August 15, 19:30
‘Symbolic economies’ is one of the most exciting catch-phrases in contemporary research. Some use it to describe the processes of ‘culturization’ of economic activities such as brand management. Others consider symbolic economies to be an extension of political powers of nation-states. In this lecture, I use the term ‘symbolic economies’ as a way to comprehend cross-platform, multi-channel, convergent and participatory forms of value production in the contemporary world. The city of Saint Petersburg will provide me with the context in which to analyse emerging symbolic economies. I will consider the city’s burger culture including its mediations on the internet as an element of Russian symbolic economy. The notion of ‘burger-nomics’ will help me map and interrogate the relationship between capital and subjectivity, performance and consumption in present day Russia.VLAD STRUKOV is an Associate Professor in Film and Digital Culture at the University of Leeds. He has previously been a visiting professor / researcher at the Universities of Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Helsinki, London and Pittsburgh. He is also an independent art and film curator. He makes regular appearances in international media such as Al Jazeera, American Public Radio, BBC, and RBK. He explores theories of contemporaneity, technologies of vision, global journalism and grassroots media, by considering Europe and the Russian Federation as his case studies. In the last two years he has published a number of books, including ‘Memory and Securitization in Contemporary Europe’, ‘Popular Geopolitics: Plotting an Evolving Interdiscipline’, and ‘Building New Worlds: Industry and Visual Culture’. He is the founding and principal editor of an international journal, ‘Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media’ (www.digitalicons.org).
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