In other words: Language mixing,identity representations,and third space1

This paper analyzes the use of Hindi in English newspapers in India to argue that code‐switching creates a discursive space – a third space ( Bhabha 1994 ) – where two systems of identity representation converge in response to global‐local tensions on the one hand, and dialogically constituted identities, formed through resistance and appropriation, on the other. The results of the analysis of data show that code‐switching: (1) reflects a new socio‐ideological consciousness; (2) yields a new way to negotiate and navigate between a global identity and local practices; and (3) offers a new linguistic diacritic for class‐based expressions of cultural identity. Based on these results, I conclude that code‐switching, as linguistic hybridity, is a third space where social actors (re‐)position themselves with regard to new community‐practices of speaking, reading, and writing. It is in this space that actors are presumed to have the capacity to synthesize, to transform: code‐switching serves as a visible marker of this transformation.     

Moving images of exclusion: Persisting tropes in the filmic representation of European Roma

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the most prominent tropes in the earliest and most recent filmic representations of Roma. Stereotypical images of Roma abound in many fictional features as well as documentaries, from the representation of Roma as eternal nomads to racially prejudiced depictions of Roma women and the alleged innateness of music to Roma. Because images and modes of representation change over time, the paper juxtaposes the earliest portrayals of Roma with those produced in the last 15 years. The analysis particularly centres on two dominant reoccurring tropes: types of spaces typically occupied by Roma in film, that is the lack of a place or so-called placeless-ness of Roma; the gendered other, or the Roma woman and the culturally and ethnically othered Roma musician. Ultimately, by analysing how these tropes have persisted in varying forms over 100 years, this work points to the filmic imagery that perpetuates antiziganism, but also how the same has changed over the years to offer possible counter-narratives.     

Sustaining a democratic innovation: a study of three e-participatory budgets in Belo Horizonte

This article explores the transition from democratic innovation to institutionalised political process of e-participatory budgeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Applying a multimethod approach (content analysis, interviews and social media monitoring) regarding the last three editions (2008, 2011 and 2013), it considers how the proponents and organisers of ePB conceive its function in relation to the representative mechanisms that surround it; how the citizens of Belo Horizonte have responded to it in relation to their experience of being represented; and how governments seeking to institutionalise democratic innovations with a view to establishing more direct forms of representation might learn from this exercise.     

Countering technocracy: “natural” birth in The Business of Being Born and Call the Midwife

Feminist media studies scholars concur that representations of childbirth in popular media normalize medical domination of maternity care and women’s subordination to it. This article aims to fill the gap in the dearth of academic analysis of alternative representations of childbearing by examining the documentary film The Business of Being Born and the BBC TV drama series Call the Midwife. Although they are situated in disparate socio-historical contexts, both productions push against medicalization and present positive images of “natural” childbirth. Business systematically critiques medicalization of birth in the US and presents midwifery-assisted homebirth as the solution. Call counters the dogma of necessary medical attention during childbirth by showing how midwifery dominated during the mid-twentieth century in a London neighborhood. Call also portrays midwives and a physician collaboratively providing maternal care in an impoverished neighborhood. Reviewed together, Business and Call augment each other as the former reveals the contemporary struggles and solutions devised to de-medicalize birth and the latter serves as an example of how homebirths may be supported by medico–midwifery collaboration in an urban community.     

A stochastic representation for the lp-norm symmetric distribution and its applications

The family of l_p-norm symmetric distributions was proposed by Yue and Ma and is a natural generalization to the family of l₁-norm symmetric distributions studied by Fang et al. In this article, we propose a stochastic representation for the l_p-norm symmetric distribution for any constant p > 0. The stochastic representation is expressed through independent and identically distributed uniform U(0, 1) random variables. It is illustrated that the stochastic representation can be applied to statistical simulation and uniform experimental design.     

The body as experienced: an embodied approach to the packaging of the Dai river bathing custom in Xishuang Banna,China

This article looks at the filming of the Dai river bathing custom by the media professionals for tourism promotion in Xishuang Banna, China. It speaks to the previous scholarships that have studied the Otherness of ethnic minorities in China's mainstream and popular representations. Yet this case contextualizes this issue in the era of China's domestic tourism, when ethnic cultures and bodies are increasingly put on display, experienced, and (re-)produced through individualized, immediate, embodied encounters in tourist zones. By taking embodied experiences to the center, this article studies the touristic representation of ethnic minorities as China's national Others from an angle of embodiment. It inquires how the embodied experiences of both media professionals and Dai bathers at the filming constitute the very process during which Otherness, difference, and selfness are perceived, actualized, and (re-)produced in localized reality and at the grassroots level.     

The problem with inspiration porn: a tentative definition and a provisional critique

The term ‘inspiration porn’ is associated with disability advocacy in general and the late activist and comedian Stella Young in particular. It has come into widespread usage over the last few years. I propose the following definition: ‘Inspiration porn is the representation of disability as a desirable but undesired characteristic, usually by showing impairment as a visually or symbolically distinct biophysical deficit in one person, a deficit that can and must be overcome through the display of physical prowess.’ Inspiration porn superficially appears linked only to medical model/personal tragedy framings of disability, but on closer inspection resonates strongly with the disability movement’s advocacy of empowerment and affirmation.     

本地媒体与城市形象之形塑：再现、场域与认同——-以广州为个案的实证研究

广州本地媒体中的广州城市形象以中性和正面为主,而政府在广州城市形象的形塑过程中占据着主导地位。由于报道主题不均衡、消息来源多元化程度不够等原因,广州媒体中的广州城市形象呈现出一幅“以权力为中心”的失衡图景,并隐含着种种权力与关系渗透以及控制的痕迹。因此,本地媒体中的广州城市形象,实际上是一种意义化的再现,是多种场域互动、协商中的话语生产,也是一种城市认同的培养与形成。     

The multivariate component zero-inflated Poisson model for correlated count data analysis

Multivariate zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) distributions are important tools for modelling and analysing correlated count data with extra zeros. Unfortunately, existing multivariate ZIP distributions consider only the overall zero-inflation while the component zero-inflation is not well addressed. This paper proposes a flexible multivariate ZIP distribution, called the multivariate component ZIP distribution, in which both the overall and component zero-inflations are taken into account. Likelihood-based inference procedures including the calculation of maximum likelihood estimates of parameters in the model without and with covariates are provided. Simulation studies indicate that the performance of the proposed methods on the multivariate component ZIP model is satisfactory. The Australia health care utilisation data set is analysed to demonstrate that the new distribution is more appropriate than the existing multivariate ZIP distributions.     

Individual Sense of Justice: A Utility Representation

We present an axiomatic model depicting the choice behavior of a self‐interest seeking moral individual over random allocation procedures. Individual preferences are decomposed into a self‐interest component and a component representing the individual's moral value judgment. Each component has a distinct utility representation, and the preference relation depicting the choice behavior is representable by a real‐valued function defined on the components utilities. The utility representing the self‐interest component is linear and the utility representing the individual's moral value judgment is quasi‐concave. The addition of a hexagon condition implies that the utility representing the individual's preference is additively separable in the components utilities.