CNM Blog

March 28, 2013

Dear Friends and Teachers at CNM,

Hope you are all doing super fine.

I have been in India since January, and have been well.  So much has happened since I started term here, and I am bursting to share my experiences with you. Please sit tight.  This is going be a loooong email.

Initially, it was frustrating. Really frustrating.

 

Firstly, getting access to the Internet.  College wifi is almost never on.  When it was, there was only access till 5pm.  So we got to get our own mobile Internet.  We do this via a thumb drive called a dongle.  Then again, the speed of the Internet depends on the strength of the signal that the thumb drive catches from airwaves. So you need to be in the right area. It’s almost like using a cellphone. If you are in a right place, you’ll get good signal.  I also needed to top-up the value in the SIM-card that resides in this dongle.  So when I run out of credit, it would be no access to the Internet for the day!

 

Secondly, I have to get used to the style of teaching here. I am with the second year Journalism class in Lady Shri Ram College for Women which is a college within University of Delhi.  They do a three-year honours course with a teaching style that is very different from NUS.  At NUS, we have lecture for two hours and tutorial for one to two hours. Here it is almost like the junior college system. I have 55 minutes of classes and most of the time, my day stretches from 10am to 4pm unless the teachers cancel class because they are not around and tell the class representatives to relay the message to us.

 

I take four classes here. The teachers teach usually by reading from a book or their laptops or screening a movie and then discussing it. The discussion for ‘International Media Scenario’ is always lively with everyone trying to get their word in. There are practical classes where in ‘Reporting and Editing for Broadcast Media’, I got to produce a radio documentary on ‘Cricket and Politics in India’ on my own. We also learnt how to shoot outdoors using professional cameras (the ones news camera crew use for broadcast) and made different types of shots, including close up, shift focus.  There is no randomness in the decisions behind each shot. Every shot has a message for the audience.

 

But there were also some less than pleasant classes. One such module is “Advertising & PR”.  Unfortunately, the students in this class are not learning much about public relations.  They don’t learn how to make a PR plan, how to write a media pitch or even a press release.  If they want to learn these, they would have to take their own initiative outside of classes to do this.  What students here are learning are the theories and the different advertisements in India over the decades. The teacher takes the syllabus, splits it up and assigns each student some parts of the syllabus as assignments.  Students have to find information about say, Types of Advertisments or Theories of Advertisements and produce the assignment. She doesn’t teach them much. Their approach is very exam-centric.  According to the teacher, her method of teaching was what it would take to help students pass an exam.  So really, I pity the students.  They know among themselves that this is not the way to learn about advertising and public relations.  For myself, I have definitely learnt more about Indian ads, some failings of MNCs when they advertise in India and such.

 

I have the same set of classmates in all four mods.  One of my favourite mods is Development Communication and Rural Journalism. It’s a really good class to take to understand the role of what I’ve been learning (Communications), in development. Lessons in this class cover criticisms of dominant paradigms of development and how development strategies always need to be needs-based and to keep in mind the people you are making policies for.  I wonder how feasible this is?  India is a big country and every state has different needs. It is impossible for ‘one policy fits all’ here, unlike in Singapore.

 

Unfortunately, I have nothing useful to tell you about their versions of Principles of Public Relations and Writing for Communication Management.  Instead, I have been sharing the faculty and students here about how NUS conducts these classes.  I hope they will go and find out more about how these modules can be taught and learnt.

 

Thirdly, I would like to share about how the safety of women in Delhi is handled in this college. I am staying in a hostel just beside the college. If I want to go out of college, I will need to write a day-slip and ask for my hostel warden to sign in. I have a curfew by 7.30pm. If I want a ‘Late Night’ I will have to write in my ‘Leave Book’.  That allows me to stay out by 9.30pm. I am allowed two late nights on a weekday per month. Weekends are allowed for ‘Late Nights’.  As you can see, the rules that they have put up for us can be very rigid if one views them from a Singaporean perspective.

 

It was only after the recent Holi celebrations, did I fully realise the consequence and the reasons for women’s safety in India. After all, the strict rules and lockdown indicate the extent of the ‘hooliganism’ that happens. I wonder why some men behave that way?  Do they think that they are having fun?

 

Over the past three months, I have heard conversations about Delhi Gang Rape case and followed the trials.  There are reports of the rape or of the woman fighting her attackers every day in the newspapers (I read The Indian Express). You can imagine the kind of fear this creates among some women. Rapes also happen to homeless women on the streets, or those who stay out late at night, or just happen to be unlucky. Earlier on, I have not been able to write about it because I have not encountered anything untoward. (Thank goodness, actually!).  Then, I didn’t think I fully understood the mindset of the young women here too.  Now I think I do, and am able to write something which I hope is of some value.

 

For the first few weeks that I was here, everyone would tell me not to go out on my own, not to stay out late, and to avoid crowded places at all times.  The fellow hostellites, who themselves are not from Delhi but from other states, see me as a foreign woman who is vulnerable, especially since I am unable to speak Hindi to the people around here. Even for them, Delhi is a dangerous place, unlike their own hometown. They advise me because they are trying to protect me.  But I am not used to it, and it feels very restrictive at times trapped in college.  Still, this is their country after all. They would know better, I think.

 

So I only go out and about only if my roommate is free to go out with me, or someone is taking me out. I go out alone only if I’ve been to the place before, so I know the directions. I would take the rickshaws if the place is near, and speak Hindi to the driver. I will ask how much before I board “Kitna bhaiya?” (How much, brother?) so that you won’t pay too much when you get off the rickshaw. It’s really not that bad when you’re on the streets. If you ask someone for directions, they will help. Sometimes, I think the threat is in the mind. I rarely take the public bus when I’m alone, though it’s the cheapest option (10-20 rupees no matter the distance, that is, like 50 cents in Singapore). There are too many routes and buses. There is a bus conductor and you need to tell him where you are going so that he can charge accordingly. During peak hours, I have seen from the outside that the bus will get so crowded that people will stand in someone else’s leg space when people are already sitting there. So, because of this, my friends would tell me not to take the bus too, because somebody might “rub you the wrong way”.

 

Once when I was walking to India Gate from the National Museum, alone, an auto-rickshaw (a motorised rickshaw) driver asked which tourist area I wanted to go to. I refused him many times saying I wanted to walk to India Gate since it’s not very far, but he  followed me on the vehicle. I lied to him that I had no money so that I could throw him off. But he was insistent and said he could give me a ride to India Gate, and then to Lodi Garden where he wanted me to visit a tourist shop. I would get a free ride and he would get one litre of petrol. It was a win-win situation. I agreed to take the ride to India Gate (less than 1km away from where I was standing). He said he would wait for 15 minutes to let me take a look at the place and after that I should come back. So I went around India Gate and clicked photos, but I took off after that. That was the nearest I came to “danger”.

 

India is a huge country.  The significance of being in an enormous country is something that one doesn’t really appreciate or think of, living in Singapore and knowing only Malaysia’s geography well enough.  It has diverse people, diverse terrains, diverse cultures. North and South are extremely different in terms of language and culture. So is east and west India.

 

Just last week, we celebrated Holi. It’s celebrated mostly in Northern India.  Generally one smothers coloured powders on the faces of one’s friends and family.  In Northern India, people throw water balloons too and at passer-bys.  In Singapore, I’ve seen my friends celebrate Holi whole-heartedly on the fields just outside Kembangan CC. But here in Delhi, the University put up a poster saying “No colours, no water guns, no hooliganism”.  Essentially, that is the same as saying, “No Holi”. The poster also said that there will be police patrolling outside the colleges, security will be up. The rationale for this is that Holi, even in Delhi University is one of the days where women are prone to sexual harassment and plain injuries.  People in cars wind down their windows and throw water balloons at passer-bys. According to my friends, that hurts. In co-ed colleges, the men might take the opportunity to smother powder on the usually untouchable zones of women’s bodies. It is ironic that in the capital of Mother India, such lengths have to be taken to make Holi safe for passer-bys; whereas in Singapore, Holi is celebrated out in the open, albeit, restricted areas. In the end, in the college, we managed to have one hour of fun chasing each other and messing each other’s hair with colours.

On the note of adventure, I’ve climbed up high enough to touch snow for the first time in my life.  I saw the Himalayan Mountain Range and rode a camel in the desert, twice. I took a streetwalk tour guided by a former street child.

At present, I am also doing a part-time internship with a start-up company, Skillhippo.com.  In my first week at work, I gave the staff a presentation on ‘Twitter for Business’.  Now, I handle their Twitter account.

When I think about home, I think about our food, my family and friends.  Boy, I do miss Singapore food, especially, Malay food. It helps that there are many Chinese restaurants here.  I patronise these when I get bored of eating Indian food.

And then there are my family and friends back home.  I appreciate Singapore and NUS so much more when I’m here. At the same time though, I’ve made many good friends with the locals and I will say that I will be very sad to leave them when the time comes. I deeply believe the friendship will run deep even when I am back home

That’s the end of one of the longest emails I have ever written, folks!  Thanks for reading this far.

 

I really look forward to being home again.

 

Nur Safiah Bte. Alias

Communications & New Media | University Scholars Programme

Exchange student at Lady Shri Ram College for Women since January 2013

 

 

 

By Harris Lim

Another PR major, Harris Lim was at the launch of Random Blends 2013. He too spoke to the exhibitors. Amongst them was Cheong Ying Hui, a second year NM major, whose piece, “2030” was put on display along with five other pieces in the “Comics” section of the exhibition. This was her first time participating in Random Blends, and she was very excited to have her piece picked from many other submissions. Ying Hui’s thrill was all the sweeter when “2030’ was also selected to be part of the token of appreciation to Guest of Honor, Mr. Janadas Devan, Chief of Government Communications.

Two other first-timers, Ivan Lim and Isaiah Lim were also glad to have their joint work “Ghostbusters” on display. “I was surprised when they told me that my work would be put on display during Random Blends,” Ivan said modestly. “I feel very grateful that my hard work is being recognized.”

The largest exhibit, “Digitisation”, belonged to Koh Zhi Kai, a third year NM major and his team. Their work spanned almost the entire length of the Expression exhibition hall. Although it was the second time his work was picked for Random Blends, he felt as excited as ever. What made it very special for him this year was the venue. The ArtScience Museum is an iconic building in the Marina Bay area, distinctive for its well-articulated galleries, fashioned like the fingers of our hands. The “finger tips” of each gallery features skylights that illuminate and bring forth fully the artistry of the works on its walls. For Zhi Kai, the architecture of the venue alone is inspiring. As he puts it, “The exhibition space in the ArtScience Museum evokes our emotions and imaginations”. His other piece on display at the exhibition was “Cinemagraphs”.

Student participants with Head of the Department of Communications and New Media, Prof. Mohan Dutta (centre, left) and guest of honor Mr Janadas Devan, Chief of Government Communications at the Ministry of Communication and Information (centre, right)

 

By Low Jingyi and Magdalene Tan, Year 2, NM Majors

 

We aren’t design aficionados or gaming experts; just a pair of curious public relations majors keen to visit new places and share about them in writing.  So, when we received an invitation to the opening night of Random Blends 2013, we immediately accepted the invitation as well as the chance to blog about it.

 

Random Blends is a digital art exhibition organised by the students of Communications & New Media Department every year since 2009.  This year, Random Blends was held from March 22 to April 7 at the ArtScience Museum in the integrated resort, Marina Bay Sands.

 

“The location of Random Blends 2013 is great.  It gives what is essentially a student-run event, a professional feel,” said Jeal Ng, Chairman for Random Blends 2012.

 

Random Blends had begun with a concentration in photographic works.  Since then, collections have taken an eclectic turn to project more comprehensively the multi-modality leanings of the department.  The 36 designs on display this year ranged from comic illustrations to collages, interactive storytelling, user experience designs, playable art and interactive games.  Most of the creators were student designers of CNM majors or students from the School of Computing.

 

“Having dabbled in some of the game making tools some time ago, I really enjoyed the games designed by my peers and seniors.  Playing the games as they are projected on the wall also added a new dimension to the experience. The game design ideas are engaging and fun!” said Samuel Cho, a year one CNM student who was with us on opening night.

 

Loh Sze Ming, Curator and Head of Public Relations for Random Blends 2013 elaborated: “In the selection of work for display, we looked at the aesthetics and the message behind the artwork.  For example, if you take a look at the comics section, some of the works cover thought-provoking themes like national identity and xenophobia in Singapore, and presented the issues in direct, questioning ways.”

 

The same aesthetic and conceptual appeal of the students’ work had impressed the venue sponsor: “Our definition of art science is looking at the processes that underlie artistic and scientific development.  We believe that they are joined through creative acts. It is about creativity for us. We felt that this showcase really encapsulated that because it was showing the processes that the students had undertaken and it was showing very creative products of that process,” said Anna Salaman, Associate Director of Programming at Art Science Museum.

 

The student exhibitors explained that the production of a piece of work involves the demanding process of gathering insights from people, iterating and reiterating the initial drafts till it was time to submit them for evaluation, selection and display.

 

Yet, it was also “very meaningful to see our games being displayed here” and even more gratifying “to see the public enjoy playing them,” said Edwin, a Year 3 Computing major.

 

“We want our audience and participants to be impressed by the standard of our students’ work.  Many people may think that school projects are substandard. We want to demonstrate that our students can hold a public exhibition. We are heartened that CNM has been very supportive,” said Sze Ming.

 

“It’s the first school project that we’ve showcased for a significant period of time. I’m really delighted that it is here for two weeks, usually it’s just for a day, but we felt that the quality and range of these projects were worth showcasing for a long time. The whole exhibition is really beautifully laid out,” said Anna Salaman.

 

More than 100 visitors attended the opening night.  Just about everyone was impressed by the exhibit, and inspired everyone who left.

Opening the Flatpack: Ethnography, Art, and the Billy Bookcase

 

Date and Time: Wednesday, 17 April, 3:00 PM

Venue: CNM Meeting room, AS6, #03-33, 11 Computing Drive, S117416, FASS, NUS

Google Map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=216145972968108395697.0004aac0a1d6b58712a85

 

About the talk

This presentation will discuss an ongoing research/art project that explores the cultural significance of a specific object, namely IKEA’s Billy Bookcase. IKEA: a brand synonymous with affordability, mobility and functionality, introduced the Billy Bookcase – the quintessential item of flatpack furniture – in 1978, and has sold more than 35 million units worldwide since.

In his book The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900, David Edgerton argues against our attraction to novelty and “high-tech” in innovation and design. Instead, we should direct our sights towards what Edgerton terms the “invisible world of technologies” that people actually use, many of which have served the poor and middle class more than the wealthy. The condom and the sewing machine, corrugated metal and flat-pack furniture. Forget bioscience and nanotech, writes Edgerton, “Think of cheap PCs, mobile phones and IKEA furniture. Mass production is now so common it is invisible.” IKEA directly and indirectly employs more than a million people selling wooden furniture. This global triumph of “old” technology yields a compelling yet unexplored picture of the substantive relationship between human beings and their tools, technologies, and culture.

Co-organized by artist and author John D. Freyer (Virginia Commonwealth University) and anthropologist Johan Lindquist (ARI and Stockholm University), Opening the Flatpack aims to investigate and develop methods for approaching the Billy Bookcase; an object that is pervasive in everyday life but rarely taken seriously as a site of conceptual concern. Following Edgerton’s lead, and using multimedia and interdisciplinary approaches drawn from the disciplines of art, anthropology and economics, Opening the Flatpack explores the global reach of IKEA through the lens of this humble domestic object: the top-selling bookcase in the world.

 

About the speakers

John D. Freyer is an interdisciplinary artist whose projects include his internationally renowned Internet project and book All My Life for Sale, his national PBS program Second Hand Stories and his readymade projects Walm-Art.com and Big Boy.  His work has been reviewed in The New Yorker, The Sunday London Times, Art Forum, Print Magazine and NBC’s The Today Show.  In 2011 Freyer completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Stockholm, Sweden.  He is currently an Artist in Residence at Light Work in Syracuse NY and will join the faculty in the Department of Photography & Film in Cross-Disciplinary Media at Virginia Commonwealth University in Fall 2013.

Johan Lindquist is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute at NUS and Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University in Sweden. He is the author of The Anxieties of Mobility: Development and Migration in the Indonesian Borderlands (University of Hawai’i Press, 2009) and his documentary film B.A.T.A.M. is available from Documentary Educational Resources. His current research is focused on transnational migration from Indonesia, and in particular the brokering of migrant labor in this process.

Screening: February 25 and 27, 2013, 1-3.30pm

Venue: CIT Auditorium

Films: Sandcastle. Written and directed by Boo Jun Feng

             Invisible City. Directed by Tan Pin Pin

 

 

“Film is extremely flammable and it reacts on all kinds of fumes that are extremely combustible.” – Tan Pin Pin during the post-screening panel.

 

After watching Sandcastle by Boo Junfeng and Invisible Cities by Tan Pin Pin, I left the auditorium with many unanswered questions. The films were shown as part of the Films for Social Change series organised by the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE), a CNM affiliate organisation that specialises in health communication research.

For me, both directors certainly achieved their goal of challenging the audience to question and go beyond what was presented at the literal level of their works.

Boo’s Sandcastle was inspired in part by Tan’s documentary film Invisible City, particularly by an interviewee’s experiences with the 1950s Chinese Middle Schools Riots. The title, Sandcastle, is an allegory for memories.  Like sand, memories are transient and mutable.  Like sand, the memories of a country, can be ephemeral and disconnected from its citizens, especially, from its younger citizens.

In the film, we follow En, a boy waiting to enlist into the army. En discovers an old letter written to his mother from his late father who was a student activist in his youth and later exiled from Singapore because he was thought to be a communist. This letter shows En (and us) a different viewpoint of national history from official accounts.

We hear the heart-felt voice of a man intimating with his long-suffering wife about the need to hold onto one’s ideals and principles. The voice brims with the longing and pathos of husband and father who had to make the invidious choice of being separated from his loved ones in order to stay steadfast to his cause.

I came away with a clearer sense of how those Chinese students in the 1950s and 60s might have felt towards the cause that they were championing. Although all the protagonists were Chinese, this heartfelt film still appeals to a wide audience as it deals with universal themes such as loyalty, family and love. The comments made during the post-screening conversation with the director Boo indicated that many members of the audience had taken away something personal from the film.  As Boo explained, films “help people to see issues because [they are] humanising”.

Invisible City, on the other hand, is a documentary that features documenteurs in their search for other histories of Singapore. The film retained an organic, raw feel through frequent cuts between each documenteur’s story, and photographs and footage of old, pre-independence Singapore.

Tan’s film nudges us to delve into our history and understand why people continue to record things even though their efforts may go unrecognised. The film foregrounds each documenteur’s assiduous effort and their struggle with fulfilling their mission of leaving something behind for future generations. Their dedication inspired more than a few in the audience to record something for posterity to remember and cherish.

The audience witness the past through a montage of archived materials guided by the archivists themselves. Tan explained that she wanted to capture “something that people want to say very dearly [even if the audience had to] work to understand [it].” She hoped that the authenticity found in these narratives will resonate with the audience. The many thoughtful questions asked after the screening proved that the film had left a deep impression on the audience.

These two films have a universal humanism that inspires empathy and change. Watching them fueled my hunger to learn more about Singapore’s alternative histories and to question the official narratives we have taken for granted. I even found myself overcome with emotion at the screenings.

I believe that these two thought-provoking cinematic works of art with their focus on memory and history, bring us a step closer to engaging with national issues, which hopefully creates an impetus for positive change in Singapore.

The writer is a second year CNM student. She is taking NM3219 Writing for Communication Management this semester.

Title: Video Games for Inter-Religious Empathy.

Date and Time: Wednesday, 20 March, 3:00 PM

Venue: CNM Meeting Room, AS6, #03-33, 11 Computing Drive, S117416, FASS, NUS

Google Map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=216145972968108395697.0004aac0a1d6b58712a85

 

Abstract:

Religious diversity and religious pluralism is a growing trend in the world today. There is an increasing need for people to develop an understanding and appreciation of the religious faiths of their peers, neighbours and co-workers. Are there ways in which new media technologies – particularly video games – can contribute to inter-religious understanding? Video games, with their ability to offer complex simulations of real-life situations, present a perhaps unique medium for people to experience life in another person’s shoes. In this talk, I outline the ways in which video games can help build inter-religious empathic understanding, and then present a case study of player reactions to a simulation game which placed people into a worldview very different from their own.

About the speaker:

Joshua Wong recently graduated with a Master of Arts Degree in Communications and New Media. He designed his first board game when he was 12, and has since gone on to develop many other games both as a hobbyist and as a professional. He was part of the team that created CarneyVale: Showtime, an award-winning game now available on PC, Xbox360 and mobile. His research interests lie in the intersection of video games and religion, values-based design and affective technologies.

 

Development and universalization of infrastructure networks

Date & time: Wednesday, January 30, 2013, 3:00PM

Venue:  CNM Meeting room, AS6, #03-33, 11 Computing Drive, NUS

Google Map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=216145972968108395697.0004aac0a1d6b58712a85

About the talk:

Two threads run through my work on infrastructure networks (Internet, telephone, railroads, canals, and others): development of networks in face of uncertainties, and universalization of networks via policy interventions.  To orient and provide context, I will start with a distilled overview of the existing body of work.  I will then discuss two projects I am about to embark on.  One, a study on how the metaphor of “hub” has influenced how networks have been imagined and created in Singapore.  Two, a critique of the deep-seated assumption that connectivity and circulation of information is necessarily good and the disadvantaged are the main beneficiaries of universalization policies.

About the speaker: 

Harmeet Sawhney is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington. His research interests focus on how telecommunications networks are envisioned and created. He is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of The Information Society.

The National University of Singapore, Purdue University, and Team Rubicon officially launched a new joint programme for communication students on Dec. 4. The programme, titled “Communicators Without Borders”, seeks to give NUS and Purdue students the opportunity to work with NGOs such as Team Rubicon on humanitarian and social change efforts around the world.

“[We want to] bring students into situations where they, in fact, have an opportunity to really grow, and to be challenged, and to make a difference.” Prof. Howard Sypher said in his speech at the launch event held in the CNM Playroom. Prof. Sypher is the head of the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University, Indiana, US.

Prof. Sypher also noted how Singapore’s global interconnectedness made the nation-state the perfect location to commence “Communicators Without Borders.”

Prof. Mohan Dutta, Head of the Communications and New Media department at NUS, highlighted the centrality of communication in the programme. “If there is one theme that I think connects these organisations together, that is the vision for understanding the role of communication in how it has an impact on society,” Prof. Dutta said. “I believe that’s a strong thread that flows through what we do here at CNM.”

Team Rubicon is an early NGO partner of “Communicators Without Borders.” The three-year-old American humanitarian organization is made up of military veterans who provide emergency aid in crises and disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy which recently devastated the US east coast.

“A lot of us have extensive experience, sadly, in war, but it teaches you a lot,” Team Rubicon Regional Director Ford Sypher said. “We’re taking that experience, and we’re taking these hands that were trained for war, and we’re re-tooling them to deliver aid, both domestically and internationally.”

To launch “Communicators Without Borders,” Prof. Sypher, Ford Sypher and Dr. Tracy Loh, representing the communication management team at CNM, put together a large three-piece jigsaw puzzle. Each piece represented the three major partners of the programme.

While the launch of “Communicators Without Borders” is a significant step, there is still much to do before students can be sent to work with NGOs. “Collaboration is always hard,” Prof. Sypher said. “There are misunderstandings, there are difficulties. But if it was easy, there wouldn’t be the rewards that come along with it.”

Watch the launch of “Communicators Without Borders”

To register for any of the above panel sessions, provide us with your email address on our Doodle poll and indicate your choice of session(s). Please RSVP by Monday, December 3.

For more information on CNM and CARE, please visit www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cnm and www.care-cca.com respectively.

By Daniel Teo

The Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) recently began its seminar series. For the inaugural seminar on October 27, A/P Shiv Ganesh from the University of Waikato, New Zealand, presented a two-part seminar on social movements. On November 15, CARE’s own Dr. Kang Sun discussed his dissertation on peasant workers in China.

CARE&SHARE 1: Community Resilience, Social Justice Activism, and the New Dialogic

In the first session, entitled “Community Resilience: Resistance and Renewal in an Age of Ecological,” Shiv discussed the need for a new theoretical vernacular to explain how communities organise, especially in a global and ecological context. He argued that conventional theories on social movements focus on their absence, rather than their emergence.

In the following session, “Coordination, Connectedness and Exchange: The New Dialogic in Social Justice Activism,” Shiv spoke about how local social movements were connected to and transformed by larger global movements. He drew heavily from his ethnographic work on the Occupy movement in Wellington, New Zealand.

For more detailed notes and video clips on Sessions 1 and 2 of Shiv’s presentation, please visit the respective blog posts by CARE researcher Jagadish Thaker and seminar participant Cheryll Soriano.

CARE&SHARE 2: Manufacturing Identity: Peasant Workers’ Spatial Production in China

Kang regaled the seminar participants with stories from his childhood in rural China and graduate student days in Ohio. He connected these experiences of Chinese and American identities to his dissertation on how identities are constructed, not just socially and symbolically, but spatially and materially as well. Kang also spoke about his ethnographic work on Chinese factory workers who had left their villages in the countryside to pursue their fortunes in the city.

For more on Kang’s presentation, please read CARE Director Prof. Mohan Dutta’s blog post on his reflections on the seminar. A video of the seminar can be found on the CARE website.

CARE is a global hub for health communication research that uses participatory and culture-centered methodologies to develop community-driven health communication solutions. The center is currently funded by a $1.9 million grant from the National University of Singapore. To learn more about CARE, please visit our website.