Author: michaelcaster

Michael Caster is a human rights advocate, researcher, and consultant. He holds an MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and an MA in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. He has worked in China, Cambodia, Myanmar/Burma, Thailand, Myanmar, Turkey, and Tunisia.

Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part II

November 21, 2012

This is part two in the discussion. To visit part one, see Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part I — Identities and Boundaries: A Constructivist and Discursive Approach Group formation is the product of a social process, made and remade using historical context, cultural and mythological structures (Brubaker, 2004; Wimmers, 2008). These myriad ingredients are part … More Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part II

A Mingong Morning

September 26, 2012

This morning the rusted scaffolding that had been clanging and crunching on the pavement, manipulated by the gloved and calloused hands of migrants workers as they assembled the hulking trellis to scale the side of my building, reached its first pinnacle of construction. With the early hour came the skull splitting, sonorous sound of drilling … More A Mingong Morning

Inscriptions of two and three wheels in Qianmen

September 2, 2012

The other day, a jaunt, a stroll, an aimless meandering through the lower hutongs of Qianmen, a Pekinese dérive from one microclimate to another, propelled by an uncertain impetus later framed by the symbol B-I-C-Y-C-L-E. Unsure at first of a theme I shortly found myself directed by the derelict, the discarded or neglected, the accumulating … More Inscriptions of two and three wheels in Qianmen

Riding in the Chinese Countryside with Nietzsche

August 23, 2012

Last Monday, excited to seize the relatively unpolluted skies and appease my desire to escape the city, taking advantage of surprisingly temperate early August weather, I made plans to cycle out of Beijing and into the peripheral village district of Huairou, around 60 kilometers from my apartment near Yonghegong, the Lama Temple. First the home … More Riding in the Chinese Countryside with Nietzsche

Perusing Walls in China: Posters and Symbolic Power

August 8, 2012

This is the third entry in a series on semiotic analysis, Uyghurs, and public space in China. For earlier entries please see, Deconstructing ‘Minzu’, and Museumized Signification, China and Representational Violence. Or visit my index at the top of the page for all previous articles dealing with Symbolic Power, the politics of representation, China, Xinjiang, Uyghurs, and … More Perusing Walls in China: Posters and Symbolic Power

Museumized Signification, China and Representational Violence

July 31, 2012

This is the second post in a brief series on symbolic power and minority representation in China. Although the ethnic group under specific discussion is the Uyghurs, the deconstruction of representations and symbolic power is apropos of other subaltern groups. The previous post dealt with briefly just with the notion of controlling the taxonomy of … More Museumized Signification, China and Representational Violence