2001-2002 Center Theme

Transculturalism and the Ends of Community

The Center will host research that addresses how the concepts of "culture" and "community" have been transformed in the eras of modernity and postmodernity, and why such concepts may be giving way to a discourse on transculturalism, globalization, transnationalism, and the politics of location. This year of research at the Center will be cosponsored by UWM's Cultures and Communities.

Throughout the humanities and social sciences, scholarly work has turned to focus on how globalization and transnationalism are altering our concepts of culture and community. We are living through a break with the era of separable societies and nation-states. No longer can the world be thought of in terms of autonomous cultures, languages, and expressive traditions. The idea of "transculturalism" points toward the new arrangements of people, identities, and social practices that are currently emerging, and it belongs to a longer history that needs reinterpretation. As our economic and cultural systems of exchange burst former boundaries, people experience both a sense of liberation and anxiety, for the institutions and ways of life that had grounded their definitions of self are challenged. Inequalities among communities, regions , and nations, moreover, mean that different people will have unequal power as well as distinct resources when it comes to shaping the transcultural future.

How do the terms "culture" and "community" function relative to one another in various disciplines, including anthropology, art history, literary theory, political economy, philosophy, cultural studies, architecture, and the health sciences as well as in "minority" discourses on race, gender, and sexuality studies? The expressionist model often used to frame such inquiries B making a culture the expression of a singular community B is increasingly inadequate given the research on the many differences within the communities and the incessant back-and-forth of borrowings among cultural groups.

In light of the changes involved in transculturalism, what are the ends of community? The question has (at least) two senses. (1) What are the limits of traditional communities (ethnic groups, urban neighborhoods, etc.) as a way of organizing social life? How do transnational and globalizing forces foreclose some forms of community life and open up others? (2) What are the aims of community in a globalized world? What aspects of human expression demand to be rooted in ongoing and bounded collective groups? What are the moral ideals and practical motives that sustain people in communities and create loyalty to them? The answers we give to such questions will determine how we conduct ourselves as citizens and scholars, and how we shape our institutions, including our schools and universities.

Center for 21st Century Studies

Daniel J. Sherman, Director