Back to the Future: Warlpiri Encounters with Drawings,Country and Others in the Digital Age

Since the early 1900s, Warlpiri people living in the central desert region of Australia have experienced an intense process of adaption to the changing circumstances of postcolonial life. From the earliest days, their encounters with kardiya, non-Aboriginal people, have been mediated by diverse visual technologies that have, over time, become integral to the ways Warlpiri orient themselves to each other and their wider world. In this paper I trace the key elements of the complex visual environment that has emerged from this history of mediation. The central part of the paper considers events around the repatriation to Warlpiri communities in 2011 of a collection of drawings made in the 1950s by their forebears. In responses to a medium that once was new but now is old, several points of interest emerge, among them a clear sense of a hierarchy of value Warlpiri apply to modes of visual communication. In the context of the return of the drawings, the significance Warlpiri ascribe to other visual media comes to the fore. I consider some of the ways visual forms are deployed in support of public projections of cultural identity on the one hand and everyday modes of expression and address on the other. The paper's central argument is that contemporary Warlpiri attitudes to images – whether they be drawn, painted or broadcast – reveal the complex postcolonial workings of mimetic desire.     

The Consumption of Cultural Products: An Analysis of the Spanish Social Space

This article analyses the social consumption of cultural products by Spaniards from the standpoint of microeconomics and sociology. By comparing Lancaster's ``new consumer theory' to Bourdieu's theory, we show the usefulness of simultaneous analysis of consumption from both perspectives. The results provide evidence supporting the hypothesis of expressive functions, distinction and symbolic properties of cultural products. In addition, the ``new consumer theory' has various implications for both cultural policymaking and marketing of cultural products.     

Failure to meet the reserve price: the impact on returns to art

This article presents an empirical study of paintings that have failed to meet their reserve price at auction. In the art trade, it is often claimed that when an advertised item goes unsold at auction, it will sell for less in the future. We have constructed a new dataset specifically for the purpose of testing this proposition. To preview our results, we find that paintings which come to auction and failed return significantly less when they are eventually sold than those paintings that have not been advertised at auction between sales. These lower returns may occur because of common value effects, idiosyncratic downward trends in tastes, or changes in the seller’s reserve price.

Financial performativity as evidence of immanence: the phenomenology of liquidity crisis in contemporary markets for risk

The sociologist Bruno Latour has often expressed aversion to immanent critique, framing actor-network theory in terms of focus on visible phenomena. In spite of this, research on financial performativity inspired by Latour’s perspective can still be interpreted in terms of immanent critique and related to Political Economy (a critical discipline), through Kant’s critique of metaphysics as a ‘regulative axiom’. Research on financial performativity has uncovered evidence of the existence of constructive processes that show how an idea (like a financial model) can become something like an ‘object’. This ‘objectivity’ appears to contradict Kant’s critique of metaphysics – that there always remains a gap between our ideas and the world itself. This paper therefore explores financial performativity as a ‘contradiction’, historicizing it to argue that ‘Barnesian performativity’ and ‘financial liquidity’ are ‘immanent’ to one another in the events of recent financial crises. The paper conducts this interpretation to provide a new conceptualization of ‘financial liquidity’ that is more empirically apparent, helping to overcome some of the limits in the discussion of ‘liquidity’ in Political Economy (that Latour might want to highlight), where discussion occurs in metaphysical terms difficult to connect to actual events.     

立足中国、面向世界的宗教学

习近平总书记在《在哲学社会科学工作座谈会上的讲话》(2016年5月17日)中首次把宗教学列为11个需要"加快完善对哲学社会科学具有支撑作用的学科"之一。宗教学在"国家学科分类"里早已是"一级学科",但在"高校学位授予和人才培养学科目录"里却迟迟难以升格,这显然与我国教育界对宗教学的学科建设、特别是高校宗教学教育的认识程度有关。鉴此,在充分论证高校宗教学建设的必要性与重要性的基础上,笔者着重阐发了加强我国高校宗教学建设的"三大着力点",即坚持与发展马克思主义宗教观、扎根并弘扬中国文化传统以及宗教学建设的国际学术视野。本文最后一部分论及的北京大学宗教学专业探索经验,或许也对推进我国高校的宗教学建设有借鉴意义。     

Stardom and the Profitability of Film Making: Warner Bros. in the 1930s

This paper examines the film production performance of Warner Bros. during the 1930s, placing particular emphasis on the manner in which Warners invested in stars. Warners are shown to have acted rationally in the sense of having consistently invested in previously successful actors. An assessment is then made of how successful such a strategy proved to be. Drawing a distinction between high and medium/low budget production, the deployment of established stars in high budget productions did not appear to have constituted a successful strategy. The production of medium/low budget films, by contrast, provided a more stable environment, in which there were clear returns to the deployment of previously successful actors.     

Immigrant perpetrators in the news: A terror management approach to resultant hostility,perceived vulnerability,and immigration issue judgment

This study found that mortality salience in TV news activated more hostile attitude toward the perpetrators and negative judgment on the immigration issue. Social group difference influenced news viewers’ immigration issue judgment, but did not affect their resultant hostility and perceived vulnerability. More negative attitudes emerged toward the immigration issue when immigrant perpetrators were portrayed negatively in the news. News viewers with exposure to mortality salience in TV news reported more negative toward immigrants. Exposure to mortality-related elements in TV news could lead to social conflicts that were viewed as a severe threat by U.S. government and policymakers.     

From shanzhai chic to Gangnam style: seven practices of cultural-economic mediation in China and Korea

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the social construction of ‘fashionability’ – namely, what is ‘desirable’ and ‘fashionable’ – with reference to the concept ‘cultural mediators’ that foregrounds agency, negotiation and the contested practices of market actors in cultural production. It zeroes in on the cultural mediators’ attitudes and positions in the two markets by drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with industry veterans. It shows that the mediators in South Korea and China increasingly occupy hybrid occupational roles and social positions across industries and sectors yet achieve limited success in countering the status quo of Western fashion through mediation. The analysis contributes to the literature with a categorisation of seven mediation practices that shape the valuation of fashion products (i.e. ‘fashionability’) in two ways. Empirically, this categorisation illuminates how cultural mediators make reference habitually to the broader social and cultural contexts to co-construct cultural-aesthetic objects. Theoretically, it advances a cultural-economic approach to the understanding of cultural mediation and challenges the reductionist viewpoint of actor–network theory through the notion of a matrix of cultural-economic agency.     

A cross-cultural comparison of expectations in romantic relationships: India and the United States

ABSTRACT

This research investigated romantic expectations in a cross-cultural comparison of India and the United States (US). The study was grounded in expectancy violations theory (EVT), which argues that expectancies are a universal phenomenon whose content is influenced by communicator, relational, and contextual factors. The expectations of romantic partners in the two countries were assessed in conjunction with relational models, sex, and gender roles in a cross-sectional study (N?=?366). Results indicated that romantic partners from the two countries placed different importance on specific expectations. Furthermore, expectations were successfully predicted by one’s culture, relational models, sex, and gender roles.     

Curating disaster: a way to turn science into action in times of the Corona pandemic

ABSTRACT

To cure Covid-19 on a medical, political, economic, and societal level, there is a need to ‘curate’ between science and politics in such a way that decision-makers and societies can address the practical requirements at hand. This commentary introduces and discusses ‘curating’ as a socio-material practice mediating between science and decision-making. It reflects on the current Covid-19 pandemic and compares ‘curatorial’ aspects here to the field of natural catastrophe risk finance. As both areas try to manage disasters, the space between scientific knowledge and economic and/or political decision-making becomes a particularly important node. By employing a focus on catastrophe simulation modelling, this essay looks at several issues of the natural catastrophe field that may yield ways to deal with epidemic crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. This commentary suggests putting greater emphasis on (and encourages a research focus on) the ‘curation’ between science and politics to improve decision-making for socio-material disasters.     

The Determinants of Artistic Innovation: Bringing in the Role of Organizations

This article deals with the determinants of artistic innovation by arts organizations. First, we define artistic innovation. Second, we review the literature on its determinants, identifying some gaps. In particular, we observe that existing research mostly focuses on macro-environmental factors and tends to ignore the role of the organizations themselves. Thus, drawing from the organizational literature on innovation we formulate testable propositions that relate organizational factors to artistic innovation. We hope that our focus on organizational factors contributes to a more comprehensive framework on the determinants of artistic innovation in particular and programming in general.     

Factors influencing the intention to revisit a cultural attraction: The case study of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rovereto

This paper analyses the different factors influencing the intention to revisit a cultural attraction with an application to the Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art (MART) in Rovereto, Italy. The empirical data were obtained from a survey undertaken in 2009 and a zero-truncated count data model is estimated. The findings reveal that sociodemographic characteristics positively influence the probability to return to the museum. Also, as reported in other studies, the temporary exhibitions offered by the museum have a significant impact with an incidence rate ratio almost twice as high. No matter how much visitors spend on accommodation, they are less likely to revisit if they travel in groups, by train or on foot, are far from their town of origin and have spent a long time visiting the museum.     

From Japanese otaku to Taiwanese zhainan: Understanding transcultural masculinity through a cultural term in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

A borrowed neologism can serve as a cultural term to understand personhood, communication, and relationship in a given speech community. For example, loaned from the Japanese term otaku, the Mandarin term zhainan not only carries the original Japanese meanings, but also generates localized meanings about masculinity among Taiwan Mandarin speakers. Over 4000 entries containing the term zhainan in an online news database were analyzed, and seven types of masculine identities emerged, with three contradictory representations: criminal vs. victim, solitary vs. group, and real-life vs. parasocial relationships. Findings highlight the transcultural connections between Taiwan and other East Asian cultures.     

Approach to environmental risk analysis for the main monuments in a historical city

The analysis of environmental risk in historical cities facilitates the development of conservation strategies that can minimize the deterioration of historical heritage sites. Risk maps built with GIS software provide information about the probability of the main hazards in a region, and is a very useful tool to identify, evaluate and prioritize the restoration budget of a city in order to manage preventive conservation. In this paper, new methodologies are applied based on the vulnerability matrix and its relationship with static and structural factors, climate conditions, air quality and social agents. This technique has some obvious advantages in the application of risk analysis for cultural heritage conservation, such as the capability of simultaneous risk assessment and geographical references. The vulnerability study implies an on-site diagnosis analysis and requires an adapted protocol for archaeological heritage. The validation of this methodology was carried out in the historical town of Merida (Spain) with a GIS application (ArcGIS software), where the main monuments of this UNESCO World Heritage site were studied.     

Situating Oneself in a Racialized World: Understanding Student Reactions to Crash through Standpoint Theory and Context-Positionality Frames

Abstract

Through a thematic analysis of 136 student reactions to the movie Crash, this study examines how individuals situate themselves in terms of race, racism, and race relations in the film and how their racial locations inform this situatedness. We utilize principles of standpoint theories as the theoretical framework for the analysis. We first describe this situatedness in terms of six emergent genres of responses that varied across positionality and contextual focus. Then, we discuss how the patterns of responses may be explained through standpoint theories and conversely how the emergent organizing framework may complement standpoint theories.     

超大城市中的公共空间生活意象 ——夜市从纯商业向文创活力方向发展研究

中国城市的公共空间中一直存在群众自发形成商业活动的传统.在超大城市拥挤且有限的公共空间里,如何创造群众自发参与的公共空间,形成积极的城市生活意象,是值得深入思考的问题.中国有很多"草根夜市",是大城市作为"不夜城"的重要组成部分.但随着城市的发展,传统的夜市形式逐渐被取缔.以上海、武汉等超大城市为研究对象,调研夜市发展...     

Subjective well-being in cultural advocacy: a politics of research between the market and the academy

This paper responds to a trend of contracting out subjective well-being econometrics to demonstrate social return on investment (SROI) for evidence-based policy-making. We discuss an evolving ecology of ‘external’ research taking place ‘between’ the academy and commercial consultancy. We then contextualise this as waves of research methodologies and consultancy for the cultural sector. The new model of ‘external between’ consultancy research for policy is not only placed between the University and the market, but also facilitates discourse between policy sectors, government, the media and the academy. Specifically, it enables seductive but selective arguments for advocacy that claim authority through academic affiliation, yet are not evaluated for robustness. To critically engage with an emergent form of what Stone calls ‘causal stories’, we replicate a publicly funded externally commissioned SROI model that argues for the value of cultural activities to well-being. We find that the author’s operationalisation of participation and well-being are crucial, yet their representation of the relationship problematic, and their estimates questionable. This case study ‘re-performs’ econometric modelling national-level survey data for the cultural sector to reveal practices that create norms of expertise for policy-making that are not rigorous. We conclude that fluid claims to authority allow experimental econometric models and measures to perform across the cultural economy as if ratified. This new model of advocacy research requires closer academic consideration given the changing research funding structures and recent attention to expertise and the contracting out of public services.     

Growth,accessibility and the distribution of arts activity in the United States: 1980 to 1990

Using data on the location of artists by state as a proxy for the location of artistic activity, this paper shows that from 1980 to 1990 the arts grew rapidly and became more dispersed, reversing a trend toward greater concentration during the 1970s. Accessibility increased as the ratio of artists to population rose in most states. Nevertheless, enormous inter-state variation in that ratio remains. The second part of the paper examines the determinants of artist location at the state level. The equations estimated for both years prove to have a high degree of explanatory power.This paper was presented at the 9th international conference of the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Boston, May 8–11, 1996.     

Art versus commerce in the movie industry: a Two-Path Model of Motion-Picture Success

Previous studies of the movie industry have raised questions concerning the problematic relationship between the success-related aspects of artistic excellence and commercial appeal. The present article proposes that—when the former is measured by industry recognition (Oscars and other awards) and the latter by market performance (box office and video rentals) and when the former hinges on the evaluative judgments of reviewers and consumers (ratings of excellence) and the latter on the level of buzz among these audience members (amount of attention, word of mouth, or click of mouse)—the two phenomena are essentially separable as independent paths to conceptually distinct and empirically uncorrelated aspects of motion-picture success. An analysis of data for 190 movies from the year 2003 shows that reviewer-and-consumer evaluations and buzz respond differently to a film’s marketing clout (production budget, opening screens, and opening box office) and that these audience responses contribute independently to a film’s industry recognition and market performance along two separable paths. These findings suggest various implications for movie marketers, film producers, actors or actresses, and other members of the motion-picture industry.