Creative industries in China : four perspectives on social transformation

In late 2004, the concept of the creative industries arrived in China. It was warmly welcomed in Shanghai then subsequently adopted with some degree of caution in Beijing. In the years since, officials, scholars, practitioners, entrepreneurs and developers have exploited of the idea of creative industries, and a range of associated terms, to construct an alternative vision of an emerging China. In 2009, Li Wuwei, the Director of the Shanghai Creative Industries Association, himself a leading player in national political reform, released a book titled Creativity is Changing China (Chuangyi gaibian Zhongguo), subsequently translated as Creative Industries Are Changing China in English. The paper investigates the uptake of the creative industries in China and asks: can they really change China, or are they just rearranging the cultural landscape in some cities?

Parent-child communication: The impact of globalisation and rapid social transformation in Khulais – Saudi Arabia

This qualitative study of parent-child communication examined the views of parents and children in a province of Saudi Arabia concerning how family interactions, parental authority and children’s behaviours are affected by the globalising influences of media and technology. Impacts reported include how tension in family communication arises as children develop a hybrid culture through accessing Western ideas and ideologies that are profoundly challenging to traditional Islamic culture.

Religion, emotions and social transformation along migratory processes. The cases of African church leaders in Spain and South Africa

221 p.

Social media and its impact on crisis communication: Case studies of Twitter use in emergency management in Australia and New Zealand

There is a growing awareness worldwide of the significance of social media to communication in times of both natural and human-created disasters and crises. While the media have long been used as a means of broadcasting messages to communities in times of crisis – bushfires, floods, earthquakes etc. – the significance of social media in enabling many-to-many communication through ubiquitous networked computing and mobile media devices is becoming increasingly important in the fields of disaster and emergency management. This paper undertakes an analysis of the uses made of social media during two recent natural disasters: the January 2011 floods in Brisbane and South-East Queensland in Australia, and the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is part of a wider project being undertaken by a research team based at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, that is working with the Queensland Department of Community Safety (DCS) and the EIDOS Institute, and funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through its Linkages program. The project combines large-scale, quantitative social media tracking and analysis techniques with qualitative cultural analysis of communication efforts by citizens and officials, to enable both emergency management authorities and news media organisations to develop, implement, and evaluate new social media strategies for emergency communication.

You are now entering the Twittersphere! Where EE meets social media

“Humans did not weave web 2.0, they are merely a strand in it. Whatever they do to the interweb, they do to themselves.” Is social media just a diversionary gimmick? A passing phase? The latest craze? Or can social media be socially ‘transformative’ media with an integral place in EE pedagogies? In this paper I will examine the affordances of Web 2.0 (and 3.0) technologies, such as social media, in the light of differences in perceptions of what technology represents underpinned by comparative theories of technology. An instrumental theory (or neutralist approach) of technology is one which views technology as a ‘tool’ without any inherent value whereas a critical theory of technology views technology as a site of struggle, of power relationships and of social transformation. From a critical perspective Web 2.0 (and 3.0) technologies have the capacity to democratise the knowledge economy by turning knowledge consumers into “prod-users” (Bruns, 2008); to promote ubiquitous learning; and to facilitate collaboration through online Communities of Practice. However, applying a critical technology perspective means that we also need to consider that web technologies are not a panacea: misappropriation and indiscriminate use of technology; substitution for valid EE experiences; environmental impacts; and exacerbating the digital divide are the flip side of the coin (W. J. Rohwedder, 1999).

A contribuição do hip-hop para a construção de pedagogias de resistência e de transformação social

O presente estudo entende que as várias formas de resistência popular somente podem arrancar da luta cotidiana os caminhos para a superação de todo tipo de exploração e opressão se assumirem um caráter pedagógico e contra-hegemônico. No caso do movimento hip-hop, tal caráter se expressa na elaboração de formas de resistência que lançam mão da cultura própria das comunidades pobres das grandes cidades para organizar formas concretas de protesto, organização e luta. Para responder às indagações colocadas por esta hipótese escolheu-se como objeto de estudo a atuação do coletivo fluminense de hip-hop Lutarmada, que participa das ações dos movimentos sociais do estado e em nível nacional. Suas intervenções por meio do rap, do grafite e do break unem arte, cultura, atividades de formação e conscientização contra-hegemônica que procuram apontar caminhos rebeldes e emancipadores para a juventude negra

¿“Primavera árabe” o reconfiguración imperial?: esperanzas y límites de la movilización social en el Medio Oriente (Coyuntura)

El presente artículo no pretende aportar respuestas definitivas a las preguntas formuladas, menos alimentar pronósticos. Busca, de manera crítica, fomentar el planteamiento de nuevas interrogaciones que contribuyan a un acercamiento científico, es decir anti-mediático, respecto de fenómenos presentes en la actualidad del Medio Oriente. ¿La fuerza espontánea de la movilización social logrará superar la inercia de las dinámicas imperiales que ritmaron la historia política del Medio Oriente? ¿Podrá romper las cadenas del círculo vicioso de la maldición de la abundancia? Estas preguntas quedan enteras. Sin embargo, una posible respuesta no se verá en la mal llamada “primavera árabe” un fin en sí, sino el comienzo de un despertar colectivo. El fortalecimiento de las capacidades organizativas y movilizadoras de las masas populares del Medio Oriente constituye, sin duda, un primer paso fundamental para el arranque de un proceso histórico nuevo, dominado por los afanes de emancipación.