Symbolic Contestation Research Articles

From Homeland-Mother to Azhong-Brother: a qualitative study of nation anthropomorphism among Chinese youths

Nation anthropomorphism refers to the symbol and the symbolization process in which human-like characteristics are metaphorically attributed to a nation. In China, the Homeland-Mother ( zuguomuqin) is a widely accepted anthropomorphic image representing the nation. However, a brotherly national image named Azhong-Brother ( azhonggege) derived from subcultures was created and went viral on social media platforms with fierce controversy since 2019. Based on 23 in-depth interviews with China’s young netizens of wide variations, this study explored the differences between these two symbols, Chinese youths’ identification with the nation through the symbols, and their identity negotiation amid the controversy surrounding the image of Azhong-Brother. We discussed the symbolic contestation between traditional hegemonic and emergent soft masculinities within Azhong-Brother, the instrumental and sentimental national attachment associated with Homeland-Mother and Azhong-Brother, and the conflicts arising from the negotiation of multiple identities in relation to Azhong-Brother.

Occasioning the Lyrical Vendetta: Lope de Vega and the Segunda parte de la Filomena

Towards the last several decades of the life of Lope de Vega (1562–1635), culteranismo had become well-established in Spain and Lope had found many occasions to make literary enemies. One rivalry can be seen in what is effectively an extensive revenge fantasy in verse, the Segunda parte de la Filomena, appearing in 1621 when the collection of La Filomena was published. This lengthy poem is a direct attack against Pedro de Torres Rámila, a grammarian and professor at the University of Alcalá de Henares and a known detractor of Lope and his work. This less-studied poem pits la Filomena (Lope) against a tordo, or thrush (Torres Rámila), in a symbolic contest between two birds. The latter had published the Spongia several years earlier in 1617 to criticize Lope's work. As a result of this, Lope uses this poem to launch a counterattack against Torres Rámila, focusing on intellect, talent, and esthetics. At the same time, this poem serves as a vehicle for self-validation against people Lope would consider outsiders, namely academics and others not directly involved in the writing of poetry. The Segunda parte de la Filomena allows Lope to inhabit a safe space of lyrical fantasy, which further enables him to establish his poetic authority, and to condemn detractors such as Torres Rámila as inferior and, in essence, dishonorable.

Coal versus Coral

The likelihood that climate change may destroy the Great Barrier Reef has been a central motif in Australia’s climate change politics for more than a decade as political ideologies and corporate and environmental activism draw or refute connections between the coal industry and climate change. The media fuel this debate because in this contest, as ever, the news media always do more than simply report the news. Given that the Reef has also been central to the evolution of Australia’s environmental laws since the 1960s, it is not surprising that the Reef is now a leading actor in efforts to test the capacity of our environmental laws to support action on climate change. In this contribution, we examine the news coverage of the Australian Conservation Foundation’s (ACF) 2015 challenge to Adani’s Carmichael coal mine to observe the discursive struggle between the supporters and opponents of the mine. Our analysis of the case shows that while the courts are arenas of material and symbolic contest in the politics of climate change in Australia, public interest environmental litigants struggle both inside and outside the courts to challenge the privileging of mining interests over the public interest.

WIJI THUKUL'S TEXTUAL STRATEGY IN ITS SYMBOLIC CONTESTATION IN INDONESIAN LITERATURE ARENA: PIERRE BOURDIEU'S CULTURAL PRODUCTION ARENA STUDY (STRATEGI TEKSTUAL WIJI THUKUL DALAM KONTESTASI SIMBOLIKNYA DI ARENA SASTRA INDONESIA: STUDI ARENA PRODUKSI KULTURAL PIERRE BOURDIEU)

Poetry is a means of conveying ideas. Wiji Thukul is a poet who was allegedly lost because of his poetry. This study describes the textual strategy or strategy of writing poetry that Wiji Thukul took in his symbolic contestation in the Indonesian literary arena during the New Order era. This research uses Pierre Bourdieu's cultural production theory to describe and explain Wiji Thukul's literary problems, both intrinsic and extrinsic, simultaneously. The data source of this research is the poetry anthology written by Wiji Thukul. The research data is in texts related to the textual strategy of writing Wiji Thukul's poetry on his symbolic contestation during the New Order era. Data were collected through document study and interviews. Data were analyzed with content analysis based on the mechanism of Krippendrof, including a) identifying Wiji Thukul's textual strategy in his symbolic contestation, which was used as material for analysis, b) classifying analysis units according to the problem in the study, c) conducting unit analysis to explore the findings that have identified, and d) determine aspects of the findings to make inferences and draw conclusions. The results of this study: 1) Wiji Thukul used a textual strategy by writing romantic-religious poetry from 1980-1985, 2) Wiji Thukul used a textual strategy by writing critical social poetry from 1985-1990, and 3) Wiji Thukul used a strategy textual by writing party poetry in the period 1990-1998.

Women leading change: re-shaping gender in Ghanaian mines

Purpose There is growing attention towards inclusive mining to make an economic case for gender equality and diversity in the industry. Available literature lacks sufficient empirical evidence on the subject matter in Ghana. Therefore, this paper aims to understudy women miners in Ghana and document their role in recent change regimes in mine works gender profiles. An observed change that is stimulating a shift in background dispositions leads to increasing number of women taking up mine jobs. Design/methodology/approach In working towards achieving the aim of the study, both qualitative design and a multiple case study approaches are deployed. Four multinational Ghanaian mines and a mining and technology university were used to understudy the women miners and their role towards a change in mine work gender perspectives. Findings The results showed a regime of “ore-solidarity movement” (women in mining – Ghana). A kind of solidarity identified conventionally as a social movement in active resource and self-mobilization, engaged in a symbolic contestation for change of the status quo (dominant masculinity cultures) in furtherance of gender equity and inclusion in milieu of mine works reforms in Ghana. Originality/value The study is of high scientific, political and public interest to better understand women’s movements in the mining industries in Ghana and to frame them theoretically. It offers solid empirical evidence on roles women miners play to ensure gender shape-shifting and liberalizing the mining space for women’s participation. This move towards inclusive mining implies poverty eradication among women, work towards achieving sustainable mining, competitiveness and assurance for gender-driven social innovative mining.

Political Identity Ownership: Symbolic Contests to Represent Members of the Public

This study develops the concept of identity ownership to explain how, in the course of electioneering, candidates perform their own identities to align with groups whose support they seek. We frame this from a communication perspective—media are increasingly central sites for constructing and conveying the identity of candidates and the groups of constituents they seek to represent. In developing this model, we seek to bring this identity-based framework more to the fore in communication research, as well as place communication at the center of studies of social identity. We argue that seeing political identities as dynamic and actively performed provides an opportunity to analyze communications based not only on their informational value but also on their identity value.

Political Identity Ownership: Symbolic Contests to Represent Members of the Public

Political Identity Ownership: Symbolic Contests to Represent Members of the Public

Introduction: Poland’s Wars of Symbols

This introduction to the special section on Poland’s wars of symbols analyzes the symbolic contestation that has characterized the country in recent years, studying a range of phenomena including nation, gender, memory, and religious symbolism within the overall framework of political conflict. In doing so, it offers a multidisciplinary view on political fractures that have resonated throughout Europe and the “West.” Overall, the four case studies in this section study ways in which national symbols, topoi, and narratives have been deployed as tools in drawing and redrawing boundaries within society, polarizing and mobilizing the political camps as well as contesting and resisting power. These studies enable us to situate recent political events in a historical perspective, mapping the rise of populism in Poland against the background of legacies specific to the East-Central European region.

America as Assemblage of Placeways: Toward a Meshwork of Lifelines

ABSTRACT In this article I examine whether and how America can be understood as an assemblage of placeways encompassing very different forms of temperament, patterns of action and feeling, and systems of viewing the world. I argue that the contemporary American landscape can no longer be seen as a composition of well-defined individual spaces but, rather, as zones of influence that are labile, with no sharp edges, subject to symbolic contestation and a wide range of expectations with material and symbolic consequences. These zones and places are matrices of energies, locating different forms of experience in people and giving rise to different existential preferences. Of particular importance are the contrasts between proximity and distance and between the space of nature and urban space as well as the development of a new sense of time as social organizing principle. It is proposed that we see America as a meshwork of intersecting lifelines rather than an assemblage of external accretions.

A new class for a new South Africa? The discursive construction of the ‘Black middle class’ in post-Apartheid media

This article presents a qualitative discussion about the ways in which English-language media in South Africa labelled the Black middle class ‘new’ during the first decade of political freedom (the 1990s). The empirical approach is discursive, drawing on a corpus of archival media material in which the ‘new Black middle class’ is discussed and debated. The article argues that three key discursive trends are evident therein: the first claiming the new Black middle class as full of socio-economic potential (but also as immature and not capable of delivering on that potential), the second attempting to rehistoricize the Black middle class and the third accusing the class of materialism, greed and being ‘sell-outs’. These discursive themes are discussed in relation to relevant scholarly literature about ‘new’ middle classes. This article concludes that media narratives about the newness of the Black middle class were the site of the symbolic contestation and discursive construction of the consuming class in South Africa.

Gazed and subdued? Spectacle, spatial order and identity in the contested city

From 2012–2013, Northern Ireland was rocked by loyalist protests over limits placed on flying the British flag at Belfast City Hall. The sometimes-violent manifestations were roundly condemned by officials and business leaders as an assault on ‘Brand Northern Ireland’, a threat to the province’s reputation as a successful model of post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction. Accordingly, this article revises and updates Goffman’s concept of ‘a veneer of consensus’ to show how new regimes of political repression are inaugurated in the name of ‘tourism’. With the tourist gaze invoked by local officials as both neutral arbiter and economic imperative, the protests are subsequently assessed as a form of power negotiation, whereby symbolic contestation over the right to define the image of place in both physical and virtual spaces assumed an intensely political role.

The power of the cover: Symbolic contests around the Boston bombing suspect’s Rolling Stone cover

Rolling Stone ignited a debate in July 2013 when it published a cover featuring alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The online version of the cover story drew comments expressing criticism and support of the cover. A qualitative analysis of comments posted within the first week of the cover story shed light on the image’s institutional meaning for Rolling Stone and cultural meaning for readers. Assessing this cover as a critical incident, this study shows how readers, through their comments, participated in the ongoing boundary work in the journalistic field, joining journalism’s interpretive community in defining professional roles, norms, and routines.

Sport for peace in Northern Ireland? Civil society, change and constraint after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement

Using the case of Northern Ireland, this article examines how post-conflict transition impacts sports organisations which have traditionally underpinned societal division and what factors facilitate or restrain such organisations from fulfilling peacebuilding functions. The article identifies three peacebuilding functions of sport: in-group socialisation, promoting social cohesion and symbolically representing new identities. Then, after outlining the sporting and political context in Northern Ireland, the article explores changes within the sporting environment stemming from the peace process as well as persistent socio-political barriers to sport’s capacity to encourage reconciliation and integration, especially symbolic contestation and territorial segregation. The analysis draws on a public attitudes survey (n = 1210) conducted by the authors as part of a major government-funded study. The findings demonstrate the potential of the three peacebuilding functions of sport, yet also, crucially, the constraints imposed by the distinct and divided political context. Avenues for further and comparative research are identified.

SASTRA ‘MUNGKIN’: KONTESTASI SIMBOLIK ANDREA HIRATA DALAM ARENA SASTRA INDONESIA

The article entitled Sastra ‘Mungkin’: A Symbolic contestation of Andrea Hirata in Indonesian Literature Arena is discussing the literary practices of Andrea Hirata, a novelist who surprisingly popular in Indonesian literature from 2006 to present. This article aims to explicit the views and contestation of Andrea Hirata literary practices based on his views in gaining legitimacy of his works as an author. This research applies Pierre Bourdieu’s Arena Cultural Production, which assumes that literature is not just a question of aesthetics but also the struggle of positions between agents operating in the literary arena. According to the research that has been conducted, the result reveals that Andrea Hirata actually has a tendency, furthermore, obsession, in order to gain a specific legitimacy as an author (literar y figure). In doing so, Andrea Hirata impose his views about possibility in Indonesian literature. Keywords: field, Andrea Hirata, symbolic violence, legitimacy, doxa, heterodoxa

SASTRA ‘MUNGKIN’: KONTESTASI SIMBOLIK ANDREA HIRATA DALAM ARENA SASTRA INDONESIA

The article entitled Sastra ‘Mungkin’: A Symbolic contestation of Andrea Hirata in Indonesian Literature Arena is discussing the literary practices of Andrea Hirata, a novelist who surprisingly popular in Indonesian literature from 2006 to present. This article aims to explicit the views and contestation of Andrea Hirata literary practices based on his views in gaining legitimacy of his works as an author. This research applies Pierre Bourdieu’s Arena Cultural Production, which assumes that literature is not just a question of aesthetics but also the struggle of positions between agents operating in the literary arena. According to the research that has been conducted, the result reveals that Andrea Hirata actually has a tendency, furthermore, obsession, in order to gain a specific legitimacy as an author (literar y figure). In doing so, Andrea Hirata impose his views about possibility in Indonesian literature. Keywords: field, Andrea Hirata, symbolic violence, legitimacy, doxa, heterodoxa

The Rise of a More Punitive State: On the Attenuation of Norwegian Penal Exceptionalism in an Era of Welfare State Transformation

While sociologists of punishment have been interested in the notion of Nordic penal exceptionalism, rapid changes are taking place in the penal policies of one of the members of the Nordic zone. Norway’s penal state is growing increasingly punitive, and penal exceptionalism appears to be on the wane, evidenced by a growing incarceration rate, increasingly punitive sentiments in the population, moral panics over street crime, raised sentencing levels, the forcible detention and extradition of asylum seekers, punitive drug policies, and the creation of segregated correctional facilities for stigmatized foreign offenders. Penal transformation should be understood as the outcome of symbolic contestation between politicians eager to present themselves as “tough on crime,” increasing differentiation of the social structure that has led to the declining fortunes of rehabilitationism, and a nascent neoliberalization of the welfare state. As a consequence, Europe’s penal landscape may be growing more homogeneous.

The Contested Post-Socialist Rehabilitation of the Past: Dual Narratives in the Republishing of Tibor Mendöl’s "Introduction to Geography"

This paper aims to unravel the contextual layers of the postsocialist republishing of a prominent Hungarian geographer’s textbook originally written in the 1950s, which is considered here as a vehicle of the contested narrativity in the “big historical gap” of postsocialist Hungarian geography. Tibor Mendöl’s Introduction to Geography [Bevezetés a földrajzba] was a hybrid text written in a dual narrative: first in a traditional “age of discoveries” narrative of the previous conservative-nationalist regime, and second in the obligatory Marxist-Leninist language of the later Sovietized regime. In 1999, the two rehabilitators of the text were driven by different motivations (such as the return to a formerly glorious geographical tradition, or the selective confining of a discredited socialist past), but in both cases through a symbolic contestation of the author. This ultimately led to the arbitrarily reediting of the text.

PRAKTIK KONSTRUKSI JENDER DI MEDIA MASSA

The mass media is part of one of the class systems. Therefore, it becomes one of thedomination system arenas, one of which is the patriarchal norm domination. Through themass media, society carries out a symbolic contestation such as daily linguistic exchangesto construct gender. This study aims to explain: (1) verbal forms of gender construction, (2)dynamics of gender construction, and (3) gender trajectory in the mass media. The studyemployed the qualitative approach, discourse analysis, and Gadamer’s hermeneutics.Based on the analysis, the findings are as follows. First, verbal forms of gender constructionin the mass media are represented by forms of diction and expression styles showingsymbolic contestation between males and females. Second, in the mass media, there aredynamics of the maintenance and replacement of doksa. Third, the gender trajectory inthe mass media includes ideological changes and divided awareness.

Infrastructure and interpretation: Meters, dams, and state imagination in Scotland and India

ABSTRACTThe technical infrastructures of modern life—energy, communications, transport—stand at the juncture between material orderings of society and collective meaning. Public utilities are both material and symbolic, and both aspects require maintenance—and anthropological understanding. However, recent anthropological approaches building from science studies have tended to pursue “flat” descriptions that replace mystical or hypostatizing concepts of “social forces” with material associations and have focused on micrological discipline rather than ritual sites where collective identity is formed. By contrast, I identify an “aporetic relation” between material ordering and symbolic form as the site of ritual, and hermeneutic, processes by which large‐scale political collectives are built up—and infrastructures are shaped to serve collective projects. I analyze examples of contemporary and historical infrastructural politics from India and Scotland to develop insights into how collectivities and states are formed, interpreted, and challenged in symbolic contests over their infrastructures.

Resistance and Compliance in Immigrant–Native Figurations: Albanian and Soviet Greek Immigrants and Their Interaction with Greek Society

Focusing on two immigrant populations and their relationships with their native neighbours in Thessaloniki, Greece, this paper highlights that immigrant–native relations are not only cultural relations but also power configurations unfolding through a symbolic contestation over defining the nation and who belongs to it. In everyday interaction, immigrants' behaviour is judged by natives according to the degree of their compliance to the native norms. Immigrant categories are endowed with different resources in resisting the pressure exerted by the native society. Categories that have more resources in symbolic and substantial terms are less eager to comply, thus appearing more ‘different’ in the eyes of the natives.