{"id":7976,"date":"2015-01-15T09:10:32","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T14:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=7976"},"modified":"2021-06-14T07:41:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T12:41:43","slug":"cultural-policy-in-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/01\/15\/cultural-policy-in-the-21st-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultural policy in the 21st century"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Charlie<\/a><\/p>\n

A few quick reflections on the\u00a0<\/em>Charlie Hebdo affair…<\/em><\/p>\n

1. In the age of social media, we are all producers of images and meanings. The difference is only a matter of degree.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0In a globalized world, those who\u00a0traffic in media ought to have some knowledge of the cultural and ethical implications of their trafficking.<\/p>\n

3. This means we are all called to develop\u00a0our own standards for engagement in global media — our own “cultural policies.” So, for instance, when a faith group of 1.6 billion, or at least a significant\u00a0proportion of them, believes that their prophet should not be depicted in images, and particularly not\u00a0irreverently —<\/em> that’s their<\/em> cultural policy — each of us who traffics in media production needs to decide whether and how\u00a0we will abide by that.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0blog, with its two to three hundred subscribers and score of other visitors, hardly qualifies in the ranks of\u00a0Charlie Hebdo,<\/em> which traffics at a far higher scale and knows\u00a0full well the kind of effects it wants to trigger. Hebdo<\/em> is in the business of iconoclasm, perhaps even iconoclash<\/a> — that’s its cultural policy and its raison\u00a0d’\u00eatre<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But we all traffic in a world of iconoclashes, where the standards of modernism — free right to full visual and narrative expression, and so on — are not accepted by all, nor maybe even by\u00a0a\u00a0majority.<\/p>\n

Last night at my university, Salman Rushdie defended the rights of satirists everywhere<\/a>. I agree with him, at least when the satire is aimed at powerful interests. And I agree even more with the case he made for stories — a case for the multiplication and pluralization<\/em> of stories, as part of\u00a0an\u00a0“opening up” of the universe, as opposed to its closing down. Surely an open universe is an idea I can get fully behind. (As did William James and A. N. Whitehead, for instance.)<\/p>\n

Even so, it’s not so clear who the powerful are in today’s world, and any trafficking in\u00a0images necessarily has to take sides and commit itself to engagement with those we might not agree with. In particular, it ought — this, at least, is my own chosen cultural policy — to respectfully engage with those who are less<\/em>\u00a0powerful than the ones whose cultural power I, knowingly or unknowingly, benefit from. (By the latter I mean the white, western, liberal-modernist establishment.)<\/p>\n

That’s hard work. But it’s what being a media producer calls for in the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n

(Okay, you say, so why did I choose not to include Mohammed’s face in the image above? For one thing, because it isn’t necessary to make the point.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few quick reflections on the\u00a0Charlie Hebdo affair… 1. In the age of social media, we are all producers of images and meanings. The difference is only a matter of degree. 2. \u00a0In a globalized world, those who\u00a0traffic in media ought to have some knowledge of the cultural and ethical implications of their trafficking. 3. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[690660,689701],"tags":[123566,4480,123564,123563,2899,16825,8,417],"class_list":["post-7976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural_politics","category-media_ecology","tag-charlie-hebdo","tag-cultural-policy","tag-icococlasm","tag-iconoclash","tag-images","tag-islam","tag-media","tag-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-24E","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1097,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/30\/earth-songs-michael-jacksons-cultural-ecologies\/","url_meta":{"origin":7976,"position":0},"title":"earth songs: Michael Jackson’s cultural ecologies","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=f8muMo0fw_M&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1 The death of Michael Jackson has prompted eco-bloggers to take another look at Jackson's 1995 \"Earth Song\", which some consider the most popular environmentally themed song ever produced. The song remains Jackson's biggest seller in the U.K, having sold over a million copies there -- more than either \"Thriller\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/f8muMo0fw_M\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1061,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/04\/22\/metadata-musical-geography-from-album-covers-to-cultural-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":7976,"position":1},"title":"metadata & musical geography (from album covers to cultural policy)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the more oblique threads I've been pursuing on this blog has to do with what new media are doing to aural and musical information. Music is, of course, much more than information: it is embodied affect (in a Deleuzian sense) that carries, channels, activates, mobilizes (sets into motion),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media ecology"","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sheppard.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/04\/sheppard-thumb.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7193,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/01\/20\/a-cultural-cold-war-wind\/","url_meta":{"origin":7976,"position":2},"title":"A cultural cold war wind","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I predicted back in 2010 that globalizing and technological trends would lead disparate religious traditions to find common ground on socially divisive issues like abortion and gay rights. Just as environmentalism, feminism, and indigenous rights were partnering various more liberal church groups with environmental and social justice organizations, contributing to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NjJiZDU3N2MyNSMvaGxXTUp4b0szWFJ4WVN1YWpVUUhZWllNc3pZPS84NDB4NTMwL3NtYXJ0L2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg3NSk6c3RyaXBfaWNjKDEpL2h0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZzMy5hbWF6b25hd3MuY29tJTJGcG1idWNrZXQlMkZzaXRlJTJGYXJ0aWNsZXMlMkY2MTY4OSUyRm9yaWdpbmFsLmpwZw== (1)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2014\/01\/NjJiZDU3N2MyNSMvaGxXTUp4b0szWFJ4WVN1YWpVUUhZWllNc3pZPS84NDB4NTMwL3NtYXJ0L2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg3NSk6c3RyaXBfaWNjKDEpL2h0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZzMy5hbWF6b25hd3MuY29tJTJGcG1idWNrZXQlMkZzaXRlJTJGYXJ0aWNsZXMlMkY2MTY4OSUyRm9yaWdpbmFsLmpwZw-1-e1390225539131.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9458,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/10\/05\/on-cultural-civil-conflict\/","url_meta":{"origin":7976,"position":3},"title":"On cultural civil conflict","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I think it's fair to say that the United States is in a state of\u00a0cultural civil war. It is cultural\u00a0war in the sense that it is a war fought with signs and symbols rather than with guns -- signs and symbols intended to elicit affiliation, allegiance, and identification with one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2017\/10\/8A7BE982-A5DD-4A47-866E-0AB3FA6048E9-275x206.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1035,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/02\/26\/green-cultural-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":7976,"position":4},"title":"Green cultural studies","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Cultural studies\" refers to the study of cultural objects, meanings, and processes, and their production and use in contemporary society. It is an interdisciplinary field with a twin commitment to intellectual rigor and social relevance. While the \"rigor\" piece sometimes means \"objectivity,\" often it involves a questioning of the assumption\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1016,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/01\/13\/why-deleuze\/","url_meta":{"origin":7976,"position":5},"title":"why deleuze?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Not because of his convoluted language, which entices and charms the converted but puts off others (though linguistic innovation is a way to provoke new thinking), nor the ways some of his (and Guattari's) concepts get taken by their followers into a celebratory Mad Max style of desert anarchism (though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7976"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8014,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7976\/revisions\/8014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}