Jeff Lewis | RMIT University (original) (raw)

Papers by Jeff Lewis

Humans have lived on the Australian continent for around 50,000 years. During that time, the indi... more Humans have lived on the Australian continent for around 50,000 years. During that time, the indigenous people developed complex cultural, economic and social systems. These systems were sustained and expressed through the myths and songlines which comprise the indigenous people's Dreaming. It was through the Dreaming that the natural, symbolic and material worlds converge, enabling humans to orient themselves spiritually, cosmologically and geographically. This cultural and natural contingency was shattered by the British invasion and settlement of Australia from 1788. In one particular region of the country, the Burrup Peninsula, this violation has been perpetuated through the destructive practices of mining, The Burrup Peninsula is located in the remote Western Australia Pilbara region on the Dampier Archipelago. This area hosts one of the world's most extensive and significant indigenous Palaeolithic art galleries—petroglyphs that may be as old as 30,000 years Before Present. The Pilbara also contains one of the world's most extensive and richest iron ore deposits, as well as a vast array of other minerals and fuels. This paper examines the ways in which the cultural and natural heritage of the Burrup has been excoriated by the mining industries. The paper examines recent attempts to protect the heritage of the area from further destruction. It focuses on the World Heritage nomination of the Burrup, indigenous activism and the complex politics of conservation in the area.

Cultural Studies as a distinct discipline was pioneered in Britain during the 1950's and 196's.Al... more Cultural Studies as a distinct discipline was pioneered in Britain during the 1950's and 196's.Along with Raymond Williams, the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies developed a theory and method of 'culturalism' where culture is viewed as a social group's assembled meanings. Power was a central trope in these studies. More recent approaches to culture have broadened the definition of 'social group', focusing as much on global movements, as microphysics of power and exchange.

Modern democracy has emphasized the institutional and legal processes which protect the rights of... more Modern democracy has emphasized the institutional and legal processes which protect the rights of individual citizens through homogenizing structures and processes. Contemporary cultural politics attempts to reach beyond structuralist democracy which inevitably overrides the freedom of the individual. A number of theorists have attached this 'new' democracy to various forms of electronic mediation, including computer networked communication. These theories, however, deny important aspects of 'language war', and the limits of computers and the politics of individualism. The relationship between new democracy and computers needs to be considered in terms of an emancipation that relativizes individualism and collectivism, and which conceives of computers in terms of belligerent language formations or 'heterodictions'. Recent political theory has engaged more fully with the cultural and communicative dimensions of democracy and democratic processes. Writers like David Held, Ernesto Laclau and Anthony Giddens have attempted to construct a democratic cultural politics which liberates reformism from Marxist 'grand narrative' and universalism on the one hand, and institutionalized liberal-democratic relativism on the other. Giddens (e.g. 1994), in particular, expounds a reform theory which would extend the possibilities of democracy and culture beyond what he regards as the stasis and neutrality of ascendant neoliberalist (neoutilitarian) capitalist ideals. Giddens, echoing Stuart Hall's prescience, describes the constellation of neoliberalism as the ongoing and all-absorbing power of global capitalism.

Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, 2002

Cultural studies has a complex and dynamic genealogy. We can trace various lin eages through soci... more Cultural studies has a complex and dynamic genealogy. We can trace various lin eages through social theory, sociology, anthropology, history, politics, and various modes of aesthetics. However, the constellation of these somewhat indefinite ele ments is frequently attributed to Raymond Williams and the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (see Hall, "Cultural Studies"; Turner; Grossberg; Bennett; Storey ; Lewis). Williams's concept of "cultural studies," along with Rich ard Johnson's broader notion of "culturalism," distinguished a mode of analysis which could integrate an anthropological interest in the popular arts and artifacts with a reformist social and political agenda. Through various refinements, most particularly the more sophisticated application of Stuart Hall's interpretation of Althusserian ideology and Gramscian hegemony ("Rediscovery of Ideology"), Bir mingham cultural studies exerted an astonishing influence over the evolving (mis)fortunes of the humanities and social sciences in the English-speaking world. Even in the United States, with its own quite distinct understandings of the prob lematic of "culture," Birmingham style cultural studies was able to attach itself to local permutations of poststructural and postmodern theory, providing, among other things, a reinvigorated vocabulary of heuristic dispute-one which productively engaged with America's ongoing consternations over race, the politics of pluralism Jeff Lewis is Senior Lecturer in media and cultural studies in the School of Applied Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Cultural Studies (Sage, 2002).

Disasters, Jan 14, 2016

Natural disasters are inevitably the outcome of cultural agonisms. The cultural politics of natur... more Natural disasters are inevitably the outcome of cultural agonisms. The cultural politics of natural disasters are shaped by competing claims and conceptions of 'nature'. Recent disasters in Indonesia are directly linked to these contending conceptions and the ways in which different social groups imagine risk and reward. The Sidoarjo volcanic mudflow of 2006 represents a volatile and violent exemplar of contending cultural and economic claims. Like other disasters in Indonesia and elsewhere in the developing world, this 'natural' disaster is characterised by differing conceptions of 'nature' as cultural tradition, divine force, and natural resource. A new extractive project in East Java is exhibiting similar economic and cultural agonisms, particularly around the notion of development, environment, self-determination, and tradition. This paper examines the 'disputes over meaning' associated with natural disasters in contemporary societies, and the way...

Topia Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Nov 29, 2006

A significant social and cultural crisis is concentrated through photographs taken by military wa... more A significant social and cultural crisis is concentrated through photographs taken by military wardens at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. These photographs 'represent' critical issues, meanings and meaning-making processes, not merely of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, but of a broader global, cultural crisis. In order to elucidate these meaning and meaning-making processes it is necessary to re-theorize key elements of the photographs' cultural setting. In particular, the 'public sphere' within which the photographs appear and are circulated should be understood as a mediasphere, the convocation of public and private engagement and expressivity within the global, networked communication systems. This is not a 'clash of civilizations', but a complex and unfolding crisis of meaning within and through cultures, a fragmentation of ideology and knowledge. It is a trial by media ordeal which challenges key assumptions in the liberal, democratic tradition. These photographs will not necessarily change the course of the war on terror, but they should contribute to the interrogation of our own culture, identity and perspectives.

To cite this article: Lewis, Belinda and Lewis, Jeff. After the Glow: Challenges and Opportunitie... more To cite this article: Lewis, Belinda and Lewis, Jeff. After the Glow: Challenges and Opportunities for Community Sustainability in the Context of the Bali Bombings [online]. In: Grenfell, Damian (Editor). First International Sources of Insecurity Conference, The. Melbourne: RMIT ...

... First International Sources of Insecurity Conference 17-19 November 2004 Globalism Institute ... more ... First International Sources of Insecurity Conference 17-19 November 2004 Globalism Institute RMIT University Melbourne Jeff Lewis School of Applied Communication ... GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Australia, 3001 Email: jeff.lewis@rmit.edu.au ; belindalewis2@wildmail.com ...

International Journal of Cultural Studies, Apr 1, 2000

Abstract Modern democracy has emphasized the institutional and legal processes which protect the ... more Abstract Modern democracy has emphasized the institutional and legal processes which protect the rights of individual citizens through homogenizing structures and processes. Contemporary cultural politics attempts to reach beyond structuralist democracy which ...

... 5325. [cited 19 Oct 10]. Personal Author: Lewis, Jeff. Source: Media InternationalAustralia, ... more ... 5325. [cited 19 Oct 10]. Personal Author: Lewis, Jeff. Source: Media InternationalAustralia, No. 83, Feb 1997: 78-91. Document Type: Journal Article. ISSN: 1324-5325. ... au. Database: Humanities & Social Sciences Collection. ...

Cultural Studies Review, 2010

... foreign drugs traffickers, such as Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine, were a legitimate respo... more ... foreign drugs traffickers, such as Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine, were a legitimate response to Indonesia&#x27;s narcotics crisis and the significant threat it poses ... prison to visit Scott and other well‐known inmates like Schapelle Corby. But our ...

Global Change, Peace & Security, 2012

European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2006

The spread of global Jihadist terrorism was brutally announced in the 2002 Bali bombings. The att... more The spread of global Jihadist terrorism was brutally announced in the 2002 Bali bombings. The attacks marked a significant moment in the relationship between Australia and Bali. The bewilderment characterizing Balinese and Australian responses to the 2002 bombings is linked to processes of globalization and the ‘de-bordering’ of knowledge, most particularly as it resonates through locally constituted ‘ideology’, beliefs and

International Journal of Cultural Studies, 1998

... Название публикации, DIGITOPIANS. TRANSCULTURALISM, COMPUTERS AND THE POLITICS OF HOPE. Автор... more ... Название публикации, DIGITOPIANS. TRANSCULTURALISM, COMPUTERS AND THE POLITICS OF HOPE. Авторы, Jeff Lewis RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Журнал, International Journal of Cultural Studies. Издательство, Sage Publications. ...

The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 72, No. 1 (February) 2013: 21–43., Feb 1, 2013

The Bali Bombings Monument: Ceremonial Cosmopolis By Jeff Lewis, Belinda Lewis and I Nyoman Darm... more The Bali Bombings Monument: Ceremonial Cosmopolis
By Jeff Lewis, Belinda Lewis and I Nyoman Darma Putra

In 2003 a monument was erected at the site of the 2002 Islamist militant attacks in Kuta, Bali. Government and other official discourses, including the design brief, represent the monument as an integrated and culturally harmonious public testimony to the victims. However, the monument is also a discordant association of ideas, meanings, and political claims. While originally designed to subdue insecurity, the Bali bombings monument, in fact, constitutes a site of powerful “language wars” around its rendering of memory and its presence in Bali’s integration into the globalizing economy of pleasure. This paper examines the ways in which the monument is being articulated and “consumed” as a social and cultural marker for the island’s tourism geography. The paper pays particular attention to the increasing diversity of Bali’s visitors and the ways in which a precarious “cosmopolization” of the Kuta-Legian area is being experienced and expressed at the monument site."

Schapelle Corby was convicted of importing marijuana into Indonesia. While continuing to claim he... more Schapelle Corby was convicted of importing marijuana into Indonesia. While continuing to claim her innocence, SChapelle Corby become a core celebrate in Australian popular culture and bilateral relations with Indonesia.

The Indonesian government is failing itself and its imagining as a modern, democratic state.

There have been many claims about the political and democratic potential of digital networked com... more There have been many claims about the political and democratic potential of digital networked communication. This paper subjects these claims to critical enquiry.