Publics and Counterpublics

We invite applications for our panel "Figuring It Out: Crises and Resistance in Graphic Novels, Comics, and Cartoons" at the XV Conference of the Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies (SeSaMO). The conference will be held in presence at L’Orientale University of Naples (Naples, Italy) on June 22-24, 2022.

In 1893 Aubrey Beardsley was commissioned to illustrate the 1894 English edition of Oscar Wilde's notorious play Salome, which Wilde had originally written in French during his stay in Paris in 1891. Both text and illustrations have provoked a great deal of public controversy and while this article does not present a comprehensive account of public reception of the Salome, it will focus on critical debates generated by the responses of state censor, publisher, critics and scholars.

This article discusses the relationship between violence and public space in light of a collectively perpetrated and widely televised arson attack that took place in 1993 in Sivas, Turkey, and its recent on-site commemorations. It draws on critical theoretical perspectives developed since the 1990s to consider conventional models of public space as entangled in violence, while also aiming to contribute to contemporary scholarship on contrarian responses to this entanglement. The tendency in this scholarship is to identify these responses as bottom-up, unscripted, performative and direct, and therefore as diametrically opposed to those identified as top-down, scripted, rational, and legislation-facing. The multifarious initiatives and interventions involving contextually shifting priorities, positions and strategies that mark the case discussed in this article call this tendency into question. Unassimilable under such binary oppositions, these initiatives and interventions have not refrained from engaging conventional models of public space while also developing and mobilizing contrarian ones. This article ultimately argues that public space is not just where violence occurs but also where its semantic disambiguation is pursued; this pursuit, which involves various forms of socio-political work, in turn defines and continually redefines the very distinction between conventional and contrarian imaginaries of public space.

Este artigo persegue dois objetivos centrais. O primeiro consiste em indicar certa representação do segmento evangélico verificável na produção de conglomerados de mídia do país na última década, que concorreu para a generalização de imaginários em torno desta identidade religiosa. O segundo propósito é apontar como essas imagens recorrentes suscitaram um discurso reativo de mídias noticiosas evangélicas a respeito da imprensa secular, questionada em sua capacidade de vocalizar o interesse público. Baseado em ferramentas de Análise do Discurso, o artigo investiga conteúdos publicados entre 2007 e 2019 pela revista Época, pelo jornal Folha de São Paulo, pela revista Cristianismo Hoje e pelo site Gospel Prime. As conclusões apontam para a emergência de uma disputa pelo sentido do "público" entre mídias seculares e religiosas, e para a crescente posicionalidade dos evangélicos frente à oferta da grande imprensa.

The rise of Internet-mediated BDSM communities and resources is slowly eliminating the perceived need for engaging in the bar scene (in which S&M is thought to stand for Stand and Model) as a precursor to finding the "real" scene. The implications for this in terms of BDSM/leather identities are discussed in this paper. This new sphere of participation is at once more involved than previous forms of BDSM public sphere discourse and at the same time is more removed from individual sexual identity in that it does not require special equipment or dress to participate. I suggest that this change has parsed the leather and BDSM communities, so that a leather identity is no longer seen as a pre- requisite for participating in organized BDSM culture.

published in: Publictionnaire. Dictionnaire enciclopédique et critique des publics. Béatrice Fleury, Michelle Lecolle, Jacques Walter (eds.).
Link: http://publictionnaire.huma-num.fr/notice/relations-publiques/
Résumé: Cette notice présente la notion de "public" telle qu'utilisée dans le domaine des relations publiques (RP). Cette notion a une nature complexe. Les discours sur les publics des RP restent en effet pris dans différentes oppositions : celle entre la pluralité et l’unicité de ces publics et celle entre la condition de cible plutôt passive de stratégies, d’un côté, et la condition d’interlocuteurs, de partenaires « coopérateurs » et co-énonciateurs de l’autre.

... He offers a triangle of lines that link gods, poets, and audience ... Friedhelm Hardy in his book VirahaBhakti (1983: 489–91) observes similar inter-referential traits between South ... and the Bhågavata Purå~a, what he calls an “opus universale,” a text composed in South India in the ...

In October 2017, millions of people shared public testimonials of sexual abuse and harassment in an expression of global vulnerability using the hashtag #MeToo. While #MeToo was triggered by Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano, the phrase can be traced back a decade earlier to when African-American activist Tarana Burke said “me too” in a private exchange of solidarity with young black girls who were survivors of sexual assault. This study examines over 200,000 tweets from the first three days of #MeToo to understand how the meaning and narratives of the feminist hashtag were discursively negotiated. Combining social network analysis and discourse analysis, the paper draws attention to the exclusivity of popular and networked feminism and elevates the voices of the multiply marginalised survivors who were erased from the dominant narratives of #MeToo. It is a call to white feminist researchers and activists to be mindful of the voices that are excluded when examining popular feminist actions. The study contributes an understanding of the power dynamics within digital feminist networks that reproduce colonial violence and oppression within mainstream neoliberal feminism and academia, and extends support to the existing research that documents how digital networks do not empower marginalised voices equitably.

Hoolitama populismi rahvusvahelisest levikust ja näilisest universaalsusest jääb see siiski partikulaarseks nähtuseks, mis sõltub kohalikust kontekstist ning avaldub kontekstipõhiselt. Populismi kui nähtuse kontekstis mõistmiseks on vajalik on mõtestada lahti, mis iseloomustab populistlikku retoorikat Eestis. Kuna poliitiline retoorika on tihedalt seotud kohaliku kontekstiga, võib eeldada, et kuna populismi laiale kontseptsioonile peab vastama kohalik väljund, on sellel ka iseloomulikud jooned ja alusfaktoloogiad. Käesolev töö uurib populistliku retoorika kasutamist Eestis aastate 2014-2016 jooksul. Samuti pööratakse antud uurimistöös eraldi tähelepanu ühele Eesti vastuavalikkusele ning selles eksisteerivale retoorikale, võrreldes seal leiduvat populismi peavoolumeedias eksisteerivaga. Vastuavalikkused on käesolevas töös eelkõige laiemast avalikkusest eraldatud arutelu ruumid ja keskkonnad. Lähtuvalt teemadest, milles populistid enimtõenäoliselt kaasa räägivad, valiti käesolevas töös valimisse kuulumise kriteeriumiks arvamusartiklite teemadeks kooseluseadus, pagulaskriis ning otsedemokraatia. Käesoleva töö andmekogumise ja -analüüsi eeskujuks on olnud Ruth Wodaki ja Martin Reisigli diskursus-ajalooline lähenemine (DHA), mis kujutab endast interdistsiplinaarset lähenemist keelekasutusele - nii suulisele, kirjalikule kui visuaalsele.

Käesoleva uurimistöö üheks põhiliseks tulemusteks on arusaam sellest, kuidas peavoolumeedias ning vastuavalikkuses kujutatakse eliidi ja rahva vahelisi suhteid ning keda nähakse sisemiste ning väliste antagonistidena. Vastuavalikkustes esinev populism on vastandavam ning selgemini avalduvam kui peavoolumeedias. Kõige selgemini avaldub aga vastuavalikkuse „suurem“ populistlikkus läbi eliidi, rahva ja rahva tahte rolli võrreldes peavoolumeediaga. Kui peavoolumeedias on eliidi ja rahva omavahelised lahkhelid retooriliselt pigem osa poliitikast, kuigi rõhk eksisteeriva eliidi ja rahva vahel eksisteerival konfliktil on märgatav, siis vastuavalikkuses kujutatakse eliidi ning rahva suhteid ja soove pea eranditult otseselt vastuollu minevatena. Rahva võimalusi saavutada oma tahet seostatakse eliidi võimult eemaldamisega. Populismiga seostatud retooriliste strateegiate kasutamine Eestis on mitmekesine ning esineb nii populismi universaalseid kui ka eestiomaseid tunnuseid.

Käesolev töö demonstreerib, et vastuavalikkus ei ole ainult emantsipatsiooni vahend, vaid võimaldab ka hoopis vähemuste vastu rääkida.

This article examines the significance of mediation in the public programming and activism of The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), an organization that offers international aid and advocacy to Christians identified as victims of persecution. Focusing on VOM's efforts to rally Westerners, especially evangelical Protestants, I argue that the antipersecution movement urges supporters to share the mantle of martyrdom by engaging in purposeful acts of religious mediation, including the consumption and circulation of martyrological media. I explore a related tendency among evangelicals to valorize non-Western Christians in precarious circumstances as exemplars of self-sacrificing piety, whose suffering represents and inspires conditions of sanctification. Drawing on media analysis and fieldwork, I explore how practices of mediation, as forms of " witness, " invite evangelicals to embody otherwise elusive virtues and modes of agency associated with Christian martyrs, while reflecting ambiguous modern conceptions of the nature of embodied suffering and the relationship between vulnerability and power.

An exploration of the connections between nineteenth-century post-emancipation Black women’s activism and their twenty- rst-century counterparts in the Movement for Black Lives, this paper insists on the centrality of abolitionism to both. The politics of respectability that emerged as a strategy for the  rst iteration of abolitionism evolved during the women’s and civil rights movements of the twentieth century. Given its genealogy relies upon predetermined assumptions regarding gender and sexuality, respectability remains a hurdle for twenty- rst- century abolitionist projects namely because it tends to render invisible the political contributions of Black women and girls to the ongoing transformation away from herrenvolk to abolition democracy. Borrowing from political theorist Cristina Beltrán, I re ect on these neo-abolitionist Black women’s contributions to a “queer vision of democracy.” Black women in their political struggle for self-expression develop new tools for exposing assumed social divisions that exploit differences and shore up interpersonal and structural forms of racism and sexism. The new social media intervention of hash-tagging is one such tool. Paying speci c attention to the hashtag #IfIDieInPoliceCustody, Black women challenge the assumptions of respectability. Drawing together their politics of self-expression and “a queer vision of democracy,” Black women’s political thought and practice extends the necessary project of dismantling whiteness for the American democratic imaginary.

Dans les écrits en communication, l'analyse par le philosophe Jürgen Habermas du modèle de l'espace public bourgeois du 18 e siècle et de sa dégénérescence a rencontré une critique constructive qui a considérablement enrichi, au cours des cinquante dernières années, les débats théoriques sur les rapports entre les médias, la société et l'État. Une autre source de critiques constructives qui est toutefois moins bien circonscrite dans les manuels d'introduction aux théories de la communication se trouve du côté des études féministes. Se posent alors les questions suivantes : quel est l'apport spécifique des études féministes (women's studies) à la théorie de l'espace public ? En quoi un questionnement féministe introduit-il de nouvelles considérations pertinentes à son analyse et à sa reformulation théorique ? Ce chapitre a pour but de combler une lacune dans les écrits en communication par une introduction synthétique et vulgarisée sur l'apport de la pensée féministe à la théorie de l'espace public. Dans un premier temps, le texte examine les rapports entre féminisme et études féministes pour souligner les spécificités d'un questionnement féministe sur l'espace public. Dans un second temps, la traduction de ce questionnement dans la reconstruction de la théorie de l'espace public par la philosophe Nancy Fraser est mise en évidence et explicitée. Par une brève synthèse vulgarisée des quatre postulats fondateurs posés par la philosophe, l'originalité et la fertilité d'un questionnement produit à partir d'une posture théorique féministe se révèle : il a pour caractéristique centrale le souci constant d'inclure les femmes dans la réflexion théorique comme dans la pratique politique afin de remédier aux inégalités entre les sexes (et également, à toute forme d'oppression). Alors que Nancy Fraser est l'une des auteures féministes les plus citées en communication pour son concept de « contre-sphères publiques subalternes », qui a connu des développements fructueux dans les études sur les médias alternatifs en particulier, la dimension féministe de sa démarche est régulièrement passée sous silence. En rappelant le projet émancipateur féministe au fondement de la démarche de la philosophe, ce chapitre resitue la contribution de cette auteure influente dans le contexte plus général d'un projet démocratique transformateur et inclusif qui rejette tout universalisme aveugle aux rapports de domination.

Drawing on the case of Finland and its model of 'resilience' to digital disinformation, the article provides an original framework for understanding the logic of digital propaganda and the conditions that may facilitate an effective response. Building on recent research connecting digital propaganda to the disruption of the public spheres in democratic societies, the study argues that the logic of digital propaganda could be unpacked by examining the mechanisms that facilitate the diffusion of disinformation from the microsphere of the daily individual experience to the macrosphere of political decision-making. It is thus argued that the connection between the two spheres is enabled by the formation and political mobilization of 'unruly' counterpublics, that is, of arenas of textual and visual contestation of politically marginalized groups promoting issues aligned with the disinformation agenda. Using this framework, the study shows that Finland's resilience progress has mostly occurred on the macrosphere level, where effective institutions have been applying transparent and proactive policies grounded in collaboration and research. However, these efforts are at risk of being weakened by the rise of influential counterpublics unless Finland takes further measures to protect its public sphere by reducing divisions in the microsphere.

Documentary cinema has emerged as an important focus for research into popular culture, marginalized narratives, and democratic media. However, academic work on the genre has been narrowly focused on audience consumption habits, aesthetic or textual analyses of individual works, and cultural analyses of the intersection of documentary and mainstream commercial cinema sites and practices. This thesis is an attempt to bridge a research gap by interrogating extra-textual elements around the grassroots distribution and exhibition of documentary cinema in Canada. By linking the concepts of cultural hegemony, counterpublics and agonostic pluralism with community-oriented practices around documentary distribution and exhibition, this thesis urges a closer look at the spaces between box office numbers, high profile documentaries, and megaplexes. First hand interviews with filmmakers, promoters, exhibitors and distributors – from director Mark Achbar (The Corporation) to the manager of Montreal’s AMC Forum – tease out the relationship between documentary cinema and counterpublics in Canada.

Open access to high resolution file: http://hdl.handle.net/11610/20455
[ENGLISH ABSTRACT]
The challenge of social engagement is not only about the outward impact that museums institutionally exert, nor simply about sustaining selective affiliations; more, it pertains to the external pressures museums accede to, as a multitude of collective organizations around the latter sprouts various antagonisms, both against it (directly or obliquely) and among each other.
Thus, the thesis “Museums, Diversity & Social Needs: Contemporary exhibiting practices & social struggles” is a comparative study (documentation, analysis and correlation) of diverse types of exhibitions planned by cultural institutions, humanitarian NGOs and social movements, aiming at elucidating and theorizing whether, and how, contemporary exhibitions reproduce and nurture social conflicts. Is “collaboration” in exhibition-making unconfined and/ or unconditional?
The research material was solicited via a) field research (participatory observation) and b) web research (at official archives, etc.). More than 300 exhibitions feature in the feasibility sample, 45 of which were examined on-site (32 in Greece, 13 abroad), while the rest were trawled through catalogs, press releases, floor plans, photographic installation views, etc. (192 in Greece, 79 abroad). The cases were grouped according to their locale (e.g. permanent or interim space), content (themes, concepts, structures, etc.) and types of exhibitors, and then they were probed with the method of content analysis.
Results (regarding the limitations on collaborating between different categories of exhibitors, the pressures on central venues and the disputes of narratives) confirm that, exhibition conflicts are structured in a grid with other conflicts (museum-related as well as wider social), promoting antagonistic orientations of mass action for social change (civic society vs. social movements, absorption vs. scattering, confinement vs. exclusion, empowered specialized trailblazers vs. folk pioneers, etc.).
Text is structured in 10 parts (introduction, 8 main chapters and annex). Chapter 2 describes the research methodology. Chapter 3 offers a critical discussion of the concerns of contemporary theories. Chapter 4 examines internationally the relationship between exhibition practices and social discrimination practices and social struggles. The 5th and 6th chapters deal with prevailing exhibition practices in Greece focusing, respectively, on the issues of 'sensitive' political/ social history and the practice of social solidarity, while the 7th discusses in particular the exhibiting practices of the main actors of social struggles in Greece. The 8th describes exhibitions at contemporary political festivals. Chapter 9 summarizes the conclusions.
The doctorate was materialized with a scholarship by the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY).

[GREEK ABSTRACT]
H πρόκληση της κοινωνικής παρεμβατικότητας δεν αφορά μόνο στον εξωτερικό αντίκτυπο που ασκούν τα μουσεία θεσμικά, ούτε απλά στην διατήρηση επιλεκτικών συμπράξεων, μα περισσότερο αφορά στις πιέσεις που δέχονται από έξω προς τα μέσα, καθώς πλήθος συλλογικών φορέων γύρω από το μουσείο αναπτύσσει διάφορους ανταγωνισμούς, προς το ίδιο (ευθέως ή πλαγίως), αλλά και αναμεταξύ τους.
Έτσι, στη διατριβή «Μουσεία, ετερότητα & κοινωνικές ανάγκες: Σύγχρονες εκθεσιακές πρακτικές & κοινωνικοί αγώνες» μελετήθηκαν συγκριτικά (καταγράφηκαν, αναλύθηκαν και συσχετίστηκαν) διάφοροι τύποι εκθέσεων που οργανώνουν πολιτιστικοί φορείς, ανθρωπιστικές ΜΚΟ και κοινωνικά κινήματα, με σκοπό να διαλευκανθεί και να θεωρητικοποιηθεί αν, και πώς, στις σύγχρονες εκθέσεις αναπαράγονται και καλλιεργούνται οι κοινωνικές συγκρούσεις. Η «συνεργασία» στην εκθεσιακή πράξη είναι «άνευ ορίων» και «άνευ όρων»;
Το ερευνητικό υλικό συγκεντρώθηκε α) επιτόπια, με συμμετοχική παρατήρηση και β) από (επίσημα) αρχεία, δημοσιοποιημένα στον παγκόσμιο ιστό. Περισσότερες από 300 εξεταζόμενες εκθέσεις συμπεριλήφθηκαν στο δείγμα σκοπιμότητας, εκ των οποίων οι 45 εκθέσεις (13 στο εξωτερικό, 32 στην Ελλάδα) τεκμηριώθηκαν επιτόπια, ενώ οι υπόλοιπες μέσα από καταλόγους, δελτία τύπου, φωτογραφικές όψεις, κτλ. (79 εκθέσεις στο εξωτερικό, 192 εγχώριες). Οι περιπτώσεις παραμετροποιήθηκαν ως προς τον εκθεσιακό χώρο (μόνιμο/ προσωρινό, ειδικό/μη ειδικό, κ.ο.κ.), το περιεχόμενο (θέματα, φόρμα) και τους τύπους εκθετών (όπως προαναφέρθηκαν) και οι ομαδοποιήσεις τους εξετάστηκαν με τη μέθοδο της ανάλυσης περιεχομένου.
Τα ευρήματα της έρευνας (για τα όρια  στις συνεργασίες μεταξύ των φορέων-εκθεσιακών παραγωγών, τις πιέσεις που ασκούνται στα εκθεσιακά «κέντρα» και τη διένεξη των αφηγήσεων), επιβεβαίωσαν ότι, οι εκθεσιακές αντιπαραθέσεις δομούνται σε πλέγμα με άλλες (μουσειακές κι ευρύτερες κοινωνικές), προάγοντας ανταγωνιστικούς προσανατολισμούς της μαζικής δράσης για την κοινωνική αλλαγή (της κοινωνίας των πολιτών και των κινημάτων, της εσωτερίκευσης και της διάχυσης, του εγκλεισμού και του αποκλεισμού, της χειραφετημένης εξειδίκευσης και της λαϊκής πρωτοπορίας, κτλ.).
Η συγγραφική μελέτη διαρθρώνεται σε 10 μέρη (εισαγωγή, 8 κύρια κεφάλαια και παράρτημα). Στο 2ο κεφάλαιο περιγράφεται η μεθοδολογία της έρευνας. Στο 3ο γίνεται μια κριτική διαπραγμάτευση των προβληματισμών των σύγχρονων θεωρήσεων. Στο 4ο εξετάζεται η διεθνής εικόνα της σχέσης των εκθεσιακών πρακτικών με τις πρακτικές των κοινωνικών διακρίσεων και τις πρακτικές των κοινωνικών αγώνων. Το 5ο και 6ο κεφάλαιο αφορούν στις εγχώριες επικρατούσες εκθεσιακές πρακτικές γύρω από, αντίστοιχα, την «ευαίσθητη» πολιτική/ κοινωνική ιστορία και την πρακτική της κοινωνικής αλληλεγγύης, ενώ το 7ο εστιάζει στις εκθεσιακές πρακτικές των κύριων δραστών των κοινωνικών αγώνων στην Ελλάδα. Στο 8ο περιγράφονται οι εκθέσεις σε σύγχρονα πολιτικά φεστιβάλ. Στο 9ο  κεφάλαιο συνοψίζονται τα συμπεράσματα.
Η διατριβή εκπονήθηκε με υποτροφία του ΙΚΥ.

The aim of thesis was to look at the political praxis of Nontsizi Mgqwetho, specifically looking at her mode of reasoning expressed primarily in poetic form and at how she entered into debates and discussions of what I see as the emerging black public sphere, separated out from the racially exclusive public sphere of the limited democracy of the Union.

Kakav smisao ima danas pisanje o devedesetim godinama dvadesetog veka? Čini se da su već otišle u „bezdan zaborava”. Upravo zato mi se čini važnim da se zabeleže ti, u početku mali, usamljeni akti otpora, da se vidi da nije „sve bilo isto”, umrljano konformizmom, nacionalizmom, bez empatije, ukaljano šovinizmom i beskrupuloznim bogaćenjem. I nas danas određuje ono što uzimamo kao vrednost koja zrači iz prošlosti. Alternativa i umetnost otpora uvek su imale važnost, slojevitu jednostavnost, ali i mrežnu prepletenost, no, uprkos tome, kako u svom vremenu opstaju na marginama tokova javne komunikacije, tako i u sećanju nemaju mesto koje bi im pripadalo, imajući u vidu značajne, no malo vidljive, skrivene uticaje koje su vršile u polju kontrajavnosti – polju koje je jedino moglo da im pruži mogućnost predstavljanja i komunikacije. Ipak, kontrajavnost u Srbiji imala je lakši zadatak no što su ga mogli obaviti disidenti u drugim totalitarnim zemljama širom sveta, koji su se morali služiti jakim simbolima i metaforama („gradovi tišine”, „gradovi sreće”, „glasovi” nestalih, nevidljivih ljudi, demos Demonijanije itd.) da bi preneli poruku o otporu (Dragićević Šešić M., 2014: 08). Ona je devedesetih imala svoje, ma koliko malobrojne, medije, imala za sobom i veliki deo univerzitetske (tihe) javnosti, i poneku ustanovu kulture koja je opstajala u sivoj zoni. Ova knjiga mala je zabeleška o toj kontrajavnosti otpora – umetničkoj i kulturnoj kontrajavnosti devedesetih. To je bila specifična zajednica znanja, koja je počela da razvija novu produkciju pojmova, kontekstualizovanih prema potrebama vremena – od prava na pobunu, prava na građansku neposlušnost, razumevanja našeg cezarizma, ljudskih prava i kao individualnih, ali i kao kolektivnih čak i kad kolektiv kao takav nije priznat, solidarnosti i empatije u vremenima sukoba, itd.
Ova knjiga jeste specifičan nastavak prethodne knjige - Umetnost i alternativa. Uzimajući u obzir iskustva alternative i performativne politike iz doba kulture nade (Mojsi, 2012), ona piše o alternativi i uličnim izvedbama u doba kulture poniženja, straha i beznađa. Njen vremenski obuhvat odrediće dva politička događaja: 9. mart 1991. i 5. oktobar 2000. godine, iako će se, nužno, morati govoriti i o fenomenima koji im prethode, i o nekim pojavama koje, iako nastale u kontrajavnosti devedesetih, traju do današnjeg dana (poput borbe za društvenu pravdu, borbe za slobodu umetničkog iskaza i govora, za alternativnu kulturu sećanja i za umetničke prostore namenjene civilnom društvu).
Tematsko-analitičkom perspektivom ove knjige napravljen je otklon od pojmova političke ili angažovane umetnosti, upravo stoga što su fenomeni koji su se osamdesetih nazivali političkim pozorištem, kao i literatura koja je dominirala čitalačkim prostorom (stvarnosna proza), bili u ključu nacionalnog buđenja, odmaka od komunizma, jugoslovenstva, vezivanjem za desna kretanja, dok je umetnost otpora i pobune devedesetih – umetnost „alternative” – uglavnom projugoslovenska, kosmopolitska i „leva”, ma kako se različita značenja u nju upisivala.
Narativi alternativne umetnosti – umetnosti protesta i pobune – otpor su nacionalizmu, mitovima, ksenofobiji... U različitim umetničkim žanrovima dela su ostvarivala vremenske i prostorne transgresije, uspostavljajući odnos prema umetničkoj avangardi i konceptualnoj umetnosti, s jedne strane, i prelazeći iz ustanova u javni prostor, s druge strane. Istovremeno, ove umetničke prakse prevazilaze i prekoračuju uobičajene granice žanrova ostvarujući transmedijalni pristup političkim pitanjima savremenosti. One se koriste transmedijalnošću polazeći od kulturnog nasleđa čovečanstva, od antičke Grčke (Zorica Jevremović), do umetničke avangarde dvadesetih (Dah Teatar), pa uzimajući u obzir i savremene političke prakse koje žele da kritikuju. Transmedijalno pripovedanje je u stvari nit koja povezuje ova dela, kao i politike i strategije umrežavanja, participacije i inkluzije kojima se stvara kontrajavnost, umetnička disidentska alternativna scena devedesetih.

Edited by Michael Birchall & Philipp Sack
With contributions from the Vagabond Reviews, Megan Johnston, Lena Seik, Amanda Cachia, WochenKlausur, Yet Chor Sunshine Wong and illustrations from Dan Perjovschi.

Issue 24 of On Curating presents a series of essays on contemporary education and public programmes that are taking place in various locales, using case studies and theoretical perspectives to describe and discuss the conditions of implementing educational strategies, because or despite of their embeddedness in hegemonic discourses on the relation of art and its public. The shift that curatorial practices in art institutions have undergone in the last two decades has often been characterized as a movement from authoritative discourse toward education, from the transmission toward the production of knowledge. Whether we believe in its sincerity or not, what is labelled as the 'educational turn' has become a reality in the art world. Curators, educators, artists and community arts practitioners increasingly program events, both in the short and long term. What have institutions done to cater to the needs of an ever more demanding public? What are the methodologies and models used in institutions? How can we analyse the tactics employed to deal within institutional frameworks?

Uneven distribution of resources and unequal access to power in the current phase of postcolonial late capitalism has spurred a range of critical discourses globally that has led to the formation of “transnational counterpublic spheres”. These counterpublics facilitate interests of disenfranchised groups to
become visible and audible. However, counterpublics are also spheres of power that replicate mechanisms of exclusion. My paper aims to explore, on the one hand, to what extent transnational counterpublic spheres succeed in facilitating resistance and agency, enabling marginalized collectives to find a “voice” in international politics. On the other hand the mechanisms of exclusion will be investigated that obstruct the inclusion of subaltern groups.

This article builds on Michael Warner’s theory of “damaged publicness” to examine virtual queer counterpublics in Uganda. Online spaces have become a viable platform for LGBT Ugandans, locally known as kuchus, to network, organize and gain visibility. Gay “hook-up” apps, like Grindr, Scruff, and online chatrooms such as Planet Romeo provide opportunities for users to express what often cannot be expressed in public. I investigate these virtual LGBT counterpublics ethnographically through fieldwork in Kampala from June 2015 to June 2016. I argue that Uganda’s virtual queer spaces, however “private” or “public” are counterpublics, a form of space ownership bringing legitimacy to the being of “deviant” and utilized to meet specific social, cultural and economic needs.

Aristotle has been continuously at the frontier of philosophical reflection for almost 2400 years. Throughout the 20th century the influence of his practical philosophy has been growing. His «non-modernist» concept of phrónêsis or practical wisdom is attracting increasing interest as an alternative to both «modernism» and «post-modernism». This book is a meticulous study of Aristotle's phrónêsis and its applications to the fields of personal development or character formation and of ethical virtues. It also relates phrónêsis to the wider context of Aristotle's theoretical philosophy and of his different ways of knowing, and to both theoretical and practical concerns within modern social and action research. The whole of Aristotle's thinking is radically practice-based and directed. However, it never loses its theoretical focus. His theoretical philosophy is fundamentally dialogical. Hence, the relevance of Aristotelian thinking is striking for the current reconfigurations in the social organisation of learning and knowledge production.

It might seem that the situation in Europe has changed tremendously since the time Rosa Luxemburg wrote her pamphlet Order Prevails in Berlin. However, while certain things change, much else stays the same. In this book I propose a dismantling of the liberal vision and practice of
the public sphere, so as to reclaim the notion of the public and block the growth of fascism. The ideas discussed here amount to a feminist politics of antifascism. However, differently from many books and texts already published on antifascism and the public, this book steps out of the
prevailing focus on the West—the cases discussed here as well as some of the conceptual interventions are drawn from the East and South. More: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3820-feminist-antifascism

This paper uses membership categorization analysis to illustrate how five women invoke multiple female gender and sexuality identity categories in personal narratives to construct the device of womanhood. The five racially diverse women include four self-identified lesbians and one heterosexual and range in age from mid-twenties to early forties. Analysis of their two hour audio recorded interaction illustrates that gender and sexuality cannot be understood as a binary difference between men and women. These women use revolutionary categories, defined on their own terms rather than by outsiders, to characterize women they encounter in their personal experience (lesbian and otherwise). The revolutionary categories exemplify a diversity of female gender and sexuality identities and ultimately challenge heteronormative conceptions of female identity while simultaneously constructing a lesbian counterpublic. Thus, the personal experiences of these women, as related through everyday narratives, turn out to be highly political.

Citation: Shrikant, N. (2014). “It’s like, ‘I’ve never met a lesbian before!’”: Personal narratives and the construction of diverse female identities in a lesbian counterpublic. Pragmatics, 24(4), 799-818

The Otherkin are an identity-group of individuals who consider themselves to be non-human or not completely human. Over the past years, their online presence has grown, in particular through The Otherkin Community, Inc. Simultaneously, the validity of their identity claim has been increasingly challenged. Relying on concepts in the field of discourse theory, this study examines their position and prospects in the wider Western culture. It uncovers their discursive strategies in an externally hostile and internally fragmented context, systematises their modes of identity-building, and explores the extent of their possible mainstreaming as an online counterpublic. In linking the findings, it argues that ‘Otherkinism’ is heavily impacted by an environment of exclusion, yet may still thrive – to that environment’s likely benefit.

My MA Thesis on Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns (Rdeče zore). In it, I wonder whether the festival managed to create a feminist and queer public (space) in its ten-year-long history. I discuss feminist political theory of counterpublics and juxtapose it with the views expressed by 17 festival (co)organizers whom I interviewed in 2009. The theme is framed within the recent history of feminist, lesbian and queer organizing in Ljubljana, within the contemporary current of transnational DIY grassroots feminism and within the postsocialist frame.

A shorter version ("only" 100 pages) was published in ISH Monitor, vol.12, nr. 1 (2010). PDF: http://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-5UPFXV0N/?query=%27keywords%3dMonitor+ISH+tea+hvala%27&pageSize=20