http://hdl.handle.net/2451/74518 2026-04-02T05:34:20Z 2026-04-02T05:34:20Z Henkle, Jonah http://hdl.handle.net/2451/74524 2024-05-22T16:31:44Z 2024-05-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Technofeudalism or Technosocialism? WeChat as Socialist Alternative to Platform Capitalism Authors: Henkle, Jonah Abstract: The emergence of Chinese platform technology, WeChat (微信) an application that singularly incorporates functions of messaging, social media, financial services and more, marks a new development in the construction of Chinese socialism and the Chinese nation-building project. What then of the Western critiques of platform technology and their interaction with political economy: technofeudalism and platform capitalism? This article argues that these analyses which successfully critique the way Big Tech platforms have manifested as technologies for capitalist extraction in the West do not accurately account for the function of WeChat in China’s system of socialist development. Notably, both platform capitalism and technofeudalism presuppose that platform technologies emerge out of neoliberalism. Arguing that WeChat’s advancement and success is partly attributed to China’s rejection of neoliberal austerity politics and policy, this article looks to WeChat as a potential alternative to Western modes of digital capitalism.

2024-05-01T00:00:00Z Bateman-Coe, Majorca http://hdl.handle.net/2451/74523 2024-05-22T16:32:07Z 2024-05-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The Soviet and Post-Soviet Anthrobscenes: Speculations from Cheburaska to Khulkulya Authors: Bateman-Coe, Majorca Abstract: This paper seeks to investigate the representation of and presence of non-human animals through the framework of new media theorist Jussi Parikka’s conceptualization of the “Anthrobscene.”Additionally, an examination of Marxist-Leninist thought concerning both environmentalist policies and practices of early childhood education is essential to formulating a well-rounded understanding of the innate political nature of these anthropomorphic representations and, in turn, how the treatment of animals, both domestic and wild, are considered reflexively by the Soviet state and the current Russian Federation through both a Soviet example (Cheburashka the abstracted and unspecified mouse-cat-primate creature) and a more modern environmentalist mascot (Khokhulya the Russian desman), both of which are duly reflective of their political contexts and social imaginings. Through an analysis of historical contextualizations and the modern mascot representation of the animal as a means of either social or philosophical change as well as practical environmentalist aims under the new capitalistic system post-1990s, Cheburashka and Khokhulya respectively serve to articulate and exemplify a comparison between the ideological functions of both economic systems within the broader field of animal and early childhood media studies.

2024-05-01T00:00:00Z He, Abigail http://hdl.handle.net/2451/74522 2024-05-22T16:29:59Z 2024-05-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Masculinizing & Emasculating in Domestic Space: Comparative Studies of Homebound (1967) and Anatomy of a Fall (2023) Authors: He, Abigail Abstract: By comparing the gender division of labor in domestic space in both Homebound (1967) and Anatomy of a Fall (2023), I address the issue of masculinizing and emasculating on the counter gender with a spatial perspective. First, physical mobility decides the prior access to the public sphere as well as the position of the householder psychologically. Also, the typical and conventional vertical structure of "home" in both films visualizes the gender hierarchy and its collapse within the domestic space. The vertical structure embodies the historically inherited phallus worship symbolically. In this sense, it encounters the requirement of a new space structure that claims gender equality. Approaching the ideal model with practice case of functionalism in architecture, I recount the controversy of the radical equality at the geographic level practiced in communist society by architecture and other supporting mechanisms, which drives the interrogation of the essential association between capitalist structure and male subjectivity since the former, including the basic concepts of private property and liberal market-based competition, is designed and extended by the latter in a biologic sense.

2024-05-01T00:00:00Z Qaissi, Zubaida http://hdl.handle.net/2451/74521 2024-05-22T16:29:03Z 2024-05-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Photographing the Past and Future of Lebanon: The Potential History and Visual Afterlives of Beirut’s War-Damaged Buildings Authors: Qaissi, Zubaida Abstract: Beirut, Lebanon, is a city in constant construction and reconstruction, it seems. After surviving multiple wars, with the Civil War of 1975-1990 as an arguably most impactful example, Beirut has been left with buildings riddled by bullets. That these buildings still stand is incredible, because they have survived not only the material damage of the war but also the various ‘rebuilding’ projects which have taken place since the end of the war, most of which were (and continue to be) headed by private companies such as state-founded Solidere. These buildings are some of the most photographed sites in Beirut; even when they are not the focus, they linger in the background, both physically and figuratively. As a case study, this paper examines the photography of an unfinished, decrepit cinema popularly called “the Egg.” In doing so, this paper seeks to investigate how visual cityscapes create a sense of morale and identity, as well as pasts and futures. The Egg’s afterlife as a ghost of a city that never came to be, drawing on Ariella Aïsha Azoulay’s concept of potential history, troubles conceptions about how public memories and aspirations are negotiated, particularly visually and in the so-called Global South.

2024-05-01T00:00:00Z