Graham Jones
2019
Jones, Graham
New Magic as an Artification Movement: From Speech Event to Change Process Journal Article
In: Cultural Sociology, vol. 13, no. 3, 2019.
@article{Jones2019,
title = {New Magic as an Artification Movement: From Speech Event to Change Process},
author = {Graham Jones},
doi = {10.1177/1749975515584082},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-09-01},
urldate = {2019-09-01},
journal = {Cultural Sociology},
volume = {13},
number = {3},
abstract = {In recent years, a small but prolific network of French magicians and their allies have taken calculated, systematic, and very public steps to reposition magic as a form of high culture, produced and received according to a set of distinctively artistic criteria, and linked institutionally to the realm of fine arts. They call what they are doing ‘new magic’ (la magie nouvelle). This article takes a conversation analytic approach to a verbal disagreement between one of new magic’s principal proponents and a relatively senior music scholar who questions how art-like new magic really is. The speakers mutually accomplish the activity of arguing by realizing associated design features such as negative personal assessments, overlapping talk, format tying, sarcasm, bald directives, and interruption. In so doing, they also co-construct interactional identities as cultural insurgent and cultural gatekeeper, shaping this particular speech event as a skirmish in a conflictual and unresolved process of artification.},
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pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In recent years, a small but prolific network of French magicians and their allies have taken calculated, systematic, and very public steps to reposition magic as a form of high culture, produced and received according to a set of distinctively artistic criteria, and linked institutionally to the realm of fine arts. They call what they are doing ‘new magic’ (la magie nouvelle). This article takes a conversation analytic approach to a verbal disagreement between one of new magic’s principal proponents and a relatively senior music scholar who questions how art-like new magic really is. The speakers mutually accomplish the activity of arguing by realizing associated design features such as negative personal assessments, overlapping talk, format tying, sarcasm, bald directives, and interruption. In so doing, they also co-construct interactional identities as cultural insurgent and cultural gatekeeper, shaping this particular speech event as a skirmish in a conflictual and unresolved process of artification.
2018
Jones, Graham
Indigenous illusionism and the global magic system Journal Article
In: Early Popular Visual Culture, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 146-156, 2018.
@article{Jones2018,
title = {Indigenous illusionism and the global magic system},
author = {Graham Jones},
doi = {10.1080/17460654.2018.1512543},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-04-03},
journal = {Early Popular Visual Culture},
volume = {16},
number = {2},
pages = {146-156},
abstract = {A spectacular commodification of pure illusion, the modern magic of conjuring’s golden age was also part of a loose assemblage of cultural industries – including colonial anthropology – involved in visualizing ethnic differences in ways that tended to naturalize imperialist models of globalization by denying coevalness to cultural others. Inspired by the work of scholars who emphasize multiple, alternative and indigenous forms of global modernity, I ask whether it might be possible to decenter modern magic as a category and genre, writing its history from geographical and cultural margins, and speaking in the plural about contemporaneous, but not necessarily contiguous, ‘golden ages’. Shifting attention from the metropolitan theater as the iconic site of golden-age magic performance to other synchronic settings of visual display and cultural production more closely linked to colonial peripheries, I focus on the elaboration of intercultural magic performance as a form of tourist attraction and imperial spectacle in colonial contact zones. The resulting interpretation underscores the importance of power, conflict and resistance in magic performance.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
A spectacular commodification of pure illusion, the modern magic of conjuring’s golden age was also part of a loose assemblage of cultural industries – including colonial anthropology – involved in visualizing ethnic differences in ways that tended to naturalize imperialist models of globalization by denying coevalness to cultural others. Inspired by the work of scholars who emphasize multiple, alternative and indigenous forms of global modernity, I ask whether it might be possible to decenter modern magic as a category and genre, writing its history from geographical and cultural margins, and speaking in the plural about contemporaneous, but not necessarily contiguous, ‘golden ages’. Shifting attention from the metropolitan theater as the iconic site of golden-age magic performance to other synchronic settings of visual display and cultural production more closely linked to colonial peripheries, I focus on the elaboration of intercultural magic performance as a form of tourist attraction and imperial spectacle in colonial contact zones. The resulting interpretation underscores the importance of power, conflict and resistance in magic performance.
Jones, Graham
Indigenous illusionism and the global magic system Journal Article
In: Early Popular Visual Culture, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 146-156, 2018.
@article{Jones2018b,
title = {Indigenous illusionism and the global magic system},
author = {Graham Jones},
doi = {10.1080/17460654.2018.1512543},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-04-03},
urldate = {2018-04-03},
journal = {Early Popular Visual Culture},
volume = {16},
number = {2},
pages = {146-156},
abstract = {A spectacular commodification of pure illusion, the modern magic of conjuring’s golden age was also part of a loose assemblage of cultural industries – including colonial anthropology – involved in visualizing ethnic differences in ways that tended to naturalize imperialist models of globalization by denying coevalness to cultural others. Inspired by the work of scholars who emphasize multiple, alternative and indigenous forms of global modernity, I ask whether it might be possible to decenter modern magic as a category and genre, writing its history from geographical and cultural margins, and speaking in the plural about contemporaneous, but not necessarily contiguous, ‘golden ages’. Shifting attention from the metropolitan theater as the iconic site of golden-age magic performance to other synchronic settings of visual display and cultural production more closely linked to colonial peripheries, I focus on the elaboration of intercultural magic performance as a form of tourist attraction and imperial spectacle in colonial contact zones. The resulting interpretation underscores the importance of power, conflict and resistance in magic performance.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
A spectacular commodification of pure illusion, the modern magic of conjuring’s golden age was also part of a loose assemblage of cultural industries – including colonial anthropology – involved in visualizing ethnic differences in ways that tended to naturalize imperialist models of globalization by denying coevalness to cultural others. Inspired by the work of scholars who emphasize multiple, alternative and indigenous forms of global modernity, I ask whether it might be possible to decenter modern magic as a category and genre, writing its history from geographical and cultural margins, and speaking in the plural about contemporaneous, but not necessarily contiguous, ‘golden ages’. Shifting attention from the metropolitan theater as the iconic site of golden-age magic performance to other synchronic settings of visual display and cultural production more closely linked to colonial peripheries, I focus on the elaboration of intercultural magic performance as a form of tourist attraction and imperial spectacle in colonial contact zones. The resulting interpretation underscores the importance of power, conflict and resistance in magic performance.
2017
Jones, Graham
HAU Journal of Ethnographic Theory Journal Article
In: HAU Journal of Ethnographic Theory, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 399-407, 2017.
@article{Jones2017,
title = {HAU Journal of Ethnographic Theory},
author = {Graham Jones},
doi = {10.14318/hau7.3.026},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-12-01},
urldate = {2017-12-01},
journal = {HAU Journal of Ethnographic Theory},
volume = {7},
number = {3},
pages = {399-407},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2015
Jones, Graham; Semel, Beth Michelle; Le, Audrey
“There's no rules. It's hackathon.”: Negotiating Commitment in a Context of Volatile Sociality Journal Article
In: Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 322-345, 2015.
@article{Jones2015,
title = {“There's no rules. It's hackathon.”: Negotiating Commitment in a Context of Volatile Sociality},
author = {Graham Jones and Beth Michelle Semel and Audrey Le},
doi = {10.1111/jola.12104},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-12-01},
urldate = {2015-12-01},
journal = {Journal of Linguistic Anthropology},
volume = {25},
number = {3},
pages = {322-345},
abstract = {How do people negotiate commitments to engaging in joint activity while at the same time anticipating and managing the inherent risks of collaboration? We explore this question through the ethnographic example of a hackathon, a collaborative software-design competition. We focus specifically on the earliest and, in many ways, most uncertain phase of collaboration, in which commitment and activity simultaneously emerge: team formation. We analyze mercurial allegiances in terms of a technoliberal participation ideology closely associated with the mores of the digital economy, which paradoxically emphasizes intensive project-based collaboration but limited interpersonal responsibility. We examine the verbal and nonverbal resources (such as stance-taking, politeness, reported speech, humor, and gesture) that prospective teammates use to modulate expressions of commitment, and the ways in which they pursue self-interested projects while maintaining social relatedness in order to accomplish joint activity in a context of social volatility.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
How do people negotiate commitments to engaging in joint activity while at the same time anticipating and managing the inherent risks of collaboration? We explore this question through the ethnographic example of a hackathon, a collaborative software-design competition. We focus specifically on the earliest and, in many ways, most uncertain phase of collaboration, in which commitment and activity simultaneously emerge: team formation. We analyze mercurial allegiances in terms of a technoliberal participation ideology closely associated with the mores of the digital economy, which paradoxically emphasizes intensive project-based collaboration but limited interpersonal responsibility. We examine the verbal and nonverbal resources (such as stance-taking, politeness, reported speech, humor, and gesture) that prospective teammates use to modulate expressions of commitment, and the ways in which they pursue self-interested projects while maintaining social relatedness in order to accomplish joint activity in a context of social volatility.
2014
Jones, Graham
The Brotherhood of Freemason Sisters: Gender, Secrecy, and Fraternity in Italian Masonic Lodges by Lilith Mahmud Journal Article
In: American Anthropologist, vol. 116, no. 4, 2014.
@article{Jones2014,
title = {The Brotherhood of Freemason Sisters: Gender, Secrecy, and Fraternity in Italian Masonic Lodges by Lilith Mahmud},
author = {Graham Jones},
doi = {10.1111/aman.12162_16},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-12-01},
urldate = {2014-12-01},
journal = {American Anthropologist},
volume = {116},
number = {4},
abstract = {Profound paradoxes motivate Lilith Mahmud’s singular ethnography of Italian Freemason women: although the Enlightenment’s core democratic values of liberty, equality, and fraternity in many ways originated within Euro-American Freemasonry, most Italians suspect present-day Freemasons of involvement in nefarious antidemocratic conspiracies. Moreover, Freemasons’ marginalization of women betrays how deep-rooted exclusivity compromises their guiding principle of universal brotherhood. It is among the social networks of women who nevertheless gravitate to Freemasonry’s official auxiliary societies and to mixed-gender or women-only lodges not sanctioned by Freemasonry’s paramount governing body that Mahmud conducts a form of ethnography she terms “profane”—mostly (but not always) outside sacred ritual spaces. In describing how these women style themselves as “brothers” and aspire to enact fraternity as a genderless value, Mahmud casts light on the broader tradition of European liberal humanism and its limitations.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Profound paradoxes motivate Lilith Mahmud’s singular ethnography of Italian Freemason women: although the Enlightenment’s core democratic values of liberty, equality, and fraternity in many ways originated within Euro-American Freemasonry, most Italians suspect present-day Freemasons of involvement in nefarious antidemocratic conspiracies. Moreover, Freemasons’ marginalization of women betrays how deep-rooted exclusivity compromises their guiding principle of universal brotherhood. It is among the social networks of women who nevertheless gravitate to Freemasonry’s official auxiliary societies and to mixed-gender or women-only lodges not sanctioned by Freemasonry’s paramount governing body that Mahmud conducts a form of ethnography she terms “profane”—mostly (but not always) outside sacred ritual spaces. In describing how these women style themselves as “brothers” and aspire to enact fraternity as a genderless value, Mahmud casts light on the broader tradition of European liberal humanism and its limitations.
Jones, Graham
Secrecy Journal Article
In: Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 53-69, 2014.
@article{Jones2014b,
title = {Secrecy},
author = {Graham Jones},
doi = {0.1146/annurev-anthro-102313-030058},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-10-21},
urldate = {2014-10-21},
journal = {Annual Review of Anthropology},
volume = {43},
number = {1},
pages = {53-69},
abstract = {Although expansions of state secrecy and the countervailing leaks of classified documents imbue the anthropology of secrecy with urgent relevance, secrecy has a long-standing status as a paradigmatically anthropological topic. In the ethnographic record, initiatory secrets often stand for the quiddity of culture, and the revelation of concealed realities is an organizing trope in much ethnographic writing. While situating research on secrecy as a reflection of epistemological and ethical dimensions of cultural anthropology more broadly, this review simultaneously explores parallels between different anthropological traditions by focusing on descriptions of the media through which social relations involving secrecy are transacted. Attending to ethnographic accounts of the way secrets travel across different media and coexist simultaneously in various mediated states provides both a novel intellectual framework for surveying recent research and a basis for conceptualizing the anthropology of secrecy itself as a practice that involves intermedial and transmedial knowledge flows.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Although expansions of state secrecy and the countervailing leaks of classified documents imbue the anthropology of secrecy with urgent relevance, secrecy has a long-standing status as a paradigmatically anthropological topic. In the ethnographic record, initiatory secrets often stand for the quiddity of culture, and the revelation of concealed realities is an organizing trope in much ethnographic writing. While situating research on secrecy as a reflection of epistemological and ethical dimensions of cultural anthropology more broadly, this review simultaneously explores parallels between different anthropological traditions by focusing on descriptions of the media through which social relations involving secrecy are transacted. Attending to ethnographic accounts of the way secrets travel across different media and coexist simultaneously in various mediated states provides both a novel intellectual framework for surveying recent research and a basis for conceptualizing the anthropology of secrecy itself as a practice that involves intermedial and transmedial knowledge flows.