge of the key historical roles played by locals in the development of their city. It argues that the idea of agency, a popular inroad to urban development today, is not a current phenomenon but one that has always existed with its many social, spatial, and physical ramifications. This is an ideal read for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students studying the history of urban development and theories, providing an in-depth case study for reference. The City Makers of Nairobi broaches interdisciplinary themes important to urban planners, social scientists, historians, and those working with popular settlements in cities across the world.

"En raison, notamment, de leur poids démographique et de leur volonté de revendiquer un statut de citoyens actifs, les jeunes sont apparus de façon spectaculaire dans l'espace public africain depuis les années 1990. Bien qu'ils soient un élément essentiel à la compréhension des dynamiques sociales face à l'érosion des engagements de l'État et aux transformations de la famille, il apparaît incontournable d'étudier les jeunes en relation avec les autres groupes d'âge. C'est ainsi que l'analyse des dynamiques intergénérationnelles en Afrique prend toute son importance afin de rendre compte des changements qui ont cours depuis la moitié du XXe siècle. Ce livre s'inscrit donc dans une tendance récente de la recherche qui montre un regain d'intérêt pour l'étude des générations et de l'intergénérationnel en Afrique. La notion de génération n'est toutefois pas nouvelle dans l'analyse des dynamiques sociales en Afrique, notamment si l'on se réfère à l'écrit fondateur de Karl Mannheim, Le problème des générations (1928), dans lequel il invite à mettre en évidence "tous les changements dus à la dynamique historico-sociale" pour bien cerner les éléments de changements liés au facteur de génération. La perspective adoptée dans ce livre est de voir comment les apports intergénérationnels se modifient, comment la légitimité des aînés peut être rediscutée et comment les jeunes tentent d'échapper aux difficultés et aux contraintes. Ce regard a conduit les auteurs à trouver de nouveaux lieux pour observer les jeunes mais aussi des espaces communs aux différentes générations. Dans cet ouvrage, ils mettent en avant les continuités et les discontinuités des lieux de conflits et de négociations, ainsi que les stratégies de coopération qui marquent les rapports entre les générations. Pour cela, ils rendent compte des dynamiques intergénérationnelles, tant à l'échelle macro (société civile) qu'à l'échelle micro (espaces privés, tranches de vie), et croisent divers thèmes dans une optique pluridisciplinaire. Les contributions sont le fruit de recherches menées sur le terrain dans différents pays."--P. [4] of cover.