A world apart: The multicultural world of visible minorities and the art world of Canada

On n'a pas accordé suffisamment d'attention dans les études des inegalités raciales à un processus de production culturelle qui conduit à la marginalisation des arts et des cultures des minorités. L'auteur de cette communication soutient que la politique du Canada à l'égard des arts et des milieux artistiques occidentaux, d'une part, et sa politique de multiculturalisme a l'égard des arts et des cultures des minorités, d'autre part, ont créé deux systèmes de soutien distincts, ou deux mondes artistiques inégaux, dont la mission est de contribuer au développement du groupe dominant et des minorités visibles. Le premier est le système formel, légitimé et hautement prestigieux des Canadiens de race blanche, le second un cercle multiculturel à caractère folklorique, marginal et peu prestigieux réservé aux immigrants récemment arrivés dont les membres sont en majorité des non-Blancs. L'univers artistique formel et le cercle multiculturel des minorités visibles au Canada se distinguent par leur organisation sociale, leurs règies de fonctionnement, leurs normes d'appréciation, leurs sources de patronage et leurs véhicules de communication. De la même façon, leurs productions diffèrent quant à la forme et au contenu ainsi que sur le plan de la valeur esthétique et marchande. La politique condescendante de l'État à l'égard des arts et des cultures des minorités et l'institutionnalisation des deux mondes artistiques distincts nuisent à la créativité et au developpement esthetique des minorités visibles. Les politiques canadiennes en matière d'art et de multiculturalisme reflètent et consolident une hegemonie culturelle qui perpétue la domination des valeurs et de la culture occidentales. Studies of racial inequality have not paid sufficient attention to a social process of cultural production that results in the marginalization of minority art and culture. This paper argues that Canada's policy towards Occidental arts and the arts community, and its multicultural policy towards minority arts and cultures have produced two different support structures, or unequal art worlds, for     

The art and craft fair: A new institution in an old art world

This paper focuses on the role of art and craft fairs in the contemporary stained glass profession. Full-time, non-traditional stained glass work could be considered a marginal profession in that it lacks a centralized source of control. The institutionalization of fairs is one solution to problems of decentralization in this profession.Three patterns of participation are noted for stained glass practitioners. First, some artisans participate in art and craft fairs as a stepping stone in their professional development. Second, some practitioners have custom-work studios and continue to participate in the fairs after they have established their studios. Third, for some the art and craft fair is an end, rather than a means. Art and craft fairs serve as a functional equivalent to apprenticeships and other centralized sources of control in the stained glass world. Quantitative and qualitative data are used to support the arguments. The paper concludes by discussing the applicability of these ideas to other contemporary arts/crafts.My thanks to the reviewers and editors for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This paper has been completed, in part, with equipment purchased by NSF Grant # CSI-8551728.     

Selling Tobacco to Minors

Abstract

The present study investigated whether clerks in retail establishments that sell tobacco products can accurately estimate the age of a minor. Two Caucasian females, aged 16-years-old, participated as Field Agents in the present study. One Field Agent entered 49 retail establishments and the other Field Agent entered a different group of 51 retail establishments to conduct a tobacco compliance check. Later in the same day, each Field Agent entered the retail establishments that they had not previously sampled, and asked the clerk to estimate their age. Thirty-four percent of clerks rated the Field Agent as 18 years of age or older. This finding indicates that merchants are not accurate in assessing whether customers who are minors are of legal age to purchase tobacco.     

Selling the cryptosphere in China

ABSTRACT

China, one of the world’s most clandestine states, is currently engaged in moves to make state secrecy a matter of public policy, even inaugurating a ‘National Security Education Day’ in 2016. This article explores some recent campaigns about spy-catching to show how the state is using crowdsourcing, content marketing, and prosumerist gambits to sell an emergent social space of civic duty that I term the cryptosphere. Inciting civic participation is a particularly deft tool for propaganda work of this kind, which pivots on performative ideology. The ostensible purpose of these campaigns is to enlist the Chinese people in the securitization of the state, but in practice this is a highly disingenuous move given that the realm of the classified in China is so vast that ‘keeping secrets’ can only be perfunctory for almost all of its citizens. So far, commentators outside China have either been amused by the state’s new forays into infographics and mash-up videos, or critical of their xenophobic messaging. But the state’s apparently light-hearted drive to remind the Chinese people of the need to track spies is only peripherally about foreigners. It is occurring at a time when the government is also trialling a vast algorithmic grab on its own citizens’ personal data via the social credit system; operating a CCTV surveillance regime of more than one million cameras; and conducting mandatory biometric profiling in Xinjiang using DNA, blood types, iris scans, and fingerprints. These policies, I argue, constitute the exoskeleton of the cryptosphere. But this new sphere also needs its soft padding. Propaganda campaigns which school subjects on how to perform the role of loyal ‘informants’ – at the very moment that their own information is increasingly being expropriated by the state – are providing just this kind of thought work cushion.     

不能承受之重与不能承受之轻——从Q版语文的热销与禁售说起

文学作品进入教材，成为经典的过程，是价值选择与价值赋予的过程。文学经典所发挥的社会控制功能，逐渐成为学生不能承受之重。作为一种反抗，青少年流行文化解构与颠覆经典，去经典化导致的虚无，逐渐成为社会所不能承受之轻。轻与重之间，需要的是走入常人生活世界的文学经典，需要合理适度的社会控制。     

Art dealers as competitors and community builders: Understanding the overlapping social logics of the contemporary art world

Art dealers are often described as gatekeepers who are focused on their own position as well as the status of their artists and collectors. We argue that this is an incomplete account of art dealing. The goal of this article is to explain how art dealing is a “toolkit” that does not exclusively focus on status building and social capital, but also includes behavior associated with accessing the visual arts field and community development. First, art dealers often have a background that has strong social ties to art, which provides them with intimate knowledge of the art world and social connections with artists, collectors, and other art world actors. For that reason, entry into art dealing reflects intimate knowledge of art practices, what we call “proximate connoisseurship.” Second, art dealerships reflect both competitive and communal factors. Art dealers may choose to work with artists based on their ability to generate income, social capital, and prestige (“competitive logic”), but art dealers may also employ a “communal logic” focused on friendships and creating community. This theory of art dealers is illustrated with excerpts from interviews with 34 dealers randomly selected from the rosters of international art fairs such as Art Basel Miami, EXPO Chicago, Aqua, and the New Art Dealers Alliance show.     

Selling the internet: A cultural studies approach to public relations

In the 1930s many argued that television would make for a more educated society but television became a vehicle to sell goods and services. The Internet is moving along the same path. In Massachusetts an organization called MassNetworks was set up in 1996 to ensure that the Internet gets into the classroom. MassNetworks is a non-profit organization whose board is composed of educators, government representatives, but mostly computer executives. Who stands to benefit from the insertion of computer technology in the classroom? The promotion of the Internet as an invaluable tool is the message of the computer industry, and only subsequently the voice of educators. The computer industry argues that the only path to quality education is the Internet. Don't other voices need to be heard?     

Art in my world: Exploring the visual art experiences in the everyday lives of young children and their impact on cultural capital

This paper presents data from a unique longitudinal study exploring the visual art experiences of nine children in two Scottish primary schools. Using a theoretical lens of cultural capital, the study is focused on spaces where children experience visual art and the value of these experiences, using arts-informed, visual methods. While each child presented a particular insight, the findings question the value of current school visual art experience over other spaces. The findings also demonstrate the capacity of children to resist the control of cultural capital by adults, engaging with visual art on their own terms.     

Selling retirement in financial planning advertisements

The nature of, and course toward, retirement are perennial issues that the financial services industry bids to define. We used a sample of print advertisements for retirement financial planning from 1997 to 1998 to examine how advertisers create structures of meaning for retirement. The model customer was an individual, conscientious and self-reliant, typically male, and financially sophisticated. Worthy traits notwithstanding, ads suggested to readers that saving for retirement is a difficult and anxious task, the complexity of which the companies stood ready to manage. The savings goal — retirement itself — was depicted in only a minority of ads, underscoring its life-course givenness and desirability. Ads with an image of retirement showed an emancipatory life stage of active leisure underwritten by necessary financial security. The ultimate commodity for sale here was rationality of a remote and near kind — an eventual retirement that is controllable, and a financial path to that state that is routine and orderly.     

Fundraising: From art to science

Principles of Professional Fundraising: Useful Foundations for Successful Practice, by Joseph R. Mixer. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. 275 pp. Finding Funding: The Comprehensive Guide to Grant Writing, by Daniel M. Barber. Long Beach, Calif.: Bond Street, 1994. 209 pp.     

Literacy in the modern world

Books reviewed in this article:
Clark, R. and Ivanic, R. The Politics of Writing
Hasan, Ruqaiya and Williams, Geoff (eds.). Literacy in Society (Applied Linguistics and Language Study)
Johns, Ann M. Text, Role, and Context: Developing Academic Literacies (Cambridge Applied Linguistics)
Lankshear, Colin with Gee, James Paul; Knobel, Michele and Searle, Chris. Changing Literacies
Andre´e, Tabouret-Keller; Le Page, Robert B.; Gardner-Chloros, Penelope and Varro, Gabrielle (eds.). Vernacular Literacy: A Re-evaluation (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics)     

Millenarianism in the modern world

Theory and Society -     

Assessing outcomes in an English authority (The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea)

The local authority has used the Looking After Children materials to develop needs-led and outcome-oriented services at both individual and strategic planning levels. A specific study used data from the Assessment and Action Records to identify priority needs and desired outcomes for young people leaving care.     

中小企业信用担保体系的国际比较与借鉴

中小企业信用担保是中小企业信用担保机构与债权人(银行)约定保证债务人履行债务,若债务人即被担保人不能履行偿还债务时,由担保人代为偿付。通过这种信用中介,可以增强中小企业的融资能力,分散银行的放贷风险,优化社会金融环境。 我国中小企业信用担保的现状 我国为中小企业提供信用担保的时间很短,但发展速度较快。从1996年《担保法》实施以来,特别是1999年6月国家经贸委出台《关     

城市人要关注"未来水世界"

一、城市供水窘境 水是人类赖以生存的重要资源,是城市存在和发展不可缺少的物质保证. 现在,全球性的水资源匮乏已经发出了警告.总部设在美国华盛顿的世界资源观察所指出:地球上可供生活、农业和工业之用的水资源正在"走向极限".1993年联合国确定每年3月22日为"世界水日",号召全球关心水的问题,重视水的问题,共同解决好水的问题.1997年,联合国又提出:"水不久将会成为一深刻的社会危机,石油危机之后下一个危机便是水."到下世纪,不管发达国家还是发展中国家,都将面临棘手的水资源匮乏问题.水资源将成为21世纪的重大世界性问题,成为人类可持续发展的重要资源保证.