Communication, Culture and Confrontation

The Third Volume in the series Communication Processes engages in understanding processes of communication in relation to cultural configurations and contending forces that permeate them. This volume is positioned at the interface of culture and communication—exploring ways in which interaction, negotiations, and even conflicts are voiced. It re-examines our conception of culture to show that communities cannot be divided into polarities such as ′elite and popular′ or ′dominant and subaltern′—establishing that such clear divisions cannot exist in society. Culture is therefore perceived as a field of contending forces: a milieu of exchange, encounter, confrontation, and possibly conflict.

The third and final volume in the series on Communication ProcessesCommunication, Culture and Confrontation is a bold attempt at breaking conceptual and methodological impasses which stifle communication studies. Departing from established frameworks and dated technological metaphors such as ′transmission′, the present volume explores and analyzes different forms of communication media in relation to the cultural configurations and contending forces that permeate them.

Positioned at the interface of culture and communication studies, the discourse in the book engages with multiple voices, bringing together academic scholars and grassroot social animators. Exploring seven different popular cultural forms, such as rituals, songs, narratives, calendar art, pamphlets, and so on, through 18 case studies, it goes on to suggest a complex model of communication. In this framework, cultures cannot be viewed as items exchanged in the hegemonic space of global communication. Cultural configurations display themselves as ′evolutive′ forms of social communication that weave human beings into collectives and bind these collectives with one another—all permeated with the power parameter. Cultures ′perform′ viable collectives when they come to be apprehended in a field of contending forces: a milieu of exchange, encounter, confrontation and possibly conflict.

This volume will be invaluable for students of communication, culture studies, sociology and journalism.

Introduction: Remoulding the ′Cultural′ as the ′Contentious′ - Bernard Bel, Jan Brouwer, Biswajit Das, Vibodh Parthasarathi, Guy Poitevin
I: CONFLICTING STAKES: Introduction Editors
From the Popular to the People - Guy Poitevin
Interventionist Tendencies in Popular Culture - Vibodh Parthasarathi
The Indian Legal System: A Unique Combination of Traditions, Practices and Modern Values - Karine Bates
II: POWER OF ORALITY: Introduction Editors
Terrains of Rejuvenation
The Donkey: A Mirror of Self-identification - Guy Poitevin
Memory and Social Protest - Badri Narayan
Say It in Singing! Prosodic Patterns and Rhetorics in the Performance of Grindmill Songs - Bernard Bel, Geneviève Caelen-Haumont and Hema Rairkar
Assets of Dissent
Grindmill Songs: A Reference of Autonomous Self-insight - Hema Rairkar
From Grindmill Songs to Cultural Action - Tara Ubhe
A Reactivated Performance Capacity - Kusum Sonavne
III: CONTOURS OF CREATIVITY: Introduction Editors
Scenarios of Stress
Folk Arts and Folk Artists: Myths and Realities - P J Amala Dos
Scenarios of Appropriation
Resisting Colonial Modernity - Premchand′s Rangabhoomi and Shashi Bhushan Upadhyay
Street Theatre in Maharashtra - Hema Rairkar
Action Theatre in Belgium - Paul Biot
IV: CONTESTATIONS IN PUBLIC SPACES: Introduction Editors
Intruding Orders
Ephemera, Communication and the Quest for Power: Hindutva in Uttar Pradesh - Jayati Chaturvedi and Gyaneshwar Chaturvedi
The Ritual Management of Desire in Indian Bazaar Art - Kajri Jain
Contending Idioms
On the Way to Pandhari - Jitendra Maid and Guy Poitevin
The Famous Invincible Darkies - Denis-Constant Martin
Epilogue Editors