[Air-L] Imagined Communities
Gary Hall
gary.hall at connectfree.co.uk
Sun Nov 30 07:27:07 PST 2008
Philippa,
Just in case it's of any help, I've recently finished a piece on the same subject (i.e. the relation between new technologies and the construction of national identities). It's due to come out shortly as 'WikiNation: On Peace and Conflict in the Middle East', Cultural Politics, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2008, pp.5-26. I've provided an abstract for you below.
But a wikified, open access, open editing and free content version of the whole essay is available at:
http://hyper-cyprus.pbwiki.com/Hyper-Cyprus
Gary
*Abstract*
This article begins by analysing critically the usefulness of the recent
political philosophy of Chantal Mouffe for reconceptualising ideas of
peace and conflict. It takes as its focus for doing so the situation of
the Middle East. It proceeds to show how Mouffe’s radical democratic
politics is actually just another form of the liberalism of Habermas and
Rawls she positions her theory against. The essay then explores the
potential digital media hold for making affirmative, affective,
hyper-political interventions in specific contents and singular
situations. In particular, it advocates using the wiki medium to
experiment with new ways of organising institutions, cultures,
communities and countries which do not uncritically repeat the reductive
adherence to democracy, hegemony and Western, bourgeois, liberal
humanism identified in Mouffe, but which can also be located in the
institution of academic criticism more widely.
--
Gary Hall
Professor of Media and Performing Arts
School of Art and Design, Coventry University
Director of the Cultural Studies Open Access Archive
http://www.culturemachine.net/csearch
Co-founder of the Open Humanities Press
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org
My website http://www.garyhall.info
New book: Digitize This Book!
http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/H/hall_digitize.html
Pirate Philosophy - Steal This!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YkXDTQ7iFs
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