cultural contestation

[David Boromisza-Habashi]

Dear All,

I am currently working on a paper looking at practices of cultural
contestation. The paper focuses on the dynamics and social
consequences of the contestation of local communicative resources,
particularly folk terms (concepts) for communicative action.

The concept of "cultural contestation" seems to bring at least two
related but different types of discourse into view:
(1) discourse that features multiple parties mobilizing divergent
interpretations of the same term for communicative action in direct
disagreement with one another about the meaning of the term, and
(2) discourse that involves participants using a widely contested
term(s) for communicative action to comment on / evaluate someone
else's communicative conduct.

I have a few studies in mind (e.g., Katriel's study of the
contestation of the "dugri" style in contemporary Israeli society;
Bloch & Lemish's work on Israeli women's resistance to the
characterization of their conduct as "being a freierit" or 'sucker;'
Tracy's analysis of charging others with "undemocratic" conduct in
U.S. school board meetings) but I could use more references.

Thank you in advance for any on- or off-list advice.

Cheers,

David Boromisza-Habashi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
University of Colorado
270 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0270, USA

office location: Hellems 78
work phone: +1 (303) 735 5076
work fax: +1 (303) 492 8411

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