Sociology Lens

by linanne10

A recent youtube video of one of the performances in the largest British competition show, “Britain’s Got Talent,” have received incalculable viewing frequencies, and the number is still rising. Susan Boyle is the focus of this incident. Her mundane (and to some point, ludicrous) appearance, with her resonant and rich voice made her the new “instant celebrity” (according to a recent New York Times article). Drawing from Alexander’s idea on social performance, a successful performance needs to be authentic. Authenticity here refers to the fusion between social roles and performative scripts. While social roles and performative scripts are embedded in cultural contexts, which provide the resources and structures for performance and reception, where is the possibility for a performance to be successful without following traditional social or cultural scripts? Susan Boyle’s performance could serve as an example with two folds of meanings. First, her “social role” as a 47 year-old, unmarried, unemployed women who mostly sang at the local church could hardly fit the expectation of fulfilling scripts that are assigned to “singers” or “performers.” Her “role” in this sense is in conflict with the “script” that she attempts to take on. On the other hand, her following performance fits neatly with the role as a singer, overwriting the “role” for a successful performance, as well as re-writing the script for a 47 year-old, unmarried, unemployed women.

What might be interesting to discuss here, is the audiences consumption of performance. Performances which fuse “roles” and “scripts” could be successful, but remains only as being “successful.” Performances which the “roles” and “scripts” are in conflict and could re-write each other, could be “shockingly” successful. This could be a chance to see social change that disturbs “roles” and “scripts.” However, this incident could also be recognized as a consuming pattern in a society where audience crave “shock” and “excitement.”

New York Times: Unlikely singer is your youtube sensation

Popular music cultures, media and youth consumption

linanne

Mass media and technological advancement have created webs of images of reality, which often serve as resources for audiences and social actors to refer to while interpreting and understanding the world around them. Sociologist and cultural theorist, Jean Baudrillard understood such mass production, imitations and constant reproduction of images and goods as “second order” simulation. This second order simulation, according to Baudrillard, disturbs and blurs the line between the “real” and the “copy,” threatening to detach social actors from the “reality.” Theatrical performances and fictional television programs could be seen as examples of second order simulation, where representational images of reality are constantly reproduced, occupying spaces of cultural elements. Following fabricated television programs, reality shows have intended to create images which are more “real,” indicating that such media representations have “more” solid basis in real life. Documentary as well, is another form of social representation aiming to bring the “reality” back to the audiences. The new Disney production, “Earth,” another film on nature and wildlife, is also one of the genres featuring “authenticity” and “natural reality.”

The film, similar to the “Planet Earth” and the “March of the Penguins,” intends to present natural reality as accurate as possible, while fitting it into the criteria of a G-rated film. However, characteristics of Baudrillard’s second order simulation are still blatantly manifested in these “reality” programs, whether they are television productions, documentaries or natural-life films. The picking and selecting of scenes and shots and the editing of the films show clear traces of artificial interference, which make these films and programs no less “fabricated” then fiction or theatre. The are still artificially articulated, mass produced, and constantly imitated and copied, operating to create webs of images representing the reality. Further more, the intention of “presenting” reality is actually “producing” a reality which is believable, accurate and “authentic” to the audience. The “reality” is even more detached from the audiences and social actors. Adopting Baudrillard’s idea of the “third order” simulation, when audiences started to believe and connect to the “reality” produced and created by television shows and programs, the simulacra precedes and determines what is “real.” “Reality” breaks down and what is left is the simulacra. Drawing from Baudrillard’s conclusion, in the age of urbanization, post-industrialization and mass production, people no longer live in “reality,” but a “simulacra of reality.”

Disneynature: “Earth” in New York times

Toward a Sociology of reality television

What happens when the internet, a supposed open space for free speech and expression, is censored by government authorities? Early this year, the Chinese government initialized a policy focusing particularly on the “repair of internet integrity,” which basically means “anti-obscenity.” The policy aimed to break down and cast off all online websites and web pages containing contents against the Chinese government’s principle of “harmony and peace.” Under the policy, over 2000 websites and blogs are blocked and forced to close down due to “filthy and obscene” contents. The goal of combating internet obscenity is to create a “clean” and “healthy” cyber environment for adolescents and children. Because of ambiguous interpretations for what constitutes “obscenity,” many sites that are blocked are not related to porn or online sexual activities. Phrases related to menses, sexual organs, and especially swear and curse words are also targets of “cleansing.” Not surprisingly, this policy aroused a wave of opposing voices advocating for the freedom of speech and human rights within China.

The child’s song, “grass-mud horse,” is a reaction towards the policy, pointing out the absurdity of this governmental act. While the written characters are entirely innocent and “clean,” the pronunciation and connotations of the lyrics are extremely dirty and obscene. According to strong programs within the field of sociology, interpretations of how social actors perceive and create meaning are the keys to understand social activities. The “grass-mud horse” song presents the cracks between meaning interpretations of different social groups and social sectors. While sometimes the differences in meaning interpretation and perception would result in misunderstanding among social groups, they may also serve as tools for social and cultural empowerment. These cracks between meaning interpretation could create liminal spaces where actors in the public sphere could find resource and agency while encountering unequal power relations. Tactful manipulations of symbols help actors swim through the crack between meaning structures and thus create texts and scripts which inform their own activities and identities. Through the internet, actors are able to create spaces where alternative meaning making activities are able to take place in public discussion, forming a counter discourse which subverts the dominant narrative with its own rules.

The “grass-mud horse” song is not only a playful ridicule against confining policies, it also shows how social actors are able to activate their agency through meaning making with the use of the internet. (for more information on the “grass-mud horse” song, please refer to the New Yorks Times article below.)

New Yorks Times: A dirty pun tweaks China’s online censors

From Culture to Connection

by linanne10

Tokyo may be one of the most extreme examples of a hybridized international city, in an age of rapid globalization. Cultural negotiation and reconciliation between Western notions of modernization and traditional Japanese civilization (or to some extent, Asian civilization) found their way in this kaleidoscopical urban space, whether in tension or in peace. The film, Tokyo! (opening on March, 6 in New York City), is a triptych by three foreign directors, Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax and Michel Gondry, each giving a representation of the “Tokyo” they have in mind. Through the “Western cult for the Orient,” manga, anime, Japanese ghost movies and game shows, Japan’s presence in the Western media industry has increased noticeably in the past few decades. Although many Japanese images represented in the Western media are criticized for it’s Orientalist distortion (For example, “The Memoir of a Geisha,” “The Last Samurai,” and the French film, “Wasabi“), other aspects of media integration show signs of cultural hybridization instead of mere imperialism. Using Japanese manga as an example, early manga artists in the 50′s are largely inspired by Western artist in terms of style and drawing techniques. As Japanese manga became a distinct category, it traveled its way “back” to the Western world and therefore exercise its influence. Such phenomenon is also visible in film, television shows and animation.

The flows of culture go back and forth between regions, where there is not only an unidirectional infusion, but a more complex trajectory of the development of cultural contents. Globalist sociologist, Jan Nederveen Pieterse has recognized globalism as processes of hybridization. He argues that there is no pure and authentic cultures. All cultures undergo transformations while encountering other cultures. All cultures are hybrid. Therefore, there is not such thing as cultural imperialism since is it unlikely for one mixed hybrid to “pollute” and “invade” another mixed hybrid. This understanding of cultural exchange could capture the presence and significance of the “impureness” of cultural products under globalization. However, at the same time, we should also be aware of the power relations among participants of cultural exchange. Although globalization could not only be interpreted as imperialism, unequal relationships among actors of transnational cultural exchange do play an essential role in how cultural elements circulate around the globe and how they are perceived. The emergence of Japan in international media industry could shed light on discussions on cultural exchange, power and hybridization.

NYTimes: Strangers in Japans Neon Wonderland

Globalization and the self

By linanne

There is a long tradition of using gender and sexual dualism as marketing strategies in industries from technology to entertainment. Discourses in advertisements are often framed as “targeting at” whether male or female consumers. Products are also packaged in ways that are gendered according to certain sets of binary codes. Such dichotomous gender representations not only reproduce the existing social and cultural structures of gender segregation, but also inform individual and collective activities which oftentimes are responses to these existing structures. Disney’s recent production strategy could be read as a manifestation of how individuals — in this case children — interact with the gender meaning structure. Sociologist and gender theorist, Barrie Thorne noted in her study about children how boys and girls respond to gender dualism through “borderworking.” As Thorne points out, school boys and girls interact with each other on playgrounds which sometimes strengthen the gender “border.” While playing games in the school yard, boys and girls would form groups which are opposite and even antagonistic against each other. In a more virtual world of gaming and television, the borderline between “girls” and “boys” is drawn along the separation of “girlie stuff” and “boys’ stuff.” The shows and programs boys and girls watch indicate which groups they are involved with, while forming their collective identity — as belonging to “the girls” or belonging to “the boys.”

However, this is not suggesting that there are entirely different cultures for boys and girls. The relationships between cultural structures and human behaviors are not static nor unchanging. There are always boys who like to watch girlie shows or girls who like to play the “boys’ games,” and thus interrupt the constructed border between the two. Children’s interpretations of what is girlie and what are the boys’ stuffs may reconfigure existing notions of the gender structures as well. Gendered behaviors and groupings also change according to circumstances and surrounding situations. As Thorne stated, under environments where gender differences are not emphasized, the borderworking between boys and girls are less significant. Since television programs and shows are fundamental to gender representation and reproduction, creating a media environment which switches the focus away from gender segregated production might help breaking down the borderlines drawn between boys and girls.

Disney aims for the boy audience

Feminist and media studies

“Are we creating world peace or fundamentally changing the world? No,” he (Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu and Canonical) said. “But we could shift what people expect and the amount of innovation per dollar they expect.”
– New York Times

Most people’s impression on Linux is something mythical which only computer geeks are involved with, if they have even heard of the operating system before. In recent years, volunteers and tech professionals had devoted major effort in developing Linux distributions that are more user-friendly with lower entry barrier for people who are not familiar with programming and the “technology black-box.” Ubuntu is one of these distributions that received the most attention and success in the past four years.
The most important aspect of Linux is not only that it would create a competing environment to challenge the Microsoft monopolization in PC operating systems, but the very idea of “Free Open-Source Softwares.” Open-source literally means that the source codes of any software under the agreement are released to the public and open to change and alteration by anyone who are willing to do so. “Free” stands for “freedom,” that all users are free to use and personalized these softwares, most importantly, at no monetary cost.

In an era of burgeoning information technology, computer programs and the internet have became an essential part of networking and knowledge accumulation. While information is free and easily accessible through our home PCs, it is also materially and economically limited. Areas and regions with people who are unable to purchase high cost hardwares and softwares are excluded from this so called “technology revolution.” Recalling Jugen Habermas’ idea on the “public sphere,” an ideal environment for political and social engagement should be a space where all participants/citizens are able to the express their opinions freely and openly. Despite criticism against this ideal type, free open-source software could crack open the material boundaries of entering this “virtual public sphere” by requiring 0 cost on programs and technology. More people can be included internationally in political, social and technological engagement when the distribution and alteration of programs are unlimited. The freedom to personalized and customize programs to indigenous needs also creates more local agency.

However, since most programming languages are designed based on the understanding of the English language, would this further reinforce the English monopolization? And while the source codes are open and free, are the knowledge and information also as free and open? More importantly, the accessibility of the hardware that’s required?
(More information on hardware, please visit the OLPC project.)

Ubuntu in New York Times

Cultural Citizenship

(the video is a song by the inhabitants of Losheng Sanatorium, singing their love and attachment to the Losheng community)

By linanne 10

Taiwanese students have been extremely busy for participating in social movements the past two months. After the protest against the regulation on the freedom of speech and assembly, Taiwanese students are now again bringing back the issue on the Losheng Sanatorium. The Losheng Sanatorium is a community like construction for displacing leprosy patients during the Japanese colonial dictatorship in Taiwan. Due to misunderstanding which led to the stigmatization of the disease, the sanatorium is separated and isolated entirely from the rest of the population, even until now days. After nearly eighty years of inhabitation, the sanatorium has developed into a self-sufficient community unique to the inhabitants–the patients, their friends and families–who were casted aside from the society for so long. The protest last week was a reaction toward the government policy of building a MRT (Mass Rapid Transportation) station right at the site of the current Losheng Sanatorium. This basically means that the government is going to tear down the sanatorium for the MRT construction.

Even though the government provided indemnification and alternative accommodations, this could not compensate for the violation against human rights of the policy. The alternative accommodations are highly medicalized which deprives the inhabitants of their individual agency. Using Michel Foucault’s term, political technology, government policies are instruments of power concealed under the neutral language of science. Eighty years ago, illness has been a justification for confining lepers in restricted areas; eighty years later, illness legitimizes the relocation of the inhabitants from an open air community to an enclose medicalized hospital institution. Because of the scientific language of illness, lepers are placed in a highly subordinated position. The metaphorical use of illness conceals the power informing the order of the society and the action orientations people engage in. From leprosy to AIDS, from tuberculosis to SARS, political technology consistently take on the form of disease. In what sense could illness strip off its stigma? Thus cease to be a metaphor of political control.

The student protest for Losheng Sanatorium

The social construction of Fat

By linanne10

Along with the presidential election, a proposition promoting the decriminalization of sex-workers, Proposition K, was also put on the voting ballot in San Francisco, California. Proposition K is mainly concerned with sex-workers rights and citizenship. There are three main points proposed in the proposition. First, it stated that law enforcement agencies should not allocate any resources for the investigation and prosecution of sex-workers for prostitution. Second, the proposition noted that any agencies of the City and County of San Francisco should not subject sex-workers to life long economic discrimination associated with having a criminal record. Third, the proposition requires that the San Francisco police department and the San Francisco county office of the district attorney should enforce existing laws against coercion, extortion, battery, rape and other violent crimes, regardless of the victim’s status as a sex-worker.

(more…)

By linanne10
While most of the discussions on equality and political change occur around the presidential election in United States last week, events of civil rights movement are not limited to the US continent. A student-led protest for the freedom of speech and assembly is burning through out the island of Formosa. On November 3rd, the representative from China’s Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), Chen Yunlin, came to visit Taiwan and met with the Taiwanese current president, Ma Ying-jeou, on trade agreements and economic cooperation between Taiwan and China. Due to political beliefs, hundreds of protestors gathered around the venue to protest against the meeting. Government officials required that all protesting activities should be shield off within Chen Yunlin’s eye-sight. Taiwanese flags were banned, protesting groups were expelled or arrested, Taiwanese songs were shut off in near by record stores and there were also violence conduct by polices against civilians. This induced a protest led by students against the “law on assembly and parade” in Taiwan. The law on assembly and parade in Taiwan restricts the people’s mobility and freedom to carry out protests, while reinforcing government agencies’ power to monitor and control such events. Liberty and freedom are crucially at stake in this political incident.

Two important aspects of liberty manifested in the protest could find their roots in theories of civil and social rights. Political and social scientist, Deborah Stone, has distinguished between two kinds of liberty: negative liberty and positive liberty. Negative liberty defines rights as the absence of constraint among citizens, while positive liberty defines rights as active provision of opportunities and resources by the government to citizens. The freedom of speech and assembly could be seen as a negative liberty. There should be as less government intervention as possible when members of a society attempt to express their opinions and ideas, no matter what form they take on. A positive notion is also at work in framing the concept of liberty. In order to enable minority groups to express their opinions and ideas more freely, and voice beyond the overwhelming oppression of mainstream ideologies, official agencies should actively provide a secured space and platform for expression. In this on going protest, the students merely request for negative liberty, trying to lift regulations violating basic human rights. Before the law on parade and assembly is abolished, it is hard to ask the government to assure more positive liberty for the freedom of speech.

However, in terms of legal conflicts of the act of the protest itself, a dilemma occurs. The law on parade and assembly demands that protestors have to apply to protest six days before the event. Certain issues are banned and certain locations are not allowed for assemblage. The students insist on not applying for permission in order to manifest and protest against the absurdity of the law. They also insist on gathering in forbidden locations before expelled by force. The question here is: if citizens do not have to conform to the law when they see it as “illegitimate,” what authority would the law still retain in its ruling over members of the society?

The Protest Statement

A collection of the America civil rights movement