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Banal revolution: the emptying of a political signifier

Cammaerts, Bart ORCID: 0000-0002-9508-5128 (2013) Banal revolution: the emptying of a political signifier. Mediascapes Journal, 1. ISSN 2282-2542

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Abstract

If you type in the word ‘revolution’ in the Google search engine the top result that comes up is a chain of bars called Revolution. Other results on the first page of the search engine include a commercial radio station, clothing, a skate park and a software company. A Wikipedia page and the website of the Revolutionary Socialist Youth are the only non-commercial results Google provides us on its first page. This says as much about the business model of Google than it does about the changes at the level of meanings attributed to revolution. Revolution, it will be argued here, is a political signifier emptied of its radical connotations and currently used graciously as a brand or as a buzzword to mean change in whatever direction. As a result, revolution has been firmly incorporated into the neoliberal discourse and value system...

Item Type: Article
Official URL: http://www.mediascapesjournal.it/
Additional Information: © 2013 The Author
Divisions: Media and Communications
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date Deposited: 24 Apr 2013 14:45
Last Modified: 15 Sep 2023 14:42
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/49815

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