Modernity at large- Appadurai' theory on 'Scapes'

Following my earlier posts, Appadurai’ major breakthrough was developing different landscapes or ‘scapes’ representing different global cultural flows (Appadurai. A 1990). He states how the development of the media and new ‘technologies have loosened the coherence of the Northern ideology’ (Robinson. A 2011) creating new fundamental combinations which form the ‘social imaginary’ or similarly Benedict Anderson’s ‘imagined worlds’.

When is regards to ‘Ethnoscapes’, ‘Technoscapes’, and ‘Financescapes’ Appadurai highlights the importance of how each one is irregular and is ‘subject to its own constraints and incentives’ (Appadurai. A 1990 p.35).By ‘Ethnoscapes’ Appadurai refers to those people in constant motion such as migrants, refugees, guest workers or even tourists who ‘affect the politics of (and between) nations to a hitherto unprecedented degree’ (Appadurai. A 1990 p.33). It is therefore difficult for these people to generate permanent ‘imaginaries’ even if they wanted to as they constantly move around.

While ‘Financescapes’ is the rise of global capital and exchanges, ‘Technoscapes’ refer to the development and spread of technology through different national boundaries. Whereas technologies were once orchestrated through political agenda and large scale economies, it is instead operated through new political and financial possibilities. For example Appadurai uses the example of a steel complex in Libya which will consider the welfare from many other countries providing new ‘combinations of technological configurations’ (Appadurai. A 1990 p.34).

Related is Appadurai theory of ‘Mediascapes’ and ‘Ideoscapes’. ‘Mediascapes’ refers to the rise in media production and distribution e.g. Newspapers, Television, Radio and Film. These forms of media provide the ‘narrative’ to which different communities live their lives and form ‘imagined worlds’ as reality and fiction become indistinct from one another.

By ‘Ideoscapes’ Appadurai refers to the ideologies of states and similarly to ‘Mediascapes’ it also uses images. ‘Ideoscapes’ often contain elements of the Enlightenment and key phrases such as democracy, freedom and rights. However Appadurai stresses the importance of the ‘disjunctures’ between the ‘scapes’, stating they are’ non-isomorphic’ (Appadurai. A 1996), and therefore ‘destabilise each other’ (Robinson. A 2011).

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References:

·         Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization.

·         AN A-Z of theory Arjun Appadurai: http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/new-in-ceasefire/in-theory-appadurai