Becoming a ‘Cultural Destination of Choice’: lessons on vernacularization from Beirut and Buenos Aires

ABSTRACT

This article builds upon the concept of vernacularization as a way to better understand the circulation and implementation of global policy assemblages. The added value of a vernacularization approach is that it combines under one analytical umbrella the separate but interdependent factors which affect policy travel and use including: (a) positionality or the social and spatial status of actors, institutions and localities, (b) processes of communication that go beyond translation to make ideas and practices understandable, resonant, and useful, (c) the resulting vernacularization of aspirations and goals, and (d) the ways in which these factors change over time as policies come to ground, are modified, and circulate once again. Each aspect of vernacularization relies deeply on meaning making and remaking, whether it be the identity of the vernacularizer herself or of the institutions and cities where she is located.

KEYWORDS:

• Vernacularization
• creative cities
• policy mobility
• global south
• hermeneutics
• culture
• Argentina
• Lebanon

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Experts believe this is definitely an undercount as so many individuals are not officially registered (UNHCR 2017).

2. See Hanan Toukan (2011) for an in-depth discussion of the politics behind this.

3. A financial services and real estate group.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Oriental Institute of Beirut [Hans Robert Roemer Fellowship]; Yonsei University [Humanities Institute Fellow]; Wellesley College [Faculty Research Fund].

Notes on contributors

Peggy Levitt

Peggy Levitt is Chair of the sociology department and the Luella LaMer Slaner Professor in Latin American Studies at Wellesley College and an Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She is also the co-founder of the Global (De)Centre. Her most recent book, Artifacts and Allegiances: How Museums Put the Nation and the World on Display, was published by the University of California Press in July 2015. Peggy received Honorary Doctoral Degrees from the University of Helsinki (2017) and from Maastricht University (2014). In addition to being a Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute (2017-2019), she is also a Distinguished Visitor at the Baptist University of Hong Kong (2020). Her books include Religion on the Edge (Oxford University Press, 2012), God Needs No Passport (New Press 2007), The Transnational Studies Reader (Routledge 2007), The Changing Face of Home (Russell Sage 2002), and The Transnational Villagers (UC Press, 2001).