The creative ‘slum’

Art has often been associated with wealth and luxury, but also with expressions of creativity and the potential of the imagination. In this post, John Clammer reflects on the resourcefulness and creative expressions found in poor, informal communities all over the world, and how art in its many forms is related to manifestations of social development

Crisis, States and the Sociology of Southeast Asia: Constructing and Deconstructing 1997

The events of 1997 in Southeast Asia have been largely interpreted as a financial crisis, as a momentary problem in an otherwise smoothly operating development model. This paper takes issue with this interpretation and argues that in fact it indicated the extent of the penetration of globalization in the region and threw into stark relief the underlying sociological transformations that have accompanied and been created by the developmentalist policies of regional states. The paper attempts to indicate what the major sociological issues generated by the crisis are, to argue for the continuing salience of class analysis in interpreting social transformations in contemporary Southeast Asia and to propose the elements of a fresh sociological model for examining post-crisis Southeast Asian societies encapsulated in a pattern of globalization that is having profound but not yet fully mapped cultural and social consequences. The paper in other words attempts a sociological interpretation of what has been mostly read as an economic problem, and indicates necessary linkages between the economic, the sociological and the cultural in the interpretation of social change in the region

Le mythe de la race et de la Chine ancienne parmi les Chinois d'outre-mer

A travers le cas exemplaire des communautés chinoises de la diaspora en Asie, l’auteur met en évidence l'importance des mythes dans la reformulation des identités. Insistant plus particulièrement sur la perception du pays natal et l’image de soi et de la société qu’elle a impliquée, il envisage la question sous différents angles - ethnohistoriques, sociologiques, sociolinguistiques, etc. Il montre que le discours sur l’identité chinoise n’est pas seulement culturel et historique, mais aussi racial, et qu’il contient de ce fait certains dangers : l’insistance sur les différences et l’incapacité de transcender le passé et de créer de nouvelles identités favorisant l’échange, plutôt que la division. (Traduit de l'anglais par Catherine Paix.) Myths of race and classical China amongst Overseas Chinese. Problems of memory, history and ethnicism. Throught the exemplary case of the Overseas Chinese in Asia, the author brings out the determinant importance of myths in the reformulation of identities - a topic of the day. Stressing on the perception of the « Mother country » and the imagery of self and society that this has provoked amongst these immigrant communities, he views the question along a number of dimensions - ethnohistorical, sociological, sociolinguistic... J. Clammer develops a model of this particular relationship between the Overseas Chinese and the China of reality and of their imagination. He points out that the discourse about Chinese identity is not only a cultural and historical one, but is equally a racial one often disguised as a sociological one, and contains consequently some dangers : the emphasizing of differences and the inability to transcend the past and to create new identities that promote communication rather than division

Le mythe de la race et de la Chine ancienne parmi les Chinois d'outre-mer

A travers le cas exemplaire des communautés chinoises de la diaspora en Asie, l’auteur met en évidence l'importance des mythes dans la reformulation des identités. Insistant plus particulièrement sur la perception du pays natal et l’image de soi et de la société qu’elle a impliquée, il envisage la question sous différents angles - ethnohistoriques, sociologiques, sociolinguistiques, etc. Il montre que le discours sur l’identité chinoise n’est pas seulement culturel et historique, mais aussi racial, et qu’il contient de ce fait certains dangers : l’insistance sur les différences et l’incapacité de transcender le passé et de créer de nouvelles identités favorisant l’échange, plutôt que la division. (Traduit de l'anglais par Catherine Paix.) Myths of race and classical China amongst Overseas Chinese. Problems of memory, history and ethnicism. Throught the exemplary case of the Overseas Chinese in Asia, the author brings out the determinant importance of myths in the reformulation of identities - a topic of the day. Stressing on the perception of the « Mother country » and the imagery of self and society that this has provoked amongst these immigrant communities, he views the question along a number of dimensions - ethnohistorical, sociological, sociolinguistic... J. Clammer develops a model of this particular relationship between the Overseas Chinese and the China of reality and of their imagination. He points out that the discourse about Chinese identity is not only a cultural and historical one, but is equally a racial one often disguised as a sociological one, and contains consequently some dangers : the emphasizing of differences and the inability to transcend the past and to create new identities that promote communication rather than division

Antropología aplicada, arte y economía. Investigación y planificación de iniciativas económico-culturales en comunidades tribales del Sur Asiático

This paper examines two cases of anthropological work among two tribal communities in eastern India in which cooperative work between an anthropologist and an artist was aimed at preserving and enhancing local visual and performing arts traditions, encouraging art work as an imagination-building exercise, and stimulating art and craft production as a means of creating an economic base for rural women. Research and sensitivity towards social structure, religion and traditional symbolism, the local political arrangements and distribution of power, gender, and the existing economy were necessary ingredients in proposing new initiatives which while they had the potential to increase incomes could also be disruptive of social relationships.Este artículo examina dos casos de investigación antropológica en dos comunidades tribales del este de la India. El trabajo cooperativo entre antropólogo y artistas se propuso preservar y mejorar tradiciones visuales y de arte performativo promoviendo el trabajo artístico como un ejercicio de construcción de la imaginación, y de la producción artesanal como modos de crear una base económica para mujeres campesinas. La investigación y la sensibilización hacia la estructura social, la religión, la distribución del poder, el género y la economía fueron ingredientes necesarios para proponer nuevas iniciativas que, si bien tuvieron el potencial de incrementar los ingresos, también fueron disruptivos de las relaciones sociales

The sociology and culture of sustainable development : an interview with Professor John Clammer

This is an interview with Professor John Clammer of Jindal Global University, Dehli, India. He is a British academic who has worked principally in Asia, and is now one of the leading writers and scholars on the vital issues pertaining to global sustainable development. This interview was begun while Professor Clammer was a visiting fellow at the Warwick Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) in 2018, and then continued with various iterations of our academic partnership since then. This interview cites his latest books, notably the publication Cultural Rights and Justice (2019), and also offers an historic overview of his experience of academic life within the evolving discourse of social and cultural development

Special issue introduction : development, democracy and culture

In a time of huge religious, political and territorial conflict, the cultural dimension of development is all too easily ignored. The last special issue of the Journal of Law, Social Justice and Global Development was concerned with Cultural Rights (culture and human rights); this current issue, thematically, follows from a question that emerged in the process of its editing: How have global cultural policies been conceived as development policies through a quest for the ‘ideal’ of democracy? The 2001 UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, and then the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, appealed to the values of democracy as a ‘basis’ of their operational efficacy. But what kind of democracy is most effective in the implementation of cultural policies, and how that that re-adjust our thinking on the role of culture in development? What happened to the discourse on democracy and development that featured milestone texts like the World Commission on Culture and Development’s Our Creative Diversity (1966)? What happened to the notion that cultural pluralism was a road to democratisation, and why do policies on multiculturalism no longer seem to promise a vibrant participatory “culture” of democracy for the brave new “globalised” world? These questions cannot be decisively answered, but the articles in this issue serve to frame our investigation moving forward to a substantive response