Book Review. Alvin Eng Hui Lim, Digital Spirits in Religion and Media
Author: Franz Winter
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Published: 2023
Total Pages: 0
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Digital Spirits in Religion and Media
Author: Alvin Eng Hui Lim
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-09-13
Total Pages: 334
ISBN-13: 1351188852
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn many contemporary and popular forms of religious practice, digital technology and the spiritual are inseparable. Ranging from streaming broadcasts of spiritual possessions to screenings of mass prayer conferences in stadiums, spirits and divinities now have new forms in which they can materialise. By offering the notion of ‘digital spirits’, this book critically attends to the intersections of digital media and spiritual beings. It also puts forward a new performative perspective on how they interact. Taking cues from the work of Stewart Hoover and Heidi Campbell, among others, the book begins with an outline of the current debates around religion, performance and digital media. It then moves on to examine how mediality and religion, where embodied practices are carried out alongside virtual practices, work together in contemporary Asia. These case studies focus on lived religious practices in combination with various forms of media, and so help demonstrate that digital technology in particular reveals the layered processes of spirituality in practice. Gods and divinities have always relied on media to manifest, and this book is a fascinating exploration of how digital media has continued that tradition and taken it in new directions. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of religious studies, digital media and performance studies.
Interculturalism and Performance Now
Author: Charlotte McIvor
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2018-12-29
Total Pages: 383
ISBN-13: 303002704X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book is the first edited collection to respond to an undeniable resurgence of critical activity around the controversial theoretical term ‘interculturalism’ in theatre and performance studies. Long one of the field’s most vigorously debated concepts, intercultural performance has typically referred to the hybrid mixture of performance forms from different cultures (typically divided along an East-West or North-South axis) and its related practices frequently charged with appropriation, exploitation or ill-founded universalism. New critical approaches since the late 2000s and early 2010s instead reveal a plethora of localized, grassroots, diasporic and historical approaches to the theory and practice of intercultural performance which make available novel critical and political possibilities for performance practitioners and scholars. This collection consolidates and pushes forward reflection on these recent shifts by offering case studies from Asia, Africa, Australasia, Latin America, North America, and Western Europe which debate the possibilities and limitations of this theoretical turn towards a ‘new’ interculturalism.
Digital Material
Author: Marianne van den Boomen
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9089640681
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis is a compelling study of the often controversial role and meaning of the new media and digital cultures in contemporary society. Three decades of societal and cultural alignment of new media yielded to a host of innovations, trials, and problems, accompanied by versatile popular and academic discourse. "New Media Studies" crystallized internationally into an established academic discipline, which begs the question: where do we stand now; which new issues have emerged now that new media are taken for granted, and which riddles remain unsolved; and, is contemporary digital culture indeed all about 'you', or do we still not really understand the digital machinery and how it constitutes us as 'you'. From desktop metaphors to Web 2.0 ecosystems, from touch screens to bloggging to e-learning, from role-playing games to Cybergoth music to wireless dreams, this timely volume offers a showcase of the most up-to-date research in the field from what may be called a 'digital-materialist' perspective.
Owning the Olympics
Author: Monroe Price
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 2009-12-10
Total Pages: 426
ISBN-13: 0472024507
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"A major contribution to the study of global events in times of global media. Owning the Olympics tests the possibilities and limits of the concept of 'media events' by analyzing the mega-event of the information age: the Beijing Olympics. . . . A good read from cover to cover." —Guobin Yang, Associate Professor, Asian/Middle Eastern Cultures & Sociology, Barnard College, Columbia University From the moment they were announced, the Beijing Games were a major media event and the focus of intense scrutiny and speculation. In contrast to earlier such events, however, the Beijing Games are also unfolding in a newly volatile global media environment that is no longer monopolized by broadcast media. The dramatic expansion of media outlets and the growth of mobile communications technology have changed the nature of media events, making it significantly more difficult to regulate them or control their meaning. This volatility is reflected in the multiple, well-publicized controversies characterizing the run-up to Beijing 2008. According to many Western commentators, the People's Republic of China seized the Olympics as an opportunity to reinvent itself as the "New China"---a global leader in economics, technology, and environmental issues, with an improving human-rights record. But China's maneuverings have also been hotly contested by diverse global voices, including prominent human-rights advocates, all seeking to displace the official story of the Games. Bringing together a distinguished group of scholars from Chinese studies, human rights, media studies, law, and other fields, Owning the Olympics reveals how multiple entities---including the Chinese Communist Party itself---seek to influence and control the narratives through which the Beijing Games will be understood. digitalculturebooks is an imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library dedicated to publishing innovative and accessible work exploring new media and their impact on society, culture, and scholarly communication. Visit the website at www.digitalculture.org.
Religion in the Context of Globalization
Author: Peter Beyer
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-07-24
Total Pages: 233
ISBN-13: 1135039631
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPeter Beyer has been a central figure in the debate about religion and globalization for many years, this volume is a collection of essays on the relation between religion and globalization with special emphasis on the concept of religion, its modern forms and on the relation of religion to the state. Featuring a newly written introduction and conclusion which frame the volume and offer the reader guidance on how the arguments fit together, this book brings together ten previously published pieces which focus on the institutional forms and concept of religion in the context of globalizing and modern society. The guiding theme that they all share is the idea that religion and globalization are historically, conceptually, and institutionally related. What has come to constitute religion and what social roles religion plays are not manifestations of a timeless essence, called religion, or even a requirement of human societies. In concept and institutional form, religion is an expression of the historical process of globalization, above all during modern centuries. What religion has become is one of the outcomes of the successive transformations and developments that have brought about contemporary global society. Including some of the most important theoretical work in the field of religion and globalization, this collection provokes the reader to consider paths for future research in the area, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of religion and politics, globalization and religion and sociology.
Testing the Margins of Leisure
Author: Robert P Weller
Publisher: Saint Philip Street Press
Published: 2020-10-09
Total Pages: 316
ISBN-13: 9781013295102
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume offers eight studies on different historical and present-day aspects of leisure in Asia. It critically engages with the predominant Eurocentric focus of leisure studies, bringing into the discussion a number of crucial issues such as the role of leisure as a transcultural contact zone. The volume engages with a field that has been rapidly growing due to the heightened role of leisure activities in defining a person's identity, the fading of the work/leisure divide in the post-industrial age, and the increasing economic importance of leisure pursuits such as tourism. Bringing Asia into the discussion contributes in resetting the study of leisure into a truly global context. Abstract in other languages This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.
Religions in Global Society
Author: Peter Beyer
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-01-11
Total Pages: 353
ISBN-13: 1134162782
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPeter Beyer, a distinguished sociologist of religion, presents a way of understanding religion in a contemporary global society - by analyzing it as a dimension of the historical process of globalization. Introducing theories of globalization and showing how they can be applied to world religions, Beyer reveals the nature of the contested category of ‘religion’: what it means, what it includes and what it implies in the world today. Written with exceptional clarity and illustrated with lively and diverse examples ranging from Islam and Hinduism to African traditional religions and new age spirituality, this is a fascinating overview of how religion has developed in a globalized society. It is recommended reading for students taking courses on sociology of religion, religion and globalization, and religion and modernity.
Regulating Religion in Asia
Author: Jaclyn L. Neo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2019-03-28
Total Pages: 343
ISBN-13: 1108416179
DOWNLOAD EBOOKExamines how law regulates religion and explores the influence of world religions on the legal systems in Asia, including how religion responds to such regulations. It looks at underlying norms influencing state regulation of religion, and the challenges emerging from such regulation.
An Anthropology of Anthropology
Author: Robert Borofsky
Publisher:
Published: 2019-03-21
Total Pages: 372
ISBN-13: 9781732224131
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe book uses anthropological methods and insights to study the practice of anthropology. It calls for a paradigm shift, away from the publication treadmill, toward a more profile-raising paradigm that focuses on addressing a broad array of social concerns in meaningful ways.
