What is Flint? Place,storytelling, and social media narrative reclamation during the Flint water crisis

ABSTRACT

The Flint Water Crisis became a national news story in January of 2016, when major publishers such as The New York Times began covering the story. In the same month, an influx of social media activism occurred in response to the crisis, with citizens developing hashtag campaigns such as #FlintFwd in order to disseminate news and stories from a citizen’s perspective; these campaigns often positioned Flint positively ? as a recovering community ? rather than a city in the middle of a public health crisis, and often addressed not a national public but a local audience. This paper considers Flint-based social media activity to investigate the emergence of place-based activism within the ostensibly global network of social media. In doing so, it identifies three key themes; 1) leveraging social media to forward a critique of deficient journalistic storytelling; 2) using the affective process of storytelling via social media to claim authority over their own material offline existence, and 3) using place-based storytelling to implicate others as witnesses via the global network of social media. These themes coalesce around a distinctly critical logic of connectivity. This logic extends the notion of connectivity articulated by Van Dijck and Poell [2013. Understanding social media logic. Media and Communication, 1(1), 2–14.] and the strategies of platform activism explored by Tufekci [2017. Twitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest. New Haven: Yale University Press.] to explain how social media works to expose discrepancies between the public story of the water crisis and material, lived conditions of Flint, rendering visible a discursive identity of Flint thus far unrecognized.     

Toward a sociology of global comparative placemaking

I call for a globally informed sociology of comparative placemaking that integrates historical and contemporary processes and includes the ephemeral, institutional, and personal. By placemaking, I am referring to the explicit or tacit cooperation among people to create, maintain, and give meaning to places in space through bodily occupation given differential resources and constraints. I review select place, space, and community-based literature about urban, Black, migrant, LGBTQ, and international populations to think about how we can build upon and integrate multiple theoretical, methodological, and epistemological insights to form an explicit placemaking research agenda. A US focus on neighborhoods contrasts with a comparative examination of global urban networks, social polarization, and transformation of the built environment in the interdisciplinary field of global urban studies (Ren, 2018). I argue for a placemaking research agenda that bridges insight from US Urban Sociology with Global Urban Studies to consider how various structures and actors constrain and facilitate place projects. With a globally reaching and comparatively informed sociology of placemaking, we can illuminate our multi-structured story of place and agency in context. We can answer questions about how and why we co-create and are simultaneously disciplined by the process of creation.     

蒙古族“风水宝地出英雄”母题之历史文化渊源

“风水宝地出英雄”,这是蒙古族地名传说的主要母题之一。本文立足于蒙古族地名传说中的英雄与故乡之间的关系,通过对其传统文化渊源、社会历史根源等诸层面的分析,认为该母题是在科尔沁特殊的社会历史条件下产生的,是蒙古人故乡崇拜与英雄崇拜相结合的产物。     

贾岛为僧及还俗时间地点考

贾岛出家及还俗的时间地点问题是贾岛生平仕历研究的一个重要问题。通过对现有史料记载以及贾岛等人诗文的考证分析,可知贾岛贞元九年(793)在北岳恒山出家为僧,时年15岁。后曾住洛阳石楼及嵩山一带。贞元十七年(801)在石楼与韩愈初次相识。元和六年(811)春在洛阳又遇到时任河南县令的韩愈,同年秋跟随韩愈赴长安准备应进士举,但并未马上还俗。冬十一月返回家乡范阳,处理僧俗事务。至迟于次年即元和七年(812)春还俗并参加进士考试,时年34岁。     

自我体认与本土方位——关于甘肃民间美术地域文化生成的思考

独特的地域环境和民族文化背景在甘肃原生态民间美术数千年的生存与发展中始终扮演着一个十分重要的角色.然而,在全球一体化进程中,这两大因素不同程度的蜕变使民间美术正面临着被逐渐同化甚至日益消亡的趋势.本文通过实证的方法,针对甘肃民间美术的地域生存环境和民族文化背景两方面因素,立足于民族文化的本土立场来思考当前甘肃民间美术在多元文化走向一体化的过程中如何实现自我体认和本土化定位从而维护自身的生存与发展.     

入世对中国传统文化的冲击与对策

如今中国加入世贸组织 ,中外文化在一种更加复杂和多元化的时代更深入地“亲密接触”已是有目共睹的事实 ,不同文化之间的相互影响、渗透甚至融合十分必要。因此 ,入世后中国传统文化究竟如何实现面向世界、面向未来、面向现代化的转变是我们急待解决的问题。解决这个问题的最佳解决方案是既应中西融会 ,但更要立足本土。     

试论教育现代化与加强中华民族凝聚力的关系

新时期,国内外政治、经济、科技发展所带来现代人民族精神家园的失落及东西方文明之间的冲突对中华民族凝聚力提出了新的挑战。教育现代化从国家的统一、政权的巩固、经济、传统文化的发展等方面,对形成与巩固中华民族凝聚力发挥着强大作用。在全球视野中发展本土文化是中华民族永葆凝聚力的动力源泉。     

大江健三郎的文学“返乡”原因初探

故乡是大江健三郎在几十年文学生涯中不断书写的对象.故乡是想象力的源泉,是自卑情结的宿命之地,是大江打开文学新局面的必然选择.     

本土诗歌经验对于戴望舒象征主义接受的影响

对外来文学的接受 ,是中国文学进入现代之后产生的一个极为重要的话题。戴望舒的象征主义接受立足于中国本土已有的诗歌经验 ,既积极调动了诗人主体的旧诗积淀 ,又充分考虑了新诗发展的实际需求。努力使接受成为一种主动的对话而非被动的倾听 ,显示出了鲜明的主观性、主动性和本土性特征。在中国文学进一步世界化的时候 ,他的做法 ,对于中国新诗的建设是一种有益的启示。     

苏州地名源流考

苏州古称勾吴,亦称工吴、句吴、攻吴、姑苏。约公元前11世纪,泰伯、仲雍自陕西“南奔”,建立勾吴,其后裔被周武王封为吴伯。其南奔路线,最有可能取“商於古道”,奔至今江苏晋江市一带筑城族居,后与古越部落融合,创造了文明程度不亚于中原文化且具地域特色的“湖熟文化”。吴国建都后,不断向东南迁徙,最终定都于姑苏（今苏州古城）。姑苏之“苏”,极可能为越语城邑台、宫地名。秦置会稽郡,治吴县,后有吴州、苏州之称,皆有历史文化渊源可考。