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Category Archives: Articles
Post feminism in popular culture: A potential for critical resistance?
1. Introduction
‘Post feminism’ has become one of the most fundamental, yet contested notions in the lexicon of feminist media studies and cultural studies because of its different interpretations among scholars (for an overview see Genz, 2006; Lotz, 2001; Tasker & Negra, 2005). In literature, three dominant but diverging visions on the concept are visible: [...]
When Art Becomes Critical Practice: The Village of Arts and Humanities
Critique needs to be thought not solely in abstract terms, but in the material practices of culture. As more small and medium scale artistic interventions take place in cities across the world, how are the interstices of our urban spaces offering up possibilities for living and doing politics differently? What are the conditions of possibility [...]
Macht Kaputt Was Euch Kaputt Macht: On the history and the meaning of the Black Block
On the morning of July 28th 1981, in a coordinated action involving hundreds of police officers, a large squat was evicted and more than 30 private homes were raided in and around the area of Frankfurt am Main. Of the dozens arrested, six were charged with founding and membership in a ‘criminal organization’. The name [...]
The ‘chain of equivalence’. Cultural studies and Laclau & Mouffe’s discourse theory
1. Introduction
Cultural studies frequently addresses discourse theory. Remarkably however, the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe so far seems to have been neglected most of the time [1], while I am convinced that it is particularly relevant for research on the formation of cultural identity. The aim of this article is to [...]
The shadow of cultural criticism
In an article published in Athenäum in the year 1800, the German poet and critic Friedrich Schlegel agreed with Immanuel Kant’s famous dictum that the times were such that they could meaningfully be termed a “critical age”. But, in an ironic response to answer Kant’s positive tone, he added: “so that soon everything will be [...]
Critical thinking across contexts
1. Introduction
“commitment, energy, self-motivation, self-management, reliability, co-operation, flexibility and adaptability, analytic ability, logical argument and ability to summarize key issues” (Harvey and Green, 1994 cited in Holmes, 2002: 137)
The above list of soft, core, generic or transferable skills are the kinds of attributes that over the last 25 years have been identified as desirable for [...]
“Going down to South Park gonna learn something today”. On popular culture as critical pleasure and pedagogical discourse
1. Popular culture as critical pleasure …
Approaching popular culture from a cultural studies’ perspective always implies critical access because the notion of critique of ideology is a crucial one since the emergence of cultural studies in the UK in the 1950s. This is because culture is both a place of criticism as well as a [...]
Chad Lavin, Pollanated Politics, or, The Neoliberal’s Dilemma
Michael Pollan has recently emerged as an informal spokesperson for the growing movement for responsible eating. This essay examines the assumptions underlying Pollan’s recent prescriptions for food reform and demonstrates how these prescriptions remain limited by the political horizon of neoliberalism. More broadly, the essay situates the recent politicization of food within a consumer society in which it is only as consumers, rather than as workers or as citizens, that Americans can imagine political action.
Posted in Articles Tagged green consumerism, Michael Pollan, neoliberalism, Obama, post-politics Leave a comment
Humphrey McQueen – “Place, Colour and Sedition: D. H. Lawrences “Kangaroo”, a Study in Environmental Values”
“Place, Colour and Sedition:
D. H. Lawrence’s Kangaroo, a Study in Environmental Values”
By Humphrey McQueen
The place of D. H. Lawrence’s Kangaroo in Australian creativity and criticism appears as paradoxical as the platypus. The Lawrences were in Australia for 100 days, spending only seventy-seven around Sydney where most of the novel is set, and where he completed [...]
Persecution and the Art of Critique: Leo Strauss between Secularism and Religion