Introductory Chapter: Livestock Health and Farming - Regional to Global Perspectives

This introductory chapter examines the “problem” of nihilism, beginning with its philosophical origins in the ideas of Plato, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. It is argued that film is an inherently nihilistic medium involving the evocation of illusory worlds cut loose from objective reality. This nihilism of film is distinguished from nihilism in film; the nihilistic content also present in some (but not all) movies. Criticisms of media nihilism by authors such as Thomas Hibbs and Darren Ambrose are examined. It is then argued, contrary to such critics, that cinematic nihilism is not necessarily degrading or destructive. Because the nihilism of film encourages audiences to linger in the presence of nihilism in film, cinematic nihilism potentially trains audiences to learn the positive lessons of nihilism while remaining safely detached from the sorts of dangers depicted on screen.

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Introduction: Exploring Russian nationalisms

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474433853.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Pål Kolstø ◽

Helge Blakkisrud

Keyword(s):

The State ◽

Complex Interplay ◽

Recent Developments ◽

Part Structure

Russian societal nationalism comes in various guises, both ethnic and imperialist. Also Putin’s rhetoric is marked by the tensions between ethnic and state-focused, imperialist thinking. Noting the complex interplay of state nationalism and societal nationalism, this introductory chapter examines the mental framework within which Russian politicians were acting prior to the decision to annex Crimea. The chapter develops a typology of Russian nationalisms, surveys recent developments, and presents the three-part structure of this book: official nationalism, radical and other societal nationalisms, and identities/otherings. It concludes that after the annexation of Crimea, when the state took over the agenda of both ethnic and imperialist nationalists in Russia, societal nationalism finds itself at low ebb.

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Environmental Engagement and Cultural Value: Global Perspectives for Protecting the Natural World

10.3389/978-2-88963-444-6 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Natural World ◽

Cultural Value ◽

Global Perspectives ◽

Environmental Engagement

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Narrating Society: Enacting ‘Immigrant’ Characters through Negotiating, Naturalization, and Forgetting

Global Perspectives ◽

10.1525/gp.2020.12623 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sanne Boersma

Keyword(s):

Scientific Work ◽

Immigrant Integration ◽

European Countries ◽

Special Issue ◽

Global Perspectives ◽

Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽

Scientific Institutions ◽

The Social ◽

Social Scientific ◽

Media And Communication

This article scrutinizes how ‘immigrant’ characters of perpetual arrival are enacted in the social scientific work of immigrant integration monitoring. Immigrant integration research produces narratives in which characters—classified in highly specific, contingent ways as ‘immigrants’—are portrayed as arriving and never as having arrived. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork at social scientific institutions and networks in four Western European countries, this article analyzes three practices that enact the characters of arrival narratives: negotiating, naturalizing, and forgetting. First, it shows how negotiating constitutes objects of research while at the same time a process of hybridization is observed among negotiating scientific and governmental actors. Second, a naturalization process is analyzed in which slippery categories become fixed and self-evident. Third, the practice of forgetting involves the fading away of contingent and historical circumstances of the research and specifically a dispensation of ‘native’ or ‘autochthonous’ populations. Consequently, the article states how some people are considered rightful occupants of ‘society’ and others are enacted to travel an infinite road toward an occupied societal space. Moreover, it shows how enactments of arriving ‘immigrant’ characters have performative effects in racially differentiating national populations and hence in narrating society. This article is part of the Global Perspectives, Media and Communication special issue on “Media, Migration, and Nationalism,” guest-edited by Koen Leurs and Tomohisa Hirata.

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