Incunabula: Ong's Hat

You have been searching for us without knowing it, following oblique references in crudely xeroxed marginal "samsidat" publications, crackpot mystical pamphlets, mail order courses ... a paper trail and a coded series of rumors spread at street level ... and the propagation of certain acts of insurrection against the Planetary Work Machine and the Consensus Reality ... or perhaps through various obscure mimeographed technical papers on the edges of "chaos science" ... through pirate computer networks ... or even through pure synchronicity and the pursuit of dreams. In any case we know something about you, your interests, deeds and desires, works and days ... and we know your address. Otherwise...you would not be reading this...

Culture

Samir Amin: Eurocentrism: Modernity, Religion and Democracy: A Critique of Eurocentrism and Culturalism (1988-) [FR, EN, ES]

in Art, eBooks, File Sharing, Games, News

Since its first publication more than twenty years ago, Eurocentrism has become a classic of radical thought. Written by one of the world’s foremost political economists, this original and provocative essay takes on one of the great “ideological deformations” of our time: Eurocentrism. Rejecting the dominant Eurocentric view of world history, which narrowly and incorrectly [...]

Monoskop Log http://monoskop.org/log/?p=8422

Clifford Geertz: The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (1973-) [English, Czech, Catalan]

In The Interpretation of Cultures, the most original anthropologist of his generation moved far beyond the traditional confines of his discipline to develop an important new concept of culture. This groundbreaking book, winner of the 1974 Sorokin Award of the American Sociological Association, helped define for an entire generation of anthropologists what their field is [...]

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Tobias Conradi, Heike Derwanz, Florian Muhle (eds.): Strukturentstehung durch Verflechtung: Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie(n) und Automatismen (2011) [German]

Die Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie stellt mit ihrem Anliegen, die Verflechtungen zwischen Natur, Kultur, Gesellschaft und Technik strikt empirisch zu erforschen, eine Herausforderung für die Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften dar. Dieser Herausforderung widmet sich der Band aus einer interdisziplinären Perspektive. Ein Hauptinteresse gilt der Frage, wie mit der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie die Entstehung ungeplanter Strukturen untersucht werden kann. Nach einem einleitenden [...]

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Gideon Kunda: Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation (2006)

Engineering Culture is an award-winning ethnography of the engineering division of a large American high-tech corporation. Now, this influential book—which has been translated into Japanese, Italian, and Hebrew—has been revised to bring it up to date. In Engineering Culture, Gideon Kunda offers a critical analysis of an American company’s well-known and widely emulated “corporate culture.” [...]

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Theory, Culture & Society 29 (4-5), Special issue on Topologies of Culture (2012)

“In social and cultural theory, topology has been used to articulate changes in structures and spaces of power. In this introduction, we argue that culture itself is becoming topological. In particular, this ‘becoming topological’ can be identified in the significance of a new order of spatio-temporal continuity for forms of economic, political and cultural life [...]

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Russia Wants To Fine Websites For Poor Copyright Takedowns

the_pirate_bay_004

The Russian government is proposing a fresh approach to the way website operators and service providers are expected to handle copyright takedowns. In a draft law the Ministry of Culture says that takedowns should be executed very quickly and failure to meet the deadlines will result in cash fines, 90 day suspensions and even server confiscations. Critics say it’s the DMCA twisted heavily in favor of rightsholders.

Source: Russia Wants To Fine Websites For Poor Copyright Takedowns

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Study Maps the Emerging Ethics of File Sharing and Copyright Enforcement

copy-culture

One of the most comprehensive studies into media sharing and consumption habits in the United States and Germany reveals that nearly half of the populations have copied, shared or downloaded music, movies, and TV shows. Sharing occurs both on- and offline, but the latter is seen as reasonable by most people. The report does, however, reveal that online file-sharers consume more music than their non-file-sharing counterparts.

Source: Study Maps the Emerging Ethics of File Sharing and Copyright Enforcement

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Jean Dubuffet: Asphyxiating Culture (1968-) [Portuguese, Czech]

“Jean Dubuffet’s only and a particularly significant book, Asphyxiating Culture is a philosophical and political discussion which elucidates his antagonistic stance towards culture and its influence on the public domain of art and the private domain of creativity. In his anti-culturalism, he posited the realm of culture against that of the individual, and saw culture [...]

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”The Islamists Are Not Ready for a Democratic Culture”

The Tunisian-French author Abdelwahab Meddeb is a critical observer of political developments in Tunisia and Egypt. In this interview with Ceyda Nurtsch, he explains why the Islamists are not creating a liberal culture of discussion and why he is skeptical about the concept of an Islamic democracy. Read MoreRelated PostsEvgeny Morozov: To Save Everything, Click [...]

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The Best of Open Culture 2012: Free Music, Film, Books, Life Advice & More

Another year gone by. Another 1200+ cultural blog posts in the books. Which ones did you like best? We let the data decide. Below, you’ll find the 17 that struck a chord with you. The Best of Open Culture 2012: Free Music, Film, Books, Life Advice & MoreRelated PostsJames Tenney: META⌿HODOS and META Meta⌿Hodos: A [...]

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Lloyd Bradley: Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King (2001)

Bass Culture is a complete history of reggae, from its origins in the Jamaican sound-systems dances of the 1950s, through its enormous international triumphs of the 70s, to the current generation of new roots artists who are searching out a way forward for the sound. The story is remarkable: how a downtown music developed out [...]

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Culture Hacking and Evolutionary Technologies [SIGINT09]

Culture Hacking and Evolutionary TechnologiesConsidered, Synthesized, Digested, and Defecated.VJ Scott Beibin of Lost Film Fest and Scientists Are The New Rockstars (USA) presents an hour long presentation incorporating storytelling and modern media archaeology by exploring the means in which media has been used by the forces of social change to achieve great feats of mass [...]

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Why this Silence About The Pirate Bay as a Distributor of Culture?

In October we published an article which gave Internet users the opportunity to contact Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm during his detention in Sweden. Support has been overwhelming and from all corners of the world. In a guest post today by Gottfrid’s mother Kristina Svartholm, we look at the content of some of those letters and ask why The Pirate Bay’s contribution to the distribution of culture is so often overlooked.

Source: Why this Silence About The Pirate Bay as a Distributor of Culture?

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8 Signs That Pop Culture Is Finally Done With the Apocalypse

The world has ended, civilization has collapsed, the undead hordes have overrun everything. We’ve seen the apocalypse so many times, even Roland Emmerich is bored with it. So what comes next? We’ve still got some apocalyptic movies to look forward to next year, and post-apocalyptic TV shows like Revolution and Walking Dead are coming back [...]

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Attacking Gun Culture at Its Source

No Justice, No Peace

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“Americans Kill People”: Michael Moore on Newtown, Mass Shootings, and the U.S. Culture of Violence

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We air an excerpt of an address by the legendary filmmaker Michael Moore delivered just hours after the Newtown massacre. Moore won an Academy Award for his 2002 documentary, “Bowling for Columbine,” about gun violence in the United States. He discussed the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre at a New York City event on Friday night. Video courtesy of filmmaker Lorna Tucker. [includes rush transcript]

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Misdiagnosing the Culture of Violence

How the Prescription of Gun Control and Medicalization Will Produce Side Effects Without a Cure

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Who’s the Shop Steward on Your Kickstarter?

At least twice a week I get an email asking for support for a new project via Kickstarter. More often than not I pledge money, wanting to act in…

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