220101 Urban Ethnic Landscapes: Between Heritage and Hybridization (K) (SoSe 2012)

Urban spaces are highly creative sites in the social and cultural production of ethnic identities. On the one hand, we can state dynamic processes of cultural hybridization due to immigration, cultural diversity, cosmopolitan imageries and liquid life-styles. On the other hand, we can observe a growing importance of cultural heritage and politics of authenticity, that aim to fix identities and cultural disposition vis-à-vis the fear of a homogenizing cultural globalization. Both dynamics go hand in hand with a new strategic use of ethnicity in urban cultural politics that finds its expression in transnational heritage programs, urban tourism, life-style-marketing, and gentrification. The workshop will begin with an introduction on the relevant academic literature on urban cultural politics. Next, this workshop will explore the multi-facetted and conflictive dynamics between heritage and hybridization by analyzing paradigmatic examples of urban ethnic landscapes in the Americas.

The seminar combines an initiatory session on june 8th (14 to 17 p.m.), a workshop (june 28th to 29th), and the conference "Mobilizing Ethnicity" (july 2nd to 3rd).

Bibliography

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Gold, J. and Gold, M.M. 2005. Cities of Culture: Staging International Festivals and the Urban Agenda, 1851–2000. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Gotham, K. 2007. Authentic New Orleans: Tourism, Culture, and Race in the Big Easy. New York: New York University Press.
Gottdiener, M. 1998. Postmodern Semiotics: Material Culture and the Forms of Postmodern Life. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kaltmeier, O. (ed.) 2012. Selling EthniCity. Urban Cultural Politics in the Americas. Farnham: Ashgate.