TRANSLATING MELANCHOLIA

This paper is about the (im)possibility of ‘the Black community’. Specifically it is about how the process of translating melancholia in talk on life stories makes ‘the Black community’ (im)possible. Its (im)possibility arises because translating melancholia leads to critical agency (Khanna, 2003 Khanna, R. 2003. Dark continents: Psychoanalysis and colonialism, London: Duke University Press. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]) in Black women's and men's talk on identity, belonging and community. I deal centrally, therefore, with ‘the Black community’ and affect. As affect, melancholia's ‘object of emotions can be ideals [such as “the Black community”] and bodies, including bodies of [communities which] can take shape through how they approximate such “ideals”’ (Ahmed, 2004 Ahmed, S. 2004. The cultural politics of emotion, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.  [Google Scholar], p. 16). To this extent then translating melancholia is performative, as Black community takes shape in talk. I use talk on life stories to show that there is an ideal in the form of a dominant discourse on ‘the Black community’ which is constantly disturbed and re-made by melancholic translations at the level of the everyday. This disturbance constitutes what I call a poetics of Black interstitial community. By poetics I mean how community means, not just what it means to its members. I am then not talking about physical boundaries when I say ‘the Black community’, but those of affect. These boundaries are circumscribed by a politics of ‘race’ which underlie inclusion in the Black collective and are continually re-negotiated through talk on belonging. Here, the significance of essentialist notions of ‘race’ for inclusion within the Black community can be no longer taken for granted. Last, I consider what this means for the continuation of Black anti-racist politics.     

The Organisation and the Mouth of Hell

FLESH

‘We are now beginning a two week consultation period—but let me say this [finger raised for emphasis)—if you are not for this project [dramatic pause) you ought to be looking for a move elsewhere’. (Announcement preceding a post‐1992 university restructuring, April 2002)

‘Hang on. I am just parking the car. I am walking into the building. I am now entering the mouth of hell…’ (Conversation with a friend who was calling from his mobile phone as he entered his workplace)

‘My heart sinks every time I have to go there. It takes away your spirit’. (Former colleague writing about her experiences of going to work)

‘I am nailed to the desk at the moment…’. (My email to friend in another institution) ‘Your email was full of Catholic imagery’. (Reply)

‘We live on that border, crossroads beings, crucified beings’. (Kristeva, 1987 Kristeva, J. 1987. Tales of love, Edited by: Roudiez, L. New York: Columbia University Press.  [Google Scholar]: 254)     

Taking culture (and race) beyond dichotomies: a reply to Gans

Gans' (2012 Gans, H. 2012. Against culture versus structure. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 19(2): 125–134. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Against culture versus structure. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 19 (2), 125–134) indictment of cultural sociology (CS) and his anointment of structural sociology would have us believe the two are incommensurate paradigms. I do not agree. I deconstruct this binary with theory and empiricism from the intersection of CS and the sociology of race and ethnicity (SRE). First, I redefine the project of CS, contra Gans' interpretation. Second, I refute Gans' assumption that ‘CS is not much interested in cultural processes' by demonstrating how CS is concerned with the process and action of the material and symbolic aspects of social life. Third, I examine why well-placed trepidation over ‘culture of poverty’-style explanations may influence a negative view of CS/SRE. Fourth, I map advances birthed from the CS/SRE connection that contest Gans' assertion that ‘CS has not paid much attention to policy’. And fifth, I show how CS avoids tautological arguments in which culture would be ‘its own cause’.     

Pathologising the victim: law and the construction of people with disabilities as victims of crime in Ireland

Victimologists have for many years explored the construction of identities associated with the ‘victim of crime’, and how certain groups in society are understood as more ‘deserving’ of victim status than others. This paper considers the victim subjectivities ascribed to people with disabilities¹¹ In Ireland, ‘people with disabilities’ is the preferred term to ‘disabled people’.View all notes as victims of crime in Ireland by exploring the legal frameworks that shape their encounters with the criminal justice system. The legislative bricolage that exists is shaped by disjuncture, whereby anti-discrimination measures grounded in people with disabilities’ equal rights to access the justice system sit alongside those that construct them in terms of incapacity. Criminal law overwhelmingly pathologises people with disabilities as crime victims, with impairment dominating their victim status. The paper suggests that notions of victimhood that associate people with disabilities with dependency and passivity will do little to raise awareness of the disabling barriers that characterise their encounters with the criminal justice system.     

THE COMMUNITIES WE ARE REGAINING BUT NEED TO LOSE

Michael Young and Gerard Lemos’ (1997 Young, M. and Lemos, G. 1997. The communities we have lost and can regain, London: Lemos and Crane.  [Google Scholar]) text The communities we have lost and can regain has had a substantial influence on New Labour's communitarian thinking. This paper critically examines a specific aspect of New Labour's communitarian agenda, namely, its use of public housing policy to rebuild communities in order to combat social exclusion on so-called ‘sink estates’. The paper is presented in four main parts. The first part of the paper discusses how, why and to what extent ‘community’ has been lost, with particular reference to public housing estates. The second part examines why community rebuilding is now seen as the solution to the problems caused by the loss of community on public housing estates and, to this end, pays particular attention to the communitarian values that underpin New Labour's third way. The third part of the paper examines some empirical studies of community in order to highlight the key characteristics of ‘community’ and thereby develop a critical understanding of what New Labour are currently seeking to achieve. The fourth part of the paper juxtaposes this discussion of ‘community’ with a discussion of emerging socio-economic trends that have been identified in the literature on late modernity and globalization. By highlighting emerging socio-economic trends such as residential mobility into the community debate, the paper concludes by criticizing the policy of community building as ‘good for you’. Our key point is that community building restricts the residential mobility of poorer households and exacerbates (rather than combats) their social exclusion because a key indicator of social inclusion is their ability to take advantage of the social, cultural and economic opportunities that so often exist ‘elsewhere’.     

The Professional's Influence within the Client System: Exploring Counter-Transference and Adult Attachment within the Therapeutic Relationships with Children Experiencing Abuse and Their Caregivers

A large amount of research has been completed on the impact of abuse and neglect on children's brain development, attachment and behaviour (Malinosky-Rummell &; Hansen, 1993, ‘Long-term consequences of childhood physical abuse’, Psychological Bulletin, vol. 114, pp. 68–79; Margolin &; Gordis, 2000, ‘The effect of family and community violence on children’, Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 51, pp. 445–479; Perry, 2002, ‘Childhood experiences and the expression of genetic potential: what childhood neglect tells us about nature and nurture’, Brain and Mind, vol. 3, pp. 79–100; van der Kolk, 2005, ‘Developmental trauma disorder’, Psychiatric Annuals, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 401–408). Research has also begun to address the impact on the professional's and carer's psychological well-being, as a result of working with children who have experienced abuse and neglect (Cunningham, 1999 Cunningham, M. (1999) ‘The impact of sexual abuse treatment on the social work clinician’, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 277–290. doi: 10.1023/A:1022334911833.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], ‘The impact of sexual abuse treatment on the social work clinician’, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, vol. 16, pp. 277–290; Trippany, Kress and Wilcoxon, 2004, ‘Preventing vicarious trauma: what counsellors should know when working with trauma survivors’, Journal of Counselling and Development, vol. 82, pp. 31–37; Conrad &; Kellar-Guenther, 2006, ‘Compassion fatigue, burnout and compassion satisfaction among Colorado child protection workers’, Child Abuse and Neglect, vol. 30, pp. 1071–1080). Psycho-dynamic concepts such as projection and splitting have begun to be explored in how children who have experienced abuse communicate their experience to their carers and the professionals involved with them. Some authors (Dale et al., 1986, Dangerous Families: Assessment and Treatment of Child Abuse, Tavistock Publications, London) have also explored the impact of the psycho-dynamics on the treatment team and the ‘splitting’ that can occur among professionals involved with the child. This paper aims to extend this reflection to also consider the impact of the professional's attachment history, early childhood experiences and current personal relationships on the child and caregiver's systems. Therefore, concepts such as counter-transference and adult attachment styles within the therapeutic relationship are explored and examples provided from my own practice.     

Generation and complicity in Zoë Wicomb's Playing in the Light

Zoë Wicomb's novel Playing in the Light (2006 Wicomb, Z. 2006. Playing in the light, New York: New Press.  [Google Scholar]) continues to address a central concern in Wicomb's earlier fiction, that of conflict between generations where the racist complicity of an older generation is addressed from the point of view of their children. Generation is, in Wicomb's work, not simply a concern for individual families but deeply connected to and reflective of the political legacy of coloured identities. ‘Playing white’ gains its particular meaning within the question of complicity – the association of whiteness with superiority, and the very real privilege granted to persons classified as white under the Population Registration Act. In the aesthetic theory of the German philosopher Hans‐Georg Gadamer the concept of ‘play’ is used to address the function of the work of art. The opposition between play and seriousness is, according to Gadamer, a result of a one‐sided focus on the player rather than the play itself as subject. The metaphorical use of play in the expression ‘play‐whites’ also suggests that the game itself is what has primacy, not the players. By addressing the issue of ‘playing white’ through a depiction of conflicts between generations, Wicomb's novel approaches history in a manner that evokes Gadamer's concept of gleichzeitigkeit (contemporaneity) whereby history becomes present in its enactment through the work of art.     

The construction of ‘alternative masculinity’ among men in the childcare profession

In Germany about 3%–5% of kindergarten teachers¹1. They are not usually referred to as teachers in Germany because no academic/university education is required of people wanting to work in kindergartens. The German word used to describe caregivers in kindergartens is Erzieher, which could be translated as ‘educator’.View all notes (for children aged 3–6) are men (BMFSFJ 2010). In this qualitative research on men as kindergarten teachers I analyzed how men in this profession construct masculinity while working with children and during interaction with (mostly female) colleagues, parents, and in the interview situation. Therefore, 10 men teachers were observed for one day in their working environment and interviewed in qualitative interviews. One main theoretical implication was the concept of ‘doing gender’ (e.g. West and Zimmerman 1987, Gildemeister 2004), which was adopted to understand the ‘doing masculinity’ of these men. Another theoretical basis is the concept of hegemonic masculinities by Raewyn Connell (1987, 2006), which was used, critically discussed, and as a result re-conceptualized. The discussion of the theoretical implications and the analysis of the empirical material showed that Connell's theory misses a type of masculinity that opposes hegemonic masculinity, just as her type of ‘complicit masculinities’ supports it. From the interviews and observations a type of ‘alternative masculinity’ was developed.     

Comment on ‘the economic marginality of ethnic minorities: An analysis of ethnic income inequality in Singapore’

This note comments on the article concerning income disparity among the major ethnic groups in Singapore, entitled ‘The Economic Marginality of Ethnic Minorities: An Analysis of Ethnic Income Inequality in Singapore’. 1 1?William Lee, ‘The Economic Marginality of Ethnic Minorities: An Analysis of Ethnic Income Inequality in Singapore’, Asian Ethnicity, vol. 5, no. 1 (February 2004). View all notes The article was written by William Lee of Lingnan University in Hong Kong and appeared in the February 2004 issue of Asian Ethnicity, vol. 5, no. 1. The authors of this comment work in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Singapore.     

DISEASED PARIAHS AND DIFFICULT PATIENTS

Amongst the diverse resistant strategies that oppose moralistic representations of HIV/AIDS and the stigmatization of people with HIV/AIDS, two modes of resistance frequently intersect within HIV/AIDS narratives: sick role subversions and humour. Sick role subversions in HIV/AIDS narratives form part of a wider shift from an emphasis on the patient as a ‘compliant, passive medical object of care’ towards ‘the sick person as the subject, the active agent of care’ (Kleinman 1988 Kleinman, A. 1988. The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition, New York: Basic Books.  [Google Scholar], pp. 3–4). The dark, black type of humour so prevalent in the age of AIDS in turn functions as a potentially anti-sentimental, anti-redemptive and anti-moralistic strategy. This essay examines the constructions of these joint resistant strategies in the ‘zine Diseased Pariah News and narratives by Rabih Alameddine, David B. Feinberg, Eric Michaels and Oscar Moore. In DPN, a ‘publication of, by, and for people with HIV disease’ (Shearer 1990 Shearer , T. (1990) ‘Welcome to our brave new world!’ , Diseased Pariah News , no. 1 , pp. 2 . [Google Scholar], p. 1), black HIV/AIDS humour not only functions as a survival tactic and a way to cope with illness but equally aims to reveal failing health care systems, to expose questionable practices of pharmaceutical companies, and to inform and mobilize readers. Alameddine's novel KOOLAIDS employs deflating techniques as part of its anti-redemptive and anti-sentimental aim. Feinberg's Jewish-queer humour is similarly anti-sentimental but his later work reveals the limitations of humour. The connection between humorous and difficult patient modes of resistance is especially noticeable in Michaels’ ‘letters of complaint and revenge’ (1997, p. 34). For both Michaels and Moore, writing in and of itself functions as a sick role subversion, rather than forming a mere portrayal of possible subversions. Moreover, these narratives hope to foster and inspire future modes and practices of resistance.     

From social movements to cloud protesting: the evolution of collective identity

This article develops a conceptual framework for understanding collective action in the age of social media, focusing on the role of collective identity and the process of its making. It is grounded on an interactionist approach that considers organized collective action as a social construct with communicative action at its core [Melucci, A. 1996 Melucci, A. (1996). Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press]. It explains how micromobilization is mediated by social media, and argues that social media play a novel broker role in the activists' meaning construction processes. Social media impose precise material constraints on their social affordances, which have profound implications in both the symbolic production and organizational dynamics of social action. The materiality of social media deeply affects identity building, in two ways: firstly, it amplifies the ‘interactive and shared’ elements of collective identity (Melucci, 1996 Melucci, A. (1996). Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), and secondly, it sets in motion a politics of visibility characterized by individuality, performance, visibility, and juxtaposition. The politics of visibility, at the heart of what I call ‘cloud protesting’, exacerbates the centrality of the subjective and private experience of the individual in contemporary mobilizations, and has partially replaced the politics of identity typical of social movements. The politics of visibility creates individuals-in-the-group, whereby the ‘collective’ is experienced through the ‘individual’ and the group is the means of collective action, rather than its end.     

VIA's visual voices: the awareness of a dedicated audience for voices in patient video narratives

First the authors examine the concept of ‘voice’ in one model of participant media research (PMR) giving special attention to parallel variables of hearing, begging questions about the ‘listening’ component of any communication process. Second, they describe the use of a research programme entitled Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA) and a series of ongoing video narrative projects with chronically ill young people at Children's Hospital Boston. Young people were asked to show how they see their own illness-centred lives by using videocam technology. Third, ‘visual voices’ as found on the videotape results are examined through Thompson's five kinds of voice used by participants living with spina bifida, cystic fibrosis and, in one case, obesity. We conclude that knowledge and anticipation of what we have termed ‘a dedicated audience’ is one of the primary variables in the elicitation of voice and the overall value of participant media research.

… [one] main characteristic of illness narratives is that they formulate and express a central aspect of being ill in modern society, namely the difficulty of giving voice to both suffering and to the lifeworld context of illness. (Hyden 1997 Hyden, L. 1997. Illness and narrative. Sociology of Health & Illness, 19(1): 48–69. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 64)     

Rethinking Theory

‘Capitalist racist patriarchy’ is how Zillah Eisenstein (1998 Eisenstein, Z. R. 1998. Global Obscenities: Patriarchy, Capitalism, and the Lure of Cyberfantasy, New York: New York Press.  [Google Scholar]) characterizes global inequalities and the hierarchies of ‘difference’ they constitute. This article assumes that feminist theory aims not only to ‘empower women’ but to advance critical analyses of intersecting structural hierarchies; that this entails not only a critique of patriarchy but its complex conjunction with capitalism and racism; and that such critique requires rethinking theory. Through a critical lens on devalued (‘feminized’) informal work worldwide, the article explores how positivist, modernist and masculinist commitments variously operate in prevailing theories of informality – including those of feminists – with the effect of impeding both intersectional analyses and more adequate critiques of capitalist racist patriarchy.     

Xinjiang’s geographies in motion

Starting from the idea that places are socially constructed, this essay explores how a place is established and lived in Xinjiang by the members of the area’s two largest ethnicities, the Uyghur and the Han. This article demonstrates that there are differences in the ways Han and Uyghur imagine and ‘live’ Xinjiang.¹1. Xinjiang is not a very fortunate toponym to use here because it is a Han-language term (meaning ‘New Frontier’) that was imposed during the colonization of the region by the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). However, since there is no other term that comprises both regions of Tarim Basin and Dzungaria and also eastern Xinjiang, I am compelled to use it. For a discussion of the complex question of toponym-usage in this region see Millward, Eurasian Crossroads.View all notes At the same time it asserts that Uyghur and Han do not establish distinct spatial relationships just because of their ethnicity, but also to enhance ethnic solidarity and boundaries vis-à-vis the other. This essay also demonstrates that places are historically contingent, and discusses the ways in which the influx of temporary Han migrants and settlers – and Han capital – has generated new layers of spatial meaning and new power differentials.     

Creating the collective: social media,the Occupy Movement and its constitution as a collective actor

This paper examines the process through which Occupy activists came to constitute themselves as a collective actor and the role of social media in this process. The theoretical framework combines Melucci's (1996 Melucci, A. (1996). Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) theory of collective identity with insights from the field of organizational communication and particularly from the ‘CCO’ strand – short for ‘Communication is Constitutive of Organizing’. This allows us to conceptualize collective identity as an open-ended and dynamic process that is constructed in conversations and codified in texts. Based on interviews with Occupy activists in New York, London and other cities, I then discuss the communication processes through which the movement was drawing the boundaries with its environment, creating codes and foundational documents, as well as speaking in a collective voice. The findings show that social media tended to blur the boundaries between the inside and the outside of the movement in a way that suited its values of inclusiveness and direct participation. Social media users could also follow remotely the meetings of the general assembly where the foundational documents were ratified, but their voices were not included in the process. The presence of the movement on social media also led to conflicts and negotiations around Occupy's collective voice as constructed on these platforms. Thus, viewing the movement as a phenomenon emerging in communication allows us an insight into the efforts of Occupy activists to create a collective that was both inclusive of the 99% and a distinctive actor with its own identity.     

The influence of state maternity leave policies on US mothers’ employment

This study examines the influence of variation in state maternity leave policies on mothers’ employment. Data come from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) [U.S. Census Bureau. (2010 U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). America’s families and living arrangements: 2010 [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hhfam/cps2010/tabAVG1.xls [Google Scholar]). America’s families and living arrangements: 2010 (Data file). Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hhfam/cps2010/tabAVG1.xls] (n ?=?1380) paired with an assessment of state provisions of expanded family leave. Results from a negative binomial regression show that job-protected leave greater than the 12 weeks provided under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a marginally significant predictor of women spending fewer years out of the workforce following childbirth. Results from a logistic regression reveal that mothers in states with expanded access to job-protected leave are less likely to resign from their jobs within 12 weeks of their first childbirth than are mothers in states with non-expanded FMLA eligibility. These findings decrease the uncertainty about the effects of such legislation on mothers’ labour force participation, and support expansion of eligibility in order to better support working families.     

How do others influence our attitudes? Analysis of the primus inter pares effect and mediating variables associated with this process / ¿Cómo influyen los otros en nuestras actitudes? Análisis del efecto primus inter pares y variables mediadoras asociadas a ese proceso

The study examines whether there is a primus inter pares effect in the domain of prejudiced attitudes, where there is hardly any information on this effect. It also explores the relationship between the prejudiced attitudes perceived in others and one’s own and how this relationship influences our general prejudice. To do so, we compared two opposite hypotheses in two studies. The assimilation hypothesis suggests that attitudes perceived in others influence our own attitudes and our general prejudice. The social projection hypothesis claims that our attitudes influence the attitudes we perceive in others, and consequently our prejudice. A total of 243 students in compulsory secondary education participated in the first study, in which the attitudes towards fat¹1. While ‘fat’ is generally not a socially acceptable term in English, particularly in academic discourse, the authors of this article have suggest that ‘fat’ be used in the English translation for the sake of clarity and accuracy, because in Spanish the word gordo/a (‘fat’) was used precisely because the study was on prejudices.View all notes people were measured. In the second study, 442 psychology students participated, and we measured their attitudes towards Moroccan immigrants. In both studies, participants considered themselves less prejudiced than others, and their own attitudes mediated the relationship between the attitudes perceived in others and their general prejudice.     

No child left behind

The No Child Left Behind Act (U.S. Department of Education 2002 U.S. Department Of Education 2002 No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (PL 107–110) Washington D.C. U.S. Department of Education http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html, (accessed 1 July 2004)  [Google Scholar]) has inadvertently engendered literacy programs that are often inappropriate or incompatible with young children's development. It overlooks children's need to access their many intelligences, especially those that enable them to negotiate between and among symbol systems. Inherent in its focus on “scientifically based research to inform their classroom” (Center on Education Policy 2004 Center On Education Policy 2004 Title I funds: Who's gaining, who's losing & why by T. W. Fagan & N. L. Kober Washington D.C. Center on Education Policy  [Google Scholar], 7), is an emphasis on “a standardized, explicit, and systematic approach to teaching reading to students at risk of reading failure” (Manzo 2004 Manzo, KK. 2004, 4 February. Reading programs bear similarities across states. Education Week, 1: 13 [Google Scholar]). Yet, numerous theorists recommend that young learners, especially those that are challenged due to learning disabilities, or cultural or economic diversity, can learn best by using alternative symbol systems that match their “stronger intelligences.” Premier among these “alternative symbol systems” are the arts. This article addresses the issues associated with No Child Left Behind Act and the educational implications of its repudiation of the arts in the literacy development of young learners.     

Organising time: contraction,synthesis, contemplation

In his exploration of ‘repetition for itself’, Deleuze (2004a), beginning with Hume, invites us to see imagination, prior to understanding, as site of contraction of instants and place of synthesis of time, through contemplation. But synthesis and contemplation here are not the deliberative work of the mind. Rather, they occur ‘in the mind… prior to all memory and all reflection’ (91, original emphasis). Working through Bergson and Butler, Deleuze moves us up and down different levels of his contraction–synthesis–contemplation triptych in dizzying whorls of mutuality of the active and passive. Down to matter, through its contemplation by the ordering of organism; up to memory and its potential for reflection and representation; down again (or is that up?) to reminiscence. In the process time slips. not by but in and out, as variously both condition and agent. Kant and Descartes are contrasted, identity put in its place, the difference between repetitions of the eternal return celebrated. Kierkegaard, Freud, Lacan, Klein and Borges circle this difference, both nurturing and threatening it as they invite in and expel the suffocations of the same. Proust, Joyce, Caroll and, finally, Plato’s Socratic cipher cross the stage of the page as imitation and resemblance transform into simulacra and ‘give… way to repetition’ (156). It is a text about time and organisation and difference worth repeating. In this paper, such repetition is enacted through a close reading of the temporal in Michel Tournier’s Friday or the other island: a repetition of Defoe (his precursors and his political economic apologist followers) through which time, organisation and their sympathies are revealed in the re‐writing of a ‘world without others’ (Deleuze 2004b Deleuze, G. 2004b. “Michel Tournier and the world without others”. In The logic of sense, Edited by: Deleuze, G., Lester, M., Stivale, C. and Boundas, C.V. 341–59. London: Continuum.  [Google Scholar]).     

‘The performative surprise’: parody,documentary and critique

Can parody help us to ‘re‐imagine’ the organizations and institutions we live with (Du Gay 2007 Du Gay, Paul. 2007. Organizing identity: Persons and organizations after theory, London: Sage.  [Google Scholar], 13)? Or, like many forms of critique, does parody risk being incorporated: becoming part of the power it aims to make fun of? In this paper, drawing on Judith Butler’s work, I argue that certain circumstances enable parody to destabilize hegemonic, taken‐for‐granted institutions (Butler 1990 Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]). I explore these ideas through a reading of the Yes Men documentary (Tartan Video 2005 Yes Men. 2005. “Directed by Chris Smith, Dan Ollman and Sarah Price”. Tartan Video.  [Google Scholar]). This film features a series of humorous representations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). I show how these act to denaturalize and effectively critique this dominant force in global trade. This paper discusses the value of parody for helping us to re‐think and re‐make particular institutions and organizations. In doing so, I point to the importance of creating a spectacle in which parody can travel beyond its immediate location, so that it can reach ever newer audiences with its ‘performative surprise’ (Butler 1990 Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar], xxvi). I suggest that the rise of the Internet and inexpensive documentary techniques offer interesting new ways for achieving this.