Global Nature, Global Culture / Edition 1

by Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury, Jackie Stacey

Overview

‘An excellent book. The authors have the rare capacity to handle popular culture and case studies in a theoretically informed manner. Original and well researched' - Mike Featherstone, Nottingham Trent University

Understandings of globalization have been little explored in relation to gender or related concerns such as identity, subjectivity and the body. This book contrasts ‘the natural' and ‘the global' as interpretive strategies, using approaches from feminist cultural theory. The book begins by introducing the central themes: ideas of the natural; questions of scale and context posed by globalization and their relation to forms of cultural production; the transformation of genealogy; and the emergence of interest in definitions of life an life forms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761965992
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	12/08/2000
Series:	Gender, Theory and Culture series
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.53(h) x (d)

About the Author

For a long time I have had two main areas of research interest: sociology of culture and feminist theory.

My contributions to a sociology of culture draw upon the findings of a series of funded empirical research projects, exploring contemporary developments in the culture industry with a special focus on changing cultural forms. Following the publication of the jointly authored book on The Global Culture Industry: The Mediation of Things (with Lash, Polity, 2007), I am developing my research interest in the question of cultural change through my participation in a 20-partner EU-funded interdisciplinary network on ‘A Topological Approach to Cultural Dynamics’. This network – which draws on recent developments in philosophy and mathematical thinking to address questions of cultural and social change, space and intensity – is part of what has been called a topological turn in cultural theory. My ideas on what this might mean are developed in recent and forthcoming publications including the Introduction to a Special Issue of the European Journal of Social Theory on ‘What is the empirical?’, co-edited with Lisa Adkins and an article on ‘Brands as assemblage: assembling culture’ to appear in the journal Cultural Economy (forthcoming). It will also inform the book (co-edited with Nina Wakeford) on Inventive Methods, (Routledge).

I continue to be interested in brands and branding (Brands: the logos of the global cultural economy, 2004 as I have found them illuminating objects to think with as well as problematic objects to live with/out. I am enthusiastic about the new MA in Brands, Communication and Culture that is just starting at Goldsmiths (organised by Dr Liz Moor in Media and Communications, but with the involvement of myself and others in Sociology).

My contributions to feminist theory primarily concern the issue of gender as a kind of becoming (Prosthetic Culture, Feminism and Autobiography) and the changing significance of gender as a social and natural category (Global Nature, Global Culture). I have participate in the annual conferences and workshops linked to the MA Gender, Culture and Media.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: SECOND NATURE
Spheres of Life
Imprints of Time
Units of Genealogy
PART TWO: NATURE SECONDED
The Global Within - Jackie Stacey
Consuming Nature, Embodying Health
The United Colors of Diversity - Celia Lury
Essential and Inessential Culture
Life Itself - Sarah Franklin
Global Nature and the Genetic Imaginary

Editorial Reviews

‘An excellent book. The authors have the rare capacity to handle popular culture and case studies in a theoretically informed manner. Original and well researched' - Mike Featherstone, Nottingham Trent University

From the Publisher