Global journalism studies: Beyond panoramas

Abstract

This article examines the challenges that the accelerated globalisation of the media industry pose to journalism education and research, with a particular focus on journalism studies in the global South. Through references to key features of recent debates in the field of journalism studies, the article argues for the adoption of a critical perspective on global journalism studies in research and teaching, the integration of that perspective across journalism curricula and research agenda, and a reflexive and inclusive view of the relationship between global journalism and new media technologies.     

Searching for the Sugar-coated Man

Proclamations of the excellence of the film Searching for Sugarman, directed by Malik Bendjelloul, ignore its contrived narrative. The film violently yokes the singer’s South African popularity to the struggle against apartheid. This article argues that the film capitalizes on white South African nostalgia and that the tours subsequent to the film’s release have offered occasions for the performance or endorsement of this problematic phenomenon. Through describing the suburban approbation of Rodriguez’s music in the 1980 and 1990s and the homogeneity of his audiences, then and now, I suggest that the salvaging of his career and reputation needs to be approached, not ecstatically, but in ways that are cautious and qualified.     

People,personal projects and the challenging of social structures: a contribution to the reflection on the challenges of teaching development studies

Abstract

This article makes a critique of using Post-Development as a tool in teaching an introductory course in development studies. Such a debate was initiated by Harcourt in a previous issue of Third World Quarterly as she reflected on her teaching experience in a European Institution. Harcourt concludes that the lack of engagement of some of the students in the course reflects the unwillingness of privileged middle-class pupils to challenge western lifestyles. I draw on a critical realist meta-theory about the process of learning in higher education to challenge the ontological support of that conclusion and invite her to reconsider her teaching strategy.     

Knowledge and the economy: some critical comments

Abstract

In the 1990s central banking in Europe and the United States witnessed a paradigm change. A central tenet of the new paradigm was that a central bank which acts in a transparent and predictable manner reduces uncertainty for economic actors and will be better able to control inflationary expectations. Thus, central bankers set out to enhance their institution's transparency. In this paper, I argue that transparency is not limited to the release of economic data or information about decision-making procedures. It entails producing a new type of market order and results in a new agencement. This paper focuses on the European Central Bank (ECB) and on one actor it relies on: the media. Based on ethnographic data, I analyse the role of the media in the production of a transparent market order. I find that prevailing new rules, new frames and reward systems preclude journalists from playing the role the ECB would like them to play: the instrumental role of a neutral transmitter of information. The struggle between the two actors is a struggle with words, in which both journalists and central bankers want to manipulate markets with their communicative utterances, albeit in different and frequently opposing ways.     

From nomadic communitarianism to civil socialism: Searching for the roots of civil society in rural Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

This article explores the environmental, historical and cultural factors that influence civic engagement among rural communities in contemporary Kazakhstan. It traces how forms of nomadic communitarianism as a response to the vicissitudes of life on the open Steppe merged with the imposed collectivism of Soviet society in such a manner that the two were able to coexist together in both policy and practice. Drawing on fieldwork among a number of villages in South Kazakhstan, we argue that, together, the nomadic and Soviet pasts still constitute the core values at work in rural communities, influencing the structure of local power relations and the nature of group association and cooperative venture. Rather than disappearing, these values, if anything, are re-emerging as part of an attempt to legitimise Kazakh culture as the core identity of the modern nation state.     

The ‘Bubbling Up’ of Subterranean Politics in Europe

This article presents the findings of a collaborative research project involving seven field teams across Europe investigating a range of new political phenomena termed ‘subterranean politics’. The article argues that the social mobilizations and collective activities in 2011 and 2012 were probably less joined up, more heterogeneous, and, perhaps, even, smaller, than similar phenomena during the last decade, but what was striking was their ‘resonance’ among mainstream public opinion—the ‘bubbling up’ of subterranean politics. The main findings included:

• ??Subterranean political actors perceive the crisis as a political crisis rather than a reaction to austerity. Subterranean politics is just as much a characteristic of Germany, where there are no austerity policies, as other countries.

• ??Subterranean political actors are concerned about democracy but not as it is currently practised. They experiment with new democratic practises, in the squares, on the Internet, and elsewhere.

• ??This new political generation not only uses social networking to organize but the Internet has profoundly affected the culture of political activism.

• ??In contrast to mainstream public debates, Europe is ‘invisible’ even though many subterranean political actors feel themselves to be European.

The research concludes that the term ‘subterranean politics’ is a useful concept that needs further investigation and that Europe needs to be problematized to seek a way out of the crisis.     

优化投资环境是地方政府的主要职责

要争取投资者的投资 ,就要改善和优化投资环境。不仅要改善和优化投资硬环境 ,而且还要改善和优化投资软环境。有时改善和优化投资软环境更重要。     

浅论创建西部新文化

创建西部新文化具有必然性、客观性和发展性,是对西部大开发宏伟工程的凝结、浓缩和标识;符合“三个代表”要求,能够代表先进文化的前进方向;是对当代中国先进文化的补充和完善。西部新文化要真正成为西部大开发的精神动力和信念支柱。创建西部新文化能够振兴西部文化、占领西部阵地、培育西部新人、推进西部开发。     

竞技与体育教育的审视与践行性思考

竞技与体育教育源于美国,发展和推广于西方国家,引入国内则是近几年的事。从溯源与发展上看,西方竞技与体育教育已渐成体系,值得学习与借鉴。对西方竞技与体育教育的源流、特征和态势进行研究,可为我国推行竞技与体育教育提供全新的路径和方法。     

鄂伦春语疑问句的类型及其特征

文章运用语言类型学理论视角,以田野调查所获第一手自然语料为基础,描写分析了鄂伦春语疑问句的类型特征及其标记形式。虽然鄂伦春语的极性问句和内容问句两种基本功能类型的标记方式较为单一,但是两种疑问句在语调模式和形态变化表现等方面各具特点。鄂伦春语的极性问句和内容问句在形态句法特征等方面也符合类型学上的诸多共性特征。