Signifying Europe provides a systematic overview of the wide range of symbols used to represent Europe and Europeanness, both by the political elite and the broader public. Through a critical interpretation of the meanings of the various symbols—and their often contradictory or ambiguous dimensions—Johan Fornäs uncovers illuminating insights into how Europe currently identifies itself and is identified by others outside its borders. While the focus is on the European Union’s symbols, those symbols are also interpreted in relation to other symbols of Europe. Offering insight into the cultural dimensions of European unification, this volume will appeal to students, scholars, and politicians interested in European policy issues, cultural studies, and postnational cultural identity.

Inspired by Walter Benjamin's classical 'Arcades Project', this book offers an exploration of the interface between communication, shopping and everyday life. It scrutinises four main media circuits - print media, media images, sound and motion, and hardware machines - to assess how media texts and technologies are selected, purchased and used.

Product Description: The Internet crosses established boundaries of previously separate fields of communication and research. In its wake, new borderlands are opened up – characterized by mixes of private and public, production and consumption, and play and politics...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This wide-ranging book offers an original and inventive overview of contemporary cultural theory. Drawing together a wealth of different traditions and approaches, Johan Fornäs outlines the breadth of the field of cultural theory and proposes a multidimensional model for understanding culture in late modernity...read more

Product Description: Seeking to understand youth culture through its visual and musical expression, In Garageland presents a pioneering ethnographic study of rock bands and their fans. Topics include class as well as sexual conflicts; mainstream and deviant subcultures, and the complex social, psychological and ethical relationships which exist within youth culture...read more

Product Description: Poised between the commercialism of mass consumption and a questioning of prevailing social norms, youth cultures offer a fascinating insight into the social and cultural state of Western societies. This innovative collection provides a lively exploration of such cultures, with all their implicit ironies and contradictions, at the end of the twentieth century...read more