Catastrophe CultureCatastrophe Culture

2002 Susannah M. Hoffman

Using a variety of natural and technological events, including Mexican earthquakes, drought in the Andes and in Africa, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Oaklands firestorm, and theBhopal gas disaster, the ...

Author: Susannah M. Hoffman

Publisher: James Currey

ISBN: UOM:39015054171585

Category:

Page: 336

View: 243

Read & Download

At a time of increasing globalization and worldwide vulnerability, the study of disasters has become an important focus for anthropological research. Disasters and their aftermaths affect all dimensions of a community's social structures as well as its relations with its environment. They both reveal and become an expression of the complex interactions of physical, biological and sociocultural systems. Disasters not only manifest the interconnections of these three factors but also expose their operations in the material and cultural worlds. Using a variety of natural and technological events, including Mexican earthquakes, drought in the Andes and in Africa, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Oaklands firestorm, and theBhopal gas disaster, the authors of this volume explore the potentials of disaster for the ecological, political-economic, and cultural approaches to anthropology, along with the perspectives of archaeology and history. They also discuss the connection between theory and practice and what anthropology can do for disaster management, particularly regarding the moral issue of aid. As anthropology entails a comprehensive format shared by no other social science , the editors write, it can - and well should - take a place at the centre of disaster theory research and practice .

Disaster CultureDisaster Culture

2016-06-03 Gregory Button

In this major comparative study, Gregory Button draws on three decades of research on the most infamous human and environmental calamities to break new ground in our understanding of these moments of chaos.

Author: Gregory Button

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781315430355

Category:

Page: 311

View: 808

Read & Download

When disaster strikes, a ritual unfolds: a flood of experts, bureaucrats, and analysts rush to the scene; personal tragedies are played out in a barrage of media coverage; on the ground, confusion and uncertainty reign. In this major comparative study, Gregory Button draws on three decades of research on the most infamous human and environmental calamities to break new ground in our understanding of these moments of chaos. He explains how corporations, state agencies, social advocacy organizations, and other actors attempt to control disaster narratives, adopting public relations strategies that may either downplay or amplify a sense of uncertainty in order to advance political and policy goals. Importantly, he shows that disasters are not isolated events, offering a holistic account of the political dynamics of uncertainty in times of calamity.

9 11 Culture Catastrophe and the Critique of Singularity9 11 Culture Catastrophe and the Critique of Singularity

2016-10-24 Diana Gonçalves

Even though Rozario specifically says that he uses the terms calamity, catastrophe, and disaster interchangeably, for the purpose of my work, I prefer to talk about a culture of catastrophe/disaster or spectacles of catastrophe/disaster ...

Author: Diana Gonçalves

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

ISBN: 9783110477689

Category:

Page: 253

View: 475

Read & Download

Departing from 9/11’s spectacularity and aesthetical appeal, its eskatastrophic dimension, this book takes up the task of studying 9/11 as a mnemonic singularity, i.e. a catastrophic event that evokes or mimics, albeit in a renewed situation, the structure of past catastrophes. It investigates how 9/11 has been represented/remediated and how it has reintroduced catastrophic thinking into our conceptual framework.

Culture Catastrophe and RhetoricCulture Catastrophe and Rhetoric

2015-10-01 Robert Hariman

Studies in Rhetoric and Culture Edited by Ivo Strecker, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Addis Ababa University, Stephen Tyler, Rice University, and Robert Hariman, Northwestern University Our minds are filled with images and ...

Author: Robert Hariman

Publisher: Berghahn Books

ISBN: 9781782387473

Category:

Page: 274

View: 956

Read & Download

This volume explores political culture, especially the catastrophic elements of the global social order emerging in the twenty-first century. By emphasizing the texture of political action, the book theorizes how social context becomes evident on the surface of events and analyzes the performative dimensions of political experience. The attention to catastrophe allows for an understanding of how ordinary people contend with normal system operation once it is indistinguishable from system breakdown. Through an array of case studies, the book provides an account of change as it is experienced, negotiated, and resisted in specific settings that define a society’s capacity for political action.

The Cultural Life of Catastrophes and CrisesThe Cultural Life of Catastrophes and Crises

2012-10-30 Carsten Meiner

Die Reihe widmet sich zentralen neueren Konzepten und Methoden im Feld der kulturwissenschaftlichen Grundlagenforschung und inhaltlichen Fragestellungen.

Author: Carsten Meiner

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

ISBN: 9783110282955

Category:

Page: 330

View: 763

Read & Download

Catastrophes and crises are exceptions. They are disruptions of order. In various ways and to different degrees, they change and subvert what we regard as normal. They may occur on a personal level in the form of traumatic or stressful situations, on a social level in the form of unstable political, financial or religious situations, or on a global level in the form of environmental states of emergency. The main assumption in this book is that, in contrast to the directness of any given catastrophe and its obvious physical, economical and psychological consequences our understanding of catastrophes and crises is shaped by our cultural imagination. No matter in which eruptive and traumatizing form we encounter them, our collective repertoire of symbolic forms, historical sensibilities, modes of representation, and patterns of imagination determine how we identify, analyze and deal with catastrophes and crises.This book presents a series of articles investigating how we address and interpret catastrophes and crises in film, literature, art and theory, ranging from Voltaire’s eighteenth-century Europe, haunted by revolutions and earthquakes, to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda to the bleak, prophetic landscapes of Cormac McCarthy.

Culture and CatastropheCulture and Catastrophe

1996 Steven E. Aschheim

Steven Aschheim here engages the multiple aspects of German and German-Jewish cultural history which touch upon the intricate interplay between culture and catastrophe, providing insights into the relationship between German culture and the ...

Author: Steven E. Aschheim

Publisher: NYU Press

ISBN: 9780814706428

Category:

Page: 221

View: 419

Read & Download

Steven Aschheim here engages the multiple aspects of German and German-Jewish cultural history which touch upon the intricate interplay between culture and catastrophe, providing insights into the relationship between German culture and the origins, dispositions, and aftermath of National Socialism.

Smiling Through the Cultural CatastropheSmiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe

2001 Jeffrey Peter Hart

Hart presents a guide to some of the essential literary works of Western civilisation which retain their ability to energise us intellectually, tracing the main currents of Western culture for all who wish to understand the roots of their ...

Author: Jeffrey Peter Hart

Publisher:

ISBN: 0300087047

Category:

Page: 271

View: 636

Read & Download

Although the essential books of Western civilization are no longer central in our courses or in our thoughts, they retain their ability to energize us intellectually, says Jeffrey Hart in this powerful book. He now presents a guide to some of these literary works, tracing the main currents of Western culture for all who wish to understand the roots of their civilization & the basis for its achievements. Hart focuses on the productive tension between the classical & biblical strains in our civilization--between a life based on cognition & one based on faith & piety. He begins with the Iliad & Exodus, linking Achilles & Moses as Bronze Age heroic figures. Closely analyzing texts & illuminating them in unexpected ways, he moves on to Socrates & Jesus, who "internalized the heroic," continues with Paul & Augustine & their Christian synthesis, addresses Dante, Shakespeare (Hamlet), Moliere, & Voltaire, & concludes with the novel as represented by Crime & Punishment & The Great Gatsby. Hart maintains that the dialectical tensions suggested by this survey account for the restlessness & singular achievements of the West & that the essential books can provide the substance & energy currently missed by both students & educated readers.

Catastrophe and CreationCatastrophe and Creation

2014-03-18 K. Elkholm Friedmann

First Published in 1992. This is a study of what happened to Kongo society and culture at the turn of the 20th century, when the area was penetrated, brutally violated and colonized by Europeans.

Author: K. Elkholm Friedmann

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781134345335

Category:

Page: 288

View: 897

Read & Download

First Published in 1992. This is a study of what happened to Kongo society and culture at the turn of the 20th century, when the area was penetrated, brutally violated and colonized by Europeans. This book is the outcome of a project called Society and Culture in Crisis whereby the author found that evolution was a continuous, more or less unbroken process only at the global system level, whereas repeated rises and falls took place at the local level. This study closely looks at the declining development process in the Lower Congo and calls to the effects of colonization on society and culture.

Smiling Through the Cultural CatastropheSmiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe

2008-10-01 Jeffrey Hart

American Life in the Fifties From This Moment On: America in 1940 Acts of Recovery: Essays on Culture and Politics Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe Toward the Revival of Higher.

Author: Jeffrey Hart

Publisher: Yale University Press

ISBN: 9780300130522

Category:

Page: 285

View: 159

Read & Download

Hart presents a guide to some of the essential literary works of Western civilisation which retain their ability to energise us intellectually, tracing the main currents of Western culture for all who wish to understand the roots of their civilisation and the basis for its achievements.

Disaster WritingDisaster Writing

2011 Mark D. Anderson

Annotation In the aftermath of disaster, literary and other cultural representations of the event can play a role in the renegotiation of political power.

Author: Mark D. Anderson

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

ISBN: 9780813931968

Category:

Page: 256

View: 157

Read & Download

Annotation In the aftermath of disaster, literary and other cultural representations of the event can play a role in the renegotiation of political power. Here, the author analyses four natural disasters in Latin America that acquired national significance and symbolism through literary mediation.