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Introduction The experiences of democratization in Latin America and Eastern Europe in the 1980s and early 1990s brought attention to the forces of civil society as key actors in the demise of authoritarian rule (O’Donnell and Schmitter 1986; Cohen and Arato 1992; Bernhard 1993; Linz and Stepan 1996). More recent literature questions the inherently pro-democratic character of civil society activism (Warren 2000; Armony 2004; Jamal 2007). In both lines of argument, societal associations or social movements are at the core of the inquiry. However, Hirschman’s category of “voice,” which encompasses as much articulation of discontent as it does actions of protest (Hirschman 1970), reminds us that for civil society activism to evolve, something fundamental is necessary: an arena in which voices can be raised and heard and in which government and society interact. The question of civil society, thus, is intrinsically linked to the conditions, contours, limitations and possibilities of communication, media and the public sphere. Ever since the term “Facebook revolution” (Smith 2011) was coined for the social mobilizations that led to the downfall of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, this link between communication, civil society activism and democratization has received great media attention. However, most of this attention focused on the mobilizing potential of the digital media at the moment of rupture. This chapter takes a contemporary perspective as it seeks to contribute to our understanding of the Internet’s impact on civil society dynamics in a non-pluralist context through a diachronic comparison. Based on an empirical study of the Cuban case, the argument is as follows. Prior to the entry of the Internet, the civil society debate centered around the quest for higher degrees of autonomy for associations and institutions within the framework of the state-socialist regime. In contrast, the new media enabled the emergence of a new, less state-dependent type of public sphere; as a consequence, the civil society debate has become increasingly centered on the assertion of individual citizenship rights within andvis-à-vis the state. The reformist civil society quest of the pre-Internet period failed in part because of its character as behind-the-scenes-struggle, shielded from public view, which impeded a broader mobilization of protest when the state decided to rein in the incipient push for civil society. In contrast, the current drive for civil society indeed finds strong public repercussion; for its democratizing potential to come to fruition, the crucial fault-line is to connect web-based voice to public debate and social action in the country’s physical off-line environment. By taking Cuba as object of empirical analysis, this study selects a case with a particularly thorough form of authoritarian hold over the public sphere: a formal monopoly of the Cuban state on mass media, established in the historic experience of twentieth-century state-socialism and upheld even two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. At the same time, Cuba is strongly exposed to transnational influences and a transnational articulation of voice, due to a large number of emigrant and diaspora communities that remain highly attached to their country of origin (Fernández 2005). The approach chosen to analyze the impact of the Internet on state-society relations is through a diachronic comparison of the Cuban development in two distinct periods: the pre-Internet period, i.e., Cuba in the early to mid 1990s, when the Cold War alignment had already become history but web-based technologies did not yet have a major presence on the island; and more than a decade later, since the mid to late 2000s, when web-based media had made their entry on the island. Formal data on Internet access and use are scarce and unreliable. For 2009, the Cuban Ministry of Informatics and Communications gives the figure of 1,450,000 Cubans, or 12.7 percent, as “Internet users” (ONE 2009)1 without specifying the precise uses this number includes. The figure certainly should not be mistaken for access to the World Wide Web, which remains severely restricted. Instead, the figure most probably includes all Cubans with some kind of (even if only sporadic) access to closed domestic networks or with access to e-mail services. At the same time accounts are shared and, as for other goods and services, also Internet access has a black market side that escapes official statistics. Moreover, Internet content “travels” by USB stick also to many who do not have access themselves. For both these periods, the study relies on the analysis of numerous primary documents, as well as newspapers and secondary literature. In the case of the post-Internet phase, in addition to the above, documents published on the web have been a primary source of analysis. While some authors link issues of civil society and Internet voice merely to the political opposition, this chapter does not limit its focus to this divide but analyzes as much societal actors working within the established institutions of the socialist state as well as those outside of it. In both periods under scrutiny field trips to the island were undertaken in which actors from a broad range of positions were interviewed. While these interviews are not cited directly due to political sensitivities, they provide an invaluable background for the trends described.

La Realtà Aumentata è una nuova forma di comunicazione sempre più diffusa che permette di sovrapporre contenuti digitali, resi visibili attraverso la videocamera di dispositivi mobile come smartphone o tablet, al mondo reale. Il volume vuole essere uno strumento d'informazione per conoscere la nuova frontiera della comunicazione digitale basata sulla georeferenziazione e sui contenuti aumentati. Fino ad oggi, infatti, l'informazione stava altrove rispetto ai luoghi e ai tempi in cui effettivamente era necessaria. Con la nuova tecnologia dell'Augmented Reality, al contrario, è possibile mettere in atto strategie di comunicazione in grado di portare i contenuti giusti al momento e nel luogo opportuno. Nelle aree ormai più varie, dalla formazione alla sanità, dagli spazi commerciali ai beni culturali, si racconta attraverso le esperienze internazionali più significative come le nuove Realtà Aumentate stanno riscrivendo le modalità di ibridazione fra reale e virtuale.

Ao acentuar a visualidade e o visionarismo das imagens verbais, ou a sua tensão e rapidez, a poesia de tradição moderna apresenta-se muitas vezes como uma espécie de cinema, uma arte na qual o fluxo das imagens desempenha um papel determinante. «O cinema extrai da pintura a acção latente de deslocação, de percurso. Tome-se um poema: não há diferença», escreveu Herberto Helder. Como pensar esta similaridade, esta convergência? Em que consiste o cinematismo da poesia? Os autores estudados neste livro encaminham-nos para algumas respostas. […] Quando são tidos em conta os diálogos da poesia com o cinema, a presença temática do universo cinematográfico é normalmente destacada, pelo que ganham especial relevância os poemas dedicados a filmes, realizadores e actores, ou os poemas que funcionam por processos ecfrásticos e por transposição narrativa. […] Há um outro tipo de relação entre a poesia e o cinema que diz respeito às cumplicidades entre duas artes que partilham uma extensa e multímoda reflexão sobre os processos de fazer imagem. Herberto Helder, Carlos de Oliveira, Luiza Neto Jorge, Al Berto, Luís Miguel Nava, Fernando Guerreiro ou Manuel Gusmão desenvolvem formas de intermedialidade situáveis nesse plano, que este livro procura apreender.

La poesía experimental latinoamericana se posiciona frente a la tradición textual que priva a la palabra escrita de sus potencialidades escénicas, gráficas y rituales, y cuestiona los límites del lenguaje, al tiempo que exalta su libertad. La reflexión sobre la letra y la sonoridad de la poesía nos permite considerar a la escritura no como portadora de significados externos a ella, sino como un pensamiento que se despliega por la página y más allá. El aquí y ahora de la escritura se encuentra con el aquí y ahora de la escena, lo cual abre camino a una poesía performativa. Este ensayo reflexiona acerca de estas cuestiones a través del análisis de un caso particular: el trabajo poético y de arte-acción de Raúl Zurita, fundador del Colectivo Acciones de Arte (CADA), el cual tuvo gran impacto en las manifestaciones de arte político durante la dictadura militar de Augusto Pinochet, así como en la manera de concebir los límites entre la literatura y el arte del performance.

Contemporary visual poetry remains as hybrid and experimental an artistic modality as it was in the 20th century, with a continued emphasis on mixing temporal and spatial elements in a dynamic verbal–sound–visual structure. These essential aspects and techniques, still at work today, which originated in simple pattern poems from earlier centuries, reached their peak of sophistication with the Concretists and Neoconcretists. Today, however, intermedia practices have a tendency to focus more on certain aspects of our technoculture that resonate with an ‘altered’ mode of perception, keen on exploring uncharted territories through the newest technologies and the speed of information. To illustrate this attraction to the functional use of technologies, I have selected two representative artists, Bartolome Ferrando and Eduardo Kac. Their radically different lines of work and artistic intentions reflect, nonetheless, a similar conception of poems as (bio)dynamic objects, existing as living art within a continuum of possibilities. Ferrando is more interested in exploring the possibilities of condensing movement in a 2-D or 3-D surface, whereas Kac wants his poetic performances to interfere with the essentials of life itself. These authors prioritize the importance of non-linear sequencing with the organization of multiple levels of information in micro-units of space-time in order to manipulate the standard experiences and expectations of readers.

Resumo A presente dissertação se desenvolve acerca de uma das formas de arte característica da paisagem urbana contemporânea, o graffiti1. O fenômeno analisado remete tanto ao registro do cotidiano urbano na Antiguidade, como à ação subversiva de grupos marginais na década de 1970, em Nova Iorque. Além de apresentar uma breve abordagem histórica, caracterizando o graffiti como uma arte da rua, que vem ocupando espaços oficiais de exposição, este estudo, baseado em pesquisa desenvolvida na cidade de Vitória, capital do Estado brasileiro do Espírito Santo, analisa a inserção do graffiti na paisagem do lugar, como um fenômeno urbano insurgente. O estudo reconhece, então, a amplitude crescente da difusão da estética inerente ao graffiti em ambientes e mídias diversos, optando, porém, por abordá-lo em seu meio original: o espaço urbano, com destaque para seu aspecto transgressor. A pesquisa envolve identificação, classificação e análise das manifestações de graffiti estampadas no espaço urbano de Vitória a partir de percurso marcado por intensos fluxos cotidianos. O registro do graffiti por meio de levantamento cartográfico e fotográfico foi adotado como o principal suporte para analisar a inserção do fenômeno na cidade. Em caráter complementar, contribuíram para a compreensão da atividade artística em questão entrevistas realizadas com seus praticantes. O resultado do estudo reconhece no graffiti, entre outros aspectos, uma outra urbanidade que insurge a partir de um dos modos de vivenciar a cidade, deslocado das práticas oficiais urbanas, embora gradativamente cooptadas. Abstract This dissertation takes as its subject one of the most characteristic art forms on the contemporary urban landscape: graffiti. The topic in question deals as much with the depiction of daily urban life in the age of antiquity as the subversive actions of marginal groups in 1970s New York. Beyond presenting a brief historical overview, portraying graffiti as an art of the street which has come to occupy established exhibition spaces, this study, based on research carried out in Vitória, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo, analyses the placement of graffiti in the landscape of its locale, as an insurgent urban phenomenon. The study thus acknowledges the growing amplitude of the dissemination of the aesthetic inherent within graffiti in diverse platforms and mediums, opting however to explore it in its original environment: the urban space, with focus on its transgressive aspect. The research involves identification, classification and analysis of the manifestations of graffiti stamped upon the urban space of Vitória via a route marked by intense daily activity. The registering of graffiti by means of cartographic and photographical study was adopted as the principal support to analyse the presence of the phenomenon in the city. Complementing this, interviews carried out with graffiti artists further contribute to the comprehension of the artistic endeavour. The outcome of the study recognises in graffiti, amid other aspects, another urbanity which comes from one of the ways to experience the city, displaced from yet gradually integrated into official urban practices.

This book explores the themes of displacement, exile and migration in the work of the most important Argentine poets since the 1950s. The book outlines the poetry of key authors in the second half of the twentieth century as well as writing by younger poets at the turn of the century. It includes generous selections of the original poems with new translations into English by the author.

A medio camino entre el centro barroco de La Habana y las playas situadas al este de la ciudad que anteceden al esplendor de Varadero, la barriada de Alamar forma parte del municipio de La Habana del Este: una ciudad dentro de la ciudad, separada de La Habana Vieja por un túnel tras el cual empieza un mundo que el yuma (término despectivo del argot callejero que designa al turista o al extranjero) tiene pocas posibilidades de contemplar como no sea por la ventanilla de uno de esos taxis que recorren sin paradas el espacio comprendido entre el centro y la costa. Cien mil habitantes divididos en veinticinco barrios construidos entre los años setenta y la mitad de la década de los ochenta. Alamar es la antítesis de esa Habana Vieja disneyficada, con sus calles coloniales y su flujo ininterrumpido de turistas: un tiempo y un espacio dilata-dos, edificios racionalistas separados por unas fluidas arterias que conectan los diferentes barrios, espacios agrícolas, un río, vastas áreas militares en desuso, una decrépita y decadente fachada litoral cubierta de hormigón desde la que se vislum-bran las diferentes áreas y etapas de la zona. Una zona que es la plasmación física del diseño y del fracaso de la Utopía, una vasta Unité d'habitation reproducida a gran escala y en la actualidad deshaciéndose poco a poco por la falta de mantenimiento, infraestructuras, servicios comunitarios, comunicaciones y transporte. Una metáfora perfecta de las paradojas y singularidades de Cuba: la instalación abstracta del modelo socialista (y de su fracaso) en una realidad caribeña hecha de lentitud, relaciones y mestizaje. La expansión urbana de la capital cubana llegó a su culmen y al máximo de su decadencia en esta zona, construida por las Microbrigadas, unos grupos de hombres traídos por el gobierno para edificar uno de los proyectos de urbanización de viviendas sociales más imponentes del país. Un periodo constructivo que quedó interrumpido por la crisis econó-mica que siguió a la caída del Muro de Berlín y a la disolución de la URSS (Periodo especial').

First of all, PICHACAO; is not graffiti. It is something distinct that only happens in Brazil. What a subversion is to sign the city with your own made-up name, especially a city that seems not to be projected for you? Lights, Ca...

Este trabajo se propone señalar las prácticas de poesía ligadas a la performance y la teatralidad en la región del Río de la Plata durante los procesos de finalización de la dictadura y comienzos de la democracia, hacia finales del siglo XX. Menciona brevemente una historia del género y los problemas metodológicos que presenta la investigación. Desarrolla, además, la emergencia de formas de la teatralidad en las producciones artísticas y políticas de comienzos de 1980 en Argentina, período marcado por la transición democrática, para ubicar en este marco la producción del poeta y dramaturgo Emeterio Cerro.

Subcampos:1990-present, Monograph, Portuguese, Europe, Literary, Interartistic, Media Studies, Poetics of Performance, Photography, Cinema, Videos

During the twentieth century, two movements in Cuban art played a critical role in creating an expanded space for societal debate and cultural expression: the artistic avant-garde and the Afro-Cuban movement. Initially flourishing in the late 1920s and early 1930s, these collective efforts took on new forms in the changed environment after 1959. After the Revolution, conditions for cultural production changed with the official position that art should serve ideological functions, but both avant-garde and Afro-Cuban production continued, at the risk of conflict with the state. In the face of a restrictive state that sought to control such expressions, the Afro-Cuban movement and avant-garde art collectives developed along parallel, and sometimes intersecting, lines.

Quale esperienza di parole e immagini ci attende quando azioniamo dispositivi in mezzo a collegamenti ipermediali, quando ci facciamo strada tra link, tag e trigger, se ci sporgiamo da finestre elettroniche o vestiamo i panni di un avatar? E in quali modi la percezione e l'immaginazione rispondono oggi al carattere, per così dire, "vivente" di installazioni e artefatti neomediali, alla connessione comunicativa permanente, e ancora allo scambio ambientale tra produzione e fruizione dell'oggetto tecno-artistico? Il volume interroga i nuovi media e le nuove esperienze estetiche e comunicative globali a partire dagli inediti destini riservati a parole e immagini dal momento in cui, abbandonando i tradizionali scambi e conflitti, si misurano all'interno dello stesso medium digitale. Con percorsi che interessano i passaggi di soglia tra diversi media (Caprara-Velonà, Silvestri), i territori della comunicazione interattiva, anche pubblicitaria e le nuove forme di lettura e scrittura richieste dalla parola-immagine elettronica (de Kerckhove, Diodato, Gensini). Con incursioni nella web art e nella scrittura drammatica digitale, tra narrazioni, archivi, inventari e attori "sintetici" (Pizzo, Subrizi) e infine con le testimonianze di esponenti di spicco del panorama artistico, multimediale e comunicativo contemporaneo (Baruchello, Campus, Rosa/Studio Azzurro).

After centuries of symbolic and political oppression, Galicia has been recognized by the Spanish constitution as a historic nationality. However, despite a certain degree of political autonomy, Galician identity is threatened by increasing homogenization in the economic, social, cultural and linguistic fields. In the early 1990s the aesthetic movement Bravú constructed an aesthetic community, sustained by an ideological project, and with the aim to, on the one hand, prevent Galician culture from becoming folklore stuck in a time warp and, on the other hand, to validate Galician identity. The Bravú artists refused the historically inherited outsider position and contributed to a reinvention of Galician identity and of a political ideal within a cosmopolitan, internationalist framework and by reversing social stigmas through their works and performances.

Centred around Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony, this paper employs a critical globalisation theory framework to argue that the 1990s notion of ‘changing the world from below', understood as resistance to capitalist globalisation through a ‘transnational civil society', requires re-theorisation in the light of the contemporary developments in Our America. I make a methodological case for a neo-Gramscian approach to argue that ‘counter-hegemony', together with an adequate theorisation of the state and power, should be the preferred concept over the inherently apolitical and under-theorised ‘alter-globalisation'. Whilst the alter-globalisation movement's ideational and normative challenges to hegemony (captured in ex-British prime minister Thatcher's There-Is-No-Alternative-Doctrine, TINA) are undisputed, the transformation of the global geographies of power through local actors alone has remained illusory. Rather, the experience of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-PTA) strongly suggests that counter-hegemonic globalisation theory will have to consider the roles of both the ‘state-in-revolution' and the ‘transnational organised society'. This will be shown through the analysis and theorisation of the ALBA-PTA as a multi dimensional inter and transnational counter-hegemonic regionalisation and globalisation project that operates across a range of sectors and scales.

The concept of ‘resistance' has turned into a critical tool in different areas of political, philosophical and sociological thought. At the same time, the notion seems to be as productive as it is diffuse. ‘Resistance' is used in very specific contexts in scientific or technical disciplines, and with extreme flexibility in social and cultural studies. In the latter two areas, the concept is often used without prior reflection on its characteristics and limitations. In What is Philosophy?, Deleuze provides a possible framework for conceiving cultural and political practices of resistance as positions of force, when he defines contraction as ‘a contemplation that preserves the preceding in the following'. The purpose of this article is to understand political ecologism in its activist and poetical dimensions, in light of a Deleuzian interpretation of resistance.

Professionalization and political engagement are usually placed as incompatible in the case of journalism and the mainstream press, resulting in an identification of cultural resistance exclusively with alternative/amateur vehicles. I will use the concept of journalistic field as introduced by Pierre Bourdieu to review these assumptions and discuss a form of political resistance that acts in one's own area of knowledge, is not overtly political and whose effects are not immediately accountable for. Drawing examples from my research on two literary newspapers published in the 1950s in Brazil and Uruguay, this paper will focus on the implications of didacticism for literary criticism as a genre of newswriting. The analysis of these newspapers will lead to a reflection on two main issues: a) the conflict between the professionalization and democratization of literature; and b) the definition of resistance as necessarily an action that is against something. The article will reconsider education in journalism as a form of resistance, taking into account its risks of becoming political indoctrination and commercial manipulation, but emphasizing its potential as a way of expanding access to literature.