Images of Power and the Power of Images ─ Control, Ownership, and Public Space

Kapferer (sociology, U. of Bergen, Norway) presents eight papers that explore the aesthetics of power as it manifests in public space from anthropological, sociological, and socio-cultural perspectives. The papers consider how ideologies of power are manifested concretely in public structures and displays and how they articulate definitions of social value. Specific sites of analysis include an art fair in London, roads in provincial Peru, mass housing in Britain, walls in divided Jerusalem, a scientific exhibit on anatomy, a Japanese Zen garden, and religious displays in India. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Judith Kapferer is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Bergen, Norway. She is the author of Being All Equal (1996) and the editor of The Arts and the State: Articulating Power and Subversion (2008). She has written numerous journal articles in the sociological fields of education, community, the arts, and culture, currently focusing on access to the arts in remote places.