Browsing by Subject "Symbolic capital"
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Item Disaster capitalism : tsunami reconstruction and neoliberalism in Nagapattinam, South India(2011-05) Swamy, Raja Harish; Hale, Charles R., 1957-; Ali, Kamran; Brow, James; Ghosh, Kaushik; Bavinck, MaartenThis dissertation examines the impacts of the tsunami of 2004 on economic development priorities in Nagapattinam, South India. By focusing on the manner in which the disaster was cast as an opportunity by the state and multilateral agencies, the unprecedented scale and ambiguous character of involvement by NGOs in reconstruction, and the distinction drawn between economic development and humanitarian aid in the constitution of a reconstruction agenda predicated on the relocation of artisanal fisher communities from the coast, this study demonstrates how post-disaster outcomes are increasingly being shaped by priorities tied to neoliberal globalization. At the same time the processes that unfold are also characterized by significant complexities particularly on account of efforts by affected populations to deploy various strategies to defend their interests, and substantive differences in the approach of NGOs.Item I thought we weren't in Spain : the emergence of authenticity in a foreign language classroom(2014-05) Whitehead, Sarah Jey; Palmer, Deborah K.; Callahan, Rebecca M; De Lissovoy, Noah; Horwitz, Elaine K; Urlaub, PerThis study is based upon the idea that foreign language (FL) classrooms exist apart from their target language communities. While historically, this has been a geographic truth, divides between FL learners and native speakers may also reflect symbolic social distance. Given the symbolic, if not geographic, isolation of the FL classroom from the real world, this study presumes that a challenge inherent to the endeavor of FL education is that the authentic, real-world language and culture under study are, by definition, not naturally present in the FL classroom. This study considers how this challenge, referred to as the challenge of authenticity, is managed in one FL classroom. Seven eighth-grade students and their teacher comprise Classroom 204, a beginning Spanish FL classroom at a private school in the southwest U.S. This qualitative case study uses classroom observations, audio-recordings, classroom artifacts, and participant interviews as data to consider not only how authenticity is imported, imagined, and conjured by participants in Classroom 204, but how authenticity is assigned value therein. Data is analyzed largely with discourse analysis of transcripts of classroom talk about (and classroom talk that constituted) various facets of authenticity, value, and the real world. Ecology theory serves as a broad theoretical lens through which to understand (and accept) the complexity inherent to the social phenomena being researched. Benedict Anderson's (1991) theory of imagined communities is adopted to understand the boundaries that delineate the inside of the FL classroom from the outside, and Bourdieu's (1992) notion of symbolic capital is used to understand the ways by which authenticity becomes valuable (and, conversely, how that which is valuable becomes authentic). Findings suggest that, while participants are largely oriented to real-world manifestations of Spanish language and culture, authenticity is not most present in Classroom 204 in the form of stuff imported from elsewhere. Rather, authenticity emerges out of the highly local, socially-immediate interactions and value systems unique to Classroom 204. Suggestions for both pedagogy and future research focus on approaches that acknowledge and capitalize on the power of local authenticity in the FL classroom, as cultivated by local social actors.Item Visual music : an ethnography of an experimental art in Los Angeles(2010-05) Cardoso, Leonardo de; Erlmann, Veit; Seeman, SoniaThis report focuses on social networks surrounding visual music, a sub-field of audiovisual experimental art in which hearing and seeing intersect, often through the music-oriented manipulation of abstract imagery and audio-visual synchronization. The discussion evolves from my fieldwork in Los Angeles, where I interacted with artists, archivists, publishers, institutions, software developers, and scholars. Taking into account Howard Becker's notion of art world, Pierre Bourdieu's ideas of cultural and economic capitals, and Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, I try to understand how these groups have been trying to establish visual music-networks. Although elements of visual music have been present in various media and artistic trends (color organs, abstract films, VJing-DJing, etc.), the field's history and premises are still little known, in part because the very term 'visual music' is a contested one. Due to its entertainment/cultural industries, Los Angeles is a place where multiple processes of high tech differentiation coexist; since the 1930s the city's technocultural environment (from film production to academic programs on computer animation) has lured artists interested in visual music. Not surprisingly, the city holds the only two institutions directly related to visual music in the country. I navigate through this field by considering some intersections between science, art, and technology.