Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalization

244 Pages·2010·11.999 MB·English

by  Appadurai, Arjun

Modernity
at Large
PUBLIC WORLDS
Dilip Gaonkar and Benjamin Lee
Series Editors
VOLUME 1
Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large-. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization
A R J UN A P P A D U R AI
Modernity
at Large
Cultural Dimensions
of Globalization
PUBLIC WORLDS, VOLUME 1
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS
P U B L I C W O R L D S , V O L U M E 1
The Public Worlds series is a product of Public Works Publications, which includes
Public Planet Books and the journal Public Culture.
Copyright 1996 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
Chapter 2 is reprinted in revised form fromPublic Culture 1.1 (1990): 1-24. Copyright
1990 Center for Transnational Cultural Studies. Chapter 3 is reprinted in revised form
from Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present, ed. Richard G. Fox. School of Ameri-
can Research Advanced Seminar Series, 191-210. Copyright 1991 School of American
Research Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Chapter 4 is reprinted in revised form from
Stanford Literature Review 10.1-2 (1993): 11-23. Copyright 1993 Arjun Appadurai. Chap-
ter 5 is reprinted in revised form from Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in a South Asian
World, ed. Carol A. Breckenridge (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995),
23-48. Copyright 1995 the Regents of the University of Minnesota. Chapter 6 is
reprinted in revised form from Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament: Perspectives ona
South Asia, ed. Carol A. Breckenridge and Peter van der Veer (Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 314-39. Copyright 1993 University of Pennsylvania
Press. Chapters is reprinted in revised form from Public Culture 5.3 (1993): 411-29.
Copyright 1993 by The University of Chicago. Chapter 9 is reprinted in revised form
from Counterworks: Managing the Diversity of Knowledge, ed. Richard Pardon (London and
New York: Routledge, 1995). Copyright 1995 Arjun Appadurai.
AH rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans-
mitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
Seventh printing 2005
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Appadurai, Arjun, 1949-
Modernity at large : cultural dimensions of globalization / Arjun Appadurai.
p. cm. — (Public worlds ; v. 1)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8166-2792-4
ISBN 0-8166-2793-2 (pbk.)
1. Culture. 2. Civilization, Modern—1950- 3. Ethnicity. 4. Mass
media—Social aspects. I. Title. 11. Series.
HM101.A644 1996
306—dc20 96-9276
The University of Minnesota is an
equal-opportunity educator and employer.
For my son Alok,
My home in the world
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Here and Now 1
Part I Global Flows
1 Disjunctive and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy 27 27
3 Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a
Transnational Anthropology 48 48
4 Consumption, Duration, and History 66
Part II Modem Colonies
5 Playing with Modernity: The Decolonization of Indian Cricket 89
6 Number in the Colonial Imagination 114
Part III Post-national Locations
7 Life after Primordialism 139
8 Patriotism and Its Futures 158
9 The Production of Locality 178
Notes 201
Bibliography 205
Index 219
vii
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Acknowledgments
This book was written over a period of six years, and during that time I
have benefited from contact with many persons and institutions. The idea
for the book took shape during 1989—90, when I was a MacArthur Fellow
at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Parts of it were written
while I was at the University of Pennsylvania, as codirector of the Center
for Transnational Cultural Studies. It was completed at the University of
Chicago, where I have enjoyed a great range of cross-disciplinary conver-
sations at the Chicago Humanities Institute, and where I have benefited
from the energies of the Globalization Project. Also, in Chicago during
this period, conversations and debates at the Center for Transcultural
Studies (previously the Center for Psycho-Social Studies) provided na-
tional and international perspectives that were invaluable.
The following individuals have given me valuable criticisms and sug-
gestions in regard to various parts and versions of the chapters in this
book: Lila Abu-Lughod, Shahid Amin, Talal Asad, Fredrik Barth, Sanjiv
Baruah, Lauren Berlant, John Brewer, Partha Chatterjee, Fernando Coronil,
Valentine Daniel, Micaela di Leonardo, Nicholas Dirks, Virginia
Dominguez, Richard Pardon, Michael Fischer, Richard Fox, Sandria Frei-
tag, Susan Gal, Clifford Geertz, Peter Geschiere, Michael Geyer, Akhil
Gupta, Michael Hanchard, Miriam Hansen, Marilyn Ivy, Orvar Lofgren,
ix