Stream - Inspiring Critical Thought (E-Journal)
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Re-Orienting Refugee Representation? A Multimodal Analysis of Syrian Refugee Representation on the Social Media Platform "Humans of New York"
Get PDFThis paper examines a selection of photo-narratives from the social media account Humans of New York, which documented the experiences of Syrian refugees in the fall of 2015. It questions how an alternative media platform may challenge or reinforce traditional tropes utilized by mainstream media to represent a marginalized group such as Syrian refugees. To engage in the analysis, codes were developed from the literature review on Orientalism, neo-Orientalism, media representations of Islam and of refugees, as well as from theories of visual social semiotics and narrative analysis. The results suggest that while alternative platforms may challenge aspects of the Orientalist discourse, this discourse is also seen to adapt and persist through more subtle manifestations. The HONY audience is more likely to affirm representations that fit within the neo-liberal notion of who is an acceptable and “worthy†refugee
Situationism and Performative Communication: The Counter-Conduct of Committed Indifference
Get PDFFoucault’s notion of counter-conduct offers an interesting and challenging way to reimagine dissent. This essay briefly examines how certain kinds of dissent are uniquely challenging to systems and institutions because they are not easily subsumed by the system or its perceived (or traditional) contraries. An important example of this kind of dissent was, in the twentieth century, the Dada, Surrealist, and Situationist movements, which don’t simply point (or conduct) people to a standard and easily imagined alternative to the prevailing hegemony, but seek to radically disrupt the way people see the world through different kinds of conduct which are fundamentally contrary to the prevailing order
Reverberations of the Arab Spring: Women’s Use of Information Technology in Morocco
No full textHow are women utilizing the capabilities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the service of social and political transformation in the wake of the Arab Spring Uprisings? The structure of information flows on new media platforms have enabled activist groups to gain leverage in political systems and social contexts that otherwise marginalized them and this was never more apparent in the use of ICTs during the Arab Spring. However, Morocco continues to be a largely forgotten hub of revolution as researchers grapple with the systemic shifts observed in countries like Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Women’s rights movements in Morocco exploded in increased action, engagement and influence during the same period, largely by virtue of increased accessibility to and innovative capabilities of ICTs. Morocco’s movement for women’s rights and democratisation (gradualist movement) is a lesser-explored context of women’s heightened engagement since the Arab Spring and hence, the focus of this research. Women’s use of alternative civic spaces to organize and enact social and political change has resulted in global networks of activism that are changing the climate of the MENA as well as perceptions of it from elsewhere. The region, while often politically turbulent, is also characterized according to a single narrative in the West. The “resistance against communal norms†and broadening use of digital media as an extension to existing women’s voices (Robinson, 2014, p. ii) has helped disseminate critical knowledge on the importance of gender equity to democratic ideals. It has also put an emphasis on women’s public praxis in Morocco over their religious affiliations or domestic labour.
Keywords: new media, Morocco, activism, communication, technology, social justic
Public Event: Global Communication M.A. Double Degree Program Colloquium Presentation - Part I: "My story, my research"
Get PDFDr. Xing Zeng is presenting Part I of the CMNS Double Degree Colloquium titled "My story, my research," on February 25, 2016 from 9:30am to 11:30am at SFU Vancouver Harbour Center Campus Room 2250. Light refreshments will be provided. Limited seats. First come, first served.Using institutional ethnography Dr. Xing will analyze the relation between her positionality and her research in the context of contemporary China, and will comment on approaches to Communication research in her homeland. Having focused on empirical studies of media usage and social capital in her previous work on community media, Dr. Xing is now exploring post-positivist methods including standpoint theory.Dr. Xing Zeng, Associate Professor, School of Journalism, Communication University of China, Beijing. Visiting Scholar 2015-16, Double MA in Global Communication, School of Communication, SFU.Dr. Xing Zeng's research focuses on community media and comparative research methodologies. She earned her PhD at the Communication University of China
PHD Defence: "After Displacement" by Ayaka Yoshimizu
No full textOur dear colleague, Ayaka Yoshimizu, will defend her PHD Dissertation on Monday, October 3rd 2016 at Mallinson Conference Room (K8657) on SFU Burnaby Campus (1:00 pm - 4:00 pm). Here is the abstract of her dissertation "After Displacement: Excavating Memories of Migrant Sex Workers and Becoming Entangled with the Water Trade in Yokohama"
Public Event: Driftwood Transcultural Forum
No full textNamed after the Chinese-Canadian poet Lo Fu's masterpiece Driftwood, the Driftwood Transcultural Forum engages with his unique aesthetics of exile and his concerns for displacement and drifting as the everlasting fate of humanity, and aims to establish itself as a globally oriented and locally grounded platform to facilitate transcultural debates, discussions and dialogues.The inaugural event will take place at Harbour Centre on August 6, 2016. It will start with a morning panel with presentations by Lo Fu and experts of his work on his aesthetic thinking, and a roundtable discussion on the cosmopolitan imaginations of Asian-Canadian artistic and cultural production. The afternoon program offers one more panel presentation and a roundtable discussion by invited participants to further explore the transcultural appeal of literary and artistic productions from ethnic minority groups and the challenges for their transcultural communication.This event is jointly sponsored by:Vancouver Chinese Culture & Arts FoundationDavid See-Chai Lam Centre for International Communication, SFUFaculty of Communication, Art and Technology, SFUGlobal Communication M.A. Double Degree Program, SFUWe are most excited to host Lo Fu, Chinese-Canadian poet, translator, Nobel Prize in Literature nominee, and Chairman of Driftwood Artists Association and invite you to join us!For more details, please see the attached PDF. 
Neoliberalism, P3s, and the Canadian Municipal Water Sector: A Political-Economic Analysis of this "Post-Political" Waterscape
Get PDFIn this paper I consider how the increase of Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) in Canada now threatens the autonomy of municipal water services. P3s have gained traction since the 1990s as a mechanism of private alternative service delivery that replace traditional public provision. Over the past decade, P3s have been actively promoted by the state via quasi-government agencies such as Public-Private Partnerships Canada (PPP Canada), yet their results have been markedly poor. Nevertheless, P3s are now being situated as a key mechanism in the neoliberal (re)regulation of public services, regardless of their shortcomings and inequities. With this in mind, I frame recent Federal policy changes concerning the funding of local water infrastructure and services and their implementation through such agencies as PPP Canada as expressions of post-political governance in Canada. I argue that the capacity for local decision-making concerning this integral social and ecological service is being overwhelmed by a technocratic, expert-driven political process that is contingent on the hegemony of economic austerity to institute municipal water privatization, free from democratic accountability.
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Public Event: Commons Governance Workshop: Michel Bauwens of the P2P Foundation
No full textThe Global Communication M.A. Double Degree Program is holding Program's Colloquium Presentation - Part III: Commons Governance Workshop with Michel Bauwens of the P2P Foundation on Thursday, March 17, from 10:00am to noon at Vancouver Harbour Center Campus Room 2250. For details, please see the attached PDF. 
MA Defence: “The Dialectic of Open Technology†by Felix Lo
No full textOur dear colleague, Felix Lo, will defend his MA Thesis on Friday, April 1, 2016 at Harbour Centre, Room 1315 (12:00 pm - 2:00 pm). Here is the abstract of his thesis “The Dialectic of Open Technology”
Public Event: Lecture: Re-Imagining Affect: A Dialectic Conceptualization
No full textPeter Zuurbier and Frédérik Lesage will present a talk titled "Re-Imagining Affect: A Dialectic Conceptualization" on Thursday, December 1, from 6:00pm–8:00pm in Room 7000 at SFU Harbour Centre.The event is co-sponsored by SFU's Institute for the Humanities and School of Communication. For more details, please see the PDF poster attached