{"title":"A cosmopolitan bubble? Constructions of locality at an international school in China","authors":"Michal Assa-Inbar","doi":"10.1177/0308275X211059656","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The notion of cosmopolitanism captures the duality of the global world. On one hand, it represents an inclusive orientation towards the cultural Other, while on the other, it has become a form of cultural capital that is owned by the global elite and frequently used to demarcate social distinctions. This article, based on ethnographic research in an international school in China, introduces the concretization of this paradox. The article shows how teachers and students in a gated school – in which local students, by Chinese law, were not permitted to study – used different practices to signify invented Chineseness as legitimate and non-legitimate. This process is explored by deciphering practices of boundary-making that produced a unique bubble. Based on three mechanisms of boundary-making and groupness, I show how a cultural process of identification and differentiation challenges previous empirical assumptions of selective boundaries in reference to the locale. Instead, the presence of ambiguous perceptions of Chinese locality in school suggest the existence of elastic, continuous and unfixed boundaries.","PeriodicalId":46784,"journal":{"name":"Critique of Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2021-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critique of Anthropology","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X211059656","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
The notion of cosmopolitanism captures the duality of the global world. On one hand, it represents an inclusive orientation towards the cultural Other, while on the other, it has become a form of cultural capital that is owned by the global elite and frequently used to demarcate social distinctions. This article, based on ethnographic research in an international school in China, introduces the concretization of this paradox. The article shows how teachers and students in a gated school – in which local students, by Chinese law, were not permitted to study – used different practices to signify invented Chineseness as legitimate and non-legitimate. This process is explored by deciphering practices of boundary-making that produced a unique bubble. Based on three mechanisms of boundary-making and groupness, I show how a cultural process of identification and differentiation challenges previous empirical assumptions of selective boundaries in reference to the locale. Instead, the presence of ambiguous perceptions of Chinese locality in school suggest the existence of elastic, continuous and unfixed boundaries.
期刊介绍：
Critique of Anthropology is dedicated to the development of anthropology as a discipline that subjects social reality to critical analysis. It publishes academic articles and other materials which contribute to an understanding of the determinants of the human condition, structures of social power, and the construction of ideologies in both contemporary and past human societies from a cross-cultural and socially critical standpoint. Non-sectarian, and embracing a diversity of theoretical and political viewpoints, COA is also committed to the principle that anthropologists cannot and should not seek to avoid taking positions on political and social questions.
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