Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies While often criticized for the quality of its content, Wikipedia nevertheless enjoys high popularity and a top ten ranking in popularity for global and national websites. Some recent research results also show that it is becoming one of the most trusted sources of information among Internet users. 19 With different or shared language versions and through editing both contemporary and historical national and global events it becomes a powerful online tool for glocalizing national cultures. Conclusion While avoiding falling into either one of the two extremes or determinisms (technological or cultural) we have attempted to describe the complex ways in which technology, society and culture interact to influence the shaping and reshaping of contemporary cultures and cultural patterns. Through and with the Internet as a technological and communication backbone of the process of globalization, all cultures, whether intentionally or unintentionally, are becoming glocalized. This is a very broad process and taking the complexity of the Internet as a technical medium into consideration, it is impossible to comprehend as a whole without losing some of the fine-grained and Internet media specific differences. Social media are a broad term that describes one such recent Internet media change. Unlike earlier forms of online communities they are being used on a massive scale reaching very broad parts of global populations. While enabling communication, interaction and community formation in cyberspace (Bruns and Bahnisch, 2009: 7) there are nevertheless very different types of them if we take a look at the ways that they enable these processes to be performed. From their popularity, however, we cannot assume that they are replacing traditional types of mass media. Based on broadcasting communication from one to many and a set of institutional rules, mass media are also being transformed due to globalization processes. However, they are also looking for new media spaces in their struggle for audiences, so they are also launching websites in cyberspace. Notions of cyberspace have also changed. It is no longer considered a poor supplement to “real” communication but possessing special qualities in comparison to face-to-face communication (Hine 2000; 2005). In that sense it becomes a place where cultural changes can be monitored (Rogers, 2009) in a process of drawing and redrawing of social boundaries between dispersed social actors. Facebook is one such technical and cultural platform where people can realize its communicative potentials. Because it is based on making offline social networks visible in cyberspace it becomes a place of re-establishing one’s identity. While not necessarily transnational it nevertheless enables social relations to be lifted out of their local interaction contexts. Wikipedia as a quite different type of social medium enables the production of emergent and 19 According to Gfk and Telekom Austria research, Internet users in Austria, Slovenia and Croatia place the highest trust on Wikipedia as an information source (61%) followed by television (53%) and newspapers (49%). Available at: http://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/ hrvata-facebooku-vise-slovenaca-austrijanaca-clanak-185913. 96
How social media enforce glocalization - the processes of identity change in selected ... discursive knowledge to be created through community collaboration. By creating online content creation communities and in dealing with specific subjects in specific languages it becomes a sort of global memory place (Pentzold, 2009) which in effect glocalizes all national cultures. Judging from the high number of users using the Internet, specific websites, social media, Facebook and Wikipedia, we can infer that the Central and Southeast European countries are part of a global process of reshaping territorial identities on different social and cultural levels and with different intensities. To what outcome is another question, for we cannot exclude the patterns of hate speech, insulting content and other forms of socially abusive content produced through social media. Analysing specific user-generated content would be a topic for a different type of analysis than the one presented here. The best we can do is not to judge this change in good or bad categories but try to understand the ongoing processes (both globally and locally) to the best of our abilities. References Appadurai, A. (1990) “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”, in Featherstone, M. (ed.) Global Culture, London, Newbury Park, New York: SAGE Publications, pp. 295-310. Baudrillard, J. (2001) Simulacija i zbilja [Simulation and reality], Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk. Beck, U. (2003) Što je globalizacija [What is globalization], Zagreb: Vizura. Boyd, D. M. and Ellison, N. B. (2007) “Social Network Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 13, No. 1, available at: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html (2 November 2010). Bruns, A. and Bahnisch, M. (2009) Social Media: Tools for User-Generated Content. Social Drivers behind Growing Consumer Participation in User-led Content Generation. Volume 1 – State of the Art, Eveleigh NSW: Smart Sevices CRC Pty Ltd. Giddens, A. (2002) Runaway world: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives, New York: Routledge. Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press. Glott, R., Schmidt, P. and Ghosh, R. (2010) “Wikipedia Survey: Overview of Results”, United Nations University: Collaborative Creativity Group, available at: http://www. wikipediasurvey.org/docs/Wikipedia_Overview_15March2010-FINAL.pdf (29 November 2010). Halatchliyski, I., Moskaliuk, J., Kimmerle, J. and Cress, U. (2010) “Who integrates the networks of knowledge on Wikipedia” WikiSym, July 7–9, 2010, Gdańsk, Poland. Hine, C. (2000) Virtual Ethnography, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: SAGE Publications. 97
Page 1 and 2:
Cultural Transitions in Southeaster
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
C o n t e n t s Foreword . . . . .
Page 9:
FOREWORD
Page 12 and 13:
Cultural Identity Politics in the (
Page 14 and 15:
Page 17:
PART ONE Histories, memories and na
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55: Cultural Identity Politics in the (
Page 69 and 70: Culture of trauma and identity poli
Page 75 and 76: References Culture of trauma and id
Page 77: PART TWO Communication, media and c
Page 109 and 110: How modern technology shape-shifts
Page 121 and 122: Cultural identities in Southeastern
Page 131: Cultural identities in Southeastern
Page 135 and 136: Cultural identities from the bottom
Page 149 and 150: From productivity to creativity - t
Page 155:
From productivity to creativity - t
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 171 and 172:
Repetition of difference - the sear
Page 173 and 174:
Repetition of difference - the sear
Page 175 and 176:
Report on the conference “Questio
Page 177 and 178:
Report on the conference Peace Inst
Page 179:
Report on the conference of ‘inde
Page 183 and 184:
Notes on the authors PAŠKO BILIĆ
Page 185 and 186:
Notes on the authors ANDREA KOMLOSY
Page 187 and 188:
Culturelink Joint Publications Seri
show all

Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?