{"title":"Soft nationalism and China: A case study of nationalism in short videos by US-Chinese rapper MC Jin","authors":"Jian Xiao, M. Davis, Xinxin Dong","doi":"10.1177/13678779231194370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231194370","url":null,"abstract":"In this article we introduce the concept of soft nationalism through a case-study analysis of short videos by US-born rapper MC Jin (Jin Au-Yeung), who is of Chinese background. Jin's creative output, we argue, with its cross-cultural and grassroots invocations of Chinese identity, ethnicity, tradition, language and belonging, complicates existing theories of nationalism. To address these complications we develop the term ‘soft nationalism’, to describe forms of nationalism that are neither ‘hard’, ‘hot’ and bellicose nor ‘banal’ or ‘everyday’. Like soft power, soft nationalism carries intent but speaks quietly, and is practised everywhere but often found in China, in the context of a recent surge of participatory online nationalism.","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43733170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘When it comes to the true crime community, Taylor is a legend’: Social and symbolic capital among murderabilia fans","authors":"Judith Fathallah","doi":"10.1177/13678779231191810","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231191810","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores and clarifies the usage of social and symbolic capital as applied to fan studies. It illustrates the author's definitions with a case study from the neglected arena of dark fandom. I argue that ‘social capital’ should be used to refer to the network of friends and associates agents possess within a subculture, whether dyadic, triadic or multidirectional, but that to qualify as social capital, there must be mutual recognition of the tie. I illustrate this argument through a case study of the online presence and persona of Taylor James, the owner and proprietor of leading murderabilia auction site CultCollectibles.org. ‘Murderabilia’ refers to items formerly possessed by or associated with celebrity criminals, particularly serial killers. I further establish that contra Thornton, we do not observe mainstream condemnation generating subcultural capital within this sphere, but rather, mainstream media attention can be negotiated by appeals to traditional forms of expertise.","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45326007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond peace: Media encounters between Israeli Jews and Palestinians as a new potential for connection in the face of violent conflict","authors":"Yu. I. Katz","doi":"10.1177/13678779231193447","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231193447","url":null,"abstract":"Peace is usually studied by looking at nation-states. Recently, peace scholars have become interested in peace found in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I argue that media scholars can contribute to this effort because they are well-equipped to capture fleeting manifestations of everyday peace. However, the problematic legacy of peace in Israel/Palestine necessitates a different conceptual framework. I highlight encounters in and through media between Israeli Jews and Palestinians and contend that they present opportunities for constructive dialogue. I demonstrate this point by analyzing the Israeli television show Arab Labor, focusing on its production process, and the plight of Jewish and Palestinian characters on the show. By fusing text and context, I suggest that media do not persuade people to believe in peace; instead, media encounters, both on and off the screen, function as cultural forums for discussing complex issues undergirding violent conflicts.","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44619004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The rise and fall of the Synthetic: The mediatization of Canada's oil sands.","authors":"Patrick McCurdy","doi":"10.1177/13678779231159697","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231159697","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The concept of the Synthetic is developed to trace and trouble the prevailing popular mythology of Alberta's oil sands and place the omnipresence of petro-hegemony into focus in a time of crisis and transition. The Synthetic is theorized as a period of petroculture beginning in the late 1960s with the rise of Alberta's oil sands industry together with a rise in oil sands narratives, docudrama, and the emergence of mediated or synthetic politics reliant upon processed images. Attention focuses on three mediated moments within the Synthetic beginning with the banned 1977 CBC docudrama <i>The Tar Sands</i> and the reaction of Premier Peter Lougheed. This signals the power and grip of oil's hegemony. Second, the short film <i>Synergy</i> produced for Expo 86 captures the thickening of synthetic culture and oil's saturation of the public imagination. Finally, the controversy manufactured by Alberta's Canadian Energy Centre over the animated film <i>Bigfoot Family</i> suggests petro-hegemony's loosening grip.</p>","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":"26 4","pages":"427-444"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10242668/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10350951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Online gathering in times of physical (im)mobility: Facebook practices of Malagasy mothers in France","authors":"F. Andrianimanana","doi":"10.1177/13678779231183005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231183005","url":null,"abstract":"Based on a thematic content analysis of 813 in-group posts, the study presented in this article aimed to analyse first the implications of (social) immobility and lockdowns for vulnerable communities such as immigrants and mothers among them due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and then how Facebook groups helped these communities to cope with such challenges. The analysis was conducted within Le Groupe des Mamans Gasy de France – a Facebook group restricted to France-based Malagasy mothers. It revealed that the group was used as a safe space of benevolence amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, a space for self-acceptance and empowerment, and a space for Malagasy cultural and identity anchoring. These findings align with Leah Williams Veazey's ‘migrant maternal imaginaries’ and Laura Candidatu's ‘diasporic mothering’ conceptual frameworks.","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":"26 1","pages":"750 - 767"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42602902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Almost South–South solidarity: The frustration of K-pop fans (but not true fans) in South Africa","authors":"Suweon Kim","doi":"10.1177/13678779231181412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231181412","url":null,"abstract":"This article illuminates the contours of digitalization in a less studied light of emotion. Based primarily on interviews of South African audiences consuming Korean digital creative contents, the research illustrates their affective responses, such as empathy and collective pride but also frustration. A particular focus goes to highly educated audiences characterized by the #RhodesMustFall movement in South Africa. Grounded in a theoretical framework which combines notions of distinction in cultural sociology and South–South solidarity in international relations, this study explains how K-pop fans in South Africa become holders of highbrow empathy trapped in the loop between digital connection and physical marginalization. In the hollow loop, South African audiences are distinctively invited to become fans yet prevented from advancing their own modes of cultural appropriation. While the international visibility of Korean creative contents may bring collective pride to fans in South Africa, they struggle to find their place in return.","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":"26 1","pages":"518 - 535"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47535508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The neoliberal perils of yoga and self-care on apps and platforms","authors":"Constantine Gidaris","doi":"10.1177/13678779231179739","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231179739","url":null,"abstract":"This article situates the digital self-care industry within a neoliberal framework in which I critically analyze the effects of modern postural yoga through platforms and apps. In specific, I argue that the neoliberalization of digitally mediated self-care through Instagram, YouTube, Calm and Yoga-Go not only place the onus of health and wellbeing on individuals, they also endanger the physical health, mental health and digital privacy of their users. In turn, the consequences of economic and political systems that have created many of the social conditions that push people to seek ways in which they themselves can alleviate the pressures and stresses of everyday life continue to be ignored.","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":"26 1","pages":"606 - 620"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43132813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The memefication of Squid Game and mimicry of Asian images","authors":"Sunny Yoon","doi":"10.1177/13678779231177724","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231177724","url":null,"abstract":"The memefication of Squid Game demonstrates the cultural dynamics of media reception in changing media environments. The dissemination of memes facilitates public participation and democratic use of media, however memes also aggravate cultural prejudice and contribute to the segregation of social groups. This study investigates ideological influences involved in spreading Squid Game memes. Squid Game and associated memes demonstrate the ambivalence of cultural dynamics at the global level and identity issues involved in consuming media and pop culture. Theories of postcolonialism and critical discourse analysis are applied to examine media production and distribution of Korean media, and its influence on the reproduction cultural prejudice in changing media environments. Online memes provide the particular impetus underlying contestations between cultural diversity and ideological conservation in our changing media environment.","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":"26 1","pages":"497 - 517"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43082425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hollywood on the Danube: Location management and the production of place in transnational media production","authors":"T. Havens","doi":"10.1177/13678779231175172","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231175172","url":null,"abstract":"Budapest, Hungary, has become one of the largest media production centers in Europe, even though the country has little local domestic production and few exports. Rather, nearly all production spending in Budapest comes from servicing foreign productions. This article explores the role that location managers in Budapest play in producing a recognizable sense of Budapest as a specific place, both on and behind the screen, in an effort to make the city “sticky” for global media capital. Throughout pre-production and production, location managers produce a sense for foreign creative workers that Budapest is both versatile and flexible as a shooting location. Ironically, while their efforts generally erase the specificity of Budapest, creating the impression that the city is as film-friendly as any other media capital, this erasure is precisely what makes Budapest sticky for transnational media productions.","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":"26 1","pages":"536 - 549"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46870765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The dead pig's photo album: Affective visual rituals in collective identity formation","authors":"D. Kirby, S. Özkula","doi":"10.1177/13678779231172788","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231172788","url":null,"abstract":"Recent research on visually mediated activism has focused on visual practices as forms of political expression. Conversely, this article will demonstrate that visuality is not only used for protest mobilisation, but that it also plays a significant role in solidifying movement-internal collective identity through a set of distinct visual rituals that produce a shared understanding through affect. Based on an ethnography of everyday visual practices and social experiences of visuality (online and offline) in the Save Movement's ‘Pig Save’ protest events, we identify three forms of affective visual rituals: (1) witnessing; (2) mourning; and (3) semiotic rituals. We argue that these visual rituals are not only expressions of shared values, but construct collective political identity through backstage visual emotion work (affect).","PeriodicalId":47307,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Cultural Studies","volume":"26 1","pages":"567 - 587"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48485366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}