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Cultural Experimentation In Berkeley

Since the sixties and the Free Speech Movement notably, the convergence on Berkeley of people who wanted to be where they could fearlessly experiment with different lifestyles developed a new counterculture population on the periphery of the University campus. Today, distinctiveness and resistance t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Urban anthropology and studies of cultural systems and world economic development 1996-04, Vol.25 (1), p.41-74
Main Author: Ghasarian, Christian
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Since the sixties and the Free Speech Movement notably, the convergence on Berkeley of people who wanted to be where they could fearlessly experiment with different lifestyles developed a new counterculture population on the periphery of the University campus. Today, distinctiveness and resistance to established ways represent the main models in this middle sized American city. This paper investigates some epistemic sites where a so-called "marginal" meaning is produced in Berkeley. It comes to terms with some of the city's main features through the eyes of Foucault, Baudrillard, Lyotard, and Habermas to see how their different and sometimes similar perspectives are given shape in that social space. Although Berkeley presents many factors that could be considered as postmodern, no theoretical generalization can be made on a postmodern state. Different cultural forces daily interact in the city and contribute to the constitution of a complex social and experimental space.
ISSN:0894-6019
2328-1022