Search

In recent years, scholarship on postfunctionalism in European integration has drawn attention to how processes of Europeanisation are not restricted to policymakers, but exist equally (if not more significantly) in the quotidian. The 2016–2020 Brexit process and debates on the relationship between national identity and 'Europeanness' urge a new consideration of how Europeanisation is narrated in everyday discourses. This paper analyses British fictional portrayals of the EEC and EU and posits a new theoretical framework of 'Imperial Gothic 2.0'. Pre-2016 representations of the EU were entirely dystopian. But post-2016, Brex-Lit fiction has reversed this trend and the EU now appears as a flawless utopia. Early twentieth-century 'Imperial Gothic' saw popular fiction defined by themes of British decline and oppression by foreign powers; a century later, Brex-Lit has resurrected these themes by narrating Britain in terminal decline, reflecting cultural anxieties, a reversal of Self and Other, and a loss of identities. This 'Imperial Gothic 2.0' reveals anxieties which reflect and influence political action, and reveals the extent to which imaginations and narratives of the EU have transformed from depictions of a distant, technocratic entity used for comedy or conspiracy, into a site of intense emotional affiliation, nostalgia, anticipation, and regret. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of growing nationalisms and Euroscepticism, this paper develops the original concept of 'Everyday Europeanhood' on a theoretical level, building on related concepts, such as Skey and Antonsich's 'Everyday Nationhood', Billig's 'Banal Nationalism', Anderson's 'Imagined Communities' and Beck's 'Cosmopolitan Vision'. It applies the concept to the European Universities Initiative (EUI), seen as a tool to promote European identity, based on a common sense of belonging conveyed through everyday practice, among students and staff in European University Alliances. It is argued that, in the light of previous top-down European initiatives designed to symbolically reinforce a sense of shared European identity, the EUI seems more in phase with bottom-up 'everyday' processes of identity development. Taking the European University Alliance 'FORTHEM' as an example, core features, aspects, actions and outputs achieved so far within this alliance are categorised in the light of four dimensions of 'Everyday Europeanhood': 'Talking Europe', 'Choosing Europe', 'Performing Europe' and 'Consuming Europe'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the cultural importance of Jhumur songs within the colonial tea plantation societies of Assam. Originating from the Sadani language, Jhumur is a key narrative instrument reflecting the life and challenges of the tea garden laborers, particularly women. The study analyzes Jhumur songs and historical documents to expose the deceptive recruitment and exploitation tactics employed by the British rulers and tea estate owners. It delves into specific Jhumur songs to depict themes of migration, exploitation, and cultural defiance. The research introduces two theoretical models--the "migration-exploitation strategies nexus" and the "model of colonial hegemony and cultural resistance"--to examine the social and cultural interplay. In conclusion, the paper underscores the persistent resilience and cultural identity of the tea garden communities in colonial Assam, as conveyed through the emotive stories in Jhumur lyrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper explores the funerary epigraphy of contemporary Galician rural societies to contextualise it within social, historical, and linguistic dynamics. This hypothesis suggests an apparently contradictory record, with diverse primary sources offering apparently conflicting versions of the same process: while funerary memorials show an absolute predominance of Castilian as the vehicular language, sociolinguistic and historical studies suggest an absolute predominance of Galician. Considering these contextual discordances, different questions arise: how are these ambiguous contexts generated? Is it a methodological problem or are they real representations of ambivalent social dynamics? How can we identify them and in what kind of social processes? Accordingly, this work develops a twofold approach: firstly, an analytical methodology that collects relevant data from epigraphic evidence is provided, aiming to expose the funerary record and identify possible contextual ambiguities in relation to other available sources. All analytical procedures will be described, and the results obtained will be presented. Moreover, a broad historical and sociolinguistic perspective is presented, with the aim of contextualising what dynamics define and explain this apparently contradictory phenomenon. Secondly, a discussion about the problems of these discordances, their relationship with the discourses of power, and their analysis from the material register has been considered. Different theoretical and methodological approaches are explored to study these ambiguous records, considering their role in different power relations. The main objective is to reflect on how we approach ambiguous records in order to provide terminological tools to understand material and social contexts entangled in power dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will investigate whether or not intercultural philosophy conceived as a cooperative activity can be used to reflect and broaden the horizon of philosophy through reciprocal engagements by different socio-cultural blocs. We argue that the concept of social integration is met with so much uncertainty in a world where the influences of colonialism and coloniality bid to impose the cultural particular of the West on the rest of the world. This has created a divisive world of insider and outsider, superior and inferior forms of cultural othering. As a result, people often focus on the differences that exist among worldviews and experiences while overlooking the importance of social collaboration between different socio-cultural blocs. Our aim in this paper is to tap into intercultural philosophy, and use the framework of complementary reflection to illustrate how social collaboration can be attained by undermining cultural hegemony. To achieve this aim, we employ an understanding of intercultural philosophy as a cooperative activity and explore how it can help broaden the horizon of diverse worldviews with the purpose of reciprocal enlightenment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dams and other large water infrastructures are more than mere technical projects in Pakistan. They carry a special symbolic burden and are understood by the state as vectors of modernisation. This paper interrogates the making of a statist hydraulic imaginary in Pakistan in the 1960s and its continued relevance today. This imaginary posits a technocratic state as the protagonist in a national narrative of hydro‐modernisation. I argue that the production and dissemination of an imaginary of racialised internal peripheries as places of developmental backwardness is central to the Pakistani state's infrastructural interventions. I analyse images and narratives from state produced magazines and videos by contextualising them with respect to the cultural politics of hegemony. The paper advances debates in critical infrastructure studies via a critical reading of Antonio Gramsci's incomplete essay on the "Southern Question". It develops a tradition of cultural historical materialism—largely neglected by critical water geographers—attuned to the articulation of geographic unevenness, hegemony, and racial difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on theorisations of popular culture as a site of cultural hegemony and Bourdieu's sociology of taste, this paper is an analysis of social media discourses about Skhosana Buhlungu's song Dlala ntethe. Our main thesis is that the song became the locus of expression and contestations about ethnic identity. We demonstrate how the song, like all forms of popular culture, became implicated in the ideological battle for cultural hegemony in a highly ethnicised Zimbabwean society. The paper is based on purposively sampled Facebook and Twitter posts gathered via manual web crawling using the hashtags #Dlala ntethe and #Ntethe. A thematic analysis of the data reveals that aesthetic endorsement of the song became a marker of ethnicity. Findings demonstrate that taste for Dlala ntethe was subordinated to the logic of an essentialist Ndebele ethnic solidarity. Additionally, it emerged from the analysis that when it was expedient to do so, Ndebele identity was framed as a fluid cultural construct that is conferred or revoked depending on one's disposition towards Dlala ntethe. Relatedly, debates about the aesthetic quality of Skhosana's music reveal an ethnic double standard where similar musical offerings by Shona and South African musicians are not subjected to the same standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The autonomous global system of science, grounded in collegial networks of scientists, publishing, and cross-border papers, is expanding rapidly and spreading to a growing number of countries. Strong national science systems have emerged outside Euro-America. Yet the multipolarization of economic capacity and scientific output plays out within a continuing Euro-American science world regulated by an inside/outside binary. Global science remains primarily Anglo-American in language, leading institutions, disciplinary and publishing regimes, agendas, and topics. Non-English and endogenous knowledges are excluded. The article critiques the world-systems theory interpretation of relations of power in science. The determinist center-periphery model fails to grasp the growth and pluralization of global science and its relation with national science systems. It normalizes the Eurocentrism it opposes, radically underestimating agency outside the "center" countries. The article argues for a more ontologically open theorization of global power in science, in terms of cultural hegemony, and for an ecology-of-knowledges approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational "inclusion" has led to a debate about the appropriateness of special and mainstream schools. This paper adds to this debate by drawing on the concept of cultural hegemony to analyse the nature, purpose and value of special school physical education (PE). Eighteen individual interviews explored the perceptions of PE teachers, senior leaders and learning support assistants. The findings suggest that common sense cultural norms in special school PE are underpinned by an aspiration to develop the "whole child": physically, socially and cognitively. This involved the delivery of a broad curriculum that is guided by a needs-based approach. Special schools appeared to be taking a more open view about what constitutes PE, when compared to mainstream schools, which was also accompanied with a desire to embrace cross-curricular possibilities. We end by offering questions requiring further consideration, and by highlighting opportunities for mutual learning within and across special and mainstream schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, developed under the hermeneutic-documentary method, aims to analyze the role of teaching English as a foreign language in the Latin American scenario. To achieve this end, the research explores the following aspects: 1) It presents the conceptualization of coloniality as a fundamental element for understanding colonial legacies, the advancement of global society and the epistemic impositions present in the Latin American region. 2) Point out how English has become the hegemonic language par excellence, transmitting, more than words, a cultural imprint that codifies existence, by promoting globalization, capitalism, as well as ways of living and expressing oneself, which do not reflect the reality of the regional context. 3) Indicates the role of English teaching in Latin America, which has been determined by the development of instrumental skills, which emphasize the monitoring and evaluation of students, leaving aside aspects inherent to the understanding of culture and intercultural dialogue. 4) It raises the urgency of decolonizing the teaching of English as a foreign language, modifying the banking conception of education, tending towards a critical pedagogy and the projection of an inclusive society. It concludes on the importance of the decolonization of knowledge, the dialogue between cultures and the use of other methods for teaching English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines teachers' (mis)understandings of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in one school district in a socially conservative area of the U.S. Midwest. The central concern of this paper involves interrogating the way teacher conceptualizations of CRP maintain inequalities in urban schools by normalizing, reproducing, and protecting White cultural hegemony, including the colorblind notion that racism plays no factor in schooling. As the findings of this study demonstrate, a significant difference exists between what teachers in this district publicly assert as their proficiency in CRP and what they actually understand, believe, and practice. Ultimately, teacher attachments to deficit narratives hamper CRP's usefulness for critique of dominant knowledge, oppressive social structures, and racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores nineteenth-century U.S. foreign policy towards Hispaniola, particularly Haiti, and investigates Frederick Douglass' controversial stance on U.S. expansion on the island. Indeed, U.S. interest in the island started to take shape after years of non-recognition of Haiti and demonization of its revolution. After the Civil War, the U.S. government reassessed its policy towards the island and entered into negotiations to annex the Dominican Republic and a significant Haitian territory. Drawing on Gramsci's concept of cultural hegemony, this paper examines how the U.S. intertwined its narrative of exceptionalism with racial ideology to legitimize its nineteenth-century expansionist zeal. Of particular interest is Douglass' evolving response to U.S. hemispheric expansionism. The leading abolitionist, who firmly opposed U.S. interventions in the antebellum period, altered his views and strikingly aligned himself with Gilded Age expansionist schemes. This discussion traces the reasons for Douglass' shifting positionality towards U.S. cultural hegemony. It brings to light Douglass's aspirations to de-Other Haiti and put an end to its hemispheric exclusion and isolation. Therefore, Douglass' espousal of U.S. interventionist policy was contingent on the extent to which this expansionist policy advanced racial integration and diasporic egalitarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the role of public relations in Antonio Gramsci's concept of cultural hegemony, specifically in a counterhegemony. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s preparation for the 1968 Poor People's Campaign serves as a test case on how public relations can help subordinate groups confront a hegemony. This paper suggests that Gramsci's philosophy provides an analytical heuristic for researching instances of contestation. Examining counterhegemonic campaigns offer public relations practitioners a means both to think about and to intervene in the world more effectively. • Antonio Gramsci postulated principles for how to conduct a counterhegemony. • Counterhegemony needs a multifrontal approach and a unifying, master frame. • The 1968 Poor People's Campaign was used to study the role of PR in counterhegemony. • Study shows counterhegemony also needs long term planning to overcome fixed beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]