Navegando,Navegando: Easter Island Fusion and Cultural Performance

This article examines the music of Rapanui singer-songwriter Mito Manutomatoma and his band Fusión Rapa Nui, and investigates the contribution that this music makes to the understanding of Rapanui cultural identity in the context of Chilean popular culture. Mito Manutomatoma has been particularly successful in promoting his music to Chilean audiences, and this has consequences for the way in which Rapanui music and performance culture is viewed in Chile. Mobilising a theoretical framework drawn from the discourse of cultural hybridity, the present article focuses particularly on influential songs from Mito Manutomatoma's 2003 recording Mito y Fusión Rapa Nui in order to explain the capacity for this music to foster intercultural communication and understanding between Chile and Rapanui.     

Undocumented Acts: Migration,Community and Audience in Two Chicana Plays

Abstract

The 1980 Refugee Act endeavoured to provide effective settlement for refugees entering the United States. But most South American refugees escaping from dictatorships and civil wars were denied political asylum. This article explores the representation of migration and border crossing in Latina (1980 Sánchez-Scott, Milcha, with Jeremy Blahnik. 1980. “Latina.” In Necessary Theatre Six Plays about the Chicano Experience, edited by Jorge Huerta, 85–141. Houston: Arte Publico Press. [Google Scholar]), a play by Milcha Sánchez Scott that stages the difficulties associated with this journey. In 2010 Senate Bill 1070, one of the strictest anti-immigration legislative acts to be enforced, encouraged racial profiling in the identification of border crossers in the state of Arizona. Detained in the Desert (2011), a play by Josefina L?pez, is a Chicana response to the passing of SB 1070, and contributes to a deeper understanding of the fraught experiences of migrant women’s lives. The study of the plays places an emphasis on transnational community building and audience engagement and builds on a range of recent critical work by border theorists and scholars such as Alicia Schmidt Camacho and Deborah Boehm, and theatre and performance critics such as Diana Taylor.     

Becoming ‘culturpreneur’: How the ‘neoliberal regime of truth’ affects and redefines artistic subject positions

In relating to the politico-economic concept of ‘creative industries’, the paper explores in what way the art field and its actors are discursively repositioned within ‘flexible cultural capitalism’. Through empirical material from the independent Austrian theatre scene, the paper, moreover, illustrates how the ‘culturpreneurial’ transformation of the field affects the specific artistic practices, forms of organizing and conduct. In this regard, it will be shown that the artists’ modes of conduct are, at least to some extent, precarious: due to their ascetic and disciplined self-concept, artists seem to contribute, in parts, to their own marginalization as well as to the strengthening of certain ‘neoliberal orders’ and ‘culturpreneurial subject ideals’ of flexible capitalism – even though they are actually keen to resist current governmental technologies like the promotion of competition and market-determined assessment.     

Impartiality,friendship-networks and voting behavior: Evidence from voting patterns in the Eurovision Song Contest

What is the extent to which a country's political institutions impact aggregate voting behavior in a comparative perspective? More specifically, are citizens in some countries more inclined vote on the basis of ‘quality’ or ‘merit’ over ‘friendship’ or ‘loyalty’, and if so, why? This paper seeks to address how the extent to which a country's political institutions are impartial (treats all citizens equally, free from corruption, strong rule of law) impact aggregate citizen behavior. When political institutions are more (less) impartial, success in society is more often on the basis of merit (patrimonial ties). This test cases is voting in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) from 1975 to 2012 among pairs and blocs of ‘voting friends’. The theory elucidates that given that certain pairs or blocs exhibit systematic voting bias for one another over time, the bias will be considerably less among impartial states than those with highly partial institutions. Using several measures of ‘friendship’, I find strong empirical evidence for this claim, even when controlling for myriad alternative factors and taking into account various voting regimes. The analysis gives us new insights on how political institutions condition aggregate citizen behavior in general and that although there is much bias in ESC voting, not all bias is equal among friend-countries.     

'SALSA NO TIENE FRONTERA': ORQUESTA DE LA LUZ AND THE GLOBALIZATION OF POPULAR MUSIC

This article discusses key dynamics in the globalization of popular music, more specifically the interplay between technology, social and commercial structure, and meaningful sound forms. It analyses Orquesta de la Luz, an all-Japanese salsa band, as an example of the transgression of ethnic, geographical, linguistic and national boundaries of Latin American music. The band demonstrated the intertwined nature of the global and the local, in addition to the historical formation of modern Japanese culture. Their worldwide fame derived from their musicianship, their synchronicity with the world music boom, and finally the diffusion of digital technology in popular music production and consumption. This article argues that economic and technological conditions are as much constitutive of the band's unique practices as are aesthetic ones. It then goes on to question the dichotomies, ‘universalism vs. particularism’ and ‘creativity vs. copy’. This discussion builds towards an examination of the relationship between purist aesthetics (hyperrealism) and the Japanese concept/method of learning; it also explores the notion of cultural authenticity that located the activities of the band. Paradoxically, Orquesta de la Luz demonstrated that Japanization does not necessarily imply synthesis with vernacular elements for purist musicians. Theoretically, this ‘becoming Other’ reveals a parallel capacity for self-exoticization and self-orientalization with respect to Japanese identities. Orquesta de la Luz's musical search for the roots of otherness is closely tied with the feeling among many Japanese youth for the loss of Japan's ‘genuine’ cultural identity. Another focus of this study, then, is to shed light on the relevance of exoticism in the band's foreign reception and to assess their Latino image in the Japanese context.     

文艺：对环境的感知——麦克卢汉文艺美学思想研究之一

在学术史上,马歇尔.麦克卢汉以其独特的媒介理论而横空出世,卓然成一大家。实际上,他对于文学和艺术的论述,同样值得人们关注。总观他对于文艺的论述,大致包括三个方面的内涵:技术创造环境、文艺是对环境的感知以及旧环境成为艺术,可以说已形成了自己独特的可称之为环境主义的文艺思想。在20世纪六七十年代,麦克卢汉的环境主义文艺思想,呼应了当时环境美学或生态美学的诞生,在被称为技术时代的今天,有着十分重要的现实意义,值得引起我们的关注。     

美国史学界对流行文化与其受众关系的研究

流行文化研究,是当今美国的热门学术领域;对流行文化与其受众关系的探讨,则是其中的一个重要课题。美国史学界关于这一课题的研究,不仅涉及到对某些历史事实的叙述,更是透视美国史学理论发展的一个重要窗口。综述“无权”与“有权”两种观点的主要著作,勾勒美国史学界流行文化受众研究的发展历程,或许有助于把握美国当代文化史研究的发展方向,有利于进一步深入理解流行文化研究在史学界的发展脉络。此外,西方马克思主义的一支———法兰克福学派对流行文化问题的探讨对美国史学界关于受众研究也产生了重大影响。     

马克思主义哲学走出课堂的先驱者——艾思奇和他的《大众哲学》

艾思奇毕生致力于传播马克思主义,是哲学走出课堂的先驱者。70年前,他适应时代需要,写出了脍炙人口的《大众哲学》,开创了哲学大众化之路。《大众哲学》产生的深远社会影响,充分显示了哲学社会科学所具有的重要功能与作用。他所以取得这样的成就,是和他“战士和学者”的宝贵品格分不开的。我们要继承和弘扬这种品格,为繁荣发展哲学社会科学做出贡献。     

大学校园流行语与高校思想政治教育途径

大学校园流行语是高校文化的重要组成部分,是大学生文化心态和价值取向的鲜活反映。本文对大学校园流行语的流行原因及从流行语上折射出的大学生的思想行为特征进行了探究．提出高校的思想政治教育工作要巧妙运用流行语语境,有效实现大学主流文化的价值引领;合理利用流行语载体,充分实现大学主流文化的网络引领;准确把握流行语态势,全面实现大学主流文化的心理引领的改革举措,以期增强高校思想政治教育工作的针对性和实效性。     

论传统文化观与当代多元文化价值观

从制度文化与非制度文化、共同体与现代社会等方面分析了广义文化观,从梁漱溟文化中性论和梁启超的民族劣根性、美国传教士的有色眼镜与中国知识精英的文化批判诸方面评价了狭义文化观,从中国文化生态基本面貌、三种文化形态的局限性、多元文化的价值迷失、弘扬主导文化、培育文化合力诸方面探索了价值观的文化困惑与超越。