With the crisis of the global capitalist economy the topic of global culture is regaining its importance and needs to be revisited from both theoretical and practical standpoints. How do we make sense of this rapid flow of global consumer culture across national borders? What is the role of corporations, governments, ONG and social movements in shaping the terms of these flows? How do these flows of money, people, culture, goods and services work in practice? How do these flows affect the lives of the majority of regular people consuming and producing in the global marketplace? Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this volume examines the way cultures and individuals oppose, resist and re-center globalization.
Contributors are: Gwen I. Alexis, Andrea Borghini, Cory Blad, Jack Bratich, Enrico Campo, Rekha Datta, Ricardo A. Dello Buono, Peter Kivisto, Vincenzo Mele, Mihaela Moscaliuc, Nancy Naples, Ino Rossi,Victoria Reyes, Saliba Sarsar, Manal Stephan, Karen Schmelzkopf, and Marina Vujnovic.
Vincenzo Mele, PhD (2004), University of Bielefeld/University of Pisa, is Researcher Professor of Cultural Sociology at the University of Pisa. He has published monographs and articles in the field of cultural and urban studies, included Sociology, Aesthetics & The City (Plus - Università di Pisa, 2011).
Marina Vujnovic, PhD (2008), University of Iowa, is Assistant Professor of Global Communication, Media and Journalism at Monmouth University, NJ. She authored a monograph on Gender and Journalism in interwar Yugoslavia and on co-authored one on Partecipatory Journalism Practices in Online Newspaper.
Acknowledgments ix
Notes on the Contributors x
Introduction: Globalizing Cultures: Theories, Paradigms, Actions 1
Vincenzo Mele and Marina Vujnovic
PART 1: THEORETICAL EXAMINATIONS AND CONCEPTS: GLOBAL CULTURE, GLOBAL IDENTITY, AND GLOBAL CIVIL SPHERE
1 Investigating Global Culture: Its Creation, Structure, and Meanings 23
Victoria Reyes
2 Global Interaction and Identity in Structuralist and Dialectic Perspectives: Toward a Typology of Psycho-cultural Identities 39
Ino Rossi Emeritus
3 The Civil Sphere beyond the Western Nation-State: Theoretical and Empirical Reflections on Alexander’s Cultural Sociology and Its Contribution to Civil Society Discourse 66
Peter Kivisto
PART 2: NEOLIBERALISM BETWEEN STATE AND MARKET: NATIONALISM, INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE AND PERSISTENCE OF THE STATE
4 The Role of the Nation-State in the Global Age 89
Andrea Borghini
5 Faustian States: Nationalist Politics and the Problem of Legitimacy in the Neoliberal Era 111
Cory Blad
6 Deification of Market; Homogenization of Cultures: ‘Free Trade’ and Other Euphemisms for Global Capitalism 124
Gwendolyn Yvonne Alexis
PART 3: TRANSNATIONAL PRACTICES AND RESISTANCE: GENDER, MEDIA, AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
7 Transnational Activism, Feminist Praxis, and Cultures of Resistance 143
Nancy A. Naples
8 Transnational Flash Publics: Social Media and Affective Contagions from Egypt to Occupy Wall Street 174
Jack Bratich
9 Transnational Feminist Media Practices: Seeking Alliance Against Global Capitalism 196
Marina Vujnovic
10 Shifting Contours in Latin American Cultures of Resistance 211
Ricardo A. Dello Buono
PART 4: GLOBAL CONSUMER CULTURE: TOURISM, TASTE, CONSUMPTION AND IMAGINARY
11 Distinction and Social Class in America and Europe. Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Taste in Cross-Cultural Comparison 233
Vincenzo Mele
12 Consumption, Identity, Space: Shopping Malls in Bogotá 258
Enrico Campo
13 Trafficking Gypsiness in the 21st Century 288
Mihaela Moscaliuc
14 Tourism, Expatriates, and Power Relations in Vieques, Puerto Rico 311
Karen Schmelzkopf
PART 5: HUMAN RIGHTS, EQUALITY AND CULTURE OF EMPOWERMENT
15 Overcoming the Divide: Arab Women between Traditional Life and a Globalizing Culture 331
Saliba Sarsar and Manal Stephan
16 The Millennium Development Goals and Gender Equality, and Empowerment in India 353
Rekha Datta
Index 371
All interested in global and cultural studies, with particular reference to resistance and social movements, gender inequality and empowerment, cultural and ethnic identity.