Charles Heller's blog

Brian Larkin: Majigi, Colonial Film, State Publicity, and the Political Form of Cinema

This is chapter three of Brian Larkin's "Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria", Duke University Press, 2008.

In Signal and Noise, Brian Larkin provides a history and ethnography of media in Nigeria, asking what media theory looks like when Nigeria rather than a European nation or the United States is taken as the starting point.

Céline Nieuwenhuys and Antoine Pécoud : Human Trafficking, Information Campaigns, and Strategies of Migration Control

Céline Nieuwenhuys and Antoine Pécoud, « Human Trafficking, Information Campaigns, and Strategies of Migration Control », in American Behavioral Scientist, 50, 2007.

Franco Berardi : The Image Dispositif

Franco Berardi, "The Image Dispositif", 2004.

In this text Franco Berardi reflects on the role of media today. When the Infosphere is producing narratives which move the consciousness of billions, the main political task is the creation of video-poetic strategies – dispositifs – for constructing new realities.

Tania Murray Li: The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics

Tania Murray Li, "The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics", Introduction, Duke University Press, 2007.

The Will to Improve is a remarkable account of development in action. Focusing on attempts to improve landscapes and livelihoods in Indonesia, Tania Murray Li carefully exposes the practices that enable experts to diagnose problems and devise interventions, and the agency of people whose conduct is targeted for reform.

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