Cultural Imperialism

In the wide geopolitical context encompassing local as well as regional and international dimensions, what the research does is provide a modest yet novel and required contribution to the analysis of the dynamic between cultural influence and cultural relations
across the South Mediterranean. It focuses on the impact of primarily British and French influence on cultural relations in four cities and their respective countries, namely Algiers in Algeria, Beirut in Lebanon, Casablanca as well as Rabat in Morocco and Valletta as the cultural capital of Malta. The research focuses on Britain and France because of the dominant imperial roles they held in the Mediterranean as well as beyond and the influence they still yield in cultural affairs on the basis of this past.

This paper discusses the various definitions of Cultural Imperialism and examines and analyses the criticism it has received. It also discusses how relevant Cultural Imperialism Theory is today, especially in global communication, providing several case examples.

This figure shows the content of performances from each episode of 'Got Talent' in details. The singing and dancing performances are more other performances in 'Britain's Got Talent'. Meanwhile, the performances in 'China's Got Talent' concentrate on singing. It is obvious to see that the categories of either of the shows are different from each other on some national and more traditional performances.

Annexation and the Unhappy Valley: The Historical Anthropology of Sindh’s Colonization addresses the nineteenth century expansion and consolidation of British colonial power in the Sindh region of South Asia. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach and employs a fine-grained, nuanced and situated reading of multiple agents and their actions. It explores how the political and administrative incorporation of territory (i.e., annexation) by East India Company informs the conversion of intra-cultural distinctions into socio-historical conflicts among the colonized and colonizers. The book focuses on colonial direct rule, rather than the more commonly studied indirect rule, of South Asia. It socio-culturally explores how agents, perspectives and intentions vary—both within and across regions—to impact the actions and structures of colonial governance.

Over the past forty years, historians' descriptions of American women missionaries have ranged from martyrs to cultural imperialists to social activists engaged in with real people around the world to promote the welfare of women and children. New transnational approaches to the study of American missions abroad demonstrate that women missionaries were not a stock homogeneous group but a diverse group of individuals engaged in complex encounters with an equally diverse group of people in multiple settings. As scholars have highlighted the contributions of women missionaries to the projection of American Protestantism across the globe, they have increasingly recognized the importance of the cross-cultural connections that have new meanings of Protestant messages in local environments. Th is essay reviews the scholarship of the last forty years and indicates new avenues of research on American Protestant women in mission.

This article aims to explain in a theoretical way, but with practical historical examples the complex notion of informal imperialism. First analyzing imperialism(s) and colonialism as a whole, it will then try to caracterize and categorize more specifically what is informal imperialism. Comparing imperialism with the our understanding of space, a grid of understanding is thus applied to imperialism as a whole, to then qualify and address the informality of the phenomenon, and give theoretical tools based on practical historical cases for the historian and the political scientist.

La investigación desarrollada por Farrujia de la Rosa e ilustrada con fotografías de Tarek Ode, analiza los efectos del colonialismo y del etnocentrismo en la gestión del patrimonio arqueológico canario, factores éstos que han propiciado la recuperación de determinado tipo de yacimientos y la consiguiente recreación-invención de la identidad guanche. Procesos similares se documentan también en otros contextos del planeta donde el patrimonio indígena está igualmente infra-representado. Sin embargo, el caso canario presenta especificidades, pues la gestión actual del patrimonio arqueológico canario se desarrolla en un contexto muy específico e inusual, dado que el Archipiélago se localiza en los márgenes de Europa, pertenece a España y por tanto a la Unión Europea, pero geográfica y arqueológicamente es parte de África.

In 1972, two Mormon missionaries were arrested in Thailand on charges that they had insulted Buddhism. Photographic evidence of their offensive behavior appeared in national newspapers, and for weeks the press debated the meaning and significance of their crime. This article examines the media's reaction to the " Sukhothai Incident, " and situates the controversy within the larger context of Thai anxieties regarding the influence of 'Americanization' on local culture. It argues that Thai elites used the incident to promote pre-existing nationalist narratives that warned against the destructive influences of Western materialism, Christianity, and neo-colonialism. Reaction to the case became a touchstone that separated true defenders of " Thai-ness " from those " outside the religion. " The incident illustrates how ruling factions perceived that the American presence, not just Communism, threatened to undermine traditional symbols of authority.

This article is a critique of the US strategic discourse of "soft power". It argues that in the post-9/11 context of the US-led Global War on Terror, "US soft power" is an apologia and neoliberal substitute for what critical political economy of communication studies scholars once called US cultural imperialism.

This entry is a holistic conceptualization of the US Empire and the cultural industries. The first section conceptualizes the “media” dimension of US Empire and cultural imperialism. The second section highlights the global economic dominance of the US cultural industries and the role played by the US State in supporting this dominance. The third section focuses on the global geopolitics of the US cultural industries and their support for US “soft power” or public diplomacy campaigns that attempt to build transnational consent to dominant ideas about America and US foreign policy. The fourth section conceptualizes “the media products” of US Empire. The concluding section identifies some of the consequences the US cultural industries, US State public diplomacy campaigns, and media products may have within non-US countries.

This article seeks to reveal the impact of colonisation on Africa in general and on Nigeria in particular as exhibited by Chimamanda Adichie in Purple Hibiscus. It explores various effects of colonialism concerning culture, language and religion. Issues related to discrimination, white supremacy, linguistic and cultural imperialism are addressed. Also, the diversity of the Nigerians and their traditions is highlighted in Purple Hibiscus. Adichie criticises the role of the Christian missionaries in obliterating African identity and culture. She exposes the psychological impact of colonisation on the indigenous people of Africa and how such an effect has dislocated the cultural and social bonds.

Tanner Mirrlees

A critical cultural materialist introduction to the study of global entertainment media.

In Global Entertainment Media, Tanner Mirrlees undertakes an analysis of the ownership, production, distribution, marketing, exhibition and consumption of global films and television shows, with an eye to political economy and cultural studies.

Among other topics, Mirrlees examines:

Paradigms of global entertainment media such as cultural imperialism and cultural globalization.

The business of entertainment media: the structure of capitalist culture/creative industries (financers, producers, distributors and exhibitors) and trends in the global political economy of entertainment media.

The "governance" of global entertainment media: state and inter-state media and cultural policies and regulations that govern the production, distribution and exhibition of entertainment media and enable or impede its cross-border flow.

The new international division of cultural labor (NICL): the cross-border production of entertainment by cultural workers in asymmetrically interdependent media capitals, and economic and cultural concerns surrounding runaway productions and co-productions.

The economic motivations and textual design features of globally popular entertainment forms such as blockbuster event films, TV formats, glocalized lifestyle brands and synergistic media.

The cross-cultural reception and effects of TV shows and films.

The World Wide Web, digitization and convergence culture.

"Mirrlees explains in clear and lively language how the most popular and ubiquitous movies, TV formats, and brands are made and consumed―and he also explains why this matters. In a world where media continue to increase their hold on resources and their place in our lives, Global Entertainment Media is a must-read for media activists and students of culture." ―John McCullough, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Film, York University

"Comprehensive and tactically plain-spoken, Dr. Mirrlees’s cultural-economic study maps out the complex networks of production, consumption, and regulation that structure today’s culture industry, and offers a key for unlocking its meanings and functions in a neoliberal age dominated by neo-imperial corporations. In the process, this teachable text provides a primer―ideal for undergraduates―on key ‘macro’ concepts in media and cultural studies, like discourse, globalization, intellectual property, and postcolonialism." ―Mark A. McCutcheon, Assistant Professor of Literary Studies, Athabasca University

"Mirrlees presents a meticulously well researched, original, and insightful overview of an expansive field. Global Entertainment Media surveys a complex and ever-changing global media landscape, navigating the terrain with great clarity and authority. Mirrlees’s methodological approach, his deft theoretical analysis, and his wide-ranging and up-to-date use of examples and case studies make this a foundational work that brings global media studies scholarship firmly into the twenty-first century." ―Ian Reilly, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Mount Saint Vincent University

Ungkapan yang tak terbantahkan jika Ada yang mengatakan sejak zaman dulu Indonesia sebagai negara yang kaya akan sumber daya alam. Harum aroma sumber daya alam Indonesia telah menyebar dan mengudara di seantero dunia. Karena banyak bangsa-bangsa atau Negara-negara d ari luar Indonesia menjadi tahu dan terpesona akan kekayaan negeri Ibu Pertiwi ini.
Tulisan ini telah dimuat dalam website :
https://phylo2.blogspot.co.id/

The aim of this essay is to analyze misogyny in the eighteenth-century novel through the representation of women in Defoe’s work and to evaluate the degree to which Defoe’s work itself can be considered misogynistic. In order to do so, I will examine  Defoe’s previous works and how they influenced the representation of women in his novels with different rhetoric to that of his contemporaries. I will look at various approaches to Defoe’s works, arguing within the context of gender-specific commodification in Scheuermann’s, Laura Brown’s explication of Roxana as proto-feminist and Helen Moglen´s approach. Most importantly, I will present what I consider to be a new interpretation of Daniel Defoe’s heroines.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, media corporations began crossing borders and were widely believed to be carriers of cultural imperialism, development and therefore became one of the features of globalization. Approaches to media have changed. It is seen more of a source of information and entertainment. Understanding of the need for traditional societies to reject their roots, in order to be modern, has diminished. Cultural diversity has become a subject of preservation (UNESCO, 2005). However, new threats to cultural distinctiveness, related to transnational media corporations, are believed to be growing. This essay will argue that threats to cultural diversity are not entirely posed by cross-border media corporations.

Today, we live in a world where media and globalisation has brought us together to share and communicate through advanced technologies. Globalisation has enabled the changing role of geography and physical distance to become interconnected. It has also provided the means of instantaneous communication breaking down time and distance. Globalisation is often referred to as a “process rather than an outcome since” it has enabled production, trade and finance (Flew 2007). It is conceptualised in economic, political and cultural globalisation. However, it is through the linking of information technologies, that McLahan's (1962) belief created a global village which allowed people to live in an interconnected community on a global scale. In today's world media and globalisation brings people together, linking them geographically enabling them to share and acquire information. Although the term global implies that information is accessible everywhere and to everyone, some would argue that this is not necessarily true. Distribution is imbalanced in some parts of the world because it is socially and economically given. Furthermore, one implication of the global village is that the spread of global culture has become homogenised at a global level. This is associated with American imperialism through materialistic culture and consumerism. Moreover, it is argued that the content of Western media still dominates western values into non-western countries that produce their own media content as it is still largely controlled by overseas corporations. Today's notion of the global village is not fulfilled, as it hold inequalities in the spread of information technologies and telecommunications.

S.V. Dmitriev and S.L. Kuzmin. 2014. The Qing Empire as China: an Anatomy of Historical Myth. – Oriens (Moscow) (1): 5-17.
It is often considered that China is a unique state in the world which has been several times won by foreigners, but never became a part of any other state, thus retaining continuity of its history and statehood based on consecutive row of ruling dynasties. This view is based on ancient sinocentric model which does not satisfy testing by comparative historical approach. Our analysis revealed that the Qing Empire cannot be equaled to China. Although the latter term has been broadly used, it had different meaning at different times. Actually, China was only a part of the Qing Empire. Manchu declarations that their state is China (i.e. Middle State, most important in the world), are similar to those by German, Ottoman, Russian and other monarchs on their states' continuity from the Roman Empire. These declarations have only historical value and cannot be used for modern international law. The Qing and other "conquest dynasties of China" were actually different empires created by non-Chinese peoples. The Han nation-state: Republic of China and People's Republic of China (PRC) had acquired almost whole territory of the Qing Empire as a result of occupation of weaker neighbors, instead of continuity of one state. Modern concept of PRC as a multinational state of "one Chinese nation", that included "minority nationalities" at least from the Middle Ages, is a historical myth.

En este artículo se pretende analizar el impacto de la Guerra de Vietnam en España y cómo se interpretó artísticamente. Para ello se desarrolla un estudio comparado de historia social, política y cultural con el objeto de desvelar el interés que este tema pudo tener para los artistas españoles de finales de la década de 1960. A lo largo del discurso se constatan las relaciones entre la política imperialista de Estados Unidos, la dictadura franquista en España y la vanguardia artística neofigurativa. El clima contestatario condiciona la elección de unos temas por parte de un determinado sector artístico de jóvenes que pretenden batallar la opresión mediante el arte. Se apoyan en tesis derivadas del marxismo, encaminadas a enfriar la imagen y diseccionarla mediante técnicas extraídas de los medios de masas y de la corriente pop. Tras una mención a Estampa Popular, la atención se centrará en el foco de renovación plástica valenciano en el que se mueven grupos como Equipo Crónica o Equipo Realidad, seguidos de Rafael Canogar, Juan Genovés y una miscelánea de otros artistas que han tratado el tema.
//
This article aims to analyse the impact of the Vietnam War in Spain and how it was artistically interpreted there. A comparative study of history, politics and culture has been carried out in order to unveil the interest this subject had for Spanish artists in the late 1960s. Throughout the essay the relations between American imperialism, Francoist dictatorship and neo-figurative avant-garde art in Spain are established. The rebellious climate determines the choice of certain themes by a sector of young artists willing to fight against oppression with art. They rely on thesis derived from Marxism aimed to “cool” and dissect the image using techniques from mass media and pop art. After mentioning Estampa Popular, the focus will be on the renovation of Valencian artists such as Equipo Crónica and Equipo Realidad. They will be followed by Rafael Canogar, Juan Genovés and a miscellany of other artists related to the Vietnam War motif.

The notion of cultural imperialism implies processes of colonialism and imperialism which poses a relationship of unequal power, which connotes dominance by the West thereby making the East appear subordinate. Globalisation has been referred to as a phenomenon which has through the advancement of technology. Thereby, making cultural imperialist theorists argue that international communication has contributed to the spread of dominant western ideas and values which appear through the exporting of media products. Furthermore, the imbalance and inequality of the flow of information between the Western and developing countries has promoted and exported an imperialist culture through media content while utilizing a structure of communication. However, with the emergence of non-western countries producing their own media content, this has brought about a change in the flow and supply of media globally. This has been brought about the through expansion of global media and the deterritorialisation of cultures, which celebrates cultural differences while producing multiple actors in global cultural formations. This has made western media organisations realise that they need to work with local media in order to remain competitive in the market. Thereby, cultural imperialism model in international communication has brought about the strengths and weaknesses of the flow of information on global media.

Educational system in British India was in fact, a plan of control. British government wanted to facilitate Hindus therefore this system was destroying Muslim identity and recognition. Although, one of its prime objectives was to promote Christianity and western culture in Indo-Pak Subcontinent but its other features were covering interests of Hindus. Therefore, Muslims had been forced to give up getting education. This article highlights all the seven educational plans which are called seven terms of British educational system in India, introduced by the British Government according to the need of time. Impacts of every term are also presented here while characteristics of British educational system are covering the whole tenure of British educational policies in Indo-Pak Subcontinent from 1813 to 1947. The socio-political consequences of this system after the formation of Pakistan are also discussed here. HYPOTHESIS British educational system in India was totally against the Muslims benefits and identity. In fact, British East India Company snatched the rule of Indo-Pak Subcontinent from Muslims therefore it considered them as their big enemy. Therefore, all the seven terms of British educational system created fully negative impacts on Indian Muslims and they suffered a lot socially, economically, religiously, culturally, legally, politically and institutionally. But, some of rational thinkers perceived it as a reason of delivering defending thoughts to the Muslims. So, firstly they established their own political party in 1906 and secondly, they got a separate homeland in 1947.

Considering the prominence of TV as a visual medium, this study sought to know the influence of media imperialism and the claim that it has affected and undermined local Nigerian norms and values. It specifically examines the influence of Western media content on the cultural values of Nigerian youths using English Premier League (EPL) clubs supporters in Abeokuta-North Local Government Area (LGA) as a case study.

The accelerating process of globalisation and the increasing interconnections between cultures involve an unprecedented challenge to modern sociology. The explosion of Western products (particularly American) across the globe has rocked the culture and values of several societies. The spread of these products has raised questions and concerns regarding United States’ dominance in the cultural sphere. Consequently, it has prompted many to charge the U.S. with a new form of colonialism − cultural imperialism. Thus, the need to apply cultural imperialism thesis as the underlying theoretical framework for the study.

Finding out the Influence of Western TV programmes on the cultural values of Nigerian Youths would be impossible unless the investigation uses meticulous procedures that are systematic, imaginative, logical and accurate.For this study, the survey method was adopted because it provides the best means of collecting the views of youths regarding the influence of TV on their perceptions, ideologies and behaviours.

The study sample comprising 30 youths in Abeokuta-North LGA was selected using three sampling techniques: stratified sampling, simple random sampling and convenience sampling. Interviews were conducted personally by the researcher to gather data from the field. In the process of the data analysis the researcher engaged in memoing and transcription of the data. The researcher then embarked on coding and developing category systems.

Thesis Supervisor: Kola Adesina - Head Of Department, Mass Communication Department, Crescent University, Abeokuta

This article examines how the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and Hollywood collaborated to manufacture the blockbuster films Transformers (T) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (TRF) to sell in global markets and to sell a positive image of DoD personnel, policy, technology, and practice to the world. To show how, the article's first section defines the " DoD-Hollywood complex, " presents a brief 20 th-century history of its formation, and describes the current DoD institutions, policies, and practices that fuse DoD publicity agencies to Hollywood filmmakers. The second section highlights how DoD assisted T and TRF's production and contemplates why Hollywood solicited DoD support. The third section shows how T and TRF put DoD in a positive light. The conclusion addresses some of the consequences of T and TRF with regard to democratic theory.  This article  sheds light on how DoD interacts and partners up with Hollywood studios to make militainment.

Tanner Mirrlees 


From Katy Perry training alongside US Marines in a music video, to the global box-office mastery of the US military-supported Transformers franchise, to the explosion of war games such as Call of Duty, it's clear that the US security state is a dominant force in media culture. But is the ubiquity of cultural products that glorify the security state a new phenomenon? Or have Uncle Sam and Hollywood been friends for a long time?

Hearts and Mines examines the rise and reach of the US Empire's culture industry -- a nexus between the US's security state and media firms and the source of cultural products that promote American strategic interests around the world. Although the US government and media corporations pursue different interests on the world stage (the former, national security, and the latter, profit), this book documents how structural alliances and the synergistic relationships between them support the production and flow of empire-extolling cultural goods.

Building on and extending Herbert I. Schiller’s classic study of US Empire and communications, Tanner Mirrlees highlights the symbiotic geopolitical and economic relationships between the US state and media firms that drive the production of imperial culture.


Table of Contents

Preface: The Personal is Geopolitical

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The US Empire’s Culture Industry, circa 2012

1. The US Empire and the Culture Industry

2. Public Diplomacy and Selling the American Way to the World

3. The US Culture Industry: Still Number One

4. The DOD--News Media Complex

5. The DOD--Hollywood Complex

6. The DOD--Digital Games Complex

Conclusion: US Empire, Cultural Imperialism, and Cultural Policy, at Large

References

Index


Reviews

"A great achievement and timely contribution to the field, Hearts and Mines will rise to the top of all reading lists on the subject of media and empire, US hegemony, and the political economy of communication."

-- Richard Maxwell, co-author of Greening the Media

"A fascinating, provocative book that invigorates our understanding of the relationship between the culture industries and US empire. Mirrlees detonates prevailing myths about the ‘liberal bias’ of popular culture through a meticulous excavation of how imperial political interests, values, and objectives are woven into the production of news, cinema, and digital gaming. Hearts and Mines will change how you think about the politics of culture."

-- Shane Gunster, author of Capitalizing on Culture: Critical Theory for Cultural Studies

The globalization of media industries has proceeded by a process of accumulation or sedimentation of layers or spaces that burst upon the world media stage but gradually take their place as parts, often very important parts, of complex industries such as television. One of the first ways that this process became visible, historically, was through the growth of different kinds of television to fill different spaces. To continue this theoretical reexamination, several key moments from the example of Brazilian network television are examined and theorized. It is a prominent case of a cultural industries' growth from import substitution to increasing national self-sufficiency and then to transitional and global prominence as an exporter.

REPRESENTASI IMPERIALISME BUDAYA AMERIKA DALAM KOREAN WAVE (STUDI SEMIOTIKA UNSUR-UNSUR WESTERN PADA MUSIK VIDEO GIRLS GENERATION), 2014. Dzurotun Nafisah, Jurusan Ilmu Komunikasi, Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, Universitas Brawijaya. Pembimbing : Desi Dwi Prianti dan Widya Pujarama.

Korean Wave merupakan sebuah produk budaya populer yang berasal dari Korea Selatan. Munculnya budaya populer sebagai budaya komersil yang dikonsumsi secara massa tidak lepas dari sebuah dominasi media yang dikonsumsi secara internasional. Dominasi media massa yang berasal dari Amerika ini menimbulkan adanya praktek imperialisme budaya. Penelitian ini berusaha untuk menguraikan unsur-unsur budaya Amerika yang diasumsikan terdapat dalam produk Korean Wave. Analisis menggunakan metode semiotika Roland Barthes untuk mengetahui tanda-tanda visual yang mengarah pada konteks budaya Amerika dalam musik video Girls Generation yang merupakan idol Korea. Fokus dalam penelitian ini adalah kostum, setting, dan model rambut para personil Girls Generation dalam musik video.
Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa unsur budaya Amerika yang ada dalam musik video lebih mendominasi daripada unsur budaya Korea. Cara berpakaian, setting, kostum, konsep video, dan penampilan personel yang ada dalam musik video lebih seperti orang Amerika dan mirip penampilan Barat. Personel Girls Generation dalam musik video digambarkan sebagai seorang perempuan modern yang cantik dan selalu up to date dalam hal fashion. Penampilan personel dan setting yang ditampilkan dalam musik video selalu berubah-ubah dan mengarah pada unsur budaya Amerika. Dengan menampilkan personel Korea dalam kemasan yang kebarat-baratan menunjukkan adanya dominasi budaya Amerika dalam Korean Wave. Unsur-unsur budaya Amerika yang telah mendominasi dan menghegemoni secara terus menerus diimitasi dan diproduksi kembali dalam bentuk budaya populer Korean Wave.
Kehadiran Korean Wave sebagai sebuah budaya populer mengarahkan pada industri budaya, yakni budaya dikonsumsi sebagai komersialisasi yang tidak hanya menampilkan hasil karya, namun aspek visual juga memegang peranan penting dalam Korean Wave. Adopsi unsur-unsur Amerika dilakukan oleh Korean Wave agar dapat diterima oleh masyarakat secara internasional. Praktek imitasi ini direpresentasikan pada personel Girls Generation dalam musik video yang berlaku kebarat-baratan dan setting yang mengarah pada dinamika negara Amerika. Semakin lama menunjukkan sebuah praktek imperialisme yang mengarahkan kepada makna bahwa Girls Generation merupakan representatif negara Amerika, dan semakin menjauh dari budaya asli Korea Selatan.

Kata Kunci: budaya populer, imperialisme budaya, unsur budaya Amerika

Television formats have been known as the new type of business trade in TV industries. Since last century the initial model of TV talent show 'Pop Idol' was aired, the talent show business has been developed and formatted in more globalised world. Understanding how this business performing at global stage assists the studies on cultural imperialism within globalisation discourse. Also investigation on the global flow in talent show franchising is significantly related to cultural communication between the West and the East in TV industry and development of TV marketisation. This study explores the movement of cultural flow in two comparison groups of talent shows by: Britain's Got Talent (2011) and China's Got Talent (2011), The Voice (U.S.) (2012) and The Voice of Korea (2012). The research mainly uses textual analysis: content analysis and semiotic analysis to separately these two groups from different perspectives, in order to examine the links between the Western and Eastern versions of the shows as well as the existence of the contra-flow in the shows.

The Japanese empire's attempt to establish a formal schooling system within Micronesia beginning in 1918 followed its attempts elsewhere in East Asia. The ostensible purpose of these schools was to fulfill Japan's League mandate obligations to civilize and educate natives. However, the real purpose for these schools was to create a marginalized indigenous population that would aid Japan in its overseas commercial and political goals. This research demonstrates that the marginalization of the native Micronesian children actually hindered the Japanese state's abilities to transform the indigenous population into second-class citizens.

Japanese advanced toilets are the paragon of global standards and continue to garner international attention. However, few realize that Japan's history of flushable toilets is surprisingly new – they did not come into widespread use until the 1960s, at which time only 6% of the population was connected to sewage lines. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of Japan's transition from night soil to Washlet and thereby fills the research gap on Japanese toilets, which have, to date, remained largely unexplored. Using historical and literary sources, as well as visual aids, I highlight the developments that facilitated this complex and gradual transition and give a sense of the context surrounding the toilet habits of each time period discussed. I conclude that Western influences are the common theme accompanying each stage of the process and that the formation of Japanese toilet culture was an outgrowth of Japan's power struggle with the West.

Appian's Illyrian book (Illyrike) was originally intended to be just an appendix to his Macedonian book and today remains the only extant ancient work dealing with the early history of Illyricum which is preserved in its entirety. In this short work Appian puts together different local and regional histories in order to create a unified historical narrative and determines the historical and mythological coordinates of Illyricum inside the ancient world. This paper will discuss Illyrike in the context of the Roman construction of Illyricum as a provincial space, similar to some other regions in continental Europe such as, for example, Gaul or Britain. They were all firstly created through the needs of Roman political geography and later written into literary knowledge through the works of ancient history and ethnography. This paper will argue that Appian's Illyrike represented the final stage of the Roman construction of Illyricum from an imaginary to a provincial space, which was the point of its full coming of age as an integral part of the ancient world and the Roman Empire.

Citizen, Republic of the Philippines From its inception during the last years of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime to its current implementation under the second Aquino presidency, the Kindergarten to 12 Years of Basic Education (K to 12) Program has been criticized and opposed by a broad array of forces. The current administration rammed it down our throats, just the same conducting tokenistic consultations right there and then to make it appear that the scheme is not a top-down imposition, but never really engaging in genuinely democratic bottom-up dialogue prior to K to 12's inception, adoption, and implementation. It is within this context that we are duty-bound to expose the irrationality of K to 12, despite the prevailing notion that K to 12 is a necessary educational reform.

Representation of Malawi as a nation and its cultural concerns in Malawian Music Videos is an issue that has not been studied; thus, establishing the representation of Malawi as a nation and its cultural concerns in Malawian Music Videos featured in Touching Base and Urban Lounge on MBCTv was the study’s main aim. The main questions answered by the research were around the rationale or philosophy; content and format as well as people’s perceptions regarding the two programs. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in which primary data collected through a survey as well as observation and individual interviews was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Eight episodes of the programs were also sampled for content analysis. The target respondents comprised of the production team members of the two programs; viewers of the programs from parts of Zomba and Blantyre and local musicians with the sample size of 52 respondents. The study established that entertainment is the basic philosophy and rationale of the two programs. As such, their format is also made to suit the entertainment aspect by being sociable and lively. Adoption of standards that are western is a way through which the programs try to conform to international standards since we are living in a global village. However, the content and Form of the programs do not relate to cultural concerns of Malawi as a nation because they do not give room to cultural concerns of Malawi like language, dressing style and privacy regarding sexuality. Thus people’s perception is that the programs relegate cultural concerns of Malawi as a nation due to failure to accommodate them in the programs. Consequently, such concerns are not sold out to the audience, thereby making their adoption a challenge while the foreign ones that enjoy airplay get promoted and easily adopted.

Türk sinemasının ilk kurmaca (hikâyeli) filmlerinin yapımı ve seyirciyle buluşmasının üzerinden tam bir yüzyıl geçmiş olduğu hâlde, bu süreç hakkında bilinenler hâlâ fazlasıyla sınırlıdır. Üstelik ilgili anlatımlar maddi hatalar da içermektedir. Bu makale, söz konusu sürecin biraz daha aydınlatılması ve kimi inatçı hataların düzeltilmesi yönünde bir girişimdir. Bu yapılırken kaçınılmaz olarak Osmanlı/Türk sinema tarihi çalışmalarının sorgulanması, eleştirel bir perspektifle değerlendirilmesi ve birincil/orijinal kaynaklara inilmesi gerekmektedir. Birincil kaynakların, sadece söz konusu filmler düzeyinde değil, toplumsal yapı içinde şekillenen genel sinema hayatı düzeyinde de alana kimi önemli katkılar sağladığı görülecektir. Böylece tarihinden söz edilebilecek denli “eski” ama 20. yüzyıl başlarının “yeni medya”sı olan sinemanın Osmanlı’daki erken görünümlerine biraz daha açıklık kazandırılabilir.

O tema desta pesquisa é uma análise mais profunda das conexões entre as estruturas econômicas da organização produtiva e suas contrapartidas no jogo político dos Estados modernos tal como se processaram no Longo Século XIX, com o objetivo de avançar na compreensão do fenômeno do imperialismo moderno. Partimos da discussão sobre os fundamentos da Hegemonia Britânica, argumentando como desde o seu início ela era baseada em sua preponderância no comércio internacional, o que atrelou seu posterior desenvolvimento econômico industrial às questões do setor de serviços, dos transportes e do poder naval. Contudo, ao dar vazão ao investimento ferroviário, a industrialização possibilitou a expansão por terra do espaço econômico a partir do qual novas indústrias poderiam surgir. Países como os Estados Unidos e a Alemanha tomariam as conexões ferroviárias como ponto de partida para articular economias nacionais em escalas maiores de produção, distribuição, capacidades organizacionais e científicas. Essa é a base econômica sobre a qual uma nova rivalidade política, fundada na simbiose entre o capital nacional e o Estado e crescentemente apoiada no nacionalismo, passaria a se expandir no final do século conforme inovações militares diminuíam as possibilidades de resistência. A concorrência entre capitais nacionais colocou em marcha um expansionismo político que dividiu o mundo em áreas de influência crescentemente hostis que, ao assumir uma forma bipolar, resultou na Grande Guerra.

This paper analyses the vicissitudes of Hong Kong people’s waves of hostility toward visitors from mainland China, treating the hostility as exemplary of a more general but extensive problem of racialism in China. It has two intentions. First, it wants to understand historically how since the start of the twenty-first century, the simplicity of Hong Kongers’ confused response towards mainlanders has grown into a series of organized “anti-mainlander campaigns” and an allegedly “racist” phenomenon. Second, this paper seeks to document and investigate these sometimes-dangerous sentiments that characterise, confuse and overtake the Hong Kongers’ struggle for liberal democracy and regional autonomy. To do so is not to pattern itself on the Chinese state’s announced goal of policing HK’s status as a “special administrative region.” Although Hong Kongers derive small political benefit from such “campaigns,” they have few ways in which they can overcome the prospect of losing their distinctiveness and becoming one of the many cities of “global China.” Given the complex origins of this HK-mainland relationship in historical colonialism and global capitalism, and given the People’s Republic’s new power and status as a key player in the global capital order, Hong Kongers seek to express themselves through free speech, but doing so in a way which creates a public spectacle.

The first article in this section, by Eileen Meehan , updates critical political-economy research on the audience commodity. Television networks, advertisers, and ratings firms continue to trade commodity audiences. But Meehan argues that there are many varieties of viewer experience: "[W] e approach television as users, drop-in viewers, channel surfers, multiple screeners, casual viewers, focused viewers, engaged viewers, members of interpretive communities, fan consumers, and selfprogrammers"(165). Meehan's discussion of these novel TV viewer experiences contrasts with the old notion that TV viewers are "passive." Since the channels of mass TV broadcasting only allowed TV shows to flow in one direction, from a dominant sender (TV network) to a passive receiver (TV viewer), the audience was often institutionally constructed as mass of passive receivers of TV shows. Though one-way transmission is still a component of contemporary TV, many TV scholars are now less interested in making arguments about what TV networks are ostensibly doing to the audience (whether that be brainwashing them or engineering their pleasure) and more interested in exploring what people are actively doing, saying, and expressing in relation to their favourite TV shows. Using Web 2.0 technology and social networking platforms (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter), millions of TV lovers ritualistically and collaboratively talk about TV shows, create fan websites full of fan fiction, blog about characters, spoil revelations of reality TV shows, and vote for their favourite "idol." Television's mass audience of the network TV era is quickly morphing into groupings of very interactive TV show users.