... Epistemología y ciencia social. Autores: Amitabha Gupta; Localización: Sociología de la cienc... more ... Epistemología y ciencia social. Autores: Amitabha Gupta; Localización: Sociología de la ciencia / coord. por Jesús A. Valero Matas, 2004, ISBN 84-414-1461-0 , págs. 191-229. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...
The study of cultural encounters has thrown up many important methodological and theoretical issu... more The study of cultural encounters has thrown up many important methodological and theoretical issues. Besides, these studies often rely on certain underlying socio-political and economic theories too. The objective of this paper is to unravel some of these issues and theories which underscore a very important area of cultural study, namely, the study of West’s cultural encounter of the Orient and the Western characterization of the Orient. Some of the cultural studies of this genre are obdurate and provocative, that is, the views of William Jones or Edward Said’s Orientalism. The paper (a) first states Said’s views. (b) then attempts to posit an alternative to Said’s Orientalism (i) implicit in Dyson’s book A Various Universe and (ii) inherent in the issues raised by Amartya Sen. The paper finally demonstrates that Said’s Orientalism is based on inappropriate methodological and theoretical assumptions and incongruous theories in the light of the studies outlined in (b).
Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 2015
Incommensurability constitutes the focal point of Kuhn’s departure from the prevailing traditions... more Incommensurability constitutes the focal point of Kuhn’s departure from the prevailing traditions in Philosophy of Science. The paper traces the mathematical origin of the concept of “incommensurability” and philosophical environment that constrained the introduction of the idea in the literature. It then discusses the stages through which the concept of “incommensurability” evolved in Kuhn’s thought. The final account of “incommensurability,” viz., Kinds Theory of Incommensurability or Taxonomic Incommensurability, is also expounded, and some associated philosophical problems are discussed. We analyze two case studies, provide textual and historical evidence, and cite the work of scholars supporting the conceptual continuity across the revolutionary divide in both the case studies. Kuhn acknowledges the rigidity of his earlier position and softens his stand on incommensurability in his last formulation of the thesis, justifying the title of the paper that Kuhn’s thesis lost its bite. At the end of the paper, we discuss some of the philosophical problems arising out of it and make certain critical remarks on the final account.
Since the formative period of science in the antiquity, the logic of induction and deduction and ... more Since the formative period of science in the antiquity, the logic of induction and deduction and the role they play in formulating scientific theories have been the concern for both the practicing scientists and the philosophers of science. It is commonly believed that science (and specifically a scientific theory) does not consist of discrete and random collection of factual statements, but comprises a network of both empirical and theoretical, particular and general, and observational and law statements in a coherent structure and framework. The role of logic in science, especially the job of the construction of scientific theories, essentially relates to spelling out the nature of these connections and relationships among the various types of statements in this network, explaining what entitles the scientists to move from one type of statement to another or justifying on what basis they do so.
Preface.- Dedication.- 1. Bounded Rationality: Models for some Fast and Frugal Heuristics Horacio... more Preface.- Dedication.- 1. Bounded Rationality: Models for some Fast and Frugal Heuristics Horacio Arlo-Costa and Arthur Paul Pedersen.- 2. Why Do We Need Justification Logic? Sergei Artemov.- 3. Why Meanings are Not Normative Akeel Bilgrami.- 4. The Realization Theorem for S5: A Simple, Constructive Proof Melvin Fitting.- 5. Merging Information Sujata Ghosh and Fernando R. Velazquez-Quesada.- 6. Modal Logic for Lexicographic Preference Aggregation Patrick Girard.- 7. No-PHI-Regret: A Connection between Computational Learning Theory and Game Theory Amy Greenwald, Amir Jafari and Casey Marks.- 8. Axioms of Distinction in Social Software Vincent F. Hendricks.- 9. Publication/Citation: A Proof-Theoretic Approach to Mathematical Knowledge Management Dexter Kozen and Ganesh Ramanarayanan.- 10. Generalizing Parikh's Theorem Johann A. Makowsky.- 11. Syllogistic Logic with Complements Lawrence Moss.- 12. From Unary to Binary Inductive Logic Jeff Paris and Alena Vencovska.- 13. Challenges for Decidable Epistemic Logics from Security Protocols R. Ramanujam and S.P. Suresh.
This paper rp re-vnrst the results of a study he third in a series, of academic and social adjust... more This paper rp re-vnrst the results of a study he third in a series, of academic and social adjustment of Scheduled Caste and Schedut< Ica ?e st udents in the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Section I of the paper traces the relationship between the backgrounds of SC/ST students ...
The objective of this paper is to discuss some of the foundational issues centering around the qu... more The objective of this paper is to discuss some of the foundational issues centering around the question of integrating education in human values with professional engineering education: its necessity and justification. The paper looks at the efforts in &amp;amp;#39;tuning&amp;amp;#39; the technical education system in India to the national goals in the various phases of curriculum development. The contribution of the engineering profession in national development and India&amp;amp;#39;s self-sufficiency is crucially linked with the institutionalization of expertise and the role of morality and responsibility. This linkage can be created through a proper understanding of the social role of the profession-what motivates the professionals and what makes professional life meaningful. Value education facilitates the process of moral maturity and the development of a &amp;amp;#39;holistic&amp;amp;#39; mindset. This paper deals with the need to create such a mindset, the human values associated with it and gives examples of efforts to impart such education through &amp;amp;#39;action-oriented&amp;amp;#39; programmes introduced in some institutes of engineering in India.
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Jan 26, 2022
As humanity is approaching its third year under COVID-19, the virus’s grim day-to-day toll is bec... more As humanity is approaching its third year under COVID-19, the virus’s grim day-to-day toll is becoming increasingly clear. By the end of 2021, over 5 million people will have died from the disease and many are continuing to die on a daily basis. The world has not even yet begun to count the psychological fallout from the disease, as only glimpses of it have become visible so far: children left behind in their schooling, depression among teenagers unable to socialise; students prevented from having campus experiences; parents at the end of their tethers because of closed schools and kindergartens; family members unable to see each other for years on end. Among survivors, “fatigue” is the most common words to be heard. Other words, unknown a few months ago, have become pedestrian, as we are all becoming (linguistic) epidemiologists: Delta and Omicron mutations, booster vaccinations, 2G, 3G, 3G++. The advantages and disadvantages of heterologous and homologous vaccinations, of mRNA vaccines vs adenovirus vector vaccines versus inactivated virus vaccines are broadly discussed. Additionally, rules and regulations change on a daily basis, and travel plans are more a guessing game than anything else. Under the reign of social media, discussions taking place oftentimes become heated and accusatory, rather than reflected and scientific. As the former spill out onto the streets, people are injured and killed. The virus is political. IJCS’s current issue pays a small tribute to this situation; in a larger expose, entitled “Screen Ontologies or Teaching the Virus a Lesson: A Few Things that Work in Online Education and a Few that Don’t”, the situation of accelerated online education is discussed. The article states that despite the fact that there were few alternatives to such online teaching, its necessity at the time should not supress necessary criticism of distance education in general. In particular, the teaching situation via screens is discussed and older philosophical and social criticisms of television culture and reintroduced and updated in order to expose the limits of screen education in particular and screen cultures in general. Finally, new ways of distance education are sketched that would usher in a post-screen education model. The second article, “Is There a Correspondence Between “Orientalism” and The Orient? – Said, Dyson and Sen” by Amitabha Gupta, revisits Edward Said’s seminal Orientalism work and, from the vantage point of 40 years after, explains how especially the work of Sen is able to provide a more fruitful approach today by circumventing some of the by now problematic premises Said relied on Naeim Sepehri’s “Psychological Effects of the Architectural-Space: Decorated Mirror-tile Artwork-A Phenomenological Approach”, discusses the usage of mirror shards in the interior decoration of palaces and mosques in Iran. He historicises this architectural feature and, with the help of recent psychological theories, demonstrates how such architectural approaches have become deeply engrained in the aesthetic of Iranian historical national narratives. “Innovation in Cultural Heritage Preservation in Taiwan: Lessons for Indonesia?” by Riela Provi Drianda, Laila Zohrah and Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang contrasts and compares cultural heritage politics and their implementation in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively. While the two cultural communities follow divergent politics of heritage conservation, the authors illustrate that many of the challenges faced by cultural heritage preservation actions, such as rapid development, profit maximisation, lack of political will and funding, and a host of others, are common to preservation efforts around the globe. Preservationists can learn from each other’s experiences, and while local givens, such as weather conditions, might differ, all preservation efforts share a number of commonalities which can best be explored together. Finally, Xiaolong Zhang’s “Media Power: Cigarette Package Design in China” explores the conflicting messages cigarette package design is sending: On the one hand, as in many other countries, the cigarette pack is supposed to alert its users that smoking kills; on the other, it is supposed to attract users to exactly this habit. Zhang traces this conflict to the differing political and economic messages being sent by the authorities. For one, tax revenues from cigarettes are an import economic factor, as are jobs in the tobacco industry; for another, the long term costs of smokers’ health-care costs have recently begun to be higher than tobacco’s economic benefits. Up to here, the Chinese situation does not seem to be so much different from the rest of the world. But Zhang shows that in China there is a strong cultural element at play that is different from other countries, and that is the social component of smoking. Via focus groups, Zhang demonstrates that smoking is variably used to exhibit status, masculinity and relational sociability. It is these features that make anti-smoking campaigns even harder to run in China than elsewhere. Holger Briel Editor-in-Chief
... Epistemología y ciencia social. Autores: Amitabha Gupta; Localización: Sociología de la cienc... more ... Epistemología y ciencia social. Autores: Amitabha Gupta; Localización: Sociología de la ciencia / coord. por Jesús A. Valero Matas, 2004, ISBN 84-414-1461-0 , págs. 191-229. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...
The study of cultural encounters has thrown up many important methodological and theoretical issu... more The study of cultural encounters has thrown up many important methodological and theoretical issues. Besides, these studies often rely on certain underlying socio-political and economic theories too. The objective of this paper is to unravel some of these issues and theories which underscore a very important area of cultural study, namely, the study of West’s cultural encounter of the Orient and the Western characterization of the Orient. Some of the cultural studies of this genre are obdurate and provocative, that is, the views of William Jones or Edward Said’s Orientalism. The paper (a) first states Said’s views. (b) then attempts to posit an alternative to Said’s Orientalism (i) implicit in Dyson’s book A Various Universe and (ii) inherent in the issues raised by Amartya Sen. The paper finally demonstrates that Said’s Orientalism is based on inappropriate methodological and theoretical assumptions and incongruous theories in the light of the studies outlined in (b).
Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 2015
Incommensurability constitutes the focal point of Kuhn’s departure from the prevailing traditions... more Incommensurability constitutes the focal point of Kuhn’s departure from the prevailing traditions in Philosophy of Science. The paper traces the mathematical origin of the concept of “incommensurability” and philosophical environment that constrained the introduction of the idea in the literature. It then discusses the stages through which the concept of “incommensurability” evolved in Kuhn’s thought. The final account of “incommensurability,” viz., Kinds Theory of Incommensurability or Taxonomic Incommensurability, is also expounded, and some associated philosophical problems are discussed. We analyze two case studies, provide textual and historical evidence, and cite the work of scholars supporting the conceptual continuity across the revolutionary divide in both the case studies. Kuhn acknowledges the rigidity of his earlier position and softens his stand on incommensurability in his last formulation of the thesis, justifying the title of the paper that Kuhn’s thesis lost its bite. At the end of the paper, we discuss some of the philosophical problems arising out of it and make certain critical remarks on the final account.
Since the formative period of science in the antiquity, the logic of induction and deduction and ... more Since the formative period of science in the antiquity, the logic of induction and deduction and the role they play in formulating scientific theories have been the concern for both the practicing scientists and the philosophers of science. It is commonly believed that science (and specifically a scientific theory) does not consist of discrete and random collection of factual statements, but comprises a network of both empirical and theoretical, particular and general, and observational and law statements in a coherent structure and framework. The role of logic in science, especially the job of the construction of scientific theories, essentially relates to spelling out the nature of these connections and relationships among the various types of statements in this network, explaining what entitles the scientists to move from one type of statement to another or justifying on what basis they do so.
Preface.- Dedication.- 1. Bounded Rationality: Models for some Fast and Frugal Heuristics Horacio... more Preface.- Dedication.- 1. Bounded Rationality: Models for some Fast and Frugal Heuristics Horacio Arlo-Costa and Arthur Paul Pedersen.- 2. Why Do We Need Justification Logic? Sergei Artemov.- 3. Why Meanings are Not Normative Akeel Bilgrami.- 4. The Realization Theorem for S5: A Simple, Constructive Proof Melvin Fitting.- 5. Merging Information Sujata Ghosh and Fernando R. Velazquez-Quesada.- 6. Modal Logic for Lexicographic Preference Aggregation Patrick Girard.- 7. No-PHI-Regret: A Connection between Computational Learning Theory and Game Theory Amy Greenwald, Amir Jafari and Casey Marks.- 8. Axioms of Distinction in Social Software Vincent F. Hendricks.- 9. Publication/Citation: A Proof-Theoretic Approach to Mathematical Knowledge Management Dexter Kozen and Ganesh Ramanarayanan.- 10. Generalizing Parikh's Theorem Johann A. Makowsky.- 11. Syllogistic Logic with Complements Lawrence Moss.- 12. From Unary to Binary Inductive Logic Jeff Paris and Alena Vencovska.- 13. Challenges for Decidable Epistemic Logics from Security Protocols R. Ramanujam and S.P. Suresh.
This paper rp re-vnrst the results of a study he third in a series, of academic and social adjust... more This paper rp re-vnrst the results of a study he third in a series, of academic and social adjustment of Scheduled Caste and Schedut< Ica ?e st udents in the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Section I of the paper traces the relationship between the backgrounds of SC/ST students ...
The objective of this paper is to discuss some of the foundational issues centering around the qu... more The objective of this paper is to discuss some of the foundational issues centering around the question of integrating education in human values with professional engineering education: its necessity and justification. The paper looks at the efforts in &amp;amp;#39;tuning&amp;amp;#39; the technical education system in India to the national goals in the various phases of curriculum development. The contribution of the engineering profession in national development and India&amp;amp;#39;s self-sufficiency is crucially linked with the institutionalization of expertise and the role of morality and responsibility. This linkage can be created through a proper understanding of the social role of the profession-what motivates the professionals and what makes professional life meaningful. Value education facilitates the process of moral maturity and the development of a &amp;amp;#39;holistic&amp;amp;#39; mindset. This paper deals with the need to create such a mindset, the human values associated with it and gives examples of efforts to impart such education through &amp;amp;#39;action-oriented&amp;amp;#39; programmes introduced in some institutes of engineering in India.
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Jan 26, 2022
As humanity is approaching its third year under COVID-19, the virus’s grim day-to-day toll is bec... more As humanity is approaching its third year under COVID-19, the virus’s grim day-to-day toll is becoming increasingly clear. By the end of 2021, over 5 million people will have died from the disease and many are continuing to die on a daily basis. The world has not even yet begun to count the psychological fallout from the disease, as only glimpses of it have become visible so far: children left behind in their schooling, depression among teenagers unable to socialise; students prevented from having campus experiences; parents at the end of their tethers because of closed schools and kindergartens; family members unable to see each other for years on end. Among survivors, “fatigue” is the most common words to be heard. Other words, unknown a few months ago, have become pedestrian, as we are all becoming (linguistic) epidemiologists: Delta and Omicron mutations, booster vaccinations, 2G, 3G, 3G++. The advantages and disadvantages of heterologous and homologous vaccinations, of mRNA vaccines vs adenovirus vector vaccines versus inactivated virus vaccines are broadly discussed. Additionally, rules and regulations change on a daily basis, and travel plans are more a guessing game than anything else. Under the reign of social media, discussions taking place oftentimes become heated and accusatory, rather than reflected and scientific. As the former spill out onto the streets, people are injured and killed. The virus is political. IJCS’s current issue pays a small tribute to this situation; in a larger expose, entitled “Screen Ontologies or Teaching the Virus a Lesson: A Few Things that Work in Online Education and a Few that Don’t”, the situation of accelerated online education is discussed. The article states that despite the fact that there were few alternatives to such online teaching, its necessity at the time should not supress necessary criticism of distance education in general. In particular, the teaching situation via screens is discussed and older philosophical and social criticisms of television culture and reintroduced and updated in order to expose the limits of screen education in particular and screen cultures in general. Finally, new ways of distance education are sketched that would usher in a post-screen education model. The second article, “Is There a Correspondence Between “Orientalism” and The Orient? – Said, Dyson and Sen” by Amitabha Gupta, revisits Edward Said’s seminal Orientalism work and, from the vantage point of 40 years after, explains how especially the work of Sen is able to provide a more fruitful approach today by circumventing some of the by now problematic premises Said relied on Naeim Sepehri’s “Psychological Effects of the Architectural-Space: Decorated Mirror-tile Artwork-A Phenomenological Approach”, discusses the usage of mirror shards in the interior decoration of palaces and mosques in Iran. He historicises this architectural feature and, with the help of recent psychological theories, demonstrates how such architectural approaches have become deeply engrained in the aesthetic of Iranian historical national narratives. “Innovation in Cultural Heritage Preservation in Taiwan: Lessons for Indonesia?” by Riela Provi Drianda, Laila Zohrah and Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang contrasts and compares cultural heritage politics and their implementation in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively. While the two cultural communities follow divergent politics of heritage conservation, the authors illustrate that many of the challenges faced by cultural heritage preservation actions, such as rapid development, profit maximisation, lack of political will and funding, and a host of others, are common to preservation efforts around the globe. Preservationists can learn from each other’s experiences, and while local givens, such as weather conditions, might differ, all preservation efforts share a number of commonalities which can best be explored together. Finally, Xiaolong Zhang’s “Media Power: Cigarette Package Design in China” explores the conflicting messages cigarette package design is sending: On the one hand, as in many other countries, the cigarette pack is supposed to alert its users that smoking kills; on the other, it is supposed to attract users to exactly this habit. Zhang traces this conflict to the differing political and economic messages being sent by the authorities. For one, tax revenues from cigarettes are an import economic factor, as are jobs in the tobacco industry; for another, the long term costs of smokers’ health-care costs have recently begun to be higher than tobacco’s economic benefits. Up to here, the Chinese situation does not seem to be so much different from the rest of the world. But Zhang shows that in China there is a strong cultural element at play that is different from other countries, and that is the social component of smoking. Via focus groups, Zhang demonstrates that smoking is variably used to exhibit status, masculinity and relational sociability. It is these features that make anti-smoking campaigns even harder to run in China than elsewhere. Holger Briel Editor-in-Chief
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Other words, unknown a few months ago, have become pedestrian, as we are all becoming (linguistic) epidemiologists: Delta and Omicron mutations, booster vaccinations, 2G, 3G, 3G++. The advantages and disadvantages of heterologous and homologous vaccinations, of mRNA vaccines vs adenovirus vector vaccines versus inactivated virus vaccines are broadly discussed. Additionally, rules and regulations change on a daily basis, and travel plans are more a guessing game than anything else. Under the reign of social media, discussions taking place oftentimes become heated and accusatory, rather than reflected and scientific. As the former spill out onto the streets, people are injured and killed. The virus is political.
IJCS’s current issue pays a small tribute to this situation; in a larger expose, entitled “Screen Ontologies or Teaching the Virus a Lesson: A Few Things that Work in Online Education and a Few that Don’t”, the situation of accelerated online education is discussed. The article states that despite the fact that there were few alternatives to such online teaching, its necessity at the time should not supress necessary criticism of distance education in general. In particular, the teaching situation via screens is discussed and older philosophical and social criticisms of television culture and reintroduced and updated in order to expose the limits of screen education in particular and screen cultures in general. Finally, new ways of distance education are sketched that would usher in a post-screen education model.
The second article, “Is There a Correspondence Between “Orientalism” and The Orient? – Said, Dyson and Sen” by Amitabha Gupta, revisits Edward Said’s seminal Orientalism work and, from the vantage point of 40 years after, explains how especially the work of Sen is able to provide a more fruitful approach today by circumventing some of the by now problematic premises Said relied on
Naeim Sepehri’s “Psychological Effects of the Architectural-Space: Decorated Mirror-tile Artwork-A Phenomenological Approach”, discusses the usage of mirror shards in the interior decoration of palaces and mosques in Iran. He historicises this architectural feature and, with the help of recent psychological theories, demonstrates how such architectural approaches have become deeply engrained in the aesthetic of Iranian historical national narratives.
“Innovation in Cultural Heritage Preservation in Taiwan: Lessons for Indonesia?” by Riela Provi Drianda, Laila Zohrah and Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang contrasts and compares cultural heritage politics and their implementation in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively. While the two cultural communities follow divergent politics of heritage conservation, the authors illustrate that many of the challenges faced by cultural heritage preservation actions, such as rapid development, profit maximisation, lack of political will and funding, and a host of others, are common to preservation efforts around the globe. Preservationists can learn from each other’s experiences, and while local givens, such as weather conditions, might differ, all preservation efforts share a number of commonalities which can best be explored together.
Finally, Xiaolong Zhang’s “Media Power: Cigarette Package Design in China” explores the conflicting messages cigarette package design is sending: On the one hand, as in many other countries, the cigarette pack is supposed to alert its users that smoking kills; on the other, it is supposed to attract users to exactly this habit. Zhang traces this conflict to the differing political and economic messages being sent by the authorities. For one, tax revenues from cigarettes are an import economic factor, as are jobs in the tobacco industry; for another, the long term costs of smokers’ health-care costs have recently begun to be higher than tobacco’s economic benefits. Up to here, the Chinese situation does not seem to be so much different from the rest of the world. But Zhang shows that in China there is a strong cultural element at play that is different from other countries, and that is the social component of smoking. Via focus groups, Zhang demonstrates that smoking is variably used to exhibit status, masculinity and relational sociability. It is these features that make anti-smoking campaigns even harder to run in China than elsewhere.
Holger Briel
Editor-in-Chief
Other words, unknown a few months ago, have become pedestrian, as we are all becoming (linguistic) epidemiologists: Delta and Omicron mutations, booster vaccinations, 2G, 3G, 3G++. The advantages and disadvantages of heterologous and homologous vaccinations, of mRNA vaccines vs adenovirus vector vaccines versus inactivated virus vaccines are broadly discussed. Additionally, rules and regulations change on a daily basis, and travel plans are more a guessing game than anything else. Under the reign of social media, discussions taking place oftentimes become heated and accusatory, rather than reflected and scientific. As the former spill out onto the streets, people are injured and killed. The virus is political.
IJCS’s current issue pays a small tribute to this situation; in a larger expose, entitled “Screen Ontologies or Teaching the Virus a Lesson: A Few Things that Work in Online Education and a Few that Don’t”, the situation of accelerated online education is discussed. The article states that despite the fact that there were few alternatives to such online teaching, its necessity at the time should not supress necessary criticism of distance education in general. In particular, the teaching situation via screens is discussed and older philosophical and social criticisms of television culture and reintroduced and updated in order to expose the limits of screen education in particular and screen cultures in general. Finally, new ways of distance education are sketched that would usher in a post-screen education model.
The second article, “Is There a Correspondence Between “Orientalism” and The Orient? – Said, Dyson and Sen” by Amitabha Gupta, revisits Edward Said’s seminal Orientalism work and, from the vantage point of 40 years after, explains how especially the work of Sen is able to provide a more fruitful approach today by circumventing some of the by now problematic premises Said relied on
Naeim Sepehri’s “Psychological Effects of the Architectural-Space: Decorated Mirror-tile Artwork-A Phenomenological Approach”, discusses the usage of mirror shards in the interior decoration of palaces and mosques in Iran. He historicises this architectural feature and, with the help of recent psychological theories, demonstrates how such architectural approaches have become deeply engrained in the aesthetic of Iranian historical national narratives.
“Innovation in Cultural Heritage Preservation in Taiwan: Lessons for Indonesia?” by Riela Provi Drianda, Laila Zohrah and Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang contrasts and compares cultural heritage politics and their implementation in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively. While the two cultural communities follow divergent politics of heritage conservation, the authors illustrate that many of the challenges faced by cultural heritage preservation actions, such as rapid development, profit maximisation, lack of political will and funding, and a host of others, are common to preservation efforts around the globe. Preservationists can learn from each other’s experiences, and while local givens, such as weather conditions, might differ, all preservation efforts share a number of commonalities which can best be explored together.
Finally, Xiaolong Zhang’s “Media Power: Cigarette Package Design in China” explores the conflicting messages cigarette package design is sending: On the one hand, as in many other countries, the cigarette pack is supposed to alert its users that smoking kills; on the other, it is supposed to attract users to exactly this habit. Zhang traces this conflict to the differing political and economic messages being sent by the authorities. For one, tax revenues from cigarettes are an import economic factor, as are jobs in the tobacco industry; for another, the long term costs of smokers’ health-care costs have recently begun to be higher than tobacco’s economic benefits. Up to here, the Chinese situation does not seem to be so much different from the rest of the world. But Zhang shows that in China there is a strong cultural element at play that is different from other countries, and that is the social component of smoking. Via focus groups, Zhang demonstrates that smoking is variably used to exhibit status, masculinity and relational sociability. It is these features that make anti-smoking campaigns even harder to run in China than elsewhere.
Holger Briel
Editor-in-Chief