ESCP Europe

"For Sunni Muslims, moral permissibility can be complicated when it concerns matters that fall outside the norms set by either the scriptural tradition of the Qur'an or the Hadith, the body of literature that compiles the sayings and doings of the Prophet Muhammad and the prototypical Islamic community. The moral and religious acceptability of new media--film and popular music in particular--can vary widely. In a time of shifting public demand and a rapidly evolving media landscape, how do film distributors, video recorders, politicians, religious preachers, Islamic scholars, and ordinary people in Pakistan make decisions about the moral and social qualities of films and other forms of media? In Moral Atmospheres, Timothy P.A. Cooper argues that decisions about the moral acceptability of new media are made through the creation, interpretation, and public understanding of a moral "atmosphere" that surrounds them."

Introduction -- 1. Cinema Itself: Film and Faith in Pakistan -- 2. Public Demand: Interpreting Atmospheres -- 3. Feeling the Threshold -- 4. Atmospheres of Moral Exception -- 5. The Absorptive City: Hall Road's Urban Form -- 6. The Master-Copy: Atmospheres in Circulation -- Epilogue -- Glossary of Frequently-used Terms -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index..