The Virtual Transformation of the Public Sphere: Knowledge, Politics, Identity (Critical Interventions in Theory and Praxis)

This book explores how new media technologies such as e-mails, online forums, blogs and social networking sites have helped shape new forms of public spheres. Offering new readings of Jürgen Habermas’s notion of the public sphere, scholars from diverse disciplines interrogate the power and possibilities of new media in creating and disseminating public information; changing human communication at the interpersonal, institutional and societal levels; and affecting our self-fashioning as private and public individuals. Beginning with philosophical approaches to the subject, the book goes on to explore the innovative deployment of new media in areas as diverse as politics, social activism, piracy, sexuality, ethnic identity and education. The book will immensely interest those in media, culture and gender studies, philosophy, political science, sociology and anthropology.Contributed papers presented at the conference organized by Forum on Contemporary Theory, Vadodara and Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University from 15-18 December, 2010, Chandigarh, India. African-american Women And The Republics / Hortense Spillers -- Genre Theory, Catachresis And The Fetish : The Case Of Canada / J. Douglas Kneale -- Race In The Dialectics Of Culture / Lewis R. Gordon -- What Lacan And Agamben Can Do For Subjectivity In The Age Of Globalization : Additional Perspectives For Hardt's And Negri's Concept Of Multitude / Myoung Ah Shin -- Transitions In Marginality : From Gender To Ethnicity In Contemporary Aotearoa/new Zealand / Rachel Simon-kumar -- There Comes Papa : Sambandham With Specific Reference To The Nayar Community And Its Impact On Kerala Society, C. 1900-2009 / A. Raghu -- Buying And Selling Blackness : White-collar Boxing And Racialized Consumerism / Lucia Trimbur -- Multiple Burdens, Multiple Identities : The Complex Consciousness Of The African-american Women's Movement / T. Sarada -- They Can't See Us At All : Queering Ontogenetic Liminality Through Gayze / Mashrur Shahid Hossain -- Deliciously In Between : Transgressing Borders With Gay Best Friendship / Kathryn Hummel -- Contestation Of Intra-structural Power Shifts In The Categories Of Race And Caste/class In Maya Angelou And Bama / D. Laura Dameris Chellajothi -- Towards A Theoretical Proposition For The Understanding Of Caste And Race : A Pedagogical Perspective / Alladi Uma -- Towards Reconstructing Caste, Class And Gender : Kalyana Rao's Antarani Vasantam (untouchable Spring) / M. Sridhar -- Women's Time? : Turn-of-the-20th-century Travel Writing On Korea / Young-hee Kim -- Political Conquests And Sexual Metaphors : A Study Of Ballantyne's The Coral Island And Kipling's Jungle Books / Marie Fernandes -- The Political Economy Of Asian Immigrant Labour In Canada : Intersections Of Race, Gender And Class / Habiba Zaman -- Class, Gender And Ethnicity In Relation To Health Care : A Study Of Social Disparities In Swedish Health Care / Sharareh Akhavan. Editor, Abdul R. Janmohamed. All The Essays Collected In This Volume Were Presented At The Twelfth Annual Conference Sponsored By The Forum On Contemporary Theory. The Conference ... Was Co-sponsored By 'samyukta: A Journal Of Women's Studies' And By The Centre For Women's Studies, University Of Kerala--acknowledgements. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [401]-430) And Index. Machine Generated Contents Note: 1.the Right To Look / Nicholas Mirzoeff -- 2.democracy, The Public Sphere, And Problems Of Self-reflexivity / R. Radhakrishnan -- 3.on The Market Colonization Of The Virtual Public Sphere / Lewis R. Gordon -- 4.cyberspace And Post-modern Democracy: A Critique Of The Habermasian Notion Of The Public Sphere / K. M. Johnson -- 5.cybernecology: Liberation Aesthetics And The Public Sphere / Timothy Allen Jackson -- 6.the Ever-expanding Sphere Of Cybercommunities / Sukhdeep Ghuman -- 7.the Public Sphere: Restitution For The Internet / James J. Winchester -- 8.piracy As Tactics: Re-imagining Creativity As Forms Of Access / Aruni Mahapatra -- 9.the Internet As A Public Sphere: The Emergence Of New Forms Of Politics In India / Esha Sen Madhavan -- 10.virtual Activism, Real Repercussions: How Facebook Impacts The Public Sphere / Hiba Aleem -- 11.negotiating Virtual Terrain: New Social Media And The Public Intellectual / Sumedha Iyer -- 12.virtualization Of The Politics Of Recognition: Lepcha Struggle For Recognition As Ptg In Darjeeling Hills (west Bengal) And Sikkim, India / Padam Nepal -- 13.identity And Virtual Spaces Among The Zo Hnahthlak: Emergent Zo Cyberpolitics / Anup Shekhar Chakraborty -- 14.the Public Spheres Of Vicarious Fulfilments: Live Sex On The Internet And The Performative Dynamics Of Body And Sexuality / B. S. Bini -- 15.is The New Media Erasing Boundaries Or Erecting Barriers? Gay/transgender Vs. Kothi/aravani / Sunita Manian -- 16.anonymity And Online Interaction: A Thematic (dramaturgical) Perspective / P. E. Thomas -- 17.constructing New Mediated Knowledge In The Process Of Writing For Life / Rich Rice -- 18.changed Dimensions Of The Public Sphere: Media's Role In The Growth Of Learning / Pankaj Roy. Editor Gaurav Desai. First Published In New Delhi; Simultaneously Published In The Uk. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This volume investigates how four socially constructed identities (race, gender, class and caste) can be rethought as matrices designed to accumulate various kinds of socio-economic values and to translate and transfer these values from one group to another. Essays in the anthology also attempt to compare the mechanisms deployed by various groups to consolidate identificatory investments. Drawn mainly for the fields of literary and cultural studies, the essays are grouped in four categories. Essays collected under 'Theoretical Approaches' scrutinize the relative value of various approaches; those collected under 'Considerations of Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation' examine the interaction between these three categories in formation of identities; those grouped under 'Comparative Analysis of African-American and Dalit Writing' provide comparative analyses of the literary productions of these two oppressed groups; and, finally, those under 'The Persistence of Racialized Perceptions' focus on the role of ideologically inflected perception of European colonizers and the persistence of such perception in the categorization and treatment of colonial migrants to the metropolis A collection of essays by distinguished scholars, this book delineates a substantial conception of democracy, the great promise as well as the pitfalls of a democratic mentality and culture. These essays go beyond the institutional and formal descriptions of democracy to its underlying cultural context — expressed both historically and analytically, descriptively and normatively. The essays in the volume re-examine the debate centred on the Habermasian notion of the public sphere and ask whether the structural transformations of the public sphere by new media technologies are an indication of a degenerate consumerist society, or that of a more egalitarian and democratic public culture. Essays in this anthology compare the interaction of social formations like race, gender, class and caste in the construction of social identities represented in literary and cultural texts. Editor, Akeel Bilgrami. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [214]-223) And Index.