Undoing Culture

Written with the clarity and insight that readers have come to expect of Mike Featherstone Undoing Culture is a notable contribution to our understanding of modernism and postmodernism. It explores the formation and deformation of the cultural sphere and the effects on culture of globalization. Against many orthodox postmodernist accounts,the author argues that it is wrong to regard our present state of fragmentation and dislocation as an epochal break. Existing interdependencies and power balances are not so easily broken down. Nonetheless some important cultural changes have occurred since World War II. In particular, the book examines some of the processes which have uncoupled culture from the social; the erosion of the ideal of the heroic life in the face of the onslaught from consumerism and the deformation of culture; and the rise of new forms of identity development. It explains why culture has gained a more significant role in everyday life and also why it has come to preoccupy the Academy in recent years. Mike Featherstone looks at the effects of the multiplication of cultural goods and images on our ability to read culture and develop fixed meanings and relationships. He highlights the importance of the global in attempting to cope with the objective difficulties of cultural overproduction. The book concludes that the rise of non-Western nation-states with different cultural frames produces different reactions of modernity, making it more appropriate to refer to global modernities.

This title explores the formation and deformation of the cultural sphere and the effects on culture of globalization. Against many orthodox postmodernist accounts, the author argues that it is wrong to regard our present state of fragmentation and dislocation as an epochal break. Existing interdependencies and power balances are not so easily broken down.

This is a book for the age of resistance, for the occupiers of the squares, for the generation of Occupy Wall Street. The premier radical political philosopher of our time offers a devastating critique of the way neoliberalism has hollowed out democracy.

UnDoing Buildings: Adaptive Reuse and Cultural Memory discusses one of the greatest challenges for twenty-first-century society: what is to be done with the huge stock of existing buildings that have outlived the function for which they were built? Their worth is well recognised and the importance of retaining them has been long debated, but if they are to be saved, what is to be done with these redundant buildings? This book argues that remodelling is a healthy and environmentally friendly approach. Issues of heritage, conservation, sustainability and smartness are at the forefront of many discussions about architecture today and adaptive reuse offers the opportunity to reinforce the particular character of an area using up-to-date digital and construction techniques for a contemporary population. Issues of collective memory and identity combined with ideas of tradition, history and culture mean that it is possible to retain a sense of continuity with the past as a way of creating the future. UnDoing Buildings: Adaptive Reuse and Cultural Memory has an international perspective and will be of interest to upper level students and professionals working on the fields of Interior Design, Interior Architecture, Architecture, Conservation, Urban Design and Development.

This book provides new insights into the relationship of the field of arts and cultural management and cultural rights on a global scale. Globalisation and internationalisation have facilitated new forms for exchange between individuals, professions, groups, localities and nations in arts and cultural management. Such exchanges take place through the devising, programming, exhibition, staging, marketing, and administration of project activities. They also take place through teaching and learning within higher education and cultural institutions, which are now internationalised practices themselves. With a focus on the fine, visual and performing arts, the book positions arts and cultural management educators and practitioners as active agents whose decisions, actions and interactions represent how we, as a society, approach, relate to, and understand ourselves and others. This consideration of education and practice as socialisation processes with global, political and social implications will be an invaluable resource to academics, practitioners and students engaging in arts and cultural management, cultural policy, cultural sociology, global and postcolonial studies.

Drawing on interviews, responses to questionnaires, and oral histories by U.S.

Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia shows that the cultural reconfiguration of domestic and international relations around Asias new rich has often been characterised by tension and division.

`Culture′ and `citizenship′ are two of the most hotly contested concepts in the social sciences. What are the relationships between them? This book explores the issues of inclusion and exclusion, the market and policy, rights and responsibilities, and the definitions of citizens and non-citizens. Substantive topics investigated in the various chapters include: cultural democracy; intersubjectivity and the unconscious; globalization and the nation state; European citizenship; and the discourses on cultural policy.

"A cogent and incisive exploration of many of the key debates at the heart of postcolonial cultural studies, with a timely focus on the 'underside' of the much-hyped process of globalisation" David Morley, Professor of Communications, Goldsmiths College, UK. "Rawaswami Harindranath's lively book provides us with a comprehensive and engaging overview of the views from the margins in the global debate about globalisation and culture. Written with admirable clarity, this book fills in the blind spots of much Western theorising of the 'underside' of globalisation and makes a forceful argument for a truly critical and non-Eurocentric cosmopolitanism." Professor Ien Ang, ARC Professorial Fellow, University of Western Sydney This book explores significant aspects of the cultural and social impact of globalization on the developing world by examining intellectual contributions and cultural expression in Latin America, Africa, and South and South East Asia. How do we understand and conceptualize the ‘underside’ of globalization? How can voices from the margins challenge dominant discourses? In what ways do ‘culture wars’ contribute to the politics of nationalism, indigeneity, and ‘race’? The book surveys key debates on the politics of representation and cultural difference, paying particular attention to issues such as subalternity, cultural nationalism, third cinema, multiculturalism, and indigenous communities. It offers an original synthesis of ideas on these topics, and traces the lines of connection between national cultural and political projects during anti-colonial struggles and more contemporary forms of national and transnational cinema and television. Harindranath invites us to consider non-metropolitan cultural forms in the context of contemporary issues relating to the politics of difference. Perspectives on Global Culture is important reading for students and researchers in media and cultural studies and sociology, as well as for those interested in debates on 'race' and ethnicity.

This book focuses on the rapidly changing sociology of music as manifested in Chinese society and Chinese education. It examines how social changes and cultural politics affect how music is currently being used in connection with the Chinese dream. While there is a growing trend toward incorporating the Chinese dream into school education and higher education, there has been no scholarly discussion to date. The combination of cultural politics, transformed authority relations, and officially approved songs can provide us with an understanding of the official content on the Chinese dream that is conveyed in today’s Chinese society, and how these factors have influenced the renewal of values-based education and practices in school music education in China.