Border policing and immigration law enforcement produce a spectacle that enacts a scene of 'exclusion'. Such spectacles render migrant 'illegality' visible. Thus, these material practices help to ...generate a constellation of images and discursive formations, which repetitively supply migrant 'illegality' with the semblance of an objective fact. Yet, the more these spectacles fuel anti-immigrant controversy, the more the veritable inclusion of the migrants targeted for exclusion proceeds apace. Their 'inclusion' is finally devoted to the subordination of their labour, which is best accomplished only insofar as their incorporation is persistently beleaguered with exclusionary campaigns that ensure that this inclusion is itself a form of subjugation. At stake, then, is a larger sociopolitical (and legal) process of inclusion through exclusion. This we may comprehend as the obscene of inclusion. The castigation of 'illegals' thereby supplies the rationale for essentializing citizenship inequalities as categorical differences that then may be racialized.
Precarious mobilities caused by insufficient capacity or unplanned stoppages of public transportation services can result in line-ups that are as much a part of commuters' daily routines as travel ...itself. This article explores how excessive line-ups can be analyzed as forms of spectacle dwelling in the context of a Canadian aquamobile transportation corridor on Conception Bay, linking Bell Island to the main island of Newfoundland. For several decades, Bell Island ferry commuters have been governed by vivid representations of the bureaucracy literally seizing up in users' stalled movement for hours or sometimes days. Based on an application of concepts initiated by Debord, this article discusses how such line-ups comprise forms of spectacle dwelling; the role of commentaries about these spectacles; and examples of counter-spectacles in 2017 that created a forum for protesting changes to the service.
In recent years, the terrorist network Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has generated what might be referred to as a ‘spectacle of fear’ through strategic dissemination of execution videos and other ...graphic material. In response, social media users, activists and others circulate ‘counter-spectacles’, attempting to circumvent Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s spectacle of fear. An important case in point is the global hacking network Anonymous declaring ‘war’ against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, including a global call for a ‘Troll ISIS Day’. This article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the spectacle of fear generated by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the counter-spectacle created through Anonymous’ trolling practices and explores empirically how Anonymous uses humor to combat fear through the memes produced on ‘Troll ISIS Day’. Bottom-up, cultural forms such as memes are increasingly woven into strategies for countering the fear associated with terrorism, and they represent the potential for humor to generate public engagement. However, as these memetic counter-spectacles draw on the incongruent humor characteristic of meme culture, they both contest and adopt strategies of fear, pointing to ethical challenges inherent in the counter-spectacle.
Spectacle and Time in Contemporary Philosophy Through historical and phenomenological analyses, the present paper attempts to centralize the research of the phenomenon of spectacle as a viable ...subject of contemporary philosophy. We study the notion of the spectacle upon the basis of the historical development of the modern comprehension of time not only as one of the central issues of contemporary philosophy, but also as a central concept for the understanding of contemporary science, culture, and society as a whole. Within contemporary continental philosophical tradition, the concept of time is closely connected with the notions of presence, perception, and mediation. The philosophical debate between Henri Bergson and Albert Einstein brought the ideas of spectacle and time into immediate connection as a part of the new conceptual framework of contemporary philosophy. It demonstrated, for the first time, that science holds an essential value for the construction of modern life. We follow further developments by outlining the philosophical and cybernetic framework for the establishment of a philosophical attitude towards spectacle as one of the fundamental phenomena of contemporaneity. The elaboration of the theme seeks to respect methodological determinations demonstrated in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. The groundbreaking critique of cybernetics in Gilbert Simondon allows us, finally, to draft a specific prefiguration of a certain theory of spectacle.
OBJETIVO: Perceber como o cenário da espetacularização política pode acarretar uma falência democrática e se, como e por que o Brasil passa por uma falência democrática.
MÉTODO: Para realização dessa ...pesquisa, utiliza-se o método hermenêutico-filosófico.
RELEVÂNCIA/ORIGINALIDADE: O momento excepcional de pandemia pela disseminação do vírus SARS-COV-2 refletiu diretamente nas políticas multilaterais e nacionais a serem adotadas no que tange a contenção do vírus. Por isso, é essencial observar como, se, e por que as políticas empregadas no Brasil nesse cenário podem ocasionar uma falência democrática, para assim procurar meios de impedir tal falência.
RESULTADOS: Nota-se uma falência democrática, lenta e gradual, ocorrendo no Brasil que se agrava no espetáculo banalizado da pandemia da doença COVID-19.
CONTRIBUIÇÕES TEÓRICAS/METODOLÓGICAS: Para realização dessa pesquisa, emprega-se os conceitos de espetáculo apresentados por Mário Vargas Llosa em “A Civilização do Espetáculo”, a percepção de falência democrática demonstrado por Steven Levitsky e Daniel Ziblatt em “Como as Democracias Morrem”, e se analisa o fenômeno da pandemia à luz de noções de Teoria do Estado, Direito Internacional Público, Direitos Humanos e geopolítica.
Despite its importance to literary and cultural texts of resistance, theater has been largely overlooked as a field of analysis in colonial and postcolonial studies. Acts of Authority/Acts of ...Resistance seeks to address that absence, as it uniquely views drama and performance as central to the practice of nationalism and anti-colonial resistance. Nandi Bhatia argues that Indian theater was a significant force in the struggle against oppressive colonial and postcolonial structures, as it sought to undo various schemes of political and cultural power through its engagement with subjects derived from mythology, history, and available colonial models such as Shakespeare. Bhatia's attention to local histories within a postcolonial framework places performance in a global and transcultural context. Drawing connections between art and politics, between performance and everyday experience, Bhatia shows how performance often intervened in political debates and even changed the course of politics. One of the first Western studies of Indian theater to link the aesthetics and the politics of that theater, Acts of Authority/Acts of Resistance combines in-depth archival research with close readings of dramatic texts performed at critical moments in history. Each chapter amplifies its themes against the backdrop of specific social conditions as it examines particular dramatic productions, from The Indigo Mirror to adaptations of Shakespeare plays by Indian theater companies, illustrating the role of theater in bringing nationalist, anticolonial, and gendered struggles into the public sphere.
This study investigated whether refractive correction improved accommodative function of hyperopic children while engaged in two sustained near activities.
Sustained accommodative function of 63 ...participants (aged 5-10 years) with varying levels of uncorrected hyperopia (>/= +1.00 D and < + 5.00 D spherical equivalent in the least hyperopic eye) was measured using eccentric infrared photorefraction (PowerRef 3; PlusOptix, Germany). Binocular accommodation measures were recorded while participants engaged in 2 tasks at 25 cm for 15 minutes each: an "active" task (reading small print on an Amazon Kindle), and a "passive" task (watching an animated movie on liquid crystal display LCD screen). Participants also underwent a comprehensive visual assessment, including measurement of presenting visual acuity, prism cover test, and stereoacuity. Reading speed was assessed with and without hyperopic correction. Refractive error was determined by cycloplegic retinoscopy.
Hyperopic refractive correction significantly improved accuracy of accommodative responses in both task (pairwise comparisons: t = -3.70, P = 0.001, and t = -4.93, P < 0.001 for reading and movie tasks, respectively). Accommodative microfluctuations increased with refractive correction in the reading task (F(1,61) = 25.77, P < 0.001) but decreased in the movie task (F(1,59) = 4.44, P = 0.04). Reading speed also significantly increased with refractive correction (F(1,48) = 66.32, P < 0.001).
Correcting low-moderate levels of hyperopia has a positive impact on accommodative performance during sustained near activity in some schoolchildren. For these children, prescribing hyperopic correction may benefit performance in near vision tasks.
Chile’s public conservation estate has expanded by unprecedented margins in recent years, following the creation of several mega projects. One such project is the Route of Parks of Chilean Patagonia, ...a public–private partnership to protect nearly 30 million acres of land across 18 national parks at the bottom of the South American continent. The partnership, over two decades in the making, was proposed by the U.S-based philanthropic foundation Tompkins Conservation but rejected by previous presidential administrations before finally being accepted in 2017. This article traces the role of two complementary forces behind the project – big philanthropy and big conservation – showing how both shaped the state’s eventual decision to take historic action for environmental protection. I argue that resource spectacle is key to understanding the ‘how’ and ‘why now’ of this mega project. Whereas traditional resource spectacles are conjured to court buy-in from private actors for extractive projects, a conservation resource spectacle is conjured in this case to court buy-in from the state for a large-scale national parks project. Big philanthropy emphasizes the spectacular investability of national parks by selling them as “a cold, hard asset,” akin to Chile’s other natural resources. It does this by rendering the value of protected nature legible and consumable through the same resource-making techniques that define extractivism. Yet, these resource-making techniques when applied to environmental protection not only establish perverse incentives for action, they also help fuel the convergence of conservation and extraction.
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