Political economy of communication,
Human security and development:
The first 100 days of Evo Morales’s
Government in Bolivia
Irene Strodthoff
Introduction
His discourse was incendiary, rejecting “neoliberalism” and “imperialism” as well as corruption (Buckley 2006, 54). His campaign slogans pledged nationalization of oil and gas reserves - which he achieved recently on May 1st - the “recuperation” of natural resources for Bolivians and a renewed respect for campesinos (peasants) and workers (Eviatar 2006, 13).
This essay will examine the following statement:
“…means of communication is a dangerous weapon to be placed in the hands of private institutions driven by profit interests as much as it is in when placed in the hands of monopoly state power” (Wilkin 2001, 134).
In doing so, the first 100 days of Evo Morales’ government (January 22nd to May 1st, 2006) will be analysed with respect to three elements. Firstly, the essay will consider the political economy of communication and development. Secondly, it will look over how poverty, lack of education and low access to information undermine human security. Thirdly, it will briefly discuss aspects of the civil society at levels of global-local social organisation, the role of and media ownership and control in civil society, and the role of different types of actors in civil society.
The inquiry - which will be undertaken through basic approaches to discourse analysis in the media - will be focused on the values President Evo Morales has been promoting among his voters before and after his election, and examining from a critical point of view if his measures are contributing to enhance human security during his 100 first days of government.
Literature Review
According to Thomas (2000, 6), human security describes a condition of existence in which basic material needs are met. Mosco (1996, 27) says that political economy is the study of “control and survival in social life”. In his words, communication is a “social process of exchange whose product is the mark or embodiment of a social relationship” (ibid, 72). From Thomas’s (2000, 34) point of view, the orthodox concept of development can be referred to as the change from a traditional subsistence economy to a modern industrial economy. Therefore, human security, development and communication are strongly tied.
The dominant approach to development and therefore the promotion of human security is “more deeply rooted in neoliberal values and policies than ever before” (ibid, 51). Neoliberalism is promoted as “the mechanism to allow global trading that would see all nations prospering and developing fairly and equitably” (Shah, 2000). However, this model fails in addressing how economic and political life are not simply shaped by rational actors seeking to perfect market efficiency, but by “expressions of social power and interest that in turn reflect factors such as class, patriarchy and nationalism” (Wilkin 2001, 46). Human autonomy and free society are central features of human security and “they are the bases for our ability to make rational choices about social, political and economic life” (Wilkin 2001, 2). Consequently, freedom - which implicitly means participation and a notion of democracy - is a central issue for human security. According to Thomas (2000, 6), its qualitative aspect is about the achievement of human dignity which incorporates personal autonomy, control over one’s life and unhindered participation in the life of the community. Both statements highlight that access to communication is a key point for the human being to legitimately decide on her/his future.
Education and literacy are crucial to human security “as tools of intellectual self-defence and development” (Wilkin 2001, 2), which means the possibility of progress, connected to social justice. In traditional societies, there is a strong link between education and level of income. Low income and inequality contribute to human insecurity. Lack of money, access and power make the working, living and social environments of the poor “extremely insecure” and “severely limit” the options to improve their lives (www.unescap.org/…/urban_poverty.htm). Hence, it is highly important to encourage an environment with choices in order to alleviate poverty.
In a political economy there are those who make decisions and those who have less access to power. “Human insecurity results directly from existing power structures that determine who enjoys the entitlement to security and who does not” (Thomas 2000, 4). From Wilkin’s (2001, 15) point of view, “power is not simply a destructive capacity that people and states possess”, but is equally a constructive force which enables them to acquire knowledge and build better communities. Lasswell (1950, 3) suggests - from the political point of view - that elite and mass can be differentiated in a society through values, which are deference, income and safety. Those who enjoy more deference, income and safety have more power.
From Wilkin’s (2001, 134) point of view, too much power in public hands (monopoly) can be as dangerous as in private institutions (profit interests). In his opinion, private elites are mainly interested in profit and maintenance of their own position and power in society, and therefore this “reinforces the tyranny of the minority at the expense of the public good” (ibid, 121). As a consequence, he says, the public sphere is further eroded and becomes a realm structured and controlled by the interests of private power. However, Wilkin’s position seems too radical. Bagdikian (1983, 226) points out that the answer is not the elimination of private enterprise in the media, but “equitable distribution of power”. The diversity of private media is a key tool in any society, allowing a critical view on any state or political manipulation attempt on information. Profit is a key issue for the private media to survive, but this does not necessarily mean they neither solely serve their own interests with respect to information and communication nor necessarily undermine the public service.
According to Mosco (1996, 72), communication and society are mutually constituted, and therefore it is necessary to think about how communication practices construct society. This idea is reinforced by Wilkin (2001, 117), who says that the communication industry is the primary source of information about social, economic and political life for the majority of people. From Bagdikian´s (1983, 226) point of view, “giving citizens a choice in ideas and information is as important as giving them a choice in politics”. However, actors in civil society do not have equal access to information and communication and therefore their autonomy, levels of participation and capacity to produce change can be very uneven.
Case Study
The research methodology applied in this case was a basic approach to media discourse. In doing this, the main statements of President Morales were analysed in journals and news available on the Internet from his election until May 1st, including his inauguration discourse (January 22nd). Morales focused on three main areas: indigenous identity (rejecting the neoliberal economic model), nationalization of energy resources, and the defence of coca leaf cultivation.
The most important measure he announced during his first 100 days of government (May 1st, 2006) was the placement of the hydrocarbon energy under state control. “The pillage of our natural resources by foreign companies is over” (Morales 2006a, cited in news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/…/1210487.stm). It is highly probable that this measure will isolate
Morales criticized the current economic model without giving an alternative. “We need to solve the social problems, the economic problems of the majority, changing those economic models which blocked the development of the Bolivian population” (Morales 2006c, cited in www.esmas.com/.../498591.html). “In
In his opinion, the indigenous population has been “marginalised, humiliated, hated, despised and condemned to extinction” (ibid). “We want autonomy with solidarity, reciprocity, but mainly in the redistribution of wealth and natural resources” (Morales 2006d, cited in news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/...4546928.stm).
Although he is against drug trafficking, he announced he was going to legalize the cultivation of coca leaf - the basis for cocaine - which is produced by poor peasants. “Long life to the coca and death to yanquies (American government)”, he used to say before his election (Morales, cited in Oppenheimer 2005).
In spite of his radical ideas, he supports the concept of doing business. “Only producing we will overcome poverty. It is important to do business, good business for
Discussion and Conclusion
Indigenous people, the majority of the Bolivian population, had the chance to vote last December for their leader, Evo Morales, accomplishing in this way one of the most important and relevant issues in human security: freedom, participation and consequently bringing on democracy. Hence, they had the chance to make rational decisions, on the basis of human dignity, personal autonomy, and deciding on the life of the community.
The triumph of an indigenous candidate swept away the feeling that these minorities - in terms of power - have been “under the table” for a long time, and that they have been commanded by elites without Indian roots. According to Corr (2006, 32), in Latin America, and especially in Bolivia, “to define oneself as Indian includes a rebellious sense of having been dominated and exploited for centuries, up to and including today”. In his opinion, “resentment and revenge against the perceived dominating class, especially traditional political elites, is part of one’s Indian identity” (ibid). Therefore, Morales’s discourse has been trying to recover indigenous dignity and identity, but through the antagonism and rhetoric of a revolutionary past.
Unequal safety seems not to be such an irritating value as unequal distribution of deference and income, strongly linked to education levels, and therefore to human security. The illiteracy rate is 13.3% of the adult population (www.bolpress.com/...=2006030101). Last March, Morales launched a literacy campaign, which will benefit 720,000 Bolivians by 2008 (ibid), a good start to reduce the breach in human security.
Development - conceived as a change from a traditional subsistence economy to a modern industrial economy - has been strongly based on neoliberal roots, which Morales has been rejecting from the start. On the one hand he defends the fact of doing good business for
Before the 1980´s, media mainly belonged to the state, small private companies, unions, and the Catholic Church (Cajias, 1999), “which allowed Bolivians to listen to multiple points of view”. After the economic changes in 1985, there was an explosion of private media and its further concentration by populist politicians, wealthy entrepreneurs coming from other economic areas (Mr. Raul Garafulic), and religious leaders (ibid). The “Garafulic empire” (main television channels and influential newspapers) is considered a threat (ibid) by different types of actors in civil society, regarding independence and political as well as social pressures. This fact reinforces Wilkin’s point of view that private elites are interested in keeping their position and power in society.
High illiteracy rates in
According to Corr (2006, 34), the challenge for President Morales and for the Bolivian leaders should be focused on including the excluded, “bringing indigenous and disadvantaged people more fully into Bolivian society and politics with greater participation in the decisions that affect their lives and opportunities to share more fully and equitably in the country’s economy, politics and governance”.
In this process and especially in satisfying communication needs (education, information and communication), means of communication have a key role to play, but the control and ownership as well as the power they have, must be balanced. To help enhance human security,
Biodata
Irene Strodthoff is a Chilean journalist from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. This paper is based on research undertaken by her in a graduate program (Master or Arts in International Communication) at the Department of International Communication,
Websites and Social Change
Naren Chitty
Macquarie University,
Abstract
UNDP websites and social change
The most diverse society is that of our global community. One of the principal global agencies for social change, particularly in terms of economic and social development, is the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). UNDP is a global organization under the aegis of the United Nations, with its headquarters in
Keywords: Governance, social change, international organisations
UNDP Websites and Social Change[1]
Introduction
The UN has recognised the need to involve local communities in governance processes and is actively examining the use of new communications technologies to improve local participation in governance structures (Karamagioli 2005). Unfortunately the UN Communication Group which developed inter-agency communications and public information policy in 2002, did not consider the role of internet media in encouraging participation of ordinary people in policy discussions. The director of the News and Media Division of the UN Department of Public Information, saw the Department’s new broadcast initiatives as enhancing the UN’s capacity to reach audiences without going through international news agencies and media (UNCG – Accessed on 31 January 2006). It has begun to use the internet for delivery of radio, web and television news and information. “Connecting the People of the World to the United Nations” is the title of the radio site (UN Radio – Accessed on 9 January 2006). It has so far not begun to represent and address the varied narratives of ordinary people, the intended beneficiaries of human security and development policies.
The UN relies on its own media and public relations machinery, including agenda setting conferences, to reach political, media, non-government and academic elites throughout the world, in order to influence the mediation of UN policies and projects. These actions represent the export of UN generated narratives via actors in different transactional venues to individuals at the grass roots. The UN system plays an important role as an international communication and education agency in addition to its comprehensive responsibilities in the area of global governance. However, for ordinary individuals, the UN and its organs represent distant problem solving mechanisms in relation to abstract issues.
In explaining itself to the public, UNDP says this about itself on its web site:
UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.
World leaders have pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including the overarching goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015. UNDP's network links and coordinates global and national efforts to reach these Goals. Our focus is helping countries build and share solutions to the challenges of:
Crisis Prevention and Recovery
HIV/AIDS (Available at: http://www.undp.org/about/)
A study of UNDP websites will reveal the way in which UNDP seeks to address this issue of generating social change through content and design of its web venues and through selected avenues of linkage.
This paper will develop a theoretical framework and methodology for a study on headquarters, regional, sub-regional and national level websites of the United Nations Development program, to demonstrate the nature of governance that the sites facilitate. It will use this framework in an exploratory manner to (1) see how UNDP’s web architecture aligns with the transactional venues of the matrix framework, (2) see what avenues connect the various web transactional venues, (3) identify the types of the transactions (including the type of individuation through mediation/transduction[2] that is suggested by the content) that the web venues host, (4) identify imputed readerships as suggested by web content and (5) see how the various transactional arenas are linked. The exercise will help refine the matrix framework as an instrument. The actual web analysis will be of a limited nature for the purposes of this exploratory paper, examining the UN portal, UNDP portal and regional UNDP links from that portal.
Framing the global, local and individual
The United Nations, its clients and members form a network and are continuously formed by this network. It is in fact a series of interlocking networks, including diplomatic, publicity, research, administrative, technology, policy and governance networks linking institutions and individuals through various technologies. There is a great gulf of geography, linguistics and culture between the United Nations Secretariat General in
[t]he most general way to think of the social process is as ‘people; who are ‘interacting’ with one another and with their ‘resource environment’. The people may be classified as ‘individuals’ or ‘collectivities’; and the collectivities are ‘organized’ and ‘unorganized’. To interact is to affect others and, in turn to be affected. The resource environment includes the Earth and the configurations of inner and outer space, and all biological forms (Lasswell 1965, 7).
In discussing power elites, Lasswell asks that the conditions under which “elites exhibit a given pattern or composition, of perspective, of arena activity, of base values, of strategies, of impact” be examined (Lasswell 1965b, 12). His definition of ‘arena’ is of interest here: “An arena is established whenever interactions affecting power outcomes and effects become stabilized” and further “[t]he world arena of power has never been sufficiently well organized to justify referring to a ‘world state’ or ‘comprehensive public order” (Lasswell 1965b, 19). While we may not believe that the present world order qualifies as being described as a world state, it is an arena.
The terms ‘resource environment’, ‘collectivities’ and ‘arena’ are useful to consider. In looking at the totality of global social life from global through local to individual, what are the ‘resource environments’ and ‘collectivities’ that might be identified? In a knowledge society, or for that matter under feudalism, are not collectivities resource environments for other collectivities? The term ‘arena’ has the colouring of competition and conflict, and not all sites have such a character. My inclination is therefore, to collapse arena, resource environment and collectivity into a single non-spatial term, matrix and link it with the notion of transaction, which is neutral. Certainly there is a material matrix which we perceive contains our social matrices, that includes a collectivity only insofar as we (according to present knowledge) inhabit it. It is useful to identify several kinds of collectivities within the global collectivity, some of them being fairly close to collectivities we normally would identify, using the standard terminology of sociology and political science.
In the 1980s and 1990s the state was viewed as a problematic category in world politics in the context of an expanding corporate transnationalism. Systems theory seeped into International Relations theory as functionalism, but system never really replaced the state as a primary category in world politics. More recently, the field of international relations has witnessed “the return of culture and identity” (Lapid & Kratochwil 1996). At the same time, in the post 911 period, the state has once again flexed its muscles in the face of transnational terrorism. With the intensification of globalization, multi-local interaction and interaction between venues that are at various horizontal (geo-national) and vertical (organisational) distances have increased in international relations, international communication and international business. The matrix framework allows for multi-site analysis, and treats the state as a (often a privileged) non-physical product (with physical and non-physical expressions) of particular matrices.
In researching the terrain of this paper, the terrain’s multi-dimensionality and multipolarity presents challenges. In dealing with this issue, at least five conceptualizations of the global and local have been made in the last decade as a matrix (Chitty 1994a, 1994b, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005a; Pettman 2000; Lipschutz 2001; Kraidy 2003; Perlas & Strawe, Accessed 7 July 2006, Available at www.globenet3.org/Features/Feature_Empire_Matrix.shtml). Indeed, conceiving of different loci as levels or spaces is problematic, because the former introduces the concept of hierarchy and the latter is only half a term, because of the nature of space-time. Lipschutz, arriving at his position via Foucault and feminism, uses the term ‘matrix’ in relation to the Global Political Economy in an article that is compatible with the structure and agency framework in my own matrix framework (Lipschutz 2001, 323). In his article which seeks to describe a political economy centred around people as agents, rather than people within structures, he uses the term matrix for the Economic Order: “While we have been instructed to watch disorder and fear for our future, we have become ever more tightly entangled in that new Order – that Matrix – from which there is no escape” (Lipschutz 2001, 325). Pettman uses the term matrix as a frame for a world politics which he conceives as Babushka dolls representing states, firms and individuals (Pettman 2000, 215-224). In a third independent development, Kraidy addresses a slightly different “theoretical matrix [that he proposes for international communication and that] … begins with the global level, going through the regional, national, provincial and ending with the local……are overlapping and mutually influencing contexts of action” (Kraidy 2003, 38). Both Kraidy’s proposed framework and my framework draw on Robertson’s glocalisation insights (Robertson 1994, 33-52). I have inter-nestled matrices in which actors have political economic and cultural goals, actors, material and non-material ‘products’ and ‘imports’. Instead of the A-matrix of my framework, which escapes the concreteness of the state, Kraidy has a national level because “the nation state persists as an influential player in globalisation”. He has a provincial level which the Matrix framework does not have, but does not include the equivalent of an I-matrix. Another difference is that, Kraidy does not view his levels as part of a larger system (Kraidy 2003, 38).
My own framework describes five matrices, one within the other, linking the global political economy and regional, administrative and ethno-historical matrices to individuals. These may also be considered to be interlocking systems that are part of an overall social system. Each matrix has actors and non-material and material products and imports, where ‘non material’ includes values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour (Chitty 2005a). Products, including messages or narratives, may be imported or exported by actors within each matrix (Chitty 2004). There have been studies of the ‘export of meaning’ and ‘localisation’ of American television soaps, but these have been cross-cultural rather than cross-structural (Miller 1995, Liebes and Katz 1991). Others have conceived of broadcasting as connecting spaces that have cultural characters based on histories and experience of denizens but have not provided a relational framework (Massey 1994, Lull 1997, Meyrovitch 1986).
Perlas and Strawe discussed social threefolding (state market and civil society) in the age of the empire matrix in 2003. The empire matrix (
The United Nations has an organisational structure that seeks to bridge between multiple venues of international, national and sub national governance. It inhabits both Global Culture and local cultures. Clearly, on the one hand there are the global institutions that are the venues of global policy, engaged in processes of global social change through transduction, or, from this paper’s point of view, the transaction of moving concepts between knowledge domains (Simondon 1989, 1995). “Simondon’s concept of individuation does not introduce a division between a molecular domain (intensity) and a molar one (extensity) so much as it mediates between such domains” (Hansen, avail. at http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Cmach/Backissues/j003/Articles/hansen.htm). Again, clearly, at the other end of the spectrum are individuals, inhabitants of nation states and territories across the world, who engage in personal individuation, including the individualising of venues which they inhabit or in which they undertake transactions.
Gottmann’s transactional metropolis is connected to, and interwoven with other transnational centers, forming metropolitan networks within national territories and across international boundaries”, in relation to “terms of employment, hosting environment, interweaving of quaternary activities, evolution of urban centrality…….’ (Corey 1993, xv1). Transactional venues, where transduction takes place, are necessarily hybrid in character, like border trading posts. The Greek word hybridēs refers to the offspring arising from ‘abnormal’ coupling such as between animals of two different species within the same genus. But in a very real sense it is abnormalities that result in new normalities, normalities being engendered by a subsequent investment in ‘purity’. All cultures contain numerous markers that have the purpose of quarantining a so-called pure version of the culture. But an examination of the nature of the environment in which cultures unfold, will suggest that hybridity is more the norm, as an expression of entropy than otherwise. Culture is born of minds, bodies and the world we live in. Fundamentally it is part and parcel of space-time, itself hybrid in terms of our analysis if not perception. And space itself contains and consists of the coalescing and annihilation of various particles over time in successive layers of lumpiness and looseness. Particles and atoms collide into each other creating new elements, compounds. Concepts converge in classical minds to create sphinxes, centaurs and all manner of mythical beasts. These mythical beasts are symbolic of complex idea formation, of syntheses, of hybridisation. It is my contention that not only are aspects of culture and people hybridised, social space itself is hybrid in nature, not least of all because social space is social time space and time space is constantly changing. Transduction is associated with hybridisation. Kraidy makes a distinction between dominance (under cultural imperialism), resistance/adaptation (under cultural pluralism) and hybridity (under critical transculturalism) (Kraidy 2005, 150). These are useful distinctions with regard to the political uses of hybrid venues. Empire generates hybridity, and resists it polluting influence in important expressions of public life, as in the case of public colonial architecture. Gina Chitty takes the view “that the Anglo-Saxon project of empire worked through a projection of an imperial Apollonianism” (Chitty 2006, 106). Lie makes a distinction, for analytical purposes, between “different states of liminality” which he identifies as “(1) the state of cultural coexistence, (2) the state of intercultural negotiation, and, (3) the state of intercultural transformation towards hybridised transculturality” where “different cultural elements have come to be known, accepted, shared and lived by different cultural groups. The entanglement has formed a new culture” (Lie 2002, 19-20).
The term venue introduces the idea of people, space, time and human activity. I use the term transaction for any human activity which involves interaction, either directly or indirectly through machines or media, face-to-face or at a distance in space or time, with other humans. My use of the term transaction is tied to venues in general rather than just the city as a venue. One of the matrices in my framework is likened by me to a vast city as described below. Increasingly venues are networked, interpersonally if not digitally. Transactions cover the whole gamut of human interaction, around knowledge ware (know-ware), wares and war.
This paper draws on a matrix framework (Chitty 2005a) that maps global, local and intervening matrices hosting transactional venues and transductory avenues and networks. “[N]etworks process … streams of information between nodes, circulating through the channels of connection between nodes. A network is defined by the program that assignes the network its goals and its rules of performance and criteria for success or failure” (Castells 2004, 3). Altering network outcomes requires inputting new programs. Networks may cooperate through inter-operability or outperform or disrupt rival networks. They are exclusionary, with infinite distance between internal and external nodes and finite distances between internal nodes (Castell 2004, 3-4). Castell’s description of networks shows strong similarities with systems, being wholes that are the sum of their parts, possessing superordinate goals and boundaries, with steering mechanisms, functionally specialised sub-systems. Matrices have the character of systems within systems. However a system should be not conceived merely as a centralized system with a central steering mechanism (A-type). There are also successful tree-like systems that have de-centralized steering mechanisms (B-type), within cellular matter.
Method
Messages of individuation and transduction embedded in UNDP web venues, that are attributed to particular transactional matrices, will be identified and discussed. Matrices are networks of individual, ethno-historical, administrative, regional and political economic (global) transactional venues. Each matrix has actors, non-material products and imports (values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour) and material products and acquisitions. These values may be quantitative or qualitative bridging seamlessly from global to individual venues. The matrices link political economic structures to local communities through narrative at each level. Interviewing staff at UNHQ is essential as they will occupy the political economic matrix. Regional and national staff will occupy regional and administrative matrices respectively.
Matrix Framework: Encompassing all, in the matrix model, is the physical environment or N-matrix. Engaging with the N-matrix, in both value-extractive and value-nurturant modes, is the global political economy or P-matrix. Like all other matrices other than the N-matrix, the P-matrix is fundamentally a comprehensive human collectivity, resource environment and arena - venue. The P-matrix consists of people, their material and non-material products (including institutions) and relationships with each other and with products. In other words it refers to people and culture, where culture may be seen to consist of human products. I-matrices are also different in that they are human singularities. Within the socially all-encompassing P-matrix are regional (R-matrices), administrative (A-matrices), ethno-historical (E-matrices) and individual (I-matrices) matrices are embedded successively in each other (Table 1). Each collective matrix, E through P, includes values, attitudes, beliefs, discourse, actions and cultural artefacts.
The matrix model allows for interchanging of matrices, so that while the P-matrix is dominant much of the time, there are moments in history when an I-matrix (e.g. Adam Smith) can shape a P-matrix over time. Or take a more contemporary figure, Bin Laden, whose thought constructs and actions flowing from them have led to dramatic changes in the A-matrix of the world’s dominant power and therefore also in the P-matrix. It remains to be seen if he will become a vector over time as did Smith.
The P-matrix is the overall social system with its actors, values, goals, boundaries, steering mechanisms and feedback mechanisms. Currently there is one global P-matrix, which includes political, economic and cultural dimension that may fall under the rubrics of world political system, global economic system and global culture respectively. The P-matrix is neither wholly A-type nor is it wholly B-type; it exhibits characteristics of both types. There are many R-matrices, such as the various regional systems within which are independent but interconnected administrative systems (A-matrices) that are often coterminous with nation states. Like the P-matrix, the R and A matrices have political, economic and cultural dimensions. A-matrices, that can occur independently of R-matrices, contain and sometimes share ethno-historical systems, the E-matrices that are made up of individuals. E-matrices too have political, economic and cultural dimensions. Individuals may belong to one or more E-matrix and A-matrix. In the matrix model we are concerned with the material and non-material products or constructions generated by individuals and collectivities.
I-Matrix: Values, attitudes and beliefs may be conceived of as pixels, which together produce images of individuality or coloration. They repose primarily in I-matrices and via I-matrices in other matrices. They originate in I-matrices, but their production and distribution are very much in the hands of larger players for much of the time. I-matrices therefore deal with symbolic imports, selected or otherwise, to which they may add value. The same is true about material goods attached to an I-matrix. The self-portraits of individuality are viewed as arising from interplay of George Mead’s ‘me’ or socialised ‘I’, at the core and of ‘individuality’, the ‘I’ (Mead 1934).
Table 1 Matrix Framework
|
MATRIX |
DESCRIPTION |
|
I-matrix |
|
|
E-matrix |
|
|
A-matrix |
|
|
R-matrix |
|
|
P-matrix |
|
|
N-matrix |
|
E-Matrix: Individuals are embedded in one or more ethno-historical matrices (E-matrices.) E-matrices are systems with the goal of cultural preservation and reproduction. They may have begun as groups concerned with economic production and distribution, but because of shared historical and reproductive experience they evolve into ethno-historical matrices. A family ‘space’ is an example of an E-matrix in which even to this day some of both of these functions are performed. The nation as venue is an E-matrix when compared with other nations, but when a nation consists of several E-matrices, the administrative role becomes overarching and we call the venue an A-matrix. Larger E-matrices may incorporate smaller ones. E-matrices may overlap each other. Members of an E-matrix inhabit ethno-historical venues where a particular ethno-historical vocabulary has currency and primacy. The primary motivation of an ethno-historical group is a security related survival of cultural identity of the collectivity. There are ethno-historical and political economic goals for ‘economic races’ and ‘cultural races’ between E-matrices.
Table 2. Goals of Cultural and Economic Race[3]
|
Type of race |
Ethno-historical goal |
Political-economic goal |
|
Cultural race |
Fostering of cultural power within E-matrix (fostering identity, shared belief, sense of belonging) in order to ensure the survival of E-matrix |
Translation of E-matrix cultural power to A-matrix political power. |
|
Economic race |
Cultural domination for the purpose of ensuring economic and cultural security of E-matrix at low cost. |
Economic advancement of E-matrix through political and economic means. |
One of the strategies for achieving economic success is to take the route of political control of an A-matrix, when possible. Behaviour that defies the explanatory power of an individual self-interest based political economic model, can originate in an E-matrix. An example might be behaviour such as the voluntary self-immolation of Buddhist monks in
A-Matrix: When several E-matrices must share resources, either through domination of others by one E-matrix, or some other arrangement, they become embedded in an administrative matrix (A-matrix) of their creation. An administrative vocabulary arises, possibly strongly influenced by a dominant E-matrix. A-matrices are locations where state, business and media actors are to be found at national level. The rules of self-interest operate here in the conventional manner of individual interest maximisation. A-matrix players must balance competing demands from E matrices and P-matrices.
R-Matrix: A-matrices may also group together in regional political economic matrices or R-matrices.
P-Matrix: Several A-matrices, if they interact, will give rise to a global political-economic matrix (P-matrix), either based on the values and vocabulary of a dominant A-matrix or group of A-matrices (eg. Western European state and non-state players) or through some other mixture of values and vocabularies. The A-matrices will be embedded in a P-matrix. Before
The ‘p-matrix’ may be likened to a vast urban area, a ‘city’, where state and market hold sway. Within this city, embedded in a-matrices, are hundreds of thousands of cultural precints of various sizes, which we may call ‘ethnicities’. Ethnicities are places where ethnohistorical forces are salient, even dominant, and may on occasion prevail over state or market forces……It is the dispersed global ‘city’ that is the site of the world market, international system and global culture (Chitty 2003, 16).
I would like to use Simondon’s concept of mediation/individuation in relation to websites. Here individuation refers to the centripetal force of the P-matrix and the centrifugal force of I-matrices. Individuation by I-matrices or for I-matrices in various transactional venues hosted by A, R and P matrix institutions may be for the of personalising these venues, creating comfort zones for putative users. The venues are transformed, through importation of images and concepts from other venues, into more familiar places (with people, space, time and relationships) from being remote and inaccessible spaces.
Since the 1980s cultural studies has shown a growing interest in questions of space and place influenced in particular by Foucault and his intersections of discourse, space and power. In this context, a place is understood to be a site or location in space constituted and made meaningful by social relations of power and marked by identifications or emotional investments. As such, a place can be understood to be bounded manifestation of production of meaning in space (Barker 2004, 144).
Venues could either be spaces hosted by institutions and which seek to homogenise and universalise or be places where personal relationships grow around transactions. In international web structures like that of UNDP, there is a tension between the universalising of policy, including policy on communication, presentation of messages and the overall web architecture that connects numerous web venues located in various matrices.
We can expect P-matrix web venues to have the characteristics of global (P-matrix) rather than local (A and E-matrix) venues. There are two principal strategic reasons why elements of local place may be incorporated in a global space. One is the need to show readers/audiences/viewers (RAVs) that the local spaces are part of global-local architecture of the organization projecting itself in through the site. We can call this a projection function. A second is associated more with personal use of space within a larger physical administrative, regional or P-matrix space. For instance, a Chinese bureaucrat working at UN Headquarters in
The present study is an exploratory one that will be employed to further refine the methodology. It will describe relevant pages of UNDP websites in terms of:
1. Matrix of venue
2. Transactions that take place at venue (eg. public relational, educational)
3. Transductions hosted by the venue (knowledge, values, signs from other matrices)
4. Individuation imperatives of venue (globalisation / universalisation / homogenisation glocalisation / particularisation / differentiation; membership /empowerment)
5. Imputed readership (From which matrix? Which institutions or groups?)
Preliminary Observations
The websites: The UNDP front page is 3 clicks away from the UN portal at http://www.un.org/, clearly a P-matrix venue, with the classical, even Apollonian character associated with the public face of Western civilisation, in public architecture, for instance. Nietzsche describes the origin of Ancient Greek dramatic tragedy in terms of a contest of principles. Raymond Geuss and Ronald Speirs summarises the two principles thus:
Nietzsche names each of these principles after an ancient Greek deity (Apollo, Dionysius) who can be thought of as imaginatively representing the drive in question in an especially intense and pure way. ‘Apollo’ embodies the drive toward distinction, discreteness and individuality, toward the drawing and respecting of boundaries and limits; he teaches an ethic of moderation and self-control……….The Dionysiac is the drive towards the transgression of limits, the dissolution of boundaries, the destruction of individuality, and excess (Nietzsche 1999).
The dominant Apollonian symbols on the portal page are the globe, centred on the North pole, and laurel leaves signifying peace, set against the sky blue of the UN. The dominant non-Apollonian symbol (and I hesitate to use the term Dionysian here as an antinomy) consists of a pastiche with images of the Secretary General (governance), a female agricultural worker (agriculture/economic development/women), child care-givers and a child (social development, children) a voter (human rights, democracy) a blue UN helmet and a UN patrol boat (peace keeping). The page is available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.
The first click gets one into the English page. The banner at the top depicts eight faces, of both genders, all ages and representing a wide spectrum of ethno-cultural backgrounds. It seeks to provide a counterpoise to the classic, non-ethnic, business-like body of the page which consists of a white UN logo on a blue background, surrounded by 16 links to various UN institutions and programs.
To enter the UNDP (http://www.un.org/) site from here, one must click on ‘Main Bodies’ invoking a hyptertexted list of bodies and organization chart. Clicking into ‘organizational chart’ reveals UNDP under ‘Economic & Social Council’ in a grey box under Economic and Social Council along with its sibling programs and funds.
The third click gets us into the UNDP front page at http://www.undp.org/.
UNDP in the P-Matrix: Under the matrix framework, the UNDP headquarters website is a P-matrix transactional venue. We can expect this venue to draw on classical Apollonian or western modern values (symbolic of individuation as universalisation/homogenisation) and contrast these with symbols of transduction from other matrices. The UNDP website was accessed on July 4, 2006. It is available in English, French and Spanish and inevitably has a European Apollonian character, in the most general sense.
There are three columns of information displayed on the front page, crowned by the masthead horizontal banner and a horizontal directory at the very top. The banner consists of an inflated segment of the UN Emblem in blue on a darker blue background. The column on the right has a story entitled “UNDP honors baseball stars’ support to
The central column of information contains two segments. There are 5 news stories at the top and a section titled “UNDP around the world” at the bottom. The 5 news stories are as follows:
Agenda for trade in Asia-Pacific (June 29)
Emissions-free fuel-cell buses in
CNN’s Femi Oke returns to
The section titled “UNDP around the world” has stories from
Four of the five news stories come from the UNDP news room and present R and A matrix news to an educated readership, perhaps journalists, the UN community, policy makers, NGO workers, researchers and students. Only the Chinese story is not from http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom at UNDP. The Chinese story is from UNDP China at www.undp.org.cn/ .
Interestingly there is no link from the UNDP P-Matrix site to its regional offices for Asia such as the one in
The venue is one where UN information may be accessed by journalists, the UN community, policy makers, NGO workers, researchers and students. The transaction is an information giving and receiving. Information is presented from a wide spectrum of developing areas.
UNDP in R-matrices: Under the matrix framework,
The UNDP China website might be compared with the websites of UNDP regional offices.
The UNDP regional site in
UNDP has established Regional Centres in
A main priority of the Regional Centres is to provide UNDP Country Offices in the
The second priority is to build partnerships and promote regional capacity building initiatives, which allow UNDP, governments and other development partners to identify, create and share knowledge relevant to solving urgent development challenges. (Available at http://regionalcentrebangkok.undp.or.th/ )
UNDP in A-matrices: The Thai UNDP page at http://www.undp.or.th/ is highly individuated, with (in July 2006) a great deal of visuals celebrating the King’s 60 year reign. There are links to the P-matrix and R-matrix UNDP sites. The Sri Lankan site at http://www.undp.lk/ contains a great deal of visual scenic and local cultural and other information. The design continues to be the standard UNDP masthead. The site has links with stories about UNDP in other countries. The Cambodian website at http://www.un.org.kh/undp/ has all the elements of western modernity on its front page, but draws in I-matrix views in “A view from the inside” which is contrasted with “A view from the outside”. The insider’s views contain pictures of individuals, with names, ages, occupations, where from, where living now, best day, worst day, hopes and dreams and message to the world. While these views and facts are presented in a 100 words or less, here is an attempt at creating a transduction avenue between ordinary people and the UNDP web network.
Conclusion
UNDP appears to be following the conventional wisdom of consolidating corporate image and values through an integrated architecture for its websites. This is very much a function of individuation of the UN at the larger or P-matrix level and the facilitating of a P-matrix character, presence and presentation of regional information. The target audience appears to be members of urban society across the world, journalists, the UN community, policy makers, NGO workers, researchers and students. There is little concession, and then only at national level eg. in
Finally one should reiterate that this is only an exploratory study. The instrument used for research will be further refined based on the current research pursuant to which a more extensive study will be conducted.
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About the Author
© Naren Chitty (Head, Department of International Communication) has authored and co-edited several books and journals including Framing South Asian Transformation (South Asian Publishers, 1994), Mapping Globalisation: International Media and the Crisis of Identity. (Southbound, 2002) and Studies in Terrorism: Media & the Enigma of Terrorism in the 21st Century, Southbound 2003) which was one of the first post 911 compendiums of studies on media and terrorism. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Communication (JIC) since 1991. He was Secretary General of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) between 1996 and 2000 and is President of Global Communication Research Association (GCRA). Additionally he on the editorial boards of Global Media Journal (American issue -
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