Session 3: Media and Networks
7th Global Conference
Monday 12th March – Wednesday 14th March 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Transnational Feminism: “Feminist” Agency in the African Women in Europe Network
Gavaza Maluleke
Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany
Feminization of migration is a trend that has developed in which gendered patterns are changing and a higher number of women are migrating. The Global migration group explicates that: “female migrants account for 53.4 per cent of all international migrants in Europe” (GMG, 2008: 9). This is a huge number and due to the fact that women tend to be more vulnerable to abuses and discrimination based on their gender; it is critical that the situation of migrant women is explored and understood in order to add their voices and experiences to this area. Studies and discussion related to migrant women tend to focus more on their status as workers or predominantly the reasons why women migrate. Both these issues are important in that they expose social and political factors as well as new global economic transformations (Riano, 2005: 4). However, due to the heterogeneous nature of international female migrants, the differing experiences and contexts as to how they get there, how they are treated in their host countries and what they have left behind in their countries of origin poses interesting questions as to the challenges faced by these women once they are in the host country. For this paper, I am interested in how members of the African women in Europe network, an online network that comprises of 700 African women living all over Europe, have created an imagined community that brings them together regardless of their differing experiences and contexts. This paper aims to examine how women from such differing contexts use this imagined community to deal with politics of location and demonstrate feminist agency on immediate issues in their host countries as well as their countries of origin.
Experiencing the Egyptian Television Media Croduction in Morocco and the Construction of the Pan-Arab Imagined Community
Maja Dolinar
Cultural and Social Anthropology, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Anthropologists have so far not been so active in investigating mass media, especially the popular genre of telenovelas. This is true especially if we consider the Arab world. The only exemption is the contribution by Lila Abu-Lughod, who dealt with ethnographic research of Egyptian telenovelas in Egypt, however there are no anthropological studies that would focus on the influence of media production in Maghreb countries.
In my paper I will focus on how the Egyptian television fictive production influences the formation of the pan-Arab media imagined community, specifically focusing the consumption of Egyptian telenovelas in Morocco. I will be particularly interested in how Egyptian telenovelas influence the construction of the common Arab identity and culture and whether the television production of television series is an effective tool in the process of nation and cultural formation. More concretely I will be interested in the role of the Egyptian dialect and modern classical Arabic. The modern classical Arabic is essential in constructing the pan-Arab community however in mass media, especially in entertainment shows, other forms of Arabic (dialects) are used. The goal of my research is to distinguish if Egypt as a media leader of the Arab world with its media contents is spreading the knowledge of Egyptian dialect, and if it is therefore more acceptable in the media world as other forms of Arabic dialects. My paper will be based on ethnographic fieldwork done in Rabat, where I focused on women and their practices in watching Egyptian media contents.
Identity and Society in the UAE: A Discourse on Synergy
Mohammed Baharoon
Dubai Consultancy Research and Media Center, Dubai
The unique demographic structure of the UAE led to a perception a decade ago that the “National Identity” of the indigenous population was at risk of disappearing. In a whirl of 200 nationalities the people of the UAE could find themselves with no cultural signature. To talk about a nation “founded” only 40 years ago meant finding a way to talk about the national identity that is more “formative” than “definitive”.
This presentation will address the way the Watani program has used mass communication to promote a public discourse that celebrates a mosaic of individuality in pluralism.
Watani Program, the first UAE civil society organization dedicated to the issue of national identity, needed to create a public awareness in a population where expats formed more than 85% of the total. Watani has sought to conjoin the country’s diverse national groups by using differences as an opportunity rather than a threat. The discourse, if anything, is supposed to celebrate individuality with its differences. At the same time it is to emphasize the importance of a wider “common denominator” of elements of belonging to a homeland that nationals and expats share.
To this effect, and due to the combustive nature of the identity issue, Watani employed both the media and tactics of public diplomacy to achieve its tacit objectives. Watani has used various forms of mass communication but most prevalent has been the “commercial”: 30- to 60-second spots aired on national television starting December 2005 and sending messages of togetherness, focusing on the values and experiences that bind the different parts of the community. Watani program has also engaged the UAE public on issues and sustainability of national identity through globalized forms of art such as the “comic book” and iconic messages.
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