Identities, Cultures, Spaces
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Identities, Cultures, Spaces Identities, Cultures, Spaces: Dialogue and Change Edited by Fernando Kuhn Identities, Cultures, Spaces: Dialogue and Change, Edited by Fernando Kuhn This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2013 by Fernando Kuhn and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4610-4, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4610-3 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations .................................................................................... vii List of Tables.............................................................................................. ix Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Identities, Cultures, Spaces: Dialogue and Change Fernando Kuhn Chapter One............................................................................................... 11 Cartographies of Transculturality: Region as “Dialogue Zone” Fernando Kuhn Chapter Two.............................................................................................. 41 Homely Sites and Landscapes as Elements of Regional Identity Sulevi Riukulehto Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 57 Multiculturalism: The Ideology of the New World Order Siyaves Azeri Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 83 Defining Urban Integration through Active Participation of Rural Migrants Z. Ezgi Haliloğlu Kahraman Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 107 Territorialising Spiritual Values: Notions of “Belonging” and “Possessing” in the Context of the Controversy over Max Brod’s Legacy Markéta P. Rubešová Chapter Six.............................................................................................. 125 Science and Society in a Utopian Map Marianna Forleo vi Table of Contents Notes........................................................................................................ 143 Bibliography............................................................................................ 147 Contributors............................................................................................. 175 Index........................................................................................................ 177 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 2-1 Identity on the continuum from temporary to permanent phenomena 2-2 Region as part of individual identity 2-3 The specimen of an identity in which the regional element is dominant 2-4 Natural, built and mental environment for an identity 2-5 The three stages of homely landscapes 2-6 A series of homely landscapes 2-7 The serial oases of homely landscapes on map - a specimen from Finland 5-1 Between Franz Kafka’s identity and legacy LIST OF TABLES 4-1 Distribution of the sample according to the neighbourhood lived, gender, age, and birthplace differences 4-2 Perceptual attributes and categories of urban integration derived from content and factor analysis 4-3 The most and least frequently cited attributes of urbanintegration within samples in each neighbourhood and in the total sample 5-1 Selected encyclopedic and dictionary entries on Franz Kafka INTRODUCTION IDENTITIES, CULTURES, SPACES: DIALOGUE AND CHANGE FERNANDO KUHN Far from being the subject of consensus, the term “globalisation” is perceived by some authors to refer to a contemporary process, while others view it as an older phenomenon, or perhaps as one stage in something overarching (Robertson 1992; Osterhammel and Petersson 2005); indeed, Wallerstein (1974, quoted in Robinson 2007, 128) regards globalisation as “virtually synonymous with the birth and spread of world capitalism.” Hirst and Thompson (1996, 197, cited in Sklair 1999, 155), for instance, see “no fundamental difference between the international submarine telegraph cable method of financial transactions [of the early twentieth century] and contemporary electronic systems.” Conversi (2010, 37) mentions authors who affirm that “the Roman Empire entailed forms of globalisation,” or that “Genghis Khan, ‘the world conqueror’ and ‘the emperor of all men,’ inaugurated the pattern of ‘modern’ globalisation” (citing Weatherford 2004, 16), and that “long-distance contact during late antiquity” can “be described as ‘incipient globalisation’” (citing Harris 2007). This “current” (stage of) globalisation has been described since the 1980s (cf. Martell 2007) and 1990s (cf. Robinson 2007) by a number of authors, including Giddens (1990), Robertson (1992), Held (1995), Waters (1995) and Hannerz (1996). Giddens (1990, 64) defines it as the “intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa,” while Robertson (1992, 8) calls it “the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole.” Similarly, for Held (1995, 20), globalisation is the stretching and deepening of social relations and institutions across space and time such that, on the one hand, day-to-day activities are increasingly 2 Introduction influenced by events happening on the other side of the globe and, on the other hand, the practices and decisions of local groups can have significant global reverberations. Waters (1995, 5), in turn, views globalisation as: a social process in which the constraints of geography on economic, political, social, and cultural arrangements recede, in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding and in which people act accordingly. Finally, according to Hannerz (1996, 17), “in the most general sense, globalisation is a matter of increasing long-distance interconnectedness, at least across national boundaries, preferably between continents as well.” At the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, many aspects remain controversial. If, as Held and McGrew (2007, 1) observe, the events of 9/11 were considered for many globalisation sceptics as “the beginnings of a peculiar return to ‘normality’ in global politics, as geopolitics, violence and imperialism … reassert themselves with a vengeance,” then the present financial crisis and the challenges it brings to the integrity of the European Union and its common currency further strengthens the arguments of authors like Ferguson (2005), Saul (2005) and Rosenberg (2005), for whom “globalisation is over.” This atmosphere of uncertainty—combined with economic indicators which may suggest some kind of reversal of the conditions that had originated, favoured or characterised globalisation—cannot, however, undo many of the effects produced by the process of globalisation, which are manifest in the political, economic and cultural spheres. But even in the improbable event of “de-globalisation”—with the revocation of all treaties and agreements, and the imposition of all sorts of commercial barriers and cultural filters, and the interruption of communication systems that have been allowing people to interact on a worldwide scale, such as the Internet and mobile phones—the unprecedented cultural contacts that have formed in recent years as a consequence of the circulation of people, contents and goods will surely influence cultural practices for a long time. “Cultural globalisation,” or the cultural dimension of globalisation, remains a topical phenomenon, not only because of the “state of culture in transnational motion—flows of people, trade, communication, ideas, technologies, finance, social movements, cross border movements, and more” that result from globalisation (Shome and Hedge 2002, 174), but also because the “clashing and mixing of culture” does not occur exclusively “across the boundaries of nation-state societies, but within Identities, Cultures, Spaces: Dialogue and Change 3 them too,” as noted by Featherstone and Lash (1999, 1). As is the case with the term “globalisation,” there is no consensus about what is to be understood as “cultural globalisation.” According to Castells (2009, 117), the term refers to “the emergence of a specific set of values and beliefs that are largely shared around the planet.” Nijman (1999, 148) perceives it as “an acceleration in the exchange of cultural symbols among people around the world, to such an extent that it leads to changes in local popular cultures and identities.” As Movius (2010, 6) observes, the globalisation of culture is “familiar to almost everyone” and is often considered as “tantamount” to the globalisation of the media. For Hopper (2007, 188), it is most appropriately taken to be “a catch-all term or concept to describe international, transnational, regional, local and global developments that have a cultural dimension, as well as counter-developments such as forms of cultural consolidation.” Robinson (2007, 140) offers a comprehensive description of the divergent views concerning the ways in which globalisation and cultures relate to one another. Cultural theories of globalisation tend to line up along