Cultural studies and Africa: excavating the subject-matter.

This article examines some of the issues arising from the proliferation of cultural studies as a form of national-identity research. Looking at the case of the recent rise of culture studies in South Africa, we examine how certain items of received wisdom about cultural studies have obscured some of the academic dynamics that have actually driven the growth of cultural studies. In contrast with some of these aspects we consider cultural studies as a form of inquiry, driven by the reality of its subject-matter, and review some of the normative concepts that govern the communication of research findings. Based on C.S. Peirce's pragmatic conception of the logic of scientific communication, and on pragmatic trends arising among African writers like D.A. Masolo and Kwasi Wiredu, we consider just what has become the subject-matter of cultural studies. We offer an alternate formulation based in communication practice and provide an example of how this was presented in conference on the African Renaissance. We conclude with suggestions about how cultural studies might recover Its original radical democratic impetus in a world where socialism has lost much of its intellectual integrity

Popularising semiotics.

Semiotics, deconstructionism, structuralism and postmodernism are words which lurk on boundaries of the consciousness of most of us. But they remain shadowy presences except on the rare occasions when we need to wrestle out of them an explanation of just what they are all about. In this issue of Trends we grapple with one of them, semiotics. C. S. Peirce, the American, pragmatist philosopher who coined the term, saw semiotics as a 'method of methods', useful in many disciplines to clarify their own theory and practice. Everyone uses signs and symbols. Everyone thinks they know the meanings of the signs and symbols they use. But why do they have meanings? Where do the meanings come from? Why are the signs and symbols used by one person or group so frequently misinterpreted by others? Semiotics may seem esoteric, but its interests are central to all communication. Consequently all communicators should be concerned with at least some of the problems dealt with semioticians. To guide us on our exploration of semiotics the publishers of Trends, the Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture, have enlisted the aid of Professor Keyan Tomaselli and his colleagues at the Centre for Cultural and Media Studies of the University of Natal, who for some years have been studying the cultural side of semiotics. So eager has their response been that we have devoted two issues of Trends to their reports. The contents of these two issues manifest the views of the authors more than is usual for Trends, and they are not necessarily those of the editors; but the CSCC feels that the perspective of the CCMS deserves both expression and discussion

Transformative sensemaking: Development in Whose Image? Keyan Tomaselli and the semiotics of visual representation

The defining and distinguishing feature of homo sapiens is its ability to make sense of the world, i.e. to use its intellect to understand and change both itself and the world of which it is an integral part. It is against this backdrop that this essay reviews Tomaselli's 1996 text, Appropriating Images: The Semiotics of Visual Representation/ by summarizing his key perspectives, clarifying his major operational concepts and citing particular portions from his work in support of specific perspectives on sense-making. Subsequently, this essay employs his techniques of sense-making to interrogate the notion of "development". This exercise examines and confirms two interrelated hypotheses: first, a semiotic analysis of the privileged notion of "development" demonstrates its metaphysical/ ideological, and thus limiting, nature especially vis-a-vis the marginalized, excluded, and the collective other, the so-called Developing Countries. Second, the interrogative nature of semiotics allows for an alternative reading and application of human potential or skills in the quest of a more humane social and global order, highlighting thereby the transformative implications of a reflexive epistemology.Web of Scienc

Semiotics in an African context : ''science" vs "priest-craft" - "semiology" vs "semiotics".

Paper presented at XII Annual Meeting and International Congress of the International Semiotics Institute of IMATRA and the Semiotics Society of Finland, July 1992.No abstract available