Ethnizität und Distinktion in der „hybriden“ Kulturindustrie. Eine hegemonietheoretische Annäherung

Abstract

Abstract

Ethnicity and distinction in the industry of „hybrid“ culture „Hybridity“, as a special form of multicultural discourse, came into dominant use during the late 1990s in German mass media.

In particular, the film industry has strongly profited from the creative efforts of young migrant filmmakers who are increasingly influencing productions, as seen in the inclusion of multicultural and multiethnic presences and themes. Experts suggest that the rising popularity of these new forms of (self)representation challenge the traditional concept of national identity by generating hybrid subjectivities. The following article investigates this notion through the utilization of hegemony-based theoretical approaches coined by cultural studies and critical theory. In contrast to common perceptions, the author argues that multicultural policies of diversity, with their ambivalences and contradictions, have, in their current formation, effectively established a new hegemonic order by offering special social groups of migrants’ possibilities to participate in cultural reproduction and cultural hegemony while capturing them at the same time (what does capturing them at the same time mean?). Thus, by updating the culture industry and adapting it to transformed social, cultural and economic relations in post-Fordist societies, a group of elite migrants, called hybrid subjects, is becoming visible through the building of new distinct relations. Concurrently, however, this process is leading to the increasing social exclusion of other migrant groups through re-ethnicization.