Culture, Power, and the State

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Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0804765588
Total Pages : 688 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture, Power, and the State by : Prasenjit Duara

Download or read book Culture, Power, and the State written by Prasenjit Duara and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1991-04-01 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early twentieth century, the Chinese state made strenuous efforts to broaden and deepen its authority over rural society. This book is an ambitious attempt to offer both a method and a framework for analyzing Chinese social history in the state-making era. The author constructs a prismatic view of village-level society that shows how marketing, kinship, water control, temple patronage, and other structures of human interaction overlapped to form what he calls the cultural nexus of power in local society. The author's concept of the cultural nexus and his tracing of how it was altered enables us for the first time to grapple with change at the village level in all its complexity. The author asserts that the growth of the state transformed and delegitimized the traditional cultural nexus during the Republican era, particularly in the realm of village leadership and finances. Thus, the expansion of state power was ultimately and paradoxically responsible for the revolution in China as it eroded the foundations of village life, leaving nothing in its place. The problems of state-making in China were different from those of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe; the Chinese experience heralds the process that would become increasingly common in the emergent states of the developing world under the very different circumstances of the twentieth century.

Culture, Power, and the State

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Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0804718881
Total Pages : 688 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture, Power, and the State by : Prasenjit Duara

Download or read book Culture, Power, and the State written by Prasenjit Duara and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1991-04-01 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early twentieth century, the Chinese state made strenuous efforts to broaden and deepen its authority over rural society. This book is an ambitious attempt to offer both a method and a framework for analyzing Chinese social history in the state-making era. The author constructs a prismatic view of village-level society that shows how marketing, kinship, water control, temple patronage, and other structures of human interaction overlapped to form what he calls the cultural nexus of power in local society. The author's concept of the cultural nexus and his tracing of how it was altered enables us for the first time to grapple with change at the village level in all its complexity. The author asserts that the growth of the state transformed and delegitimized the traditional cultural nexus during the Republican era, particularly in the realm of village leadership and finances. Thus, the expansion of state power was ultimately and paradoxically responsible for the revolution in China as it eroded the foundations of village life, leaving nothing in its place. The problems of state-making in China were different from those of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe; the Chinese experience heralds the process that would become increasingly common in the emergent states of the developing world under the very different circumstances of the twentieth century.

Culture, Power, Place

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Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 0822382083
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (223 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture, Power, Place by : Akhil Gupta

Download or read book Culture, Power, Place written by Akhil Gupta and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1997-07-24 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropology has traditionally relied on a spatially localized society or culture as its object of study. The essays in Culture, Power, Place demonstrate how in recent years this anthropological convention and its attendant assumptions about identity and cultural difference have undergone a series of important challenges. In light of increasing mass migration and the transnational cultural flows of a late capitalist, postcolonial world, the contributors to this volume examine shifts in anthropological thought regarding issues of identity, place, power, and resistance. This collection of both new and well-known essays begins by critically exploring the concepts of locality and community; first, as they have had an impact on contemporary global understandings of displacement and mobility, and, second, as they have had a part in defining identity and subjectivity itself. With sites of discussion ranging from a democratic Spain to a Puerto Rican barrio in North Philadelphia, from Burundian Hutu refugees in Tanzania to Asian landscapes in rural California, from the silk factories of Hangzhou to the long-sought-after home of the Palestinians, these essays examine the interplay between changing schemes of categorization and the discourses of difference on which these concepts are based. The effect of the placeless mass media on our understanding of place—and the forces that make certain identities viable in the world and others not—are also discussed, as are the intertwining of place-making, identity, and resistance as they interact with the meaning and consumption of signs. Finally, this volume offers a self-reflective look at the social and political location of anthropologists in relation to the questions of culture, power, and place—the effect of their participation in what was once seen as their descriptions of these constructions. Contesting the classical idea of culture as the shared, the agreed upon, and the orderly, Culture, Power, Place is an important intervention in the disciplines of anthropology and cultural studies. Contributors. George E. Bisharat, John Borneman, Rosemary J. Coombe, Mary M. Crain, James Ferguson, Akhil Gupta, Kristin Koptiuch, Karen Leonard, Richard Maddox, Lisa H. Malkki, John Durham Peters, Lisa Rofel

Culture, Power, and Authoritarianism in the Indonesian State

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004255109
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture, Power, and Authoritarianism in the Indonesian State by : Tod Jones

Download or read book Culture, Power, and Authoritarianism in the Indonesian State written by Tod Jones and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-06-06 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Culture, Power, and Authoritarianism in the Indonesian State is a critical history of cultural policy in one of the world’s most diverse nations across the tumultuous twentieth century. It charts the influence of momentous political changes on the cultural policies of successive states, including colonial government, Japanese occupation, the killing and repression of the left and their affiliates, and the return of representative government, and examines broader social changes like nationalism and consumer culture. The book uses the concept of authoritarian cultural policy, or cultural policy that was premised on increased state control, tracing its presence from the colonial era until today. Tod Jones’ use of historical and case study chapters captures the central state’s changing cultural policies and its diverse outcomes across Indonesia.

Images of Power

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Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 9781845452124
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (521 download)

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Book Synopsis Images of Power by : Jens Andermann

Download or read book Images of Power written by Jens Andermann and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Latin America, where even today writing has remained a restricted form of expression, the task of generating consent and imposing the emergent nation-state as the exclusive form of the political, was largely conferred to the image. Furthermore, at the moment of its historical demise, the new, 'postmodern' forms of sovereignty appear to rely even more heavily on visual discourses of power. However, a critique of the iconography of the modern state-form has been missing. This volume is the first concerted attempt by cultural, historical and visual scholars to address the political dimension of visual culture in Latin America, in a comparative perspective spanning various regions and historical stages. The case studies are divided into four sections, analysing the formation of a public sphere, the visual politics of avant-garde art, the impact of mass society on political iconography, and the consolidation and crisis of territory as a key icon of the state. Jens Andermann is a Lecturer in Latin American Studies at Birkbeck College, London, and co-editor of the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies. Among his publications are Mapas de poder: una arqueología literaria del espacio argentino (Rosario, 2000) and articles for major journals in Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the US. William Rowe is Anniversary Professor of Poetics at Birkbeck College, London. His book Memory and Modernity: Popular Culture in Latin America (London, 1991) has been translated into several languages. His most recent works, apart from translations of a wide range of Latin American poetry, are Poets of Contemporary Latin America: History and the Inner Life (Oxford, 2000) and Ensayos vallejianos (Berkeley and Lima, 2006).

Against Meritocracy

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317496035
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

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Book Synopsis Against Meritocracy by : Jo Littler

Download or read book Against Meritocracy written by Jo Littler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-16 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meritocracy today involves the idea that whatever your social position at birth, society ought to offer enough opportunity and mobility for ‘talent’ to combine with ‘effort’ in order to ‘rise to the top’. This idea is one of the most prevalent social and cultural tropes of our time, as palpable in the speeches of politicians as in popular culture. In this book Jo Littler argues that meritocracy is the key cultural means of legitimation for contemporary neoliberal culture – and that whilst it promises opportunity, it in fact creates new forms of social division. Against Meritocracy is split into two parts. Part I explores the genealogies of meritocracy within social theory, political discourse and working cultures. It traces the dramatic U-turn in meritocracy’s meaning, from socialist slur to a contemporary ideal of how a society should be organised. Part II uses a series of case studies to analyse the cultural pull of popular ‘parables of progress’, from reality TV to the super-rich and celebrity CEOs, from social media controversies to the rise of the ‘mumpreneur’. Paying special attention to the role of gender, ‘race’ and class, this book provides new conceptualisations of the meaning of meritocracy in contemporary culture and society.

Nationalizing Iran

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Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295800615
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (958 download)

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Book Synopsis Nationalizing Iran by : Afshin Marashi

Download or read book Nationalizing Iran written by Afshin Marashi and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Naser al-Din Shah, who ruled Iran from 1848 to 1896, claimed the title Shadow of God on Earth, his authority rested on premodern conceptions of sacred kingship. By 1941, when Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi came to power, his claim to authority as the Shah of Iran was infused with the language of modern nationalism. In short, between roughly 1870 and 1940, Iran's traditional monarchy was forged into a modern nation-state. In Nationalizing Iran, Afshin Marashi explores the changes that made possible this transformation of Iran into a social abstraction in which notions of state, society, and culture converged. He follows Naser al-Din Shah on a tour of Europe in 1873 that led to his importing a new public image of monarchy-an image based on the European late imperial model-relying heavily on the use of public ceremonies, rituals, and festivals to promote loyalty to the monarch. Meanwhile, Iranian intellectuals were reimagining ethnic history to reconcile “authentic” Iranian culture with the demands of modernity. From the reform of public education to the symbolism surrounding grand public ceremonies in honor of long-dead poets, Marashi shows how the state invented and promoted key features of the common culture binding state and society. The ideological thrust of that century would become the source of dramatic contestation in the late twentieth century. Marashi's study of the formative era of Iranian nationalism will be valuable to scholars and students of history, sociology, political science, and anthropology, as well as journalists, policy makers, and other close observers of contemporary Iran.

Culture/Power/History

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691228000
Total Pages : 635 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture/Power/History by : Nicholas B. Dirks

Download or read book Culture/Power/History written by Nicholas B. Dirks and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intellectual radicalism of the 1960s spawned a new set of questions about the role and nature of "the political" in social life, questions that have since revolutionized nearly every field of thought, from literary criticism through anthropology to the philosophy of science. Michel Foucault in particular made us aware that whatever our functionally defined "roles" in society, we are constantly negotiating questions of authority and the control of the definitions of reality. Such insights have led theorists to challenge concepts that have long formed the very underpinnings of their disciplines. By exploring some of the most debated of these concepts--"culture," "power," and "history"--this reader offers an enriching perspective on social theory in the contemporary moment. Organized around these three concepts, Culture/ Power/History brings together both classic and new essays that address Foucault's "new economy of power relations" in a number of different, contestatory directions. Representing innovative work from various disciplines and sites of study, from taxidermy to Madonna, the book seeks to affirm the creative possibilities available in a time marked by growing uncertainty about established disciplinary forms of knowledge and by the increasing fluidity of the boundaries between them. The book is introduced by a major synthetic essay by the editors, which calls attention to the most significant issues enlivening theoretical discourse today. The editors seek not only to encourage scholars to reflect anew on the course of social theory, but also to orient newcomers to this area of inquiry. The essays are contributed by Linda Alcoff ("Cultural Feminism versus Post-Structuralism"), Sally Alexander ("Women, Class, and Sexual Differences in the 1830s and 1840s"), Tony Bennett ("The Exhibitionary Complex"), Pierre Bourdieu ("Structures, Habitus, Power"), Nicholas B. Dirks ("Ritual and Resistance"), Geoff Eley ("Nations, Publics, and Political Cultures"), Michel Foucault (Two Lectures), Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ("Authority, [White] Power and the [Black] Critic"), Stephen Greenblatt ("The Circulation of Social Energy"), Ranajit Guha ("The Prose of Counter-Insurgency"), Stuart Hall ("Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms"), Susan Harding ("The Born-Again Telescandals"), Donna Haraway ("Teddy Bear Patriarchy"), Dick Hebdige ("After the Masses"), Susan McClary ("Living to Tell: Madonna's Resurrection of the Fleshly"), Sherry B. Ortner ("Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties"), Marshall Sahlins ("Cosmologies of Capitalism"), Elizabeth G. Traube ("Secrets of Success in Postmodern Society"), Raymond Williams (selections from Marxism and Literature), and Judith Williamson ("Family, Education, Photography").

Language, Culture, and Power

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Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791431412
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (314 download)

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Book Synopsis Language, Culture, and Power by : Lourdes Diaz Soto

Download or read book Language, Culture, and Power written by Lourdes Diaz Soto and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides insights into the impact that eliminating bilingual education programs has on the lives of families and communities. Persuasively argues that linguistic repression is an unwise language policy for a democratic nation.

Children and the Politics of Culture

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691224897
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Children and the Politics of Culture by : Sharon Stephens

Download or read book Children and the Politics of Culture written by Sharon Stephens and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bodies and minds of children--and the very space of children--are under assault. This is the message we receive from daily news headlines about violence, sexual abuse, exploitation, and neglect of children, and from a proliferation of books in recent years representing the domain of contemporary childhood as threatened, invaded, polluted, and "stolen" by adults. Through a series of essays that explore the global dimensions of children at risk, an international group of researchers and policymakers discuss the notion of children's rights, and in particular the claim that every child has a right to a cultural identity. Explorations of children's situations in Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, England, Norway, the United States, Brazil, and Germany reveal how children's everyday lives and futures are often the stakes in contemporary battles that adults wage over definitions of cultural identity and state cultural policies. Throughout this volume, the authors address the complex and often ambiguous implications of the concept of rights. For example, it may be used to defend indigenous children from radically assimilationist or even genocidal state policies; but it may also be used to legitimate racist institutions. A substantive introduction by the editor examines global political economic frameworks for the cultural debates affecting children and traces intriguing, sometimes surprising, threads throughout the papers. In addition to the editor, the contributors are Norma Field, Marilyn Ivy, Mary John, Hae-joang Cho, Saya Shiraishi, Vivienne Wee, Pamela Reynolds, Kathleen Hall, Ruth Mandel, Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, and Njabulo Ndebele.

Digitized Lives

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136690034
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (366 download)

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Book Synopsis Digitized Lives by : T.V. Reed

Download or read book Digitized Lives written by T.V. Reed and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a remarkably short period of time the Internet and associated digital communication technologies have deeply changed the way millions of people around the globe live their lives. But what is the nature of that impact? In chapters examining a broad range of issues—including sexuality, politics, education, race, gender relations, the environment, and social protest movements—Digitized Lives seeks answers to these central questions: What is truly new about so-called "new media," and what is just hype? How have our lives been made better or worse by digital communication technologies? In what ways can these devices and practices contribute to a richer cultural landscape and a more sustainable society? Cutting through the vast—and often contradictory—literature on these topics, Reed avoids both techno-hype and techno-pessimism, offering instead succinct, witty and insightful discussions of how digital communication is impacting our lives and reshaping the major social issues of our era. The book argues that making sense of digitized culture means looking past the glossy surface of techno gear to ask deeper questions about how we can utilize technology to create a more socially, politically, and economically just world. Companion website available at: culturalpolitics.net/digital_cultures

The Power of Culture

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Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 144388782X
Total Pages : 603 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis The Power of Culture by : Priscilla Roberts

Download or read book The Power of Culture written by Priscilla Roberts and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2016-01-14 with total page 603 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China and the United States, two massive economic and military powers, cannot avoid engaging with each other. Enjoying what is often termed “the most important bilateral relationship in the world”, the two sometimes cooperate, but often compete, as their interests come into conflict. Both countries are separated not just by the Pacific Ocean, but also by their very different histories, experiences, societies, customs, and outlooks. Non-governmental, unofficial relationships and exchanges are often as important as formal dealings in determining the climate of Sino-American relations. For several decades in the mid-twentieth century, Chinese and Americans were virtually isolated from each other, trapped in icy hostility. Chinese scholars are now making up for lost time. This assortment of essays, most by mainland Chinese academics and students, focuses upon the role of culture – very broadly defined – in Sino-American affairs. Taking a holistic approach, in this collection over thirty authors focus on such topics as the influence of ideology, the impact of geopolitics, the use of rhetoric, soft power, educational encounters and exchanges, immigration, gender, race, identity, literature, television, movies, music, and the press. Cultural factors are, as the authors demonstrate, enormously significant in affecting how Chinese and Americans think about and approach each other, both as individuals and at the state level.

The Culture of Power in Serbia

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Publisher : Penn State University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780271019581
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (195 download)

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Book Synopsis The Culture of Power in Serbia by : Eric D. Gordy

Download or read book The Culture of Power in Serbia written by Eric D. Gordy and published by Penn State University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores how the Milosevic government prolongs its tenure despite failures and setbacks that would have, argues the author, brought down other governments. The answer, he maintains, lies in everyday life - the Milosevic regime has largely succeeded in making alternatives to its rule unavailable. By controlling key aspects of daily life, including politics, media, and popular music, it has undermined opposition by closing off alternative voices.

Material Culture, Power, and Identity in Ancient China

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108228682
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (82 download)

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Book Synopsis Material Culture, Power, and Identity in Ancient China by : Xiaolong Wu

Download or read book Material Culture, Power, and Identity in Ancient China written by Xiaolong Wu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Xiaolong Wu offers a comprehensive and in-depth study of the Zhongshan state during China's Warring States Period (476–221 BCE). Analyzing artefacts, inscriptions, and grandiose funerary structures within a broad archaeological context, he illuminates the connections between power and identity, and the role of material culture in asserting and communicating both. The author brings an interdisciplinary approach to this study. He combines and cross-examines all available categories of evidence, including archaeological, textual, art historical, and epigraphical, enabling innovative interpretations and conclusions that challenge conventional views regarding Zhongshan and ethnicity in ancient China. Wu reveals the complex relationship between material culture, cultural identity, and statecraft intended by the royal patrons. He demonstrates that the Zhongshan king Cuo constructed a hybrid cultural identity, consolidated his power, and aimed to maintain political order at court after his death through the buildings, sculpture, and inscriptions that he commissioned.

Culture and Power

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (812 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture and Power by : Paddy Scannell

Download or read book Culture and Power written by Paddy Scannell and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Popular Culture and the State in East and Southeast Asia

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136622942
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (366 download)

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Book Synopsis Popular Culture and the State in East and Southeast Asia by : Nissim Otmazgin

Download or read book Popular Culture and the State in East and Southeast Asia written by Nissim Otmazgin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the relations between popular culture production and export and the state in East and Southeast Asia including the urban centres and middle-classes of Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Thailand, and the Philippines. It addresses the shift in official thinking toward the role of popular culture in the political life of states brought about by the massive circulation of cultural commodities and the possibilities for attaining "soft power". In contrast to earlier studies, this volume pays particular attention to the role of states and cross-state cultural interactions in these processes. It is the first major attempt to look at these issues comparatively and to provide an important corrective to the limitations of existing scholarship on popular culture in Asia that have usually neglected its political aspects. As part of this move, the essays in this volume suggest a widening of disciplinary perspectives. Hitherto, the preponderance of relevant studies has been in cultural and media fields, anthropology or history. Here the contributors explicitly draw on other disciplinary perspectives – political science and international relations, political economy, law, and policy studies – to explore the complex interrelationships between the state, politics and economics, and popular culture. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian culture, society and politics, the sociology of culture, political science and media studies.

Culture and State in Chinese History

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780804765060
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture and State in Chinese History by : Theodore Huters

Download or read book Culture and State in Chinese History written by Theodore Huters and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many observers of late imperial China have noted the relatively small size of the state in comparison to the geographic size and large population of China and have advanced various theories to account for the ability of the state to maintain itself in power. One of the more enduring explanations has been that the Chinese state, despite its limited material capacities, possessed strong ideological powers and was able to influence cultural norms in ways that elicited allegiance and responded to the desire for order. The fourteen papers in this volume re-examine the assumptions of how state power functioned, particularly the assumption of a sharp divide between state and society. The general conclusion is that the state was only one actor--albeit a powerful one--in a culture that elites and commoners could shape, either in cooperation with the state or in competition with it. The temporal range of the papers extends from the twelfth to the twentieth century, though most of the papers deal with the Ming and Qing dynasties. The book is in four parts. Part I deals with philosophical, historiographical, and literary debates and their relation to the late imperial state; Part II with the multiple roles of officials, elites, specialists, and commoners in constructing norms of religious beliefs and practices. Part III presents criticisms by late imperial intellectuals of both state policies and social conventions, and examines official efforts to incorporate and utilize elite commitments to Confucian views of political and cultural order. Part IV discusses ways in which the twentieth-century Chinese political order emerged from a trajectory defined in part by the intersection of late imperial practices with Western categories of knowledge.