Sheffield Hallam University
Wednesday, 10 December at 4pm in Furnival Building, City Campus
ROOM 9132
Local leadership and personal media: a practice-theoretical approach
John Postill
ABSTRACT
In recent years a number of scholars have turned their attention to the
possible uses of practice theory for media research and theorising
(Bräuchler and Postill forthcoming). This paper extends this approach to a
little explored research area: the implications of the rapid proliferation
of digital media technologies for local-level politics around the globe
(Oxford Internet Institute 2005). More specifically, the paper investigates
the significance of the seeming 'personalisation' of the media landscape
(email, Facebook, iPods, blogs, mobile phones, etc.) for local leadership.
Based on anthropological research among internet activists in a suburb of
Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), the paper develops a practice-theoretical model of
local leadership and personal media that builds on the practice theories of
Bourdieu, Giddens, Turner and Warde. The aim is both to avoid some of the
conceptual muddles and hyperbole surrounding notions such as 'networked
individualism' or 'network society' (Wellman, Castells) and to produce the
outline of a comparative model for the study of local leadership and
personal media.
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