Timothy J. Scrase - Böcker

This new inter-disciplinary book is the first comparative, case-based analysis of media panoply in (and out of) Asia today. Examining what the authors call the "media/tion equation", the contributors demonstrate the multiple links between media, society and culture, and advance the claim that media is the key means through which Asians experience, understand, effect and are affected by the worlds containing them. Exploring a relatively neglected principle in cultural studies - that context counts - medi@sia highlights how the experiences of those encountering media messages differ depending on social, economic, politial and ideational conditions. Balancing social, cultural and media theory with empirical research, the essays in this collection provide a better understanding of the complex relationship between media and people’s practices, values and behaviour in contemporary Asia.

This book fills an important gap in the existing literature on economic liberalization and globalisation in India by providing much needed ethnographic data from those affected by neoliberal globalisation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, it reveals the complexity of the globalisation process and describes and accounts for the contradictory attitudes of the lower middle classes. The authors challenge the notion of a homogeneous Indian middle class as being the undoubted beneficiaries of recent neoliberal economic reforms, showing that while the lower middle classes are generally supportive of the recent economic reforms, they remain doubtful about the long term benefits of the country's New Economic Policy and liberalisation. Significantly, this book discusses and analyzes both the economic and cultural sides to globalisation in India, providing much-needed data in relation to several dimensions including the changing costs of living; household expenditure, debt and consumerism; employment and workplace restructuring; gender relations and girls’ education; global media and satellite television; and the significance of English in a globalising India.Globalisation and the Middle Classes in India will be of interest to scholars and students working in the fields of Sociology, Social Anthropology and Development Studies, as well as Asian Studies - in particular studies of South Asia and India - and Globalisation Studies.

This new inter-disciplinary book is the first comparative, case-based analysis of media panoply in (and out of) Asia today. Examining what the authors call the "media/tion equation", the contributors demonstrate the multiple links between media, society and culture, and advance the claim that media is the key means through which Asians experience, understand, effect and are affected by the worlds containing them. Exploring a relatively neglected principle in cultural studies - that context counts - medi@sia highlights how the experiences of those encountering media messages differ depending on social, economic, politial and ideational conditions. Balancing social, cultural and media theory with empirical research, the essays in this collection provide a better understanding of the complex relationship between media and people’s practices, values and behaviour in contemporary Asia.

This book fills an important gap in the existing literature on economic liberalization and globalisation in India by providing much needed ethnographic data from those affected by neoliberal globalisation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, it reveals the complexity of the globalisation process and describes and accounts for the contradictory attitudes of the lower middle classes. The authors challenge the notion of a homogeneous Indian middle class as being the undoubted beneficiaries of recent neoliberal economic reforms, showing that while the lower middle classes are generally supportive of the recent economic reforms, they remain doubtful about the long term benefits of the country's New Economic Policy and liberalisation. Significantly, this book discusses and analyzes both the economic and cultural sides to globalisation in India, providing much-needed data in relation to several dimensions including the changing costs of living; household expenditure, debt and consumerism; employment and workplace restructuring; gender relations and girls’ education; global media and satellite television; and the significance of English in a globalising India.Globalisation and the Middle Classes in India will be of interest to scholars and students working in the fields of Sociology, Social Anthropology and Development Studies, as well as Asian Studies - in particular studies of South Asia and India - and Globalisation Studies.