Cultural Production Research Articles

The flamboyance of things: Handmade material culture in new-wave carnival in New Orleans

Carnival in New Orleans is a complex, vibrant field of cultural production that generates a wealth of material culture. In the small-scale, countercultural ‘new wave’ of carnival ‘krewes’ or clubs that have proliferated since Hurricane Katrina, that material culture is often handmade. Framed by Daniel Miller's dialectical theory of material culture and drawing on ethnographic fieldwork spanning several carnival seasons, this paper unpacks what is at stake in new-wave carnival's costumes, throws, and floats. We argue that making these objects makes carnival itself: the handmade things shape people's experiences of carnival, generating vivid, memorable interactions and encounters, which they later encapsulate as mementos. In their handmade-ness, carnival-makers not only recognize the effort that people put into the events, but also carnival's sociality and relationality. While Miller emphasizes ‘the humility of things,’ these things are loud and flamboyant. They nonetheless help illustrate how culture unfolds with and through stuff.

The Path of AI Technology to Promote Sustainable Development of China’s Cultural Industry: An empirical analysis based on Digital Cultural Communication

Artificial intelligence technology is currently reshaping the global cultural industry profoundly. This study uses Chinese digital cultural products as the cases, and adopts case analysis and phenomenological methods to explore how AI technology can promote the sustainable development of China’s cultural industry through content production, communication innovation and industrial upgrading. The study found that AI has formed a “technology-culture-market” synergy mechanism in the three dimensions of cultural digital protection, global communication and user interactive experience, but faces challenges such as technological ethics, cultural discounts and unequal resource allocation. Finally, a three-element development framework of “policy guidance-technology empowerment-ecological co-construction” is proposed.

Digital Youth Activism on Instagram: Racial Justice, Black Feminism, and Literary Mobilization in the Case of Marley Dias

This paper examines how Marley Dias’ activism on Instagram promotes racial justice, Black feminist thought, and youth mobilization through digital storytelling, representation, and audience engagement. Using a mixed-methods analysis of 744 posts published between 2016 and 2025, the study combined critical thematic coding, temporal mapping, and engagement metrics to analyze the discursive and emotional strategies behind Dias’ activism. Five key themes were identified as central to her activist work: diversity in literature, lack girl empowerment, racial justice, Black representation, and educational advocacy. The findings reveal that Dias strategically tailors her messages to suit Instagram’s unique features, using carousels and videos to enhance visibility, foster intimacy, and provide depth in education. Posts that focused on identity, aesthetics, and empowerment garnered the highest levels of engagement, while posts that concentrated on structural issues received lower, yet still significant, interaction. The paper argues that Dias’ Instagram account serves as a dynamic platform for youth-led Black feminist resistance, where cultural production, civic education, and emotional impact converge. This case underscores the political potential of digital literacies and encourages a reconsideration of how youth-driven digital activism is reshaping contemporary public discourse, agency, and knowledge production in the social media age.

Kreativitas Pembuatan Batik Berbasis Kearifan Lokal sebagai Daya Tarik Pengunjung Desa Wisata Kertosari, Pasuruan

This community service program focuses on empowering the local community of Kertosari Village, Purwosari District, Pasuruan Regency, through creative batik-making based on local wisdom. This activity aims to support the development of sustainable ecotourism and enhance the competitiveness of tourist destinations in the global era. Tourism, as defined in Indonesian Law No. 10 of 2009, includes activities aimed at recreation, self-development, and exploration of local attractions. Kertosari Village, recipient of the 2019 Indonesia Sustainable Tourism Award, has strong potential as an ecotourism village with unique natural and cultural assets. Through training and capacity-building, this program seeks to equip local residents with batik-making skills that can serve as cultural products for tourism promotion. Funded by Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya and supported by community partners, this initiative includes training sessions, seminars, and publications in SINTA-accredited journals and digital platforms. The expected outcomes are increased community participation in tourism, enhanced creative skills, and economic empowerment. Ultimately, this program aims to strengthen the identity of Kertosari Village as a sustainable tourist destination, while preserving local cultural heritage through batik.

Reframing heritage management: The role of marketing education through cultural products and direct investment in culture

Cultural heritage professionals increasingly face the challenge of combining preservation with innovation, engagement, and sustainability in fast-changing contexts. This study explores how marketing education can support heritage professionals in aligning cultural preservation with economic and social sustainability. As public funding diminishes and audience expectations evolve, the need for strategic competencies in communication, audience development, and partnership-building becomes increasingly urgent. The study adopts a conceptual review methodology, integrating a structured thematic analysis of international literature and comparative case studies. Sources were selected based on their relevance to cultural products (CPs), direct investment in culture (DIC), and professional training within the heritage sector. Recent literature highlights the growing interdependence between cultural heritage, digital innovation, and sustainable development. However, few studies have systematically explored how marketing education contributes to this nexus – particularly through capacity-building for heritage professionals. This study identifies strategic marketing as a critical skill set for professionals managing CPs and DIC frameworks. Five key competency domains are outlined: audience engagement, digital literacy, strategic planning, ethical communication, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Case studies illustrate that institutions equipped with marketing expertise consistently outperform others in audience outreach, funding diversification, and community impact. To address this need, marketing education should be embedded in heritage curricula and institutional policy to strengthen professional capacity. The study proposes a phased implementation framework that emphasizes partnerships with academic institutions, hybrid learning models, and inclusive access. It offers a structured synthesis of how marketing education can serve as a lever for institutional resilience and stakeholder alignment in heritage management, providing actionable recommendations across geographic and governance contexts.

“La Coreañera” plays cumbia: reimagining “Asianness” in Latin American visual social media cultures

ABSTRACT This article examines how Asian diasporic identities are performed, remixed, and made legible in Latin American visual social media cultures, through the case study of Abigail Pak, better known as La Coreañera. A Korean American musician who moves between the United States and Mexico, Pak fuses cumbia performance, Mexican barrio aesthetics, and Korean heritage into a microcelebrity persona that circulates on Instagram and TikTok videos mostly shot in Mexico City. We analyse how her content navigates class-coded vernaculars, musical subcultures, and racialised imaginaries of Asianness in contemporary Mexico, raising complex questions around authenticity, digital representation, and class mobility. We draw on Arjun Appadurai’s framework of global cultural flows, Néstor García Canclini’s concept of hybrid and border cultures, and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope—as adapted for social media by Kozharinova and Manovich—to explore how Pak performs a digitally mediated, narratively coherent identity across time and space. Methodologically, our multimodal analysis focuses on her strategic use of linguistic play, the DJ-driven urban style cumbiatón sonidero, and visual aesthetics, situating these within broader South-to-South circuits of cultural production. Pak’s performances not only destabilise normative frameworks of race and class in Mexico but also offer new insights into how East Asian identities are being reframed outside traditional centres of Hallyu (the Korean Wave) and the Global North. In doing so, this article contributes to contemporary Inter-Asian cultural theory, foregrounding the translocal rhythms through which diasporic subjectivities are performed, circulated, and contested in the age of intensive and extensive digital media production.

A network analytical framework for modeling the global transmission of classics through translation

Understanding how ancient classics cross linguistic, cultural, and geographical boundaries is crucial for preserving and enhancing their intangible value in contemporary contexts. This study develops an analytical framework combining social network and geographical perspectives to examine their global transmission through translations. Integrating the Classic Dissemination Network and Exponential Random Graph Model, the study analyzes dynamic transmission patterns and the influencing factors, using the Tao Te Ching as a case study. Results reveal that the current transmission structure is spatially expansive yet clustered, exhibiting small-world properties. The analysis also demonstrates a core-periphery hierarchy, where core countries serve as hubs for cultural production and exchange, while peripheral countries primarily receive content. Countries often engage in bidirectional exchanges, influenced by publishing capacity and economic strength. Additionally, religious proximity significantly shapes transmission pathways and reinforces cultural connections. This research offers insights into the cross-cultural movement of classics and advances digital humanities methodologies.

Youth culture and new media as revitalized social justice pedagogy: a transcultural analysis of Freire and Urobuchi

ABSTRACT Based on textual analysis of Japanese novelist and media-creator Gen Urobuchi’s Madoka Magica (2011), this paper illustrates its five-tier structural narrative as an exploration of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968). The transcultural influences of Freire’s social justice and antiracist pedagogy are reflected in Urobuchi’s postcolonial narrative, in which speculative fiction elements are mobilized to engage youth in intercultural discourse. Five characters respectively engage youth in Freire’s concept of class struggle; internal competition among the marginalized; neoliberal emphasis on personal profit for mental health; non-universal social justice; and limited vision on sources of oppression beyond systems, structures, and specific binaries. The centrality of multiculturalism and moral education in Freire’s rural Brazil emerges as still highly-relevant for modern urbanized students, as global youth continue to request and consume follow-up content since the release of Urobuchi’s first episode in 2011. Urobuchi’s intentional use of youth-oriented media including graphic novel, film, interactive games, and Japanese anime highlight ways through which educators may employ new media and cultural products for teaching. In combination, youths’ interest in new media themselves has led to considerable youth-led dissemination, which in combination with the narrative’s audiovisual format has helped facilitate exchange of cultural perspectives around the world.

Cultural Governance: A Feasible Path for Promoting Rural Revitalization under the Background of the Integration of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Rural revitalization is an important deployment by the Party and the state to promote high-quality economic development in rural areas, and it is the key to driving the transformation of rural civilization and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Rural cultural governance is an important form of governance for achieving the transformation of rural areas from traditional civilization to modern civilization. In the process of promoting Chinese-style modernization, to achieve modernization in rural areas, it is necessary to closely integrate rural culture with the development of The Times, and improve the quality of cultural life of farmers while maintaining the characteristics of rural culture. The breakout of the "Two Rivers and Two Villages" sports events has provided a new model for rural cultural governance and achieving rural economic development in promoting rural revitalization. It is found from the cases that cultural governance in rural areas can be effectively promoted by strengthening multi-party co-governance, innovating governance forms, expanding the public space of rural culture and enriching the supply of high-quality cultural products.

Digitization and the recreation of Yorùbá cultural moral tales

Abstract Against the backdrop of the widespread allegation that Yorùbá folk stories and cultural moral tales are faced with the threat of marginalization owing to persistent attacks on indigenous cultural forms by the forces of globalization, this study underscores the inherent value in the digitization of Yorùbá cultural moral tales and stories. Interestingly, technological and scientific innovations have always conditioned both the material and immaterial aspects of culture. The article is situated within the theoretical purview of intangible cultural heritage and the Yorùbá philosophy of innovation and change in cultural production, distribution, and consumption. Methodologically, the study derives its evidence from the analysis of the ethnographic data collected through an online survey of 373 respondents. This was complemented with findings from participants’ observations and qualitative interviews conducted across Yorùbáland as well as the textual analysis of relevant primary and secondary literature on Yorùbá cultural moral tales and digitization. Interestingly, the study finds out that apart from their unique moralizing, entertaining, and economic values, Yorùbá folk stories are veritable cultural artefacts that can be used to promote social cohesion, moral uprightness, and civil citizenship. The conclusion is that there is an urgent need for the expansion and recreation of Yorùbá cultural moral tales in digital formats to make them more accessible to both local and global viewers.

“Two Silver Herrings for My Granddaughter”: Central Europe, Poland, and Transnational Affinities. Deborah Levy in Conversation

The piece addresses Deborah Levy’s long-standing dialogue with Central European history and cultural production and the impact that the latter exerted onto her works, including her “living autobiography”. It also showcases various modes of cultural exchange and transnational affinities between the global West and East in the Cold War period.

Stirring the Pot: The Politics of Ethnicity in Ratatouille (2007)

Ratatouille (Dir. Brad Bird, 2007) reflects on themes of identity, authenticity, and cultural belonging. The article analyzes this film, focusing on the depiction of ethnic characters: the Italian wannabe-chefs Linguini, a lowly kitchen worker, and Remy, a rat, who team up to replace Skinner, an Arab head chef. This rags to riches story arguably attempts to challenge the tenacious historical association between “rats” and ethnic outcasts, but it presents a naturalized difference between an Italian man, who is allowed to camouflage, and an Arab man, whose camouflage is presented as adversarial. At the end of the film, the Italian rat-human amalgamation improves its status and achieves success, while the Arab character is punished. The film draws parallels between the struggles of immigrant communities, such as Italians and Arabs, and their quest for acceptance and authenticity in a new cultural context. Linguini’s journey represents a form of cultural assimilation that is ultimately accepted, while Skinner’s deception is met with punishment and rejection, reflecting broader societal attitudes towards different immigrant groups. The article argues that by juxtaposing these characters, the film prompts viewers to consider broader themes of immigration and cultural assimilation. Indeed, Linguini exemplifies a more empathetic and collaborative social attitude, in contrast to Skinner’s authoritarian and greedy demeanor. Ratatouille–a cultural product aimed at young children–perpetuates stereotypes and reinforces ethnic hierarchies between Arabs and Italians.

Paynter, Eleanor, Emergency in Transit: Witnessing Migration in the Colonial Present

In Emergency in Transit, Eleanor Paynter redefines contemporary Mediterranean migration, challenging dominant narratives, especially in Italy, that portray it as a sudden, unmanageable “crisis.” The book identifies the Italian government's response to migration as a problem of short-sightedness, since it approaches migration as an emergency situation. The weight of this critique comes from its focus on witness testimonies, a methodological commitment that is also a call to action. Paynter believes that changing the language around migration will change the dominant narrative that migration is a crisis. The book highlights how people held “in transit” respond to and resist this narrative and its government apparatus by analyzing the testimonies and cultural productions of migrants themselves. Drawing on oral histories, ethnography, and analysis of literature, film, and visual art published and set in Italy, Paynter contributes to critical refugee studies and postcolonial Italian studies, offering a call to reimagine mobility and belonging within the migrant experience. One of Paynter’s most compelling contributions is the use of migrants’ memoirs as witness literature, which challenges the erasures of official narratives and asserts migrants’ right to narrate their own histories.

Remixing Authorship: Fan Art, Ethics, and the Evolution of Digital Creation

This visual essay explores the intersection of arts, culture, and global development, focusing on how digital characters such as Hatsune Miku, created by Crypton Future Media, challenge traditional notions of creative authorship and ownership. By examining the collaborative nature of fan communities and their role in reshaping media representations, this reflection highlights the ethical complexities surrounding digital media, intellectual property, and cultural production. The evolution of Hatsune Miku from a virtual pop star to a global cultural icon demonstrates how fan art and participatory culture redefine concepts of authorship, allowing for the democratization of creative works. Drawing on Heather Warren-Crow's theory of "plastic images," this visual essay critically engages with the fluidity of digital media and the transformative potential of remix culture. The zine format is employed as a medium to explore these themes, providing a tangible space for individual expression and collective collaboration. By integrating fan art and addressing issues of copyright, the project emphasizes the tension between creativity and intellectual property in the digital age, illustrating the dynamic, evolving nature of media representation and the shifting boundaries of authorship. Revisiting the author’s own zine project Plastic Existence, the work evolves as an ongoing exploration into digital media and authorship, offering a nuanced reflection on how fan art reshapes cultural narratives and fosters conversations about shared creative responsibilities in participatory spaces.

Does humanistic exchanges policy enhance cultural production? Evidence from the Belt and Road Initiative

ABSTRACT Culture is crucial for the long-term national development. Based on the Global Innovation Index from 2013 to 2022, this paper focuses on the impacts and mechanisms of the “Strengthen and Improve Humanistic Exchanges between China and foreign countries” (SIHE) policy on cultural production values in Belt and Road countries. We find that the SIHE policy can increase national scientific and technological investment and corporate R&D investment, leading to technological progress and upgrading the cultural production value. Meanwhile, the SIHE policy promotes a greater effect on the countries along the Belt and Road with high industrial agglomeration and high-tech investment. Our study provides an extension of the cultural effects of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Generative AI, Simulacra, and the Transformation of Media Production

This article examines the transformative impact of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) on media production within advertising, film, and television, through the theoretical lens of Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra. As GAI technologies increasingly generate synthetic content that mimics or replaces human creativity, traditional notions of authenticity, authorship, and audience perception are destabilized. Drawing on prominent case studies, including Coca-Cola’s AI Christmas campaign, Nike’s "Never Done Evolving" ad, the AI-scripted films Sunspring and The Last Screenwriter, and procedurally generated television content such as Nothing, Forever and Showrunner, the study explores how GAI contributes to the proliferation of hyperreal media simulations. Employing a qualitative and interdisciplinary methodology, the analysis situates these examples within Baudrillard’s framework, revealing how AI-driven content increasingly operates as autonomous simulations detached from any real referent. The article argues that this shift toward hyperreality has profound implications for cultural production and media consumption, challenging the boundaries between the real and the artificial and prompting critical reflection on the ethical, aesthetic, and societal consequences of AI in the creative industries. Keywords: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), simulacrum, hyperreality, media production, digital culture

TikTok’s tools: The politics of platform tools for cultural production

ABSTRACT The rapid economic and infrastructural expansion of shortform video app TikTok can be attributed to its emphasis on software resources facilitating cultural production. Such tools contribute to the process of ‘platformization,’ the extension of platform business models and governance regimes within and outside the cultural sector, and ‘infrastructuralization,’ the increasing involvement of platform companies in providing critical systems and services. Platform scholars have argued that platformization and infrastructuralization lead to platform dependence. Increasingly, platform tools, being infrastructurally integrated with platform companies, drive these processes. Using the boundary resources framework, this article conducts a platform historiography of TikTok by mapping the expansion and evolution of its toolsets. In doing so, this paper makes two contributions to platform scholarship. The first is both conceptual and methodological: we classify platform tools and outline an interdisciplinary approach to systematically plot changes to them, remaining attentive to their dynamic, relational, and contextual nature. Second, our empirical work uncovers how first-party platform tools are developed and managed to become increasingly comprehensive, centralized, and integrated. The paper concludes with a call for future research on platform tool governance to understand how platform companies encourage platform dependence across societal sectors.

‘Inchallah boza: between the forest, the bush and the town’: migrants’ language practices in Morocco

ABSTRACT Our study focuses on language practices among sub-Saharan migrants in Morocco by analysing the emergence, transformation and use of the words tranquilo, boza and polo. These terms signify place, movement and belonging and are important to explore migrants’ socio-political struggles. Our article foregrounds an analysis of these terms and language practices and offers nuanced understandings of experiences and lives in displacement. We argue that such language practices – besides performing social functions and meaning making – disrupt homogenous perceptions of migratory experiences and enable migrants to be active agents in the processes of cultural production, transmission, and transformation of language. This article intervenes in current debates on migrants’ linguistic practices and situates itself at the intersection of several fields of enquiry including migration studies, cultural studies, multilingual and language studies, and postcolonial studies.

Authorship Across Media: considering Wednesday Addams

ABSTRACT A storyworld across media presents scholars of authorship, creativity and cultural production with opportunities to consider how authorship and author ‘brand’ influence character, plot and audience interaction over time and across formats. This article explores authorship in transmedial storyworlds, employing three different but interrelated theoretical models – media franchises, artistic spawning and distributed authorship – to analyse Netflix’s 2022 teen drama series, Wednesday, and its position within contemporary culture and the Addams Family universe. Collaborating as literary studies, screen studies, publishing studies and cultural labour researchers, we demonstrate the strength of ‘close cross-disciplinarity’ as a method of analysis for authorship and transmedial storyworlds.

Nai Xues Tea Marketing Rate Measurement Analysis: A Case Study of Fantasy Co-branding

Taking the 22nd anniversary of the release of Jay Chou's "Fantasy" album as an opportunity, the two sides launched themed products such as "Golden Mountain Cake Milk Tea" around the emotional anchor of "youth memory", and created phenomenal marketing events through the three-dimensional linkage of "product, content, and scene". This study takes Nai Xue's tea and Fantasy music cross-border co-branding marketing as a typical case to systematically analyze the innovative path of new tea brands to achieve market breakthroughs and value enhancement through cultural empowerment. In addition, the in-depth analysis shows that the sustainability of cross-border marketing in the tea industry needs to be established in three dimensions: the fit between cultural symbols and brand genes, the coupling degree between product innovation and emotional value, and the synergy between traffic operation and user asset transformation. This case activates intergenerational resonance through nostalgic marketing, reconstructs consumption scenarios with intellectual property(IP) potential energy, and strengthens the closed-loop experience through digital means. The resulting marketing paradigmcombining cultural empowerment, product innovation, and traffic-driven diffusionoffers valuable insights for addressing the challenges of homogeneous competition in the new consumer landscape.