Abstract: (1999). Techno‐Orientalism and media‐tribalism: On Japanese animation and rave culture. Third Text: Vol. 13, No. 47, pp. 95-106.

Abstract: This article sets out to examine the role of representations of speech in interactions among professionals and between professionals and clients. In particular we look at the way in which speech representation contributes to the constitution of social facts and institutional actions in the area of child welfare. Drawing on data from two sites of' social work (policy review interviews and case conferences), we argue that the representation of client and interprofessional talk is an important device in achieving or closing down a particular institutional categorization. Such categorizing activity constitutes key moments in situations where accounting is called for. Our analysis will consider categorization in terms of what we call event work' and 'character work' vis-a-vis the general notion of recontextualization. We will particularly focus on how clients' speech is recruited at strategic points in order to (i) justify institutional action, (ii) display professional competence, and, above all, (iii) categorize the client in positive or negative terms. Our overall position in this article is that the nature and teleology of speech representation is intrinsically tied up with particular institutionalized goals and activities.

Abstract: (1999). Recycling modernity: Pirate electronic cultures in India. Third Text: Vol. 13, No. 47, pp. 59-65.

Abstract: This paper starts from the observation that the sociolinguistic image of Africa is still burdened by a colonial heritage emphasizing clear ethnolinguistic units, language structure rather than language practice, and static images oflinguistic situations. Consequently, coming to terms with linguistic practice requires a crictical inspection of crucial and basic concepts such as language'. In this paper, samples of grassroots writing from Shaba (Congo) are used to demonstrate the fluidity of some of these concepts. The handwritings discussed here display a variety of features, material, stylistic and generic, that all point towards the presence and importance of a communicative economy and sociology, an understanding of which preconditions an understanding language practices. On the basis of such findings, a praxis-based reconstruction of the sociolinguistic image of Africa can be attempted.

Abstract: The artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena recently commented that in discussions of electronic media “twenty years of post-colonial theory simply disappear.”1 He was referring to the large and influential body of work known as postcolonial studies, which for the past two decades has been notoriously absent from electronic media practice, theory, and criticism. This absence is not due to the lack of theory in the field, as there has always been theoretically based writing about electronic media. Much of the early work was based on the theories of Marshall McLuhan and other utopians characterized as “inebriated with the potential of new technology.”

Abstract: Lieu de memoire , a concept developed by historian Pierre Nora in order to help explain the construction of a nation or a community, offers a useful tool to architectural historians by emphasizing the importance of physical and conceptual sites. Nora associates the role played by memory with a \"symbolic typology\" and identifies the sites where memory resides as lieux de memoire (the place, the site, the realm of memory). A lieu de memoire is thus \"any significant entity, whether material or non-material in nature, which, by dint of human will or the work of time, has become a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of any community.\"2 Pointing to the difference between history and memory, Nora claims that \"memory is life\" whereas \"history is the reconstruction ... of what is no longer.\" Memory is subject to remembering and forgetting; it is vulnerable to appropriation and manipulation; and, it can lie dormant for long periods only to be reawakened suddenly. The lieux de memoire , the material, symbolic, and functional sites, are the products of the interaction between memory and

Abstract: In this article, differences between French and English academics in the use of paragraphs in the domain of public international law are brought to light. First, the concept of paragraph (macrostructural basis') in text linguistics is defined formally with relations of coordination, subordination, and superordination. Second, a typology of paragraphs is established. Third, after the distribution of paragraphs in the corpora has been examined, it is shown how they combine and what their roles are. Thus the first steps towards a grammar of paragraphs are defined. Furthermore, it appears that English authors tend to build their argumentation within their paragraphs, while French authors use paragraphs to build their argumentation. The explanation for this difference might be cultural

Abstract: (1999). The art of listening (and of being heard): Jay Koh's discursive networks. Third Text: Vol. 13, No. 47, pp. 19-26.

Abstract: (1999). African cinema and the question of meaning. Third Text: Vol. 13, No. 48, pp. 71-80.