Arjun Appadurai
Encyclopedia
Arjun Appadurai is a contemporary social-cultural anthropologist focusing on modernity
and globalization
, based in New York
.
Appadurai was born in Mumbai
(Bombay), India
and educated in India
before coming to the United States
. He graduated from St. Xavier's High School, Fort
, Mumbai
, and earned his Intermediate Arts degree from Elphinstone College
, Mumbai
, before coming to the United States
.
He then received his B.A. from Brandeis University
in 1970. He was formerly a professor at the University of Chicago
where he received his M.A. (1973) and Ph.D (1976). After working there, he spent a brief time at Yale
before going to the New School University. He currently is a faculty member of New York University's Media Culture and Communication department in the Steinhardt School. Some of his most important works include Worship and Conflict under Colonial Rule (1981), "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" (1990), of which an expanded version is found in Modernity at Large (1996), and Fear of Small Numbers (2006). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1997.
. For Appadurai the imaginary is composed of five dimensions of global cultural flow:
1) ethnoscapes;
2) mediascape
s;
3) technoscapes;
4) finanscapes;
5) ideoscapes.
He describes his articulation of 'the imaginary' as:
Appadurai credits Benedict Anderson
with developing notions of imagined communities
. Some key figures who have worked on the imaginary are Cornelius Castoriadis
, Charles Taylor
, Jacques Lacan
(who especially worked on the symbol
ic, in contrast with imaginary and the real), and Dilip Gaonkar. However, Appadurai's ethnography of urban social movements in the city of Mumbai has proved to be contentious with several scholars like the Canadian anthropologist, Judith Whitehead arguing that SPARC (an organization which Appadurai espouses as an instance of progressive social activism in housing) being complicit in the World Bank's agenda for re-developing Mumbai.
, Appadurai became Provost
of New School University. Appadurai's resignation from the Provost's office was announced January 30, 2006 by New School President Bob Kerrey
. He held the John Dewey Distinguished Professorship in the Social Sciences at the New School.http://www.newschool.edu/gf/anthro/faculty/appadurai/ Appadurai became one of the more outspoken critics of President Kerrey when he attempted to appoint himself provost in 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/nyregion/11kerrey.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5124&en=641599f0747e8eac&ex=1386651600&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook.
; founder of the nonprofit PUKAR
(Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action, and Research) in Mumbai; cofounder and codirector of ING
(Interdisciplinary Network on Globalization); and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has served as a consultant or advisor to a wide range of public and private organizations, including the Ford
, Rockefeller
, and MacArthur
foundations; UNESCO
; the World Bank
; and the National Science Foundation
.
, Madras.
, international meetings of culture, the economy and the media.
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
and globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, based in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Appadurai was born in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
(Bombay), India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and educated in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
before coming to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He graduated from St. Xavier's High School, Fort
St. Xavier's High School, Fort
St. Xavier's High School, Fort is an English medium school for boys in Fort, Mumbai, India.- History :St. Xavier's was established in 1869 by the Jesuits in the neo-gothic building it occupies to this day. Fragments of its history are visible in the corridors of the primary section in the form of...
, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, and earned his Intermediate Arts degree from Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College is an institution of higher education affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges of the University of Mumbai. It was exalted as a prestigious seat of learning during the British Raj and is generally observed for its vibrant alumni...
, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, before coming to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
He then received his B.A. from Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
in 1970. He was formerly a professor at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
where he received his M.A. (1973) and Ph.D (1976). After working there, he spent a brief time at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
before going to the New School University. He currently is a faculty member of New York University's Media Culture and Communication department in the Steinhardt School. Some of his most important works include Worship and Conflict under Colonial Rule (1981), "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" (1990), of which an expanded version is found in Modernity at Large (1996), and Fear of Small Numbers (2006). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1997.
Imaginary
Appadurai articulated a view of cultural activity known as the social imaginaryImaginary (sociology)
The imaginary, or social imaginary is the set of values, institutions, laws, and symbols common to a particular social group and the corresponding society....
. For Appadurai the imaginary is composed of five dimensions of global cultural flow:
1) ethnoscapes;
2) mediascape
Mediascape
The term mediascape describes the way that visual imagery impacts the world.Such imagery comes from books, magazines, television, cinema, and, above all, advertising that can directly impact the landscape and also subtly influence, through persuasive techniques and an increasingly pervasive...
s;
3) technoscapes;
4) finanscapes;
5) ideoscapes.
He describes his articulation of 'the imaginary' as:
"The image, the imagined, the imaginary - these are all terms that direct us to something critical and new in global cultural processes: the imagination as a social practice. No longer mere fantasy (opium for the masses whose real work is somewhere else), no longer simple escape (from a world defined principally by more concrete purposes and structures), no longer elite pastime (thus not relevant to the lives of ordinary people), and no longer mere contemplation (irrelevant for new forms of desire and subjectivity), the imagination has become an organized field of social practices, a form of work (in the sense of both labor and culturally organized practice), and a form of negotiation between sites of agency (individuals) and globally defined fields of possibility. This unleashing of the imagination links the play of pastiche (in some settings) to the terror and coercion of states and their competitors. The imagination is now central to all forms of agency, is itself a social fact, and is the key component of the new global order"
Appadurai credits Benedict Anderson
Benedict Anderson
Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson is Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor Emeritus of International Studies, Government & Asian Studies at Cornell University, and is best known for his celebrated book Imagined Communities, first published in 1983...
with developing notions of imagined communities
Imagined communities
Imagined communities are a concept coined by Benedict Anderson. He believes that a nation is a community socially constructed, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group...
. Some key figures who have worked on the imaginary are Cornelius Castoriadis
Cornelius Castoriadis
Cornelius Castoriadis was a Greek philosopher, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group.-Early life in Athens:...
, Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor (philosopher)
Charles Margrave Taylor, is a Canadian philosopher from Montreal, Quebec best known for his contributions in political philosophy, the philosophy of social science, and in the history of philosophy. His contributions to these fields have earned him both the prestigious Kyoto Prize and the...
, Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
(who especially worked on the symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ic, in contrast with imaginary and the real), and Dilip Gaonkar. However, Appadurai's ethnography of urban social movements in the city of Mumbai has proved to be contentious with several scholars like the Canadian anthropologist, Judith Whitehead arguing that SPARC (an organization which Appadurai espouses as an instance of progressive social activism in housing) being complicit in the World Bank's agenda for re-developing Mumbai.
The New School
In 2004, after a brief time as administrator at Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Appadurai became Provost
Provost (education)
A provost is the senior academic administrator at many institutions of higher education in the United States, Canada and Australia, the equivalent of a pro-vice-chancellor at some institutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland....
of New School University. Appadurai's resignation from the Provost's office was announced January 30, 2006 by New School President Bob Kerrey
Bob Kerrey
Joseph Robert "Bob" Kerrey was the 35th Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and a U.S. Senator from Nebraska . Having served in the Vietnam War, earning the Medal of Honor for his actions, he moved into politics. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992...
. He held the John Dewey Distinguished Professorship in the Social Sciences at the New School.http://www.newschool.edu/gf/anthro/faculty/appadurai/ Appadurai became one of the more outspoken critics of President Kerrey when he attempted to appoint himself provost in 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/nyregion/11kerrey.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5124&en=641599f0747e8eac&ex=1386651600&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook.
New York University
In 2008 it was announced that Appadurai was appointed Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human DevelopmentPublic Culture
Appadurai is a co-founder of the academic journal Public CulturePublic Culture
Public Culture is a reviewed interdisciplinary academic journal of cultural studies, founded in 1988 by anthropologists Carol Breckenridge and Arjun Appadurai...
; founder of the nonprofit PUKAR
Pukar
Pukar is a word that means a "cry for help/ attention" or "to call out" in Hindi and Urdu and may refer to:* Pukar , Hindi film produced and directed by Sohrab Modi* Pukar , Hindi film produced and directed by Ramesh Behl...
(Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action, and Research) in Mumbai; cofounder and codirector of ING
Ing
-In English:* -ing, a suffix added to English verbs to make a present active participle or a gerund* Ing, a word for a water-meadow-In old Germanic history:* Ing, Ingui or Yngvi, a Germanic god* Ingaevones, a West Germanic cultural group...
(Interdisciplinary Network on Globalization); and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has served as a consultant or advisor to a wide range of public and private organizations, including the Ford
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, Rockefeller
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
, and MacArthur
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
foundations; UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
; the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
; and the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
.
Doctoral Work
His doctoral work was based on the car festival held in the Parthasarathi temple in TriplicaneTriplicane
Triplicane also has the famous powerful Ellamman temple in SMV Koil street. A beautiful Sundaramurthy Vinayagar temple is right opposite to the Ellamman Temple....
, Madras.
Others Activities
Arjun Appadurai is member of the Advisory Board of the Forum d'AvignonForum d'Avignon
The Forum d’Avignon – Culture, economy, media is a non-profit organization based in Paris, created in 2007. The think tank organizes every year since 2008 the international meetings of culture, the economy and the media which occurs in Avignon, south of France...
, international meetings of culture, the economy and the media.