FG Interkulturalität
Refine
Document Type
- Doctoral thesis (13)
- Working paper (3)
- Master thesis (2)
Has Fulltext
- yes (18)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (18)
Year of publication
Keywords
- Immaterielles Kulturerbe (5)
- Kulturerbe (4)
- Kulturlandschaft (3)
- Community involvement (2)
- Intangible Cultural Heritage (2)
- Migration (2)
- Rechtsextremismus (2)
- Rechtsradikalismus (2)
- UNESCO (2)
- Welterbe (2)
Institute
The 'cultural appropriation' of traditional textiles from Mexico : an analysis of 3 case studies
(2023)
This doctoral thesis intended to examine the phenomenon of ‘cultural appropriation’ of traditional textiles from Mexico through an analysis of 3 case studies. This research had the objective of understanding the phenomenon through the relationships, perspectives, and discourses of the social actors involved, by following the development of controversies involving different objects of material culture from different communities: the xaam nïxuy Ayuujk (Mixe) blouse from Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca; the Hñuhú and Hñahñ (Otomi) “Tenango” embroideries from the communities of Tenago de Doria and San Nicolas in Hidalgo; and the mestizo gabanes from Santa Clara del Cobre and Nahuatzen in the State of Michoacán.
This doctoral examination was sustained through theoretical approximations that located the occurrences within transnational/ transcultural processes, engaging with qualitative methodologies and multi-sited ethnographies in order to obtain data that elucidated on the diversity of objects, actors, relationships, understandings, perceptions, values, and discourses involved in the ‘cultural appropriation’ of traditional textiles controversies in the country.
The content analysis of this doctoral research dissected a number of different processes, effects, and consequences of the phenomenon as it developed in dissimilar locations and periods of time. The examination revealed a complex intersection of meanings, productions, circulations, and consumptions of culture, that simultaneously affected cultural meanings, relationships, and processes, raising concerns over the management of traditional textiles as objects of cultural heritage, and the unviability of protecting communal creative domains through national legal mechanisms.
The present research aims to analyze the possibilities of introducing the living “Intangible Cultural Heritage” as Supplement of Knowledge into the formal educational system particularly the Early Childhood Education in the Far North Region of Cameroon - irrespective of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. This Region is purposively selected for its stronghold of multifarious and diverse ethno-cultural (id)entities and citadel of the country’s enshrined traditions. The rural area of Kolara is conveniently chosen to explore how to blend the receding ethno-cultural heritage with the formal education system in accordance with the aim of education in Cameroon and therefore could be an example of how to train citizens firmly rooted in their cultures but also opened to the world. It presupposes that the current formal primary educational system is not constructive for primary school starters. On the basis of a combination of participatory research and systematic data collection methods, three educational heritages could be outlined: the ethno-cultural traditional educations specific to the two major ethno-cultures Tupuri and Fulbé and the Islamic Arabic educational heritage peculiar to Muslims, predominantly Fulbé. In this context, it could be determined to what extend the formal education is ethno-cultural specific, environment related and learner centered.
Analysegegenstand der Arbeit sind die Diskurse von Geschlecht und Sexualität in den diskursiven Räumen von Migrationsfilmen. Dabei wurden die theoretischen Beiträge aus der migrationssensiblen Genderforschung miteinbezogen. Der Mehrwert dieser Arbeit liegt weniger im Abgleich der theoretischen Beiträge aus migrationssensiblen Genderforschung mit den filmischen Diskursen, sondern vielmehr am Offenlegen der diskursiven Verflechtungen von Sexualität und Geschlecht und der Forschungsgebiete der Migrations-, Gender- und Filmforschung, wobei sich diese gegenseitig in ihren Wissensdiskursen ergänzen. Somit haben die Forschungsergebnisse die drei Diskursebenen dargestellt, die miteinander diskursive verflochten sind: 1. Diskurse von Geschlecht und Sexualität; 2. Diskursräume der gegenwärtigen Migrationsfilme; 3. Diskursanalyse. In den theoretischen Kapiteln wurden deshalb zunächst die verschiedenen Ebenen der Diskursivität von Geschlecht und Sexualität in den filmischen Texten und in der migrationssensiblen Genderforschung beschrieben. Im empirischen Teil wurden gezielt Migrationsfilme aus unterschiedlichen Ländern analysiert, um Zugang zu den Diskursen von Geschlecht und Sexualität in dispersen transnationalen diskursiven Räumen zu gewinnen.
„Besorgte Bürger*innen“ grenzen sich in ihrem Selbstverständnis davon ab, rechtsextreme Orientierungen aufzuweisen. Das Ziel der folgenden Analysen ist es, der Frage nach den tatsächlichen Motivlagen der „besorgten Bürger*innen“ genauer nachzugehen und die Rolle verfestigter rechtsextremer Weltbilder im Vergleich zu Protestmotiven zu beleuchten. Dazu werden empirische Befunde des Sachsen-Monitors 2018, der Mitte-Studien von 2016 und 2018 sowie Ergebnisse teilnehmender Beobachtungen von Pegida-Demonstrationen herangezogen. Die empirischen Analysen weisen aus, dass es sich bei den „besorgten Bürger*innen“ keineswegs um „normale Durchschnittsbürger*innen“ handelt – ihr Einstellungs-profil weicht deutlich von dem der übrigen Bevölkerung ab. Der Beitrag schließt mit Überlegungen, ob „Zuhören“ und „mit Rechten reden“ geeignete Mittel in der politischen Auseinandersetzung sind. Ferner wird die Frage diskutiert, inwieweit im Kontext des vorgelegten Forschungsdesigns Prozesse des „Othering“ die Ergebnisse beeinflussen könnten.
Tehran Bazaar has been the most influential marketplace in Iran, over the last two hundred years, since Tehran became the capital of the country. The Bazaar has been a significant socio-political agent in Iranian society. Nevertheless, less attention has been given to its internal atmosphere, where the bazaaris, have tried to conserve their traditions and preserve their heritage. One of these heritages are “hey’ats”, religious formations for holding mourning sessions in Muharram month, as a ritual in Shi’a Islam. “Hey’ats” give the guilds a sense of collective identity, they represent them, and also build a shared heritage for them.
The Drapers’ Guild was the first guild in Tehran Bazaar, founding a hey’at. They founded this hey’at in 1883 and named it “the Drapers’ Hey’at”. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Drapers faced difficulties preserving their heritage. They were forced to displace the Mirza Mousa Mosque in the Bazaar. The Mosque was their center for holding religious sessions and was publicly known as “the Drapers’ Mosque”. Since they were attached to the Mosque, their displacement was perceived a loss of heritage. Later, they decided to build a new home, “the Drapers’ Hosseinieh”. They decided to implement the interior design of their lost Mosque in the new place. This strategy enabled them overcome “the traumatic experience of displacement and heritage loss.” Also, to safeguard their new place, they legally registered their hey’at as an institution, and they wrote a constitution for it. The attempts for modernization, led them to develop beneficiary activities, as well. In this research, a qualitative approach is applied, benefiting from multiple methodologies, including; ethnography, secondary sources, and visual methods. The researcher has attempted to outline the story of the Drapers in preserving their heritage. This study hopefully would be useful for similar traditional organizations, showing how continuity and heritage preservation are possible to achieve for communities having experienced a troubled past.
Dieser Infobrief beschäftigt sich mit den aktuellen Konflikten um Migration und Zugehörigkeit in der Stadt Cottbus. Er thematisiert dabei die Situation der Geflüchteten und Migrant*innen, Aktivitäten von rechten und rechtsradikalen Gruppierungen und ziviles Engagement für und von Migrant*innen und gegen rechte Gewalt. Der Infobrief verschafft zunächst einen Überblick über einige zentrale gewaltsame Ausschreitungen in der Stadt seit 2017 und identifiziert unterschiedliche Akteur*innen, Ereignisse und deren Medienrezeption, die vor allem seit 2017 ein negatives Bild der Stadt Cottbus hervorgebracht haben. Zum einen geht es um rechte Akteur*innen, bei denen es sich um ein überregionales Netzwerk unterschiedlicher Gruppierungen handelt, die immer wieder Einfluss auf die öffentliche Meinung, Politik und Wirtschaft in Cottbus zu nehmen versuchen. Anschließend wird ziviles Engagement gegen recht Akteur*innen bzw. für, mit und von Migrant*innen dargestellt. Diesbezüglich wird aufgezeigt, dass das zivile Engagement gegen Rassismus in der Stadt und in der Region eine lange Tradition hat, jedoch ähnlich selten wie die Dis/Kontinuitäten von Rassismus und Antisemitismus in der DDR in den Medien Aufmerksamkeit findet. Besonders MSOs (Migrant*innenselbst-organisationen), wie beispielsweise das 2017 gegründete Geflüchtetennetzwerk Cottbus, nehmen hier eine wichtige Rolle ein. Der Infobrief gibt abschließend einen Ausblick über Faktoren, welche gesellschaftliche Aushandlungen über die Themen Flucht und Migration in Cottbus prägen können.
This dissertation examines how migration and development narratives are (re)produced in transnational digital migrant media using an example of Kenyan migration to Europe. It also raises questions about existing gaps in the literature on the role of the media specifically, transnational digital migrant media in constructing influential discourses. It achieves this quest by submitting to an objective to examine the contribution of migrant media discourses to development in migration-sending countries (De Haas, 2007). Using postcolonial-discourse theoretic approach, the thesis analyses the criteria for selection of texts on migration and development, and how the texts inform the discourse. The theoretical concepts of development in this thesis follow Arturo Escobar’s (1995) deconstruction of conventional development theory. It includes an appreciation of multi-faceted theoretic dynamics, especially historical effects on development and creation of hegemonic disparities causing migration of Kenyans to Europe. The dissertation explores the relation of liberal development narratives to Postcolonial perspectives of Edward Said (1977), Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1986) and Homi Bhabha (1983), whose writings expose stereotypes like those found in development constructs. The study highlights similar aspects of representations of migration and development in the media. It does not only expose migrant’s contribution to development but accentuates the discourse forming function of migrant media in the production of heterogeneous narratives on migration and development. This reflection is an attempt to look at possibilities of alternative development trajectories in migrant media and Postcolonial texts, that resist neo-colonial economic narratives forced on people of African descent. The findings for this thesis show that migrant media provides hegemonic ideas on development, as well as alternative counter-hegemonic views. Even though poverty and political instability of Africa characterize narratives in the mainstream media, migrant media utilizes new media platforms for “subalterns” to be heard. Migrants’ inputs on development (re)produced in migrant media, inform a discourse that champions initiatives aimed at improving livelihoods in migration-sending countries. To answer the main sociological question on (re)production of narratives this dissertation learns from Norman Fairclough’s (1995, 2012) guidelines to discourse analysis, as informed from Michel Foucault’s (1980) theoretic approach. As a qualitative research strategy, the dissertation explores Texts from transnational digital migrant media for Kenyans in Europe (Germany and UK) and expert interviews with Kenyan media producers in Germany and in Britain. On this basis, the thesis argues that not only are media expert’s contributors to development but also important creators of a discourse that qualifies migration as a reality in Kenya’s development.
The research introduces volunteering at World Heritage site as a potential civic engagement tool, which can increase communication between heritage property and local community. The first part of the study focuses on the concept of volunteering and on the role it plays in community involvement at World Heritage sites as well as on its benefits for social development in general.
The second part of the research intends to give practical recommendation on designing a volunteer program under conditions of the World Heritage site of the Palaces and Parks in Potsdam and Berlin. The author raises a question how a volunteering program can be organized to be effective and at the same time to respond to the UNESCO World Heritage Programme and to the newest UNESCO conservation concepts, such as Historic Urban Landscape approach.
The study aims to serve as a practical guide for museums and heritage organisations that intend to improve community involvement in their work.
This research investigates the role of audio-visual media in the representation of intangible cultural heritage and provides a theoretically and empirically grounded concept of the interrelation of media, ICH and representation. It identifies both the potentials and risks involved in media representation, as well as responding to the question regarding how audio-visual representations can foster the safeguarding of ICH, aiming at its sustained transmission and recreation. The study conceptualizes representation as a process in which meaning is produced and negotiated. It refers to discourse in Social/Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Studies and Cultural Studies, particularly making use of the circuit of culture model, Hall’s encoding/decoding model and Assmann’s concept of memory. As ICH is culturally contextualized, the analysis focuses on one specific heritage manifestation: the Kutiyattam Sanskrit theatre. It explores in detail Kutiyattam’s history, identity, performance practice and transformation, including after UNESCO’s proclamation. It analyses the processes and conditions of production, encoding, circulation, reception, utilization and regulation of audio-visual representation and demonstrates the extent to which these dynamic and manifold reciprocal processes influence Kutiyattam practices and practitioners. In the form of a thick description, the study exemplifies that media and modern technologies foster continuity in practice, revitalization, valorization and self-assertion, that they enable education, research, promotion and dissemination of ICH, and contribute to identity construction and the (re)creation of communities. It shows that audio-visual representations - when produced in collaboration with the practicing communities, thereby facilitating culture-specific coding and community use - constitute significant vehicles within safeguarding measures. Differentiating between horizontal and vertical transmission of ICH as well as micro and macro level consumption, the study further identifies numerous challenges involved in the mediatization and digitization of ICH. It addresses issues of access, participation, appropriation and intellectual property and the conflict-ridden processes of homogenization, fragmentation, commercialization and popularization, among others. It argues that rather than being innocent and neutral reflections of cultural practices, audio-visual representations are actively involved in meaning making and knowledge constitution processes and deeply enmeshed in power. It proves that representations shape memory, cultural identity and history and exercise influence on cultural expressions and communities. The study concludes with the provision of general recommendations, giving guidance regarding the utilization of media as well as the production, consumption and regulation of media work, targeting heritage professionals and media professionals alike.
Owing to its unique strategic position on the northern coast of the Black Sea, Crimea has, since Antiquity, been a highly diverse, multi-ethnic, multi-religious location. Throughout history, the peninsula’s landscapes were shaped and transformed under the influence of its ever-changing populations. In this process, religion played a crucial role. Nowadays, Crimea abounds in sacred sites in the same way as it abounds in culturally and religiously diverse inhabitants.
Rebirth in the 1990s of the religious and cultural life that had been repressed for over seventy years of the Soviet rule gave a powerful impetus to the revival of Crimea’s sacred landscapes and enabled the different ethno-religious groups residing in the peninsula to re-establish the bond with the home of their ancestors. The notion of landscape as a memoryscape became central in this context, since it is the landscape that records, as well as reflects, the events in history. The sites communally regarded as sacred unite the people as much as common memories transmitted from one generation to the other do.
The objectives of the theoretical part of this thesis are twofold. On the one hand, it aims to grasp the connection between religion, landscape and memory, whereby sacred sites are seen as landscapes of memory and anchors of people’s cultural and religious identity. On the other hand, it seeks to explore the specific issues pertinent to the Crimean socio-cultural context, such as the peninsula’s history and the evolving ethno-religious relationships among the diverse local population, which have impacted the development and protection of Crimea’s sacred sites overtime. Method employed is the comparative literature review, whereby for each chapter a selection of authors was made, whose contributions towards the discussion of the aforementioned issues have been particularly relevant.
Based on the theoretical background described above, the empirical section of the research targets two main groups of actors: the state on the one side, and the organizations representing local religious groups on the other. In relation to the state, the objective is to explore how the religious revival of the post-Soviet period correlates with Ukraine’s current policies towards the safeguarding of Crimea’s sacred landscapes, namely, to what extent they are being protected under the existing legislation, and which of the aspects are given most attention in the process. In relation to the organizations representing local religious groups, the task is to investigate to what degree the sacred sites under study remain relevant for various groups, and to establish how the knowledge about the local sacred places and their importance is being disseminated both within these groups and beyond.
In order to fulfill these tasks, the set of indicators has been developed, which takes into consideration the specific Crimean socio-cultural context, and a selection of case studies has been made, which in their totality reflect the viewpoints of Crimea’s prominent religious groups. The case studies are: (1) the Assumption Monastery, (2) the cave town of Chufut Kale with Balta Tiymez Karaite cemetery, and (3) the old town of Bakhchisaray with Salachiq historic district and Gazy Mansur cemetery. All of the three case studies are located on the territory of Bakhchisaray Historical and Cultural Preserve (BHCP).
The evaluation of the Ukrainian state’s policies with regards to safeguarding of the selected sacred sites revealed that while many of their elements are recognized as cultural heritage of high significance, protection activities are impeded by substantial obstacles of administrative nature, as well as by the lack general planning. Moreover, conservation and day-to-day management is carried out with little consideration for the opinions of the local people and with the insufficient involvement of the latter.
The indicator-based assessment of relevance of the selected sacred locations for various local religious groups and the ways, in which the knowledge about these sites is being spread exposed a number of clear tendencies, as well as highlighted the existing challenges and deficiencies which need to be urgently addressed, so as to ensure the safeguarding of the studied sites for the future generations.