"The article revisits classical debates about the positive and negative relation of popular culture and socio-political developments with regard to the Arab world. Within the Frankfurt School and modern Cultural Studies at times contradictory approaches to the role of entertainment in political cult
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ure are being debated. In Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies rather positive readings of entertainments’ political potential seem to prevail. During the “Arab Spring” the impact of participatory values promoted by both popular culture and the new social media (“entertainment is political”) appeared to be actually tangible. The article discusses the dynamic relation of entertainment television and individualization on a theoretical and empirical level. On the basis of a large body of follow-up discourses of media reception (group discussions) with young Egyptians during the time of the “Arab Spring,” we ask whether contemporary television shows promote both individualization on a cognitive, affective and practical level of experience as well as the appreciation of individualization as a social value. We argue that popular culture reveals tendencies of differentiation and modernization in Arab societies, which are all too often described as “collectivistic.” The case study shows that critical faculty, media literacy and the appreciation of individual articulation can be triggered by entertainment. Moments of “ironic pleasure” and transitions of simulated empathy and stimulated action are discussed." (Abstract)
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"Despite the repressive power of the current regime the immense creativity of popular cultural practices, that negotiate and resist a repressive system, is a potent and dynamic force. This book draws on the expertise and experience of Iranian and international academics and activists to address dive
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rse areas of social and cultural innovation that are driving change and progress. While religious conservatism remains the creed of the establishment, this volume uncovers an underground world of new technology, media and entertainment that speaks to women seeking a greater public role and a restless younger generation that organises and engages with global trends online." (Publisher description)
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"Throughout the last century, the idea of popular culture in Brazil was intertwined with matters affecting the nation and national identity – symbols and practices that in combination became representative emblems of the essence of the country. However, there is a structural ambiguity that pervade
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s and constitutes the idea of popular culture among us. At the same time, popular culture can undeniably be equated with the nation, since the weaknesses and social disruptions that have beset Brazilian history are constantly being examined and debated. These include colonialism, slavery, imperialism, backwardness/underdevelopment, social inequality and ethnic/racial exclusion." (Page 510)
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"Research on popular culture is a dynamic, fast-growing domain. In scholarly terms, it cuts across many areas, including communication studies, sociology, history, American studies, anthropology, literature, journalism, folklore, economics, and media and cultural studies. The Routledge Companion to
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Global Popular Culture provides an authoritative, up-to-date, intellectually broad, internationally-aware, and conceptually agile guide to the most important aspects of popular culture scholarship. Specifically, this Companion includes: "interdisciplinary models and approaches for analyzing popular culture; wide-ranging case studies; discussions of economic and policy underpinnings; analysis of textual manifestations of popular culture; examinations of political, social, and cultural dynamics and discussions of emerging issues such as ecological sustainability and labor. Featuring scholarly voices from across six continents, The Routledge Companion to Global Popular Culture presents a nuanced and wide-ranging survey of popular culture research." (Publisher description)
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"Das Handbuch begründet Popkultur als inter- und transdisziplinäres Forschungsfeld sowie als eigenständige Wissenschaftsdisziplin. Es informiert in über 60 Beiträgen über die wichtigsten Erscheinungsformen und Diskurszusammenhänge der Popkultur und unterscheidet diese grundsätzlich von denen
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der Hoch- sowie Populärkultur. Die Beiträge widmen sich den Begriffen und Konzepten der Popkultur, der Bedeutung der Popkulturforschung in unterschiedlichen Wissenschaftsdisziplinen sowie den Medien und Gattungen der Popkultur - vom Rock 'n' Roll über Soul, Punk, Techno bis hin zu Pop-Art, TV-Serien, B-Movies, Social Media u.v.a. Das Handbuch bietet international erstmalig einen systematischen Überblick über das gesamte Wissensfeld der Popkultur und stellt die Popkulturforschung auf ein historisches und theoretisches Fundament." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"While a decade ago much of the discussion of new media in Asia was couched in Occidental notions of Asia as a "default setting" for technology in the future, today we are seeing a much more complex picture of contesting new media practices and production. As "new media" becomes increasingly an ever
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yday reality for young and old across Asia through smartphones and associated devices, boundaries between art, new media, and the everyday are transformed. This Handbook addresses the historical, social, cultural, political, philosophical, artistic and economic dimensions of the region's new media. Through an interdisciplinary revision of both "new media" and "Asia" the contributors provide new insights into the complex and contesting terrains of both notions." (Publisher description)
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"Much has been made of the role of various media in the shaping of conflicts and political agendas in today's Arab world. This volume examines this topic with interdisciplinary contributions that range across media studies, anthroplogy, religious studies, and political science and explore both new a
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nd older media forms." (Publisher description)
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"The role of communication in planned social change is portrayed as a linear conduit for inducing pro-development behavior change in the "undeveloped" world. Later versions of social change communication started incorporating culture and participation into multicultural participatory development pro
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grams. This essay suggests that development discourses, including their later incarnations incorporating culture and participation, serve as vehicles for capitalist market promotion. These new forms of planned social change communication, scripted in the narratives of local empowerment, community-based participation, and entrepreneurship, work to systematically erase subaltern communities. Building on the theoretical framework of the culture-Centered approach (CCA), I examine the ways in which dialogues with the margins of development discourse resist these dominant conceptual categories of development. The subaltern, standing in for the popular, resists neoliberal interventions through her active participation in popular politics." (Abstract)
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"This article explores how popular culture theory can be used in postconflict situations to raise awareness about human rights violations. This case study investigates a media narrative produced by the Memory Center in Colombia, about a political assassination of a community leader. On February 12,
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2009, Luis Arango was murdered in the Colombian region known as Magdalena Medio. Arango was a fisherman and a leader of local and regional fishing communities struggling to defend wetlands and natural environments from encroaching cattle and agribusiness economies. Arango was murdered to stop his leadership and environmental agendas. Arango’s assassination was selected as an emblematic case that illustrates well how Colombia’s armed conflict impacts community leaders trying to advance social justice agendas. This article explores how a new understanding of “the popular” was used to frame a media narrative about Arango’s case." (Abstract)
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"Tatsächlich erfreuen sich koreanische Fernsehserien und Filme sowie die koreanische Popmusik (K-pop) im Ausland, insbesondere in Ost- und Südostasien, ganz unerwartet großer Beliebtheit. In Südkorea selbst ist man stolz darauf, es - zumindest in der eigenen Wahrnehmung - endlich geschafft zu ha
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ben, in der Welt als "Kulturnation" zu gelten. Die öffentliche Hallyu-Debatte ist dabei allerdings stark von nationalistisch inspirierten Selbstbehauptungsdiskursen geprägt. Ein Strang der südkoreanischen Debatte kreist um Hallyu als Wirtschaftsfaktor. Dieser stützt sich weniger auf reale Effekte, sondern auf Erwartungen und Hoffnungen, die mit besseren Exportchancen, vor allem mit der Aufwertung des internationalen Images Südkoreas verbunden sind." (Fazit, Seite 401)
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"Religion and popular culture is a fast-growing field that spans a variety of disciplines. This volume offers the first real survey of the field to date and provides a guide for the work of future scholars. It explores: "key issues of definition and of methodology, religious encounters with popular
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culture across media, material culture and space, ranging from videogames and social networks to cooking and kitsch, architecture and national monuments, representations of religious traditions in the media and popular culture, including important non-Western spheres such as Bollywood." (Publisher description)
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"Collectively known as Hallyu, Korean music, television programs, films, online games, and comics enjoy global popularity, thanks to new communication technologies. In recent years, Korean popular culture has also become the subject of academic inquiry. Whereas the Hallyu's impact on Korea's nationa
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l image and domestic economy, as well as on transnational cultural flows, have received much scholarly attention, there has been little discussion of the role of social media in Hallyu's propagation. Contributors to Hallyu 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media explore the ways in which Korean popular cultural products are shared by audiences around the globe; how they generate new fans, markets, and consumers through social media networks; and how scholars can analyze, interpret, and envision the future of this unprecedented cultural phenomenon." (Publisher description)
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"The essays explore the role and function of image making to highlight the ways in which the images "speak" and what visual languages mean for the construction of Islamic subjectivities, the distribution of power, and the formation of identity and belonging. Visual Culture in the Modern Middle East
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addresses aspects of the visual in the Islamic world, including the presentation of Islam on television; on the internet and other digital media; in banners, posters, murals, and graffiti; and in the satirical press, cartoons, and children's books." (Publisher description)
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"Since the late 1990s South Korea has emerged as a new center for the production of transnational popular culture – the first instance of a major global circulation of Korean popular culture in history. Why popular (or not)? Why now? What does it mean socially, culturally and politically in a glob
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al context? This edited collection considers the Korean Wave in a global digital age and addresses the social, cultural and political implications in their complexity and paradox within the contexts of global inequalities and uneven power structures. The emerging consequences at multiple levels – both macro structures and micro processes that influence media production, distribution, representation and consumption – deserve to be analyzed and explored fully in an increasingly global media environment. This book argues for the Korean Wave’s double capacity in the creation of new and complex spaces of identity that are both enabling and disabling cultural diversity in a digital cosmopolitan world." (Publisher description)
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"How do students' online literacy practices intersect with online popular culture? In this book scholars from a range of countries including Australia, Lebanon, Nepal, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States illustrate and analyze how literacy practices that are mediated through and influ
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enced by popular culture create both opportunities and tensions for secondary and university students. The authors examine issues of theory, identity, and pedagogy as they address participatory popular culture sites such as fan forums, video, blogs, social networking sites, anime, memes, and comics and graphic novels." (Back cover)
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