Browsing by Subject "Cosmopolitanism"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Commodity, Citizen, Copy: Bollywood and the Aesthetics of Consumption
    (2018-12) Banerjee, Koel
    This dissertation seeks to provide a conceptual critique of the new horizon of Bollywood that comes into view in post-1990s filmic texts and their attendant discourses. I examine the penetration of a logic of consumption into Bollywood – its institutions, products, lifestyles, personalities, and above all, narratives. As India underwent neoliberal reforms that introduced ideals of wealth, leisure, and glamor into a society previously shaped by nationalist restraint and utilitarian thrift, Bollywood cinema emerged as the template for a new visual economy of excess and spectacle. Central to this inquiry is the problem of “commodity aesthetics” (Warenästhetik), a methodological perspective developed by the German philosopher of the interwar Frankfurt School, W. F. Haug. Taking my initial theoretical cue from Haug, I explore the ways that neoliberal ideas have not only been successful in transforming ideologies of the market into a new moral order, they have also made consumption into an ethical responsibility. Focusing on the representational strategies of popular Bollwood films, I show how they solicit a different kind of attention from spectators – one that is geared towards cultivating desire for newly available commodities. By tracing the evolution of the spectacular aesthetics of Bollywood, my dissertation takes up a threefold set of theoretical concerns. First, I elaborate how neoliberal imperatives have, since the 1990s, transformed the Hindi film industry and its cultural production. Second, I map the extent to which these transformations, in turn, enable Bollywood to symbolize the epicentre of a new visual and affective economy. And finally, I explore the ways that Bollywood, through various cinematic and extra-cinematic manoeuvres, engenders what I designate as “consumptive citizenship.” The resulting amalgam, I argue, expresses an ideal of the citizen based on conspicuous consumption of both newly available global commodities and a reified notion of Hindu identity.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Idols of goodwill: caring stars and the making of global citizens
    (2011-11) Wilson, Julie Ann
    Idols of Goodwill: Caring Stars and the Making of Global Citizensprovides a new critical, historical perspective on media celebrity by tracing the emergence of stars as icons of global caring and international community. From early UNICEF educational documentaries featuring Danny Kaye to the on-going celebrity efforts to rebuild Haiti, I document how the discourse of stardom emerged as a powerful cultural technology of global governmentality by providing a material base for international regimes of development in Western contexts. Tasked with shaping global citizens responsive to international institutions and the general welfare of the world, caring stars like Angelina Jolie, Bono, and George Clooney are much more than publicity stunts for global charities, media industries, or the stars themselves. Rather, they are harbingers of global liberalism, helping to harvest the political, economic, and cultural conditions for cosmopolitan world order.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Lindo y Querido: Nationalism, Latin American Modernity, and the Contested Terrain of the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games
    (2022-05) Campos, Edgar
    My dissertation illustrates the intertwining of sport, culture, and politics between the Olympic platform and the cultural politics surrounding the legitimacy of the imagined community of México. The México City 1968 Olympic Games marks an unparalleled case study of the lengths and challenges that a post-colonial nation experiences in their attempts for legitimation, modernization, and acceptance on the world stage. Exploring the Olympic journey of México, from the bidding process, hosting, and reception (internal and external) to the present-day memories and legacies, illustrate how a post-colonial nation navigates international relations and engages with the socio-political forces of nationalism, modernity, and globalization. My dissertation and work are grounded in the broader literature of cultural and political sociology. Culture is a central focus of my research, and I care to understand the real material consequences of political decisions made by leaders in México and the West. Within these traditions, I pay special attention to and study ideas, knowledge, and popular culture as they operate as fields of contested terrain. I engage with symbolic interactionism at the macroscale to help situate the cultural-political work being done by elites with Goffman’s work of presentation of self/stigma helping understand how Mexican elites navigated Mexico’s stigmatized image. In this instance, nation-states are social actors whose government leaders operate in meaningful interaction on behalf of their citizens. Drawing from historical methods, semiotics, textual analysis, site analysis, visual analysis, and extensive secondary literature help paint a nuanced picture of an event that impacted not just Méxican and Olympic history but also global history. Situating the research in the multifaceted context of the Cold War and the Grand Historical Narrative was key. I argue that nations’ stigma and impression management elucidate how nation-states participate in symbolic interactionism to distract, alter, and change their spoiled identities by interacting in key institutional spaces such as the Olympics. México City 1968 is an example of a post-colonial participating in rather than being a recipient of nationalism, modernity, and globalization and demonstrates how their participation was or was not legitimated.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Toward “free trade” from Kant's cosmopolitan ideal
    (2012-09) Deng, Yi
    My dissertation aims to present a coherent Kantian justice in terms of Kant's publicity principle. The theoretical construction arises from inquiries about the case of China's soybean market shift after its accession to the WTO, and holds the practical aims of diagnosing injustices and prescribing individuals', states' and global institutions' responsibilities in rectifying injustices. Specifically, I advocate for publicity as negotiable consent, which could entail active citizenship and moral politicians. By appealing to publicity as negotiable consent, I argue that the Chinese soybean case involves injustice, and provide corresponding expansions of Kant's cosmopolitan right, republicanism, and a federalism of free states as conditions for justice. The puzzling relationship between the WTO and federalism of free states suggests the need to address connections between trade liberalization and cosmopolitan ideal. By appealing to the I-Ching, I present the dynamic balance of Yin and Yang as a model for the interaction between capital and labor in the context of global justice. The interdependent yin-yang indicates that the discrepancy between theoretical predictions from the WTO and empirical evidence in the Chinese soybean case has resulted from the WTO's neglect of mobility differentiations among the factors of production. At the end of my dissertation, an appropriate capital-labor relation prescribed by yin-yang leads to practical suggestions for the WTO. Emphasizing a mixture of bottom-up and top-down restrictions, both "publicity as negotiable consent" and yin-yang energize an account of Kantian justice as a dynamic theory which is continually responding to the uncertain, complicated, but practical issues.