Stuart Hall Research Articles

Implementation of circuit of culture theory in Surabaya's integrated public transportation services towards the culture of choosing modern public transportation

This article aims to see the implementation of the circuit of culture theory in Surabaya's integrated public transportation services towards the culture of choosing modern transportation. One of the modern-based public transportation in Surabaya is the Suroboyo Bus. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method, with the help of the circuit of culture theory coined by Stuart Hall. Based on the implementation of the circuit of culture theory in this discussion, it can be seen from three aspects, namely representation, identity, and consumption. The choice of modern public transportation is seen as a cultural phenomenon in society. People tend to choose public transportation which has the best facilities, affordable fares, and makes driving safe and comfortable. The Suroboyo bus has been programmed by the Surabaya City government since 2018. One of the missions to be achieved is to make the Suroboyo bus a modern form of transportation that is popular with the public and reduces congestion. However, the number of traffic jams cannot be reduced if social control is not carried out through a civilization process, namely disciplining people's behavior and attitudes in traffic.

Media Communication and Cultural Influence in Chinese Malaysian Students’ Career Choice in STEM

There has been a decline of Malaysian students pursuing STEM courses over the past few decades. The democratisation of higher education since the 1980s has seen intense advertising of higher education in local media, which plays a role in shaping students’ career choices. Applying Stuart Hall’s theory of Circuit of Culture, a study deploying advertisements, and a survey with intensive interviews has been conducted to understand media and cultural influences on STEM career choice of Chinese Malaysians. Several factors, including media stereotyping nature of jobs of STEM as laboratory-based and practical activities, lack of curation of distinct images and role models in many STEM careers, lack of experiential exposure in daily social settings, fragmentised science communications, and disconnect of Chinese Malaysians from mainstream national development could have contributed to this decline. The study found that there is no distinct dislike towards STEM by Chinese Malaysians. Rather, for them, there are a wide range of careers beyond STEM, with non-STEM careers appearing to be more attractive in terms of career prospects. Alternative discourses and narratives for STEM careers with reimaging of nature of jobs for STEM careers to reconstruct perception towards STEM via the media and science communications could enhance the attractiveness of STEM careers. Additionally, a multi-disciplinary approach to higher education and promotion of specific STEM careers based on market needs could bring STEM closer to students.

Career as Self-Identity in Chinese Malaysian Students’ Career Choice in STEM

Chinese Malaysians who inherit the traditional Chinese culture have evolved with assimilation of globalisation with colonialism elements to form a myriad of cultural mélange, with an impact on career choice in STEM. Applying Stuart Hall’s theory of circuit of culture, a study deploying obituaries has been used to understand media and cultural influence on STEM career choice. Career as self-identity and social status has influenced Chinese Malaysian students’ career choice, with a hierarchy of prestige among them and medicine occupying the top position. Career choice for them in STEM is found to be limited to a few which are socially visible. In addition, the hegemony of “university”, “degree” over “college”, “diploma”, “vocational” and “training” has resulted in Chinese Malaysians to consider technical and vocational education and training as well as practical-oriented courses in STEM as second choice. This does not augur well for national human resource development in emerging fields in STEM. Alternative discourses and narratives for STEM careers with reimaging of nature of jobs for STEM careers to reconstruct perception towards STEM via the media and science communications could enhance the attractiveness of STEM careers. Additionally, multi-disciplinary approach to higher education and promotion of specific STEM careers based on market needs could bring STEM closer to students.

The revolution of values and the crisis of liberal democracy

One domain of global political economy (GPE) that warrants more serious scholarly attention is the plane of what Jessop (2010) calls ‘cultural political economy’ (CPE). This article connects GPE and CPE, through an exploration of the production and exchange of meaning (semiosis) in the global politics of ‘values’. The point of departure for this exploration is a series of overlapping crises in GPE. From the Great Recession to the global COVID-19 pandemic, these crises are often associated with the rise of dangerous new reactionary forces. Conspiracist far-right and increasingly authoritarian centre-right movements continue their ascendancy. Meanwhile, a (neo)liberal self-proclaimed ‘centre’ decries this ‘rise of populisms’, lamenting a perceived backlash against liberal democracy itself. This article offers a novel reading of the present conjunctural crisis, through the cultural theory of bell hooks. Specifically, hooks’ ([1984] 2000) identification of ‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ as the real Western social model, her analyses of the political-economic crises of the 1990s and her development of Martin Luther King’s notion of a ‘revolution of values’ are all crucial to explaining the present crisis, and exploring the potential of progressive politics today. Reframing ‘liberal democracy’ as white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, it is argued, enables a number of further insights. In particular, this analysis allows us to understand our present moment as a confrontation between truly progressive values – including anti-racist, anti-capitalist and feminist values – and what turn out to be the shared regressive and reactionary values of (neo)liberalism and the far right. The aim of the article is to show, in the terms of Stuart Hall’s Gramscian analysis, ‘how different forces come together, conjuncturally, to create the new terrain, on which a different politics must form up’ (Hall, 1987: 16).

CRITICISM ABOUT ADOLESCENT CONSUMPTIVE BEHAVIOUR: RECEPTION ANALYSIS ON “SPINE BREAKER” LYRICS BY BTS

Consumptive behavior is an act of excessive prioritization of desire or wants over need or necessity and it has no predominance scale, this is rooted in the fact that adolescents are the most consumptive age. “Spine Breaker” by BTS highlights the rampant consumerism by adolescents due to peer pressure and how adolescents tend to beg their parents for necessities that they can’t afford. This study aims to examine the discernment of ARMY, the fandom name for BTS’ fans, towards the message about criticism regarding adolescent consumptive behavior that is conveyed through the lyrics of “Spine Breaker” by BTS using the purposive sampling technique. Therefore, there are six respondents. This research used a qualitative approach. The respondents who are also part of the fandom are classified into three different groups based on their economic status and later the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) is used for data collection purposes. Thus the six respondents in this study have been divided into three groups based on their economic status, and later the result of this research is the division of respondents into two audience positions; the dominant hegemony and the negotiating position in relation to Stuart Hall’s reception theory.

Pashtunwali: An Afghan Ethical Code and Cultural Identity in Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell

The Pashtuns and their identity have been misrepresentedover the past decades. These people are represented as ferocious, uncivilized, and anarchistic. Such falsification ruined the otherwise old set of principles of Pashtun people known as Pashtunwali. This study aims to discuss the ideas of Pashtunwali in Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor through the theory of cultural studies by Stuart Hall. Pashtunwali, otherwise called Pakhtunwali or the Pashtun code of conduct, is a conventional moral code and lifestyle followed by the Pashtun people for centuries. Marcus Luttrell experiences the working of Pashtunwali in his stay at an Afghan village Sabray, while hiding from the Taliban. Through this autobiographical narrative, the researcher will analyze how the concept of Pashtunwali governs the lives of Pashtun people. It will give a counterargument to the otherwise popular argument of the misrepresentations of Pashtun culture.

Analysing sexual communication messages in Durex condom advertisement from marital standpoints

This research aims to explore the reception of sexual communication messages within the context of marital relationships in the Durex "Unequal Dinner" advertisement series. The method employed in this study is qualitative-descriptive, utilising Stuart Hall's Encoding-Decoding Theory to understand the reception by the subjects. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with four married female subjects born between 1981 and 1996 from the millennial generation. They reside in East Java, Indonesia, have been married for less than 10 years, and are parents. The research highlights differences in the reception of the subjects, stemming from their diverse experiences and backgrounds. Factors such as geographical distance, societal culture, and sexual education influence how they receive the sexual communication messages presented in the advertisement. Simultaneously, a dominant-hegemonic narrative position was observed in the subjects' receptions, indicating a close alignment between their experiences and the sexual communication messages conveyed by the Durex "Unequal Dinner" advertisement series. However, it does not guarantee the subjects' interest in purchasing Durex products.

What is the Far-Right in Aotearoa New Zealand

Matthew Cunningham, Paul Spoonley, and Marinus La Rooij (eds.)Histories of Hate: The Radical Right in Aotearoa New ZealandDunedin: Otago University Press, 2023, 444pp
 In 1988, Stuart Hall published The Hard Road to Renewal, a collection of essays written over the previous decade that attempted to grapple with the nature and significance of ‘Thatcherism’ in Britain. The Thatcherist neoliberal project, Hall argued, attempted to reconfigure the common sense of the people. The aim of the neoliberal project was to dismantle social democracy and the post-war welfare state and construct a new modernity characterised by free-market enterprise, imbued with conservative values of tradition,family, and nation.

Coloring History

Since its release, the Netflix show, Bridgerton, has been a hit series among its mass audiences as it harnesses an average of 103,550,000 views per season and currently holds fourth place in Netflix’s most popular English-language series (Tudum, 2024). The show has gained immense popularity not only because of its captivating plotlines but also because of the diverse cast of characters placed within the Regency Era. From this, it is critical to dissect and understand how race is represented within the show to discern the discourses being perpetuated to its viewers. Throughout this essay, I will employ Stuart Hall’s theory of representation and the politics of signification to unpack the racial representation within the Netflix show, Bridgerton, and how it reproduces colour-blind casting, interracial relationships, and dark versus light symbolism to perpetuate post-racial and Orientalist discourses. This analysis explores how colour-blind casting sustains post-racial discourses in the disguise of escapist media, which strips the Other of their lived experience. Moreover, it highlights how the depiction of interracial relationships within the show contributes to both post-racial and Orientalist discourses by placing the Occident over the Orient, and disregarding the prejudice often faced by interracial couples during that period. It further reveals how dark versus light symbolism is embedded throughout the interactions between multiple characters, which elicits the disruption of the white imaginary by Black individuals. As the show progresses and continues to release seasons that reach such large audiences, it is crucial to analyze what discourses surrounding race are being perpetuated and its potential impact on reinforcing stereotypes and misrepresenting marginalized communities.

Responding to misrepresentation: sample pack creation, branding and distribution

ABSTRACT This article documents the creation and distribution of a new sample pack, Instruments INDIA, as an intervention against systemic orientalist practices observable within the marketing, branding and production of non-Western instrument sample packs. This intervention draws upon Edward Said’s model of Orientalism and Stuart Hall’s theories of representation, fortifying an interrogation of practices that misrepresent diverse sonic content, musicians and cultures in negative ways. The research brings into focus the influence digital samplers and early sample library CDs had in determining technical configurations and misrepresentation tendencies found within paratextual elements of contemporary sample packs. The article joins forces with a leading sample pack distributor, Loopmasters, to cultivate change via new policy documents and good practice principles. Attending to problematic representation issues at the start of the music production chain offers a strategy to scaffold and promote positive change throughout the production process and into other connected music industry areas, where influential language and imagery align sample content with music production goals and aspirations. The article offers a first-hand account of sample pack development in collaboration with musicians of Indian musical instruments, which provide a case study to better understand and inform more ethical commercial practices in the future.

The Brazilian Contemporary Dance Scene of the Periferia

The aim of this article is to discuss the recent changes in scenic dance in Brazil. Until the beginning of the 2000s, scenic dance was primarily practiced by middle class white dancers, whereas more recently there is a greater representation of Afro-Brazilians and socially less privileged people who come from the outskirts of cities (periferia). The author argues that this change of paradigm is happening due to cultural policies implemented by local governments, as they attempted to provide entertaining and creative activities to help diminish violence in large urban centers, starting in the 1990s. Since these cultural policies have been developing and increasing during the last twenty years, and taking into consideration the issues of decolonialization present in the broader panorama of Latin America, this article’s goal is to discuss the growing presence of artists and dance collectives addressing ethnic and social issues in their work in an attempt to challenge established hegemonic values. In order to accomplish this task, the author refers to social theories related to decolonialization and marginalized communities of the periphery as established by various theoreticians, including Frantz Fanon, Milton Santos, Stuart Hall, Boaventura de Souza Santos, Walter Mignolo, and Anibal Quijano.

SUJEITO E MEMÓRIA EM “ZIMA BLUE”

The essay addresses the relationship between subject and memory in the episode “Zima Blue”, from the series Love Death + Robots. In the aforementioned program, a being who places himself as undefined among the human, cyborg and extraterrestrial categories enjoys the artistic prestige typical of the idealization of the romantic artist. Such recognition does not undermine the melancholy sobriety of the protagonist, who launches himself into an artistic-transcendental quest. In view of this, the notion of subject will be approached in the episode, having as a starting point the division of Stuart Hall in The question of Cultural identity: the Cartesian, the sociological and the postmodern man seem to be vague “epigraphs” of this being in which art and a supposed transcendental are impulses to deal with unmemory.

“An Opportunity to Reclaim a Place”: A Critical Analysis of Media, Memory, and BLM Plaza DC

In June 2020, protestors in Washington, D.C. gathered peacefully outside the White House fences to protest George Floyd’s murder. Instead of acknowledging George Floyd’s murder or the racist policies that too often result in the death of Black men, women and children, former President Donald Trump staged a photo outside of St. John’s Church. Just a couple days later D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser commissioned local D.C. artists and D.C. government officials to paint in massive yellow letters on 16th Street just outside the White House, “Black Lives Matter.” Lipsitz (2011) asserted that Black expressive culture, like street murals, can function as “repositories of collective memory,” (pg. 60), and can also transform and activate community. Mass media play a critical role in the construction of sites of memory and repositories of collective memory, like Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C. Informed by both Stuart Hall (1997) and Henry Lefebvre’s (1991) concepts of representation, this research will explore the role of newspaper, specifically the Black Press, in the representation of Black Lives Matter Plaza DC (BLM Plaza DC) and its formation of BLM Plaza’s collective memory. My analysis conveyed that the Black Press represented BLM Plaza DC, a site of Black expressive culture, as a Black spatial imaginary. The Black Press’ representation of BLM Plaza DC helped construct BLM Plaza DC as a Black memory-making project that decentered the white gaze and recalled the names of Black people from our past and present that have fought for social and racial justice.

Analisis Resepsi Kekerasan Seksual pada Perempuan dalam Film Penyalin Cahaya

The film “Penyalin Cahaya” is a film that addresses the issue of sexual violence against women. Sexual violence in Indonesia still occurs frequently, both verbally and non-verbally. The film "Penyalin Cahaya"tells the story of the sexual violence and harassment experienced by Suryani and Farah, committed by Rama, a member of Theater Matahari. The purpose of this research is to understand the interpretation of sexual violence against women in the film“Penyalin Cahaya.” The theories used in this research are reception analysis and sexual violence. This research employs a qualitative descriptive research method and uses Stuart Hall’s reception analysis. Data collection techniques include in-depth interviews with twelve informants and literature reviews. The results of this research explain that eight informants are categorized as dominant-hegemonic, and four informants fall into a negotiated position, but there are no informants categorized as opposition positional. According to the informants, the film “Penyalin Cahaya” is effective in representing the issue of sexual violence against women, although some informants find the plot and ending of the film not easily understandable.

Casting History in Bronze: Delving into the Political Mosaic of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Sculptures

Statues within urban landscapes serve as powerful instruments shaping the collective ethos of communities and ethnic groups, functioning as identity markers and emblematic embodiments of power and ideology. Crafted as vehicles for political messaging throughout history, statues endure as relics, actively participating in societal discourse. They represent collective imprints, embodying a community’s history and broadcasting its traditions, institutions, beliefs, and ideologies. This study explores the commemorative practices and visual rhetoric of monuments and statues, focusing on the iconic status of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Punjab. Analyzing statues in Amritsar and Ludhiana, it delves into their symbolic allure, guided by Mitchell’s Picture Theory, Roland Barthes’ conception of images as political subjects, and Stuart Hall’s “Encoding-Decoding” discourse. Unearthing the interplay of images in shaping collective memory, this research illuminates the contemporary political and cultural significance of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s statues.

Followers' Reception of Anies Baswedan's Image on the @pinterpolitik Social Media Account

Instagram has developed into a media tool in political dynamics. Political content on Instagram can build opinions for media audiences (followers) who access it, so followers become strategic targets for receiving political messages through constructed content. This study aims to describe the followers' reception of Anies Baswedan's image as a 2024 presidential candidate on the @pinterpolitik account. This research method uses a qualitative approach with an interpretative paradigm. Data analysis is used to conclude the reception of @pinterpolitik account followers. The data collection technique uses the in-depth interview method. Informants were selected based on the @pinterpolitik followers who are university students. Reception analysis is used to determine the implications of research subjects for messages in mass media. Stuart Hall's decoding and encoding theory divides followers' positions into three categories to find reception patterns: dominant-hegemonic, negotiation, and opposition. The results of this study show that informants who are followers are in a dominant hegemonic position in receiving information about Anies Baswedan on the @pinterpolitik account. This tendency to gather information from the account is based on their trust in the independence of the @pinterpolitik account in disseminating information. Moreover, every information disseminated has valid and accountable sources and data. Based on the assessment based on information on the @pinterpolitik account, Anies Baswedan's image is positively assessed as an intellectual individual, organized rhetoric, narrating according to data, and a religious individual.

Urbanization without guarantees: articulation, rentier capitalism and occupancy on the agrarian urban frontier

ABSTRACT This article engages with the work of Stuart Hall to examine conditions of agrarian city-making on India’s urban frontier. The article draws on Hall’s writings on articulation and marxist method to propose an approach to studying the urban frontier “without guarantees’. That is without a priori presumption of the total consolidation of the non-urban to a financial-capitalist urban fabric. Examining India’s agrarian-urban frontier, the article argues that the expansion of capitalist urbanization is being commanded, appropriated, and rejected by a decidedly agrarian set of actors, social relations, and technologies. On the frontier both the state and capital are subject to a series of agrarian articulations: bargains, compromises, and reformulations with agrarian and non-urban society that alter the very character of urbanization itself and challenge the received grammars of critical urban theory. In contrast to “extended urbanisation” approaches that assert the primacy of macrogeographical capitalist intentions, the article argues following Hall, that these urban-agrarian articulations on the frontier are fundamentally uncertain, requiring specific political and ideological work to sustain and frequently subject to collapse and resettlement. The final section of the article outlines three core conditions of agrarian-urban articulation in the present conjuncture: rentier capitalism; land occupancy and territorial blockade.

Insignificant Inheritance: Repairing Domestic Interiors

ABSTRACT Drawing on James Clammer’s novel Insignificance, this paper explores the intersection of inheritance and repair. Marking its difference from 20th century concerns with the historiographical conditions of inheritance captured in such critiques as Stuart Hall’s account of “The Heritage,” Insignificance is set against the reality of modern Britain, where the possibility of inheritance has been undermined by decades of austerity and a mounting crisis of homelessness and housing stress. A material turn of inheritance studies is required. In Clammer’s novel, the question of inheritability becomes one of repairability and the novel recounts the repair work of plumber, Joseph Forbes. As Joseph labors however, disrepair overcomes him: the skin on his hands tears, becomes “old-womanly” and undermines the potential of his work. Looking to Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida who consider hands, if they are to be human, as necessarily mechanistic and caring tools, I understand hands as devices of repair, capable of realizing the project of inheritance by maintaining the conferral of the past through to the future. Whether the gift of repair that hands offer is received serves as the novel’s central problematic, one posed as much within the context of the novel as without.

Return to innocence? Diaspora screen media and “New Ethnicities” in the moment of diversity

ABSTRACT This article revaluates Stuart Hall’s influential essay “New Ethnicities” for the study of diaspora screen media. In “New Ethnicities”, published in 1988, Hall famously declares that we have reached the “end of innocence”, having identified a shift in how race was then being articulated in the work of a new generation of British-born black and Asian film-makers. However, while Hall was excited by the promise of these new ethnicities, this article argues that there has been a shift back to the previous state of innocence, a consequence of racial neo-liberalism and the emergence of “diversity” discourse. The remainder of the article examines the implications of this reversal for research on the representation of race. While Hall’s optimism may have been premature, the article argues that “New Ethnicities” nonetheless contains a mode of critical enquiry that is crucial to our understanding of contemporary diaspora screen media in this moment of diversity.

Psychiatry, racism and crime: the case of Christopher Clunis reconsidered.

In December 2022, the death of Christopher Clunis was made public. He had actually died in February 2021. Christopher Clunis was convicted of the manslaughter of a stranger, Jonathan Zito. He attacked Mr Zito at a train station. This paper will argue that this terrible event became a totemic symbol of the wider failings of the policy of community care. The image of Clunis being driven away from Court was repeatedly used in newspaper and other media reports as a reference point. The image reflects a number of long-standing traits in the representation of the "mentally ill." These are combined with a racial stereotype of Black men. The paper examines historical representations of the mentally ill as a context for a discussion of the Clunis case. The paper uses the work of Stuart Hall as an analytical tool to examine the questions of race and representation, and the moral panic following failings of community care.