About the society

Critical Reflection: Applying Appadurai’s idea of ‘scapes’ to your own life Word length: 300 words (+/- 10%), excluding bibliography of works cited Weighting: 25% Task: Write a short analytical description that shows how Appadurai’s concept of “scapes” can be applied within your own life. You may go about this task in whatever way you like, but here is some advice. 1) Focus 300 words is not long, so you need to find a point of focus. Don’t try to say everything you possibly can. Choose a point of focus, and make that focus clear in your introductory paragraph. If you like, your conclusion can point to the broader context in which your focus sits, but it doesn’t have to. Suggestions for Focus Choose one particular scape and consider how it plays out in your life. Choose one particular example from your life and analyse it via multiple scapes. Choose one particular example from your life and analyse it via one scape. Examples: Choose one particular scape and consider how it plays out in your life: For example, you might like to think about the role of ethnoscapes (the movement of people) in one or more contexts in your life. Maybe you are a migrant, and have family in another country; or maybe your parents were migrants. How does this impact on your family life (Languages spoken at home? Feelings about Australia? Political views? Food preferences? Holidays? Social media use? Friendship networks? Social life? Marriage choices?) Maybe you are an international student. What has that changed about your life? Or maybe you yourself are not a migrant but you might have had experience living or working overseas. Or perhaps you work with or are friends with people from many countries. How does this impact on your sense of self, or your aspirations, or your plans for 1 the future, or your worldview, or your politics, or your food or music preferences? Again, you might choose just one aspect of this impact e.g. the role of a close friendship with someone from another country on your own religious views; or the impact of a study abroad semester on your understanding of the world, and so on. Choose one particular example from your life and analyse it via multiple scapes. For example, you might want to think about your taste in music, and think about the varying scapes that have helped form it. Mediascapes have brought images and sounds into your world. Ethnoscapes may have helped produce some of the bands you listen to, or the friendship networks that have influenced your music tastes. Finanscapes have definitely influenced which music gets heard by whom, and how. Technoscapes have enabled you to hear music in many different ways. Choose one particular example from your life and analyse it via one scape: For example, you might like to explore how you chose your last holiday, focusing on the idea of mediascapes. What role did imagery (advertisements, pictures, films, TV shows) play in making you want to go there? What kind of images, beliefs, hopes and desires did you invest in this idea of a holiday? Did the reality live up to the imagery? What kind of images did you yourself produce while you were away (e.g. via social media) and/or after you returned (e.g. by making a photobook, sharing images, changing your phone wallpaper)? 2) Moving Beyond Description: Towards Analysis Your task should ideally involve a range of different textual modes. It will of necessity involve description (e.g. describing how you shop, or where you went on your dream holiday, or your family background). It is also likely to involve some short examples of what we call exegesis (that is, an explanatory setting out of some of the core ideas from Appadurai that you are using). It will include some commentary (e.g. reflection about your motivations, experiences, etc). Ideally, it will also include moments of critical analysis, where you point to the bigger meanings, implications, or connections to be made out of your own examples. For example, if you were writing about the role played by imagery in your recent holiday, you shouldn’t just describe it, but should also strive to point out something of greater significance – like what it might reveal about the way individual and/or collective identity is formed, or what it tells us about differences between groups (e.g. how social class or gender identity work), or how identity is regulated and policed via social media, or how the travel industry relies on the selling of images as commodities. 2 Language: This task is a critical reflection rather than a full formal essay. Nonetheless, it should sound more like a mini essay than a casual online post. As it is a personal reflection, you will need to use the first person (“I”) and you may often find that it is better to avoid the passive voice. (If you are unsure what this means, then you may want to read this: https://www.ef- australia.com.au/english-resources/english-grammar/passive-voice/) For people in the scientific disciplines, this may not come easily, but it is what we want you to do. Your tone may well be exploratory rather than declamatory. This is not the same as saying that your language should be casual or sloppy. Correct grammar, punctuation and referencing are required. Some considerations about Appadurai’s ideas that may help you Appadurai is arguing that individual and collective identity work differently in the modern, globalised world from how they did in times past. He is pointing out the central role of imagination in constructing our identities, noting that technologies, images and people are moving around the world much more and much faster than in days gone by and so identity is likely to be more fluid, less stable, more open to a range of influences, and more beset by differences. As Powell & Steel (2011: 75) note, his emphasis on the role of individual and collective imagining builds on Benedict Anderson’s famous idea of nations as “imagined communities,” which you will have come across in Block 1 of this unit. Powell and Steel note that Appadurai “argues that imagination has become part of everyday, ordinary life for ordinary people, instead of being the sole domain of the privileged and powerful” (76). Migrants bring stories, histories, beliefs, habits and practices with them, and in so doing they change the nations that they come to, and facilitate our ability to imagine other ways of life. Technologies beam images of very different lives to our own into our homes, and in so doing they may educate us, intrigue us, disgust us, make us fearful, or make us want to see or do new things. Imagination, argue Powell and Steel, fuels action (2011: 77). Further Reading This task relies more on your reading and understanding of Appadurai and your ability to apply his concept of scapes than it does on further research. Nonetheless, you may find it helpful to read some commentaries or further sources. Any further sources should be referenced correctly in-text and via a bibliography of works cited at the end. This bibliography should also include the Appadurai reading. 3 Recommended: Powell, Jason L. & Rebecca Steel. “Revisiting Appadurai: Globalizing Scapes in a Global World: The Pervasiveness of Economic and Cultural Power.” International Journal of Innovative Interdisciplinary Research, 1 (Dec. 2011): 74-80. This essay gives a useful overall summary of Appadurai’s argument, then applies it to one particular case study: the university. Available via e-reserve. Do I need to reference the Appadurai text? Regardless of whether you do any further reading, the Appadurai reading itself should be referenced properly in a short bibliography. In your 300 word text, rather than having to waste words and space repeatedly saying (Appadurai 1990), it is fine to simply use the relevant page number and to put the full reference in your one-item bibliography. Assessment Criteria • Demonstrated understanding of Appadurai’s ideas and arguments, especially his concept of ‘scapes’. • Demonstrated understanding of how Appadurai uses this concept to understand and explain contemporary global cultural flows. • Ability to apply Appadurai’s concept of ‘scapes’ to everyday life and its practices. • Clear, correct English, essay formatting, and referencing. (Additional references, beyond Appadurai, are optional but not mandatory; if used, they need to be