In the Different Cultures of the World

**29**

**Chapter 3**

Generations

(websites, blog, etc.) policy tools.

become declined differently at local level.

**1. Introduction**

**Keywords:** immigration, religion, Italy, Islam, youth

*Roberta Ricucci*

**Abstract**

Living in Italy in an Anti-

Immigrant Scenario: New

Challenges for Muslim Second

Analysing whether and how the transition from the first to the second generation transforms adherence to Islam in Italy, a Catholic country which is undergoing a Lively immigration and Muslim-welcoming debate, is extremely interesting. The growing presence of Muslims in Italy stresses relations with 'diversity', especially in those areas where the incidence of migrants coming from Maghreb is higher and where there is an Arabic presence visible through ethnic shops, women wearing the *chador* and men wearing long robes. In these areas, the issues of control and safety have been on the agenda for many years. On the other hand, according to Muslim organizations there is a common interest in presenting a 'moderate Islam'. There is a specific will and interest of the youngest Muslim generations to demonstrate their propensity to promote integration, using both old (debates, meetings, etc.) and new

Assorted research [31, 48] has discredited the idea of the effectiveness of national models of integration and their unchangeableness at local level [10, 44, 46], so that attention has shifted towards territorial scenarios where scholars are attempting to understand in depth the dynamics which spring up among natives, migrants and second generations. Literature on the great models into which various ways of incorporating immigrants were subdivided (from assimilationism to multiculturalism, from Gastarbeiter to differentialism) puts us on our guard, however, against the illusion that national policies no longer play an important role in intervening on the insertion paths of non-autochthonous citizens [4]. At the same time, it warns us not to ignore (as sometimes happened in the past) the influence of the local context and everyday dynamics 'triggered by diversity in the management of daily life'.1 The game of inclusion and social cohesion (of

<sup>1</sup> In this context management of immigration in Italy offers various examples of how national norms

#### **Chapter 3**

## Living in Italy in an Anti-Immigrant Scenario: New Challenges for Muslim Second Generations

*Roberta Ricucci*

### **Abstract**

 Analysing whether and how the transition from the first to the second generation transforms adherence to Islam in Italy, a Catholic country which is undergoing a Lively immigration and Muslim-welcoming debate, is extremely interesting. The growing presence of Muslims in Italy stresses relations with 'diversity', especially in those areas where the incidence of migrants coming from Maghreb is higher and where there is an Arabic presence visible through ethnic shops, women wearing the *chador* and men wearing long robes. In these areas, the issues of control and safety have been on the agenda for many years. On the other hand, according to Muslim organizations there is a common interest in presenting a 'moderate Islam'. There is a specific will and interest of the youngest Muslim generations to demonstrate their propensity to promote integration, using both old (debates, meetings, etc.) and new (websites, blog, etc.) policy tools.

**Keywords:** immigration, religion, Italy, Islam, youth

#### **1. Introduction**

 Assorted research [31, 48] has discredited the idea of the effectiveness of national models of integration and their unchangeableness at local level [10, 44, 46], so that attention has shifted towards territorial scenarios where scholars are attempting to understand in depth the dynamics which spring up among natives, migrants and second generations. Literature on the great models into which various ways of incorporating immigrants were subdivided (from assimilationism to multiculturalism, from Gastarbeiter to differentialism) puts us on our guard, however, against the illusion that national policies no longer play an important role in intervening on the insertion paths of non-autochthonous citizens [4]. At the same time, it warns us not to ignore (as sometimes happened in the past) the influence of the local context and everyday dynamics 'triggered by diversity in the management of daily life'.1 The game of inclusion and social cohesion (of

 1 In this context management of immigration in Italy offers various examples of how national norms become declined differently at local level.

which religion is an important theme) is really played out on the field of integration policies at local level, including relations with Muslims, old and young, first and second generations. Obviously, cities and neighbourhoods differ as to the composition of the immigrant population, its socio-demographic characteristics, initiatives and opportunities available to them, and also as to modalities of relations with the general citizenry and consequent social-cohesion processes [2]. In other words, they differ as to the so-called 'local integration policies' [9]. Among these strategies, there are those pertaining to the management of religious difference, which—albeit in a multi-religious environment<sup>2</sup> —Concerns only our relations between cities and the Muslim presence [11, 12]. Among immigrants, religiosity is alive, as is evidenced by the existence of mosques, churches and prayer halls. Of course, these are not only places of worship but are also welcoming centres offering a kind of social-support system both for new arrivals and for irregular immigrants [37]. On the other hand, migrants feel at their ease in places of worship—there they find clergymen speaking their native language, sharing (or at least understanding) their cultural and ethnic background, aware of the difficulties of the meeting/clash between familiar ways of life and those expected by the host society.

 If this is the situation for the first generation of immigrants, what happens with the second? Are they following the secularization process spreading among youth in Europe? Are they religious in the same way as their parents or are they embracing the European 'lay' way?

 Research and studies have focussed on the growing presence of Muslims [7, 16, 33], through observations and insights carried out from different perspectives: religious beliefs and practices, hope for a certain type of society (secular versus Islamic), definition of identity (religious, Italian and cosmopolitan), orientation regarding the education of children and intermarriage and requests made to educational institutions (recognition of holidays and religious teaching in school). In addition, attention to the religious variable has often been correlated with that dedicated to labour issues (Are the Muslims discriminated against in the labour market, compared to other religious affiliations?), school (Does the increasing number of Muslim students give rise to claims against secularization and changes in education?), urban schedules and spaces, with specific requests regarding nutrition, places of worship and areas for the burial of the dead [36, 47, 49].

 To some extent, the local dimension has been overlooked in that it means, on the one hand, that local policies intervene in managing Muslim communities' daily lives and, on the other, that it is the arrival on the scene of the second generation that modifies (strengthening or weakening, modifying or erasing) their fathers' and mothers' recognition demands which had sometimes provoked a public reaction on the part of the citizenry. Here we shall try to view these two aspects through the experience of the city of Turin3 which—in virtue of its history of immigration,

 2 In Italy, Christians constitute 56% of immigrants, Muslims 32% and oriental religions 7%. In order to define how many Muslims (and also Orthodox, Hindus, Buddhists, etc.) there are among immigrants, the method used consists of projecting the religious beliefs of their countries of origin onto those immigrants. In practice, we suppose that the religious composition of foreign communities is similar to that in their countries of origin. We do not take into consideration how religious behaviour might change over the course of time or how religiousness during migration can change, growing weaker or stronger [29].

 3 Turin has increasingly experienced four various migration waves with differing thrusts and motivations. The first wave started in the early 1970s and included students, mainly from the Middle East, Senegal and Nigeria, and political refugees and opposition members from South America (Chile and Argentina), Eritrea and Somalia. The second wave, also in the 1970s, was composed mainly of domestic workers: initially Somali and Eritrean women, then Filipino and Cape Verdean nationals. The third wave occurred in

#### *Living in Italy in an Anti-Immigrant Scenario: New Challenges for Muslim Second Generations DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81280*

 the volume of its Muslim population and policies for managing immigration qualifies as a privileged observatory for seeing how the management of Islam takes place at local level.4 There are two elements which give pause for reflection. The first is that Turin is one of the few Italian contexts containing a mature Muslim community with children and adults, old and young, neo-Italians and converts [24, 34, 35]. Within the city's Muslim universe, the Moroccan (first-arrived and most numerous) and Egyptian collectives are examples of 'complete migratory cycles' [13]. The second is that the (negative) effects of the economic crisis are reverberating on the social fabric, bringing back to the fore tensions and unresolved knots driving from intercultural as well as interreligious cohabitation, two elements which may affect dynamics between local policies and managing Islam.

#### **2. Exploring the landscape of discussions on Muslims in the country**

On the national level, it is easy to observe the problems and internal tensions of the various souls of Italian Islam and political deadlock when faced with an issue touching the exposed nerve of identity. On the local level, however, specific requests forwarded by Muslim communities are weighed and debated, becoming the object of policies and administrative interventions.

 Comparison between the central level, which issues general guidelines, produces fact-finding documents and develops advisory bodies, on the one hand, and, on the other, the local plane which intervenes, becomes part of the broad dialectic governing the integration process as a whole in Italy—of which religious integration is one of the thorniest issues. The local level is thus the privileged observatory from which to view how governing Islam is proceeding and whether/how it is modified in the passage from the first generation of immigrants to the second. It is at local level that one can analyse the specific recognition requests that Muslims address to public institutions in order to safeguard the culture they belong to and their life practices [50]. And it is at local level that young people start to become leaders of the life of mosques, make suggestions and measure themselves against the adults of their communities with regard to the management of Islam in a setting where they are a minority religion.

 the period between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s: Turin witnessed a surge in the number of Moroccans and other Africans, Asians (Chinese and Filipinos) and Latin Americans (Peruvians). The last wave concerned Eastern Europe: Albanians first, then Romanians and others. Some of the main characteristics of the current immigrant population are as follows: high rate of families with plans to remain; high rate of pupils from migratory backgrounds attending school and increasing participation in the labour market, both as employers and employees. With regard to religion, Islam represented the main religious affiliation among immigrants until 2003: since that year, the increasing arrivals from Eastern Europe have gradually changed the religious scenario. Even if Muslims now represent the second largest religious group among immigrants, they continue to attract the attention of the media and Italians in general.

 4 These issues will be discussed using 40 interviews with young people involved in ethnic and/or religious activities and belonging to Islam living in various Italian cities, carried out in 2016, divided equally by sex. The analysis will also be enriched by considering stakeholders' points of view and 5 Muslim associations' representatives. Respondents were reassured about the confidentiality of information and the ethical uses of the collected interviews. In the interview quotations, they are recalled in the following way: sex (F = Female; M = Male), age and citizenship.

There are three knotty problems in the debate:

	- 2. Freedom of religion*:* Guaranteeing the right to practise one's own religion is an apparently simple matter, seeing that it is inscribed in Articles 8 and 19 of the Italian Constitution. In practice, the rhetoric of those opposing the presence of Muslims in Italy stresses two reasons why such freedom should be denied to followers of Allah. The first has to do with the lack of reciprocity: since it is not permitted to open non-Muslim places of worship in Islamic states, why should Muslims in Italy be granted such a right? The second concerns safeguarding public order, so that "as much religious freedom as is compatible with the needs of maintaining order and safety" [18] should be allowed. The debate is wide open and belongs to the realm of jurists.5 Here, it would be interesting to show the social implications of these considerations. Both form part of arguments that are used by citizens' committees, political exponents and parties in reaction to both free profession of faith and request made to practise their religion in public (it is sufficient to recall the polemic over granting spaces suitable for the feast of the end of Rhamadan). In these group's perspectives, freedom of religion becomes entwined with the country's Catholic identity—an identity which Muslims would call into question—so it should be limited and a public referendum held on the construction of places of worship [1, 26].
	- 3.*'*Immigrant' places of worship: it is proving hard to lose the label. The connection is clear for first generations, which bore it in mind while it influenced their recognition requests. For the second generations born and living in Italy, the

<sup>5</sup> In order to study this theme in more depth, see [5, 14, 20].

#### *Living in Italy in an Anti-Immigrant Scenario: New Challenges for Muslim Second Generations DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81280*

 matter becomes a paradox: although they are not migrants themselves, they are considered (and sometimes treated) as such. The Muslim-foreigner binomial leads public debate to specific topics (e.g., concession of cemetery spaces) of the wider immigration discussion: employment competition, welfare forecasts, socio-assistential guarantees. In other words, there is a cognitive postponement which revives the position of those who wish to defend strenuously Italy's identity as monolithic and to be taken for granted once and for all and who, above all, consider Muslims as unwelcome guests who should be sent home [21]. These aspects, which in some cities concerned only certain neighbourhoods, have in other places become important to the political programmes of mayors and parties active at local level, uniting with the aforementioned themes of reciprocity and safety [43]. Quoting Mazzola again: 'The mayor and city council could be negatively influenced by those who, on the ground, are not favourably disposed towards public manifestations of a religious nature, particularly those held by certain religious minorities' [32]. This discourse recalls communes where islamophobic entrepreneurship-politics gave rise to ordinances hostile to the Muslim population [27, 41]. Specifically, attention focussed on places of prayer: indeed, the thermometer of irreconcilability between Italian society and Islam reaches its highest point, according to some, when it comes to discussing the building of a mosque. The mechanism of N.I.M.B.Y. reaction6 is again under the spotlight in Milan, where debate about building a mosque for EXPO2015 drew attention to the Islam-city relationship [8]. This is nothing new for Lombardy's capital city which, together with Piedmont's (Turin), finds that a conspicuous part of the resident foreign population can be labelled (at least as far as country of origin goes) as Muslims. But compared with the 2011 debate and subsequent polemics, the clash in these first months of 2014 sees a passion on the part of the young generations—girls in particular—which has never been experienced before.

 Are we witnessing a generational shift? A changing of the guard in the Islamic community, at least on a local level? Even if it too early to detect signs of what would be a Copernican revolution, there is no doubt that young children of immigration bound to Islam are moving centre-stage [23]. It is one possible result in the context of processes triggered when the children of immigration grow up: from this point of view too, Italy is following a path already familiar to other European countries with a less recent immigration history [15]. Even if Frisina, in 2008, revealed a cautious, soflty-softly attitude, behind the lines, on the part of young Muslims towards putting forward their point of view, things no longer seem to be so: second generations' visibility and self-promotion have grown. This evolution makes us aware of organizational skills and a widespread territorial presence, but above all it demonstrates the children of immigration's need for—even religious—expression and identification [30].

#### **3. Generational passage: new actors growing up**

 The generational passage can be noted from the relationship which young people develop with religious belonging even more than practices and dynamics in the

 6 "NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) conflicts have as their aim the public use of spaces considered undesirable by those who live there. Following a law-and-economic approach, giving it a 'neutral' interpretation, they can be described as potential imbalance between widespread benefits and concentrated costs for local populations, linked to the realisation of infrastructural or social-type settlements" (see [38]).

public arena [16, 25]. To synthesize and simplify, young interviewees can be divided into two groups.

First, there are those for whom religion is little more than education received in the family: Guolo would call them secularized young people who take part in some rituals, maintaining a collective Muslim identity in the face of relative indifference on the level of faith [28].

*'It is easy for boys and girls not to follow their parents' teachings. Some who have come here—especially those who have married Italians—have forgotten Islam. Perhaps both parents work and the children go out and about with their friends, so they don't even speak Arabic. Fortunately there are now antennas so that you can watch television from all over the world, which weren't there before. This allows the children to know Arabic and religion better. In our days it all depended on us, but that was not enough. Now it's easier, partly because there are more Muslim young people. We brought our children up to be like ourselves, but they have their own ways. They have more Italian than Egyptian friends. When they ask my permission to do something, I leave them to it because they know their religion so they know what they can and cannot do'.* (M, 53, Egypt)

The interviewee has stressed an important element of the relationship between young people and religion: the force of numbers. An increasing visibility of Muslim families, of the number of schoolchildren declaring themselves to be Muslim, girls wearing the veil and associational activity linked to religion may therefore become fertile terrain for the sprouting of latent religious identities which the fear of stigmatization or discrimination previously prevented from appearing. In this sense, prayer rooms in the city seem to carry less weight, although they remain a point of reference for the old pioneers and new arrivals alike, serving not only the typical purposes of religious organizations in emigration but also—and primarily—an identity rather than merely religious function [17].

For the second group, on the contrary, religion is a key element of identity, sometimes even in contrast with their parents' generation which has developed a more private, less visible, religiosity.

*'My mother does not wear the veil. I decided to put it on after a trip to Egypt. Even though we were born in Italy, we cannot deny our roots. And religion is part of those roots. I am not afraid of saying that I come from a country rich in culture, important in Mediterranean history. I'm proud to be the daughter of Egyptians, proud to be Muslim. My mother has made a different choice. She has stopped struggling. We know that life is not so easy for Muslims here in Italy. Today it is a little different: many of us now wear the veil at university, and nobody makes smart cracks or looks askance when we go round and about, to the cinema, shops and pizzerias. Twenty years ago it was different so, to cut a long story short, my mother stopped wearing the veil so as no longer to be always a target'.* (F, 22, Egypt)

Compared with a few years ago, the girls – whose behaviour seems to be an interesting weathercock in the complex reality (including religious) of the children of immigration—are more visible. Their adherence is convinced, visible, proud and active: being Muslim is bound to associational involvement where the religious theme joins those of social cohesion, discrimination and citizenship.

Those who are involved with religious associations are aware of the distance separating their generation and their parents' with regard to living and interpreting their faith as well as relations with Italy and their country of origin. Intergenerational comparison of religious aspects shows up a deep reflective

*Living in Italy in an Anti-Immigrant Scenario: New Challenges for Muslim Second Generations DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81280* 

capacity on the part of the young, especially those with a higher level of education, in understanding the challenges facing them as children of immigration.

*'Your idea of a Muslim is someone who is always going to the mosque, who does only what the imam says, who observes Rhamadan. To me and many of my friends being Muslim means coming from a family which is attached to Islam. By now many of us young people only observe Rhamadan and take part in feast-days such as that of the Ram. We are Muslims in our own way. We live here, not in Morocco or Egypt, so we should try to adapt'.* (M, 21, Morocco)

 They also perceive the differences with regard to their parents' education and socialization, which took place in environments permeated with religion where cultural, religious and national belongings were forged together into a unique affiliation—without distinctions within the local community, distinctive vis-à-vis interaction with the world outside.

In every migratory experience, at the generation shift, parents' associationism faces up to that of the young, whom they would like at their side to give new energy to their activities—without, however, letting go of the reins of command or calling into question the associations' philosophy or objectives. Is this true also for Muslim associationism?

An initial point of difference concerns the characteristics of the associationism. Among young people, it is a matter of a reflection and commitment path transversal to their origins: the criterion of access is that of recognizing Islam as their cultural-religious point of reference [22]. As one of them recalls: '*We don't ask our members for a certificate testifying that they are good Muslims. Our association is called 'Young Muslims of Italy, so the access criteria are clear. We are not bound to any particular country: Italy is our common reference and that of our section is Turin'* (M, 22, Morocco).

Another point of difference attains to leadership. Young people choose electiontype mechanisms whereas their parents relied on consensus: in one case, we find elections, directives, pre-established deadlines; in the other, reputation (as a good Muslim above all, but also endowed with elevated cultural and social capital) is the determining criterion in choosing.

 A third element of difference has to do with the gender component: girls are an active part (although they have not yet reached the presidency), sometimes leading in organizing activities; mothers, on the other hand, keep a low profile.7 Here, we see not only a generational but also a gender revolution.

#### **4. No longer recipients but protagonists: the active-citizens strategy**

What positions, then, do young people belonging to Islam adopt when facing the demands cited above: do they stand alongside their parents or do they keep their distance by offering their own vision/interpretation of the questions under debate?

 The mosque question may serve as a prism dividing the positions of first and second generations. As a young interviewee reminds us, the mosque represents—in a context of mature immigration, for backgrounds firmly settled—a request which may no longer be postponed:

 7 There are obvious exceptions appear, above all in the world of ethnic-national associationism, whenever women become stakeholders.

*'There is no religious life here. It doesn't exist. If I am religious and want to practise, I can't. Italian mosques are the ugliest places in the world… This is one of the main reasons why I want to go back to Egypt. Here I can't practise the way I would like to: there are neither instruments nor structures… Relationship with religion is difficult here because you are in a different society. Islam is a religion for the whole world but if you have no mosque, you suffer because it's hot and smelly with people shamefully packed together. If they close the mosques it would be extremely hard to practice one's religion and develop one's religious ideas'.* (M, 26, Egypt)

 Parents and children are in agreement about this demand, but with a different approach and attributing different meaning to it. For the latter, a mosque is now only a religious point of reference, and it should be considered as such in its structure and in its décor. For the men, above all, it is also for 'recovering status'. Parents, seeing their authority under threat as their children rush into integration and social insertion, try'to recover status as members of the mosque and find the symbolic motivational strength to transfer it within the family' [19]. This different approach implies a logical evolution from one generation to the next: all the younger interviewees reduce the mosque to a mere religious function, thereby creating clear discontinuity with the first generation.

How do they intervene in the local arena? How do they participate in the life of the city and promote associationism's socio-cultural role?

 For the parents' generation, the cognitive framework within which this relationship is set is that of immigration, which levers the dialectic between a community whose cultural-axiological roots are sunk deep in various elsewheres but are one as to religious reference and a hostile environment with which they are having trouble communicating. Their children would like to drop the references to immigration and diversity: the game is played among equals, between (almost) citizens, residents committed to the common good of the collective and the city. The change of tone is meaningful: as Scholten [45] and Borkert and Caponio [6] claim, the passage is from being destined to be the object of interventions to being fellow-actors in developing policies. In this sense, the intercultural variation, in the meaning (which we shall see in the following section) of 'inclusive intercultural policies', drives relations between Islamic associationism and local institutions to abandon the explosive, reductive immigrants-versus-citizens dichotomy. What is more, for second generations it is no longer a matter of forwarding demands which limit Islam to a question regarding immigrants looking back nostalgically towards the past but of inserting the religious debate into the broader discourse of religious pluralism, unchaining it from its nexus with immigration. Energy is spent on constructing relations of partnership, on gaining credibility and recognition: in other words, on becoming trustworthy interlocutors of institutions and schools. Indeed, often the new actors have no experiences of migration, and are often Italian citizens, which is to say, young people of another religion trying to find space who express the desire to participate in their city's intercultural and interreligious politics [39].

#### **5. Who's got the power? Something is changing at a local level**

Turin was one of the first Italian municipalities to develop initiatives and projects to manage the increasing flows of migrants. In the last 30 years, the municipality has shifted from 'action on demand', generally multiculturally oriented, to a more coherent and specific intercultural policy.

This evolution has undergone four phases: the emergency policy (1980–1990); the creation of a network of specific services based on interaction between the municipality and the third sector (1990–1995), implementing an interesting

#### *Living in Italy in an Anti-Immigrant Scenario: New Challenges for Muslim Second Generations DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81280*

'welfare mix' model; the initial development of intercultural activities (1995–2005) and the development of intercultural policies (2006–2011).

 In the first two periods, the policies can be defined as 'multicultural', i.e., aimed at helping and promoting the first insertion of the various migration flows with special attention to each ethnic background. The interventions supported in that period have been defined by the city administration as an ad hoc approach—that means that municipal initiatives were explicitly directed towards immigrants in specific difficult conditions, reacting to emerging social problems by mobilizing all the main local actors, public and private, interested in the issue (e.g., language courses, information offices, shelter centres, accommodation activities addressed especially to minors and women).

Attention to the second generations emerged mainly in the last period of the policy evolution, as will be described below. In fact, recently a new era seems to have come about: the consolidation of the intercultural discourse has taken place in tandem, generating a large number of practices, projects and experiences mainly based on the notions of dialogue, mutual exchange and social interaction [3]. The centrality of this policy was confirmed by the creation, for the first time, of a Department for Integration (2007), dedicated to defining a coherent intercultural policy for promoting integration. Other municipal departments have to discuss and collaborate with this new department on each project, initiative and decision concerning integration issues. The goal is to insert the discourse on integration in all city policies, reinforcing the shift from special initiatives and ad hoc projects for migrants to policies capable of considering the various facets of the city's residents.

This shift was part of the last two mayoral programmes (2006–2011; 2011–2015), where it was considered necessary to develop the intercultural dimension as an approach affecting all policy areas and to promote the involvement of immigrants in the city's life in various fields: social, cultural and economic. Immigrants should be metamorphosed from being (or being perceived as) recipients to being pro-active participants promoting activities.

 In this phase, attention to second generations and their civic involvement came to the fore. These young people are considered as the drivers of the integration process on both sides: on the one hand, supporting immigrants to be better inserted in the city and, on the other hand, helping Italian citizens in understanding the multiple aspects of immigration in the city. This new approach towards juvenile activism has been supported financially in the framework of two calls for projects that the municipality developed in agreement with a bank foundation. The initiatives admitted concern, mainly about second generations grown up in Turin to whom the city turns in order to develop its own intercultural policies. The activities carried out in order to train second generations to become active citizens may be divided into three groups according to their functions:


 and young people, to cope with educational challenges posed by adolescents, as well as to provide both young people and adults with useful information about educational and training paths.

The result of all these initiatives is the active involvement of young people as organizers, animators and educators of other foreign minors who are following insertion and growth paths in the city of Turin. Meantime, these activities strongly involve second generations in the city's life by considering them active citizens of Turin, even if their citizenship is not Italian.

#### **6. Conclusion: a new generation on the move**

 To sum up, a diachronic perspective allows us to reveal points of strength and weakness in the city's relationship with first- and second-generation associationism. In the former case, the rapport was mainly on demand: associations, organizationally weak and ill-prepared to interact with administrations, belong to a prevalently 'by request' dimension, whether for spaces or funds for small initiatives. With younger people, the relationship shifts towards partnership: better prepared both linguistically and about how administration mechanisms function, new generations aim to be recognized as reliable interlocutors. They make a point of being present and active in the city's cultural events, and to intervene—whenever possible—in decision-making processes in order to reinforce their thesis that Islam is compatible with being active citizens. Even in an immigration laboratory city like Turin, their aspirations clash with reality because, no matter how much appreciated they are by the majority of political groupings, second-generation associations are not yet seen as being capable of replacing their parents associations as reference points for institutions. But we should be careful not to confuse absence from the decision-making process with absence from the debate inherent to questions of interest: children of immigration broadcast their view of how they define Muslim belonging by taking part in congresses, organizing public events and—above all—the Web.

The Turin experience seems to reveal a change of tone and capture the signals of a break between first- and second-generation associationism. Demands are more general, connected as they are with recognition as actors in, and an important part of, the city's socio-cultural environment. Concerns are related to sensibilization and updating of the citizenry as to generational changes taking place in the Muslim community.8 One seems to be moving on the ground of 'symbolic religiosity', where second-generation religious identities are only tenuously connected with beliefs and practice, and are rather designed to strengthen common belonging to an association. By means of symbolic religiosity, belonging to Islam can be translated into recognition of a common Muslim identity which is shared and practised within associational activities but is not necessarily tied to the observance of practices. There is thus a distancing between a practising Muslim and one who sees Islam as an identity and cultural marker. On the basis of this distinction, new demands and new relations (on the side of collaboration and sharing rather than that of breakdown and contrast) with local realities take shape. The objective is no longer simply recognition of one's practices and specificity so much as that of one's right to be different and the promotion of intercultural policies where religious diversity is but one element of the city's social fabric and not a cause of conflict.

 8 In this connection it is worth reading the theatrical work developed by a local section of Young Muslims of Italy: "Richiami Lontani" (Distant Echoes), aimed at introducing possible modalities of integration and intercultural dialogue to the Islamic public.

*Living in Italy in an Anti-Immigrant Scenario: New Challenges for Muslim Second Generations DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81280* 

 What is at stake is the ability of second-generation Islamic associationism to move on from its condition of eternal youth and learn to conjoin the needs of the neo-Italians with those of the older generations. Once the time of falling back on their origins has passed, the future beckons. It is a future in which they are already on the threshold of becoming adults, adopting family responsibilities once again, and the appearance of an elderly generation which once more questions religious associationism and the city about needs which go well beyond caring for the soul.

#### **Acknowledgements**

I would like to thank FIERI—International and European Forum of Research on Immigration—for its support in carrying out and discussing interviews. Several associations and stakeholders in the city of Turin helped me in collecting data, establishing contacts and participating in events and group discussions. The research was funded with the ordinary funds for university research provided by the Italian Ministry on University and Research.

#### **Conflict of interest**

 The empirical material has been already used in other publications written by the author.

#### **Author details**

Roberta Ricucci University of Turin, Turin, Italy

\*Address all correspondence to: roberta.ricucci@unito.it

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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[8] Branca P. Moschea a Milano. Religione, politica e costituzione [Internet]. 2014. Available from: http://www.arcipelagomilano.org/ archives/3160 [Accessed: 2015-08-25].

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[12] Castagnone E, Ciafaloni F, Donini E, Guasco D, Lanzardo L. Vai e vieni. Esperienze di migrazione e lavoro di senegalesi tra Louga e Torino. Milano: Franco Angeli; 2005

[13] Castles S, Miller ML. The Age of Migration. New York: Palgrave Macmillan; 1973

[14] Ceccanti S. Una libertà comparata. Libertà religiosa, fondamentalismi e società multietniche. Bologna: Il Mulino; 2001

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[16] Cesari J, Pacini A. Giovani musulmani in Europa. Torino: Edizioni Fondazione Agnelli; 2005

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[19] Dassetto F. L'Islam in Europa. Torino: Edizioni Fondazione Agnelli; 1994. p. 76

[20] Domianello S, editor. Diritto e religione in Italia. Bologna: Il Mulino; 2012

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[22] Frisina A. Giovani Musulmani d'Italia. Roma: Carocci; 2008

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[24] Garelli F et al. La presenza islamica in Piemonte. Torino: Unpublished Research Report; 2001

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[27] Guolo R. Xenofobi e xenofili: gli italiani e l'islam. Bari-Roma: Laterza; 2003

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[29] Idos C, editor. Rapporto UNAR Immigrazione Dossier Statistico 2016. Roma: Unar-Idos; 2017. p. 207

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[31] Joppke C. Beyond national models: Civic integration policies for immigrants in Western Europe. West European Politics. 2007;**30**(1):1-22

 [32] Mazzola R. "Libertà di culto" e "sicurezza urbana" nella "Direttiva del Ministro dell'Interno per le manifestazioni nei centri urbani e nelle aree sensibili". Quaderni di diritto e politica ecclesiastica. 2009;**2**:403-414

 [33] McKay J. An exploratory synthesis of Primordial & Mobilizationist Approaches to ethnic phenomena. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 1982;**5**:392-420

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[35] Negri TA, Scaranari Introvigne S, editors. I ragazzi musulmani nella scuola statale. Il caso Piemonte. Torino: L'Harmattan; 2008

[36] Open Society Institute. Muslims in Europe. New York - London - Budapest: Open Society Institute; 2011

[37] Portes A, Hao L. The price of uniformity: Language, family and personality adjustment in the immigrant second generation. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 2002;(6):889-912

[38] Rebessi E. 2011. Diffusione dei luoghi di culto islamici e gestione delle conflittualità. La moschea di via Urbino a Torino come studio di caso [Internet]. 2011. Available from: http://polis. unipmn.it/pubbl/RePEc/uca/ucapdv/ rebessi194.pdf [Accessed: 2015-08-25]

[39] Ricucci R. Religious education in the Facebook era in the Moroccan diaspora: Muslims on line, young people off line. In: ECER Conference, Budapest. 2015

[40] Ronchi P. Problemi pratici della libertà religiosa dei musulmani in Italia, Spagna e Regno Unito. In: Anuario de derecho eclesiástico del Estado. Vol. 27. 2011. pp. 97-143

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#### *The New Forms of Social Exclusion*

 [43] Saint-Blancat C, Schmid di Friedberg O. Why are mosques a problem? Local politics and fear of Islam in northern Italy. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 2005;(6):1083-1104

[44] Salvatore A. Making public spaces: Opportunities and limits of collective action among Muslims in Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 2004;(5):1113-1131

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[50] Pace E. Sociologia dell'Islam. Roma: Carocci; 2004

#### **Chapter 4**

## Social Exclusion and Territorial Dispossession: A Reflection on Mining Activity in Peru and Mexico

*John Kenny Acuña Villavicencio* 

### **Abstract**

From the social struggles that are found all over the globe, it is important to try to analyze the territorial dispossession suffered by the peasant communities, by the transnational mining companies. For this, we rely on categories such as accumulation through elimination in order to know if social exclusion is an event in the development of capitalism or responds to an abrupt struggle between labor and capital. In this sense, we are interested in focusing our study on two cases that are found in Peru and Mexico. In such regions, social mobilization has not only developed as a generalized form of rejection of mining but also accounts for the contradictions of the mining industry.

**Keywords:** social exclusion, accumulation by dispossession, work, extractive capitalism, state

#### **1. Introduction**

Despite the capitalist world crisis that is experienced, Peru seems to be living a fairy tale. For the government sector, business, and several international organizations, the country is going through an economic bonanza. For the Inter-American Development Bank, Peru has shown robust economic growth uninterruptedly during the last 10 years [1]. But this growth is largely due to the investment of transnational capital that is developed in this country, it is mining or extractive companies that with the help of the state are stripping communal territories and thereby restructuring social relations.

Mining in Peru has become one of the largest sources of income. According to the Ministry of Energy and Mines estimates, the gross domestic product until the beginning of 2013 was 5%, and, of course, one of the sectors that contribute most to the said GDP is mining [2]. The IMF [1] considers Peru as the propitious place for private investment: according to this organization, this country "has become one of the most liberal and open economies not only in Latin America but, as the IMF maintains in a recent country study, in the world" [p. 54].

Also, ECLAC maintains that "the most industrialized countries were financially integrated into the world economy (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru) with an annual growth of 4.4%, with a partial recovery of Brazil's growth (2.7%),

#### *The New Forms of Social Exclusion*

but with higher rates in Peru (5.7%), Chile (4.9%), Colombia (4.5%) and Mexico (4.0%)" [3]. However, the reality of these countries is different: in Peru, the gaps at the local, regional, and central levels become more evident with the mobilizations and struggles that emerge as contradictions of mining capitalism, for example, that economic growth and high rates of mining (transnational) investment cannot be made poverty and unemployment, but quite the opposite, we refer to the precarization of the human condition and a continuous accumulation by legitimate dispossession by the state.

Without a doubt, one of the great problems that afflicts the mining sector is its relationship with the high rates of unemployment and poverty. These facts are evident in Espinar, province of the Department of Cusco. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Cusco receives from the mining canon annually \$ 2364 million soles, and its province as Espinar receives a total of \$ 203 million soles [4]. Also, according to studies, the provinces with the highest per capita income are Espinar and the Convention. It is estimated that per capita income per person in Espinar (capital) is 556 soles, while in Condoroma (where mining is developed) amounts to 3094 soles. In addition, in one of the districts of La Convencion, Echarate, the per capita income is 10,209 soles [5].

 However, despite the fact that the revenues from canon and mining overhang are the highest, unemployment and poverty still persist. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics, 51.1% of the population of the Department of Cusco lives in poverty, and 28% of its population lives in extreme poverty; in turn, in the province of Espinar, according to figures and surveys, 64.4% of the population lives in poverty and 33.3% extreme poverty [6, 7]. The extractive sector does not "promote productive processes or enable the redistribution of economic benefits in the place of origin; therefore it does not promote or assure, in any case, the regional or local development. Quite on the contrary, it simply allows processes of accelerated recovery of capital investments as well as their expanded reproduction and, with it, the strengthening of a small power block that controls the process" [8].

 As for Mexico, experts say that its economic growth has stagnated and this has to do with the capitalist crisis that has shaken the whole world. Part of the dominant discourse states that Mexico should encourage direct investment. Last year, Mexico achieved a growth of 3.6% of GDP, and for 2014 it is estimated to be 2.4% according to the IMF (well below the predictions of up to 5% that were made by different institutions and government agencies in that country). The dreamed growth, experts say, can be due to industrial activities, increased public spending, and the application of structural reforms. There is a close relationship between economic growth and investment, where we know that foreign investment has been a central element. Thus, in terms of mining in 2012, there was 1101.4 million dollars in investment in the mining industry according to INEGI data.

Despite these "achievements" we see that in Mexico in 2010 there were 52.1 million poor people where the State of Mexico, Veracruz, Chiapas, Puebla, and Jalisco were those who occupied the first places. By 2012, 11.5 million people were living in extreme poverty. On the other hand, wage rates in Mexico turn out to be among the lowest in Latin America.

 In the case of the Sierra Norte de Puebla, we can see that the state uses several mechanisms to strip and privatize the "ejidos" or communal territories belonging to the indigenous. However, this dispossession policy could not be understood if we do not consider the general context in which the state moves. It is from the taking of the presidency with Enrique Peña Nieto that there has been a wave of violence

#### *Social Exclusion and Territorial Dispossession: A Reflection on Mining… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80689*

 against several sectors reflected, in its pure form, in all the reforms that had been postponed before the 2012 elections. These reforms, especially the energy and the educational one, have caused the privatization of the services that are considered an obligation of the state. However, at the end of 2013, the energy reform gives rise to the exploitation of resources by private companies which is "normal" and part "necessary" for the development of the country, without the state has any real interference except the violence. As an example, we have the murder of a peasant leader Antonio Esteban Cruz on June 4, 2014, in the municipality of Cuetzalan del Progreso where the Regional Committee of the Independent Peasant and Urban Peasant Workers Movement (Miocup) and the association Tetela Hacia el Futuro ask to clarify the said harassment holding the state responsible for such acts.

 In the case of the state of Puebla, it can be observed that 87% of the employed population earn less than 5 minimum wages (Salary Observatory of the Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla). In the Sierra Norte de Puebla, it can be observed that of the 217 municipalities that make up the state of Puebla, 125 municipalities considered "priority attention" where 36 have a very high degree of marginalization, 60 high, and 29 medium [9]. We are talking about the fact that in the region, half of its population is in a situation of marginalization. In the Sierra Norte de Puebla, the conditions of poverty have not been overcome due to the colonial legacy of the type of clientelistic relations and dependency that were woven through time to the neoliberal configuration in the current capitalism. The risk condition for the rural population has always been a constant, and their permanence has not been due to a longer life expectancy but to the way in which the peasants deploy strategies of resistance in order to survive. Thus, in this area, there have been various types of survival strategies, but the current mobilization and organization against the neoliberal policy around the dispossession of lands in the name, again, of progress have not been compared in recent years. This progress has specific names such as gas pipelines, mining, etc., which have been anchored in places where the majority of the population is indigenous or of peasant origin. Therefore, the current economic activity could not be understood without considering the general panorama that the state of Puebla is experiencing within neoliberalism.

#### **2. The state and extractive capitalism**

The growth of extractive mining capital in Peru responds to some extent to the economic and social changes generated with Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000) in the 1990s. At the time, this regime responded in some way and managed immediately to the economic crisis caused by Alan Garcia (1985–1990) during the second half of the 1980s. For this date, the country suffered an internal war unleashed between the Shining Path Communist Party and the state and a dramatic economic crisis. Inflation had reached the end of this decade at 7650%, solvable only by means of a drastic restructuring of social relations.

This economic and political crisis made the national scenario collapse. For many, it was the justifiable reason for Fujimori to carry out an adjusted line of neoliberal policies. However, it was also the mitigating factor for the Peruvian bourgeoisie to be legitimized once again by Fujimori.

From then on, the scenario was different. Everything seemed to indicate that neoliberal policies worked perfectly. Thus, the first years of the Fujimorist government reflected optimal results based on economic growth. As an act of magic, Peru had an economic stability never expected: the gross domestic product in 1994 reached 13.1%, being the highest in the world, and in 1991, unlike in previous years, inflation had been reduced to 139% [10].

 However, these changes in the economy responded more to the effects of a policy imposed through violence. In 1992, Fujimori perpetuated a self-coup of state with the aim of approving a new Constitution (1993) that guarantees legitimacy and capitalist accumulation. The reforms and constitutional guarantees that the state provided were the most favorable for more than one company decided to invest in the country. Within these reforms was to promote not only the investment of foreign capital, but to privatize state industries. As Gonzales de Olarte mentions for "1996, 6.312 million dollars had been accumulated as a result of privatizations of state enterprises" that could not be used for fear of other inflations or the presence of some "exogenous shock or a balance of payments crisis" [10].

 In addition, in 1997 the state had ceded "132 companies to the private sector out of a total of 186 national companies." The first companies that were granted to private capital were those industries that were dedicated to the extraction of natural resources. Among these were "Hierro Perú, Refinería de Hilo, Cía. Minera Tintaya, Metal Oroya, Mining Company Mahr Tunel, Cement Lima, Cementos Yura, and Refinery of Cajamarquilla (mining industry)," among others [10].

 In the case of Puebla, more specifically in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, we can see that the state uses several mechanisms to strip and privatize the "*ejidos*" or territories belonging to indigenous. However, this dispossession policy could not be understood if we do not consider the general context in which the state moves. It is from the taking of the presidency with Enrique Peña Nieto that there has been a wave of violence against several sectors reflected, in its pure form, in all the reforms that had been postponed before the 2012 elections. These reforms, especially the energy and the educational one, have caused the privatization of the services that are considered an obligation of the state. However, at the end of 2013 the energy reform gives rise to the exploitation of resources by private companies which is "normal" and part "necessary" for the development of the country, without the state has any real interference except the violence. As an example, we have the murder of a peasant leader Antonio Esteban Cruz on June 4, 2014, in the municipality of Cuetzalan del Progreso where the Regional Committee of the Independent Peasant and Urban Peasant Workers Movement (Miocup) and the association Tetela Hacia el Futuro ask to clarify the said harassment holding the state responsible for such acts.

The state is a "specific social form [that] is only able to maintain itself to the extent that it continues to be guaranteed" capitalist economic reproduction [10]. It means that the state becomes capital because it derives as "objective form of social relations" and its political actions, besides guaranteeing its existence, reproduce capitalism on a planetary scale. In this regard Mariano Feliz [11] says the following:

*it expresses the domination of capital in society, its policies naturally tend to favor its reproduction as the dominant social relation. This is particularly true in the peripheral economies whose state-shaped from the world-constituted economy […] -does not act simply to reproduce class domination at the local level (of the local bourgeoisies), but rather is the place where It will crystallize the need to reproduce capital on an international scale. The State is not placed above the law of value (i.e., the law of surplus value), but is part of it.* 

This capacity of capitalism (mining) presupposes, in Marx's words, the reduction of the individual to himself, that is, to "a natural subject" [12]. As such, this subject is absorbed into the "circle of production conditions" of extractive capitalism, whose expansion occurs in forms of accumulation by dispossession [13]. In other words, it is an accumulation that expropriates all human capacity as a power, an accumulation that carries forward:

*Social Exclusion and Territorial Dispossession: A Reflection on Mining… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80689* 

> *The privatization of the land; the expulsion of peasant populations; the conversion of the different forms of property into private property; the suppression of communal resources; the elimination of alternative forms of production and consumption; the colonial appropriation of natural resources; monetization and taxation; the trafficking of human beings; Usury and indebtedness through credit. [14]*

 This form of accumulation is described by Marx as the "midwife of history," because it deals with the vertiginous changes and mutations of patriarchal social forms to a generalized form of capitalist production. For Marx, work is considered the very essence of human fulfillment, a creative capacity that, in addition to possessing qualitative characteristics, is crossed and subsumed by capitalist logic. In Marx's words, it is about the double dimension of work (concrete work and abstract work) that determines the history of the struggle. As he mentions:

*The tendency of capital is precisely this to remove the natural foundation under the base of each industry, to transplant its conditions of production out of it, to a general connection, and hence the conversion of what was seen as superfluous into something necessary, in a historically generated need. [13]* 

The generalized production of capital leads to conditions of precariousness of work. However, this situation of precariousness of work, that is, instability and lack of sufficient guarantees to find work (salaried) in a certain place, must be understood under the Marxist budget of "industrial reserve army."

 Under this conception it is understood that the increase of production and capitalist accumulation will generate a population "apparently" waiting to be absorbed by the productive process. For Marx this responds to a systemic law because "the greater this reserve army is in proportion to the active workers' army, the more the mass of consolidated overpopulation spreads, whose misery is in inverse ratio to the torments of its work" [15]. This reserve industrial army does not mean that the individual is outside the capitalist production; on the contrary it is a system that generates a bulky growth of working population necessary for capitalist production. Although the original dispossession and accumulation have created subjects incapable of supporting their own existence, we believe that the violent side that all this implies needs to be rethought since there is no place where those stripped of neoliberal capitalism enter as an army of labor.

#### **3. Territorial disposal in Espinar**

The province of Espinar, considered high-Andean zone, is located in the region of Cusco. It is located at an altitude between 3500 and 5000 m above sea level. The approximate extension of its territory is of 5311 km2 . To date, Espinar has a population of 62,000 inhabitants. In addition, it is estimated that 50% of its population is rural and lives in 72 communities distributed in the districts of Alto Pichigua, Condoroma, Coporaque, Espinar, Ocoururo, Pallpata, Pichigua, and Suyckutambo.

In the districts of Espinar, the existence of immense quantities of copper and gold has been discovered. At present, these minerals are exploited by the transnational company Xstrata Tintaya-Antapaccay, better known as the Antapaccay Project. For many specialists this project is considered one of the most important mining megaprojects in the history of Peru, but it is also one of the investments that has caused over time the territorial dispossession and precarization of living conditions:

*Four copper mines will talk during 2013. The four have just entered operations and it is estimated that after 2 years they will reach production levels never before registered in Peru: no less than 800,000 tons per year. That is, eight times more than what was planned to be extracted from Conga in a year without the social conflict that finally paralyzed her. Las Bambas, Toromocho, Antapaccay [Espinar] and the expansion of Antamina are those four copper projects whose production will allow the Peruvian economy to reach a growth rate of 6.9% in 2013. [16]* 

 The coexistence—if you want, unstable, by the periodic mobilizations—of the communities of Espinar with mining companies has a history of more than 30 years. In the decade of the 1980s, the government had the intention to impel a copper industrial plant in Espinar with the purpose that the zones devastated by the poverty entered new cycles of progress. This idea took shape in the second government of Belaunde Terry (1980–1985), because it was considered that the state should have its own companies that provide income and, in this way, can generate local and regional developments.

However, with Belaunde in the presidential chair, the episode of extractive mining projects was marked by bloody results such as forced territorial expropriations and forced migrations to the surroundings of the mining industry. In many cases, several communities had to perish or were regrouped in areas where scarcity of resources affected daily life.

 For the regulationist project to work, it was necessary to strip people's assets. Palacios [18] mentions that at the beginning of the 1980s, the state had expropriated in Espinar "2368 hectares of territory to the Peasant Community Anta Cama, parent of the Tintaya Marquiri community, thus initiating its dismemberment and subsequent disappearance" [17].

 The state considered that the creation of a state enterprise could generate work (salaried) and greater benefits, especially for the communities where the "mining enclaves," were developing. The expropriation of the peasant communities in Espinar was considered by Belaunde as an achievement, since this would allow the establishment of the Special Mining Company Tintaya SA (EMATISA), later (1985) called Special Company Tintaya SA (Tintaya SA). As the activity of the company intensified the territorial dispossession was inexcusable, this also responded to the increase of exports and copper prices abroad. In 1983, the state managed to expropriate 2011.50 hectares of territory of the community of Tintaya Marquiri, 204.73 hectares in the community of Alto Huancané, and 151.77 hectares of the community of Huancané Bajo that automatically passed into the hands of the company Tintaya SA. In order to compensate the damages caused to the peasants, the state company offered jobs and improvements in the infrastructure of the affected communities:

*Among the main commitments signed in 1982 with the mining company was to grant a job to all those affected, after training. Carry out water and sewage construction in the town center, educational center, medical post, paved streets, access road and support in construction of family homes. [18]* 

The dispossession gave clear signs of having become a necessary movement of capitalist reproduction. The deficient technology, the expansion of the market, and the opening of neoliberal policies showed a drastic panorama of changes in social relations. The companies could no longer be controlled by the state. Well, with the advent of the Fujimori government, almost all of the state companies were sold in an international public auction to the large transnational corporations. The investment of large transnational capitals in Peru motivated the authorities to deliver, for

#### *Social Exclusion and Territorial Dispossession: A Reflection on Mining… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80689*

example, among others, Tintaya SA de Espinar to the American company Magma Copper Company, in 1994.

 In the decade of the 1990s, the communities of Tintaya Marquiri, Alto Huancané, Bajo Huancané, Huano Huano, and Alto Huarca suffered the most devastating effects of the large mining transnationals and the economic policies of the Fujimorist government. In 1996 BHP Australia managed to put pressure on the state so that it could promote the authorization of another 1263 hectares for its operations. The peasant communities had to cede their territories in a forced manner in exchange for relocations and proposals for sporadic work in the mine.

With Fujimori in power, the number of possession of territory had gone from 10 to 34 million hectares at the hands of mining activity [19]. The destruction and deterioration of the communities worsened because the companies used state-ofthe-art technologies that facilitated greater exploration and extraction of minerals. Undoubtedly, the great technological and investment capacity of the transnationals exacerbated the situation of the peasants and implied that more of their territories are expropriated, thus causing a precarious work or make creative.

As Harvey [13] would say, the technological changes and the capacity to invest extractive capitalism in a specific place generates unemployment, it generates an industrial reserve army: capitalism creates its own other. It is a capitalist logic of permanent appropriation and ruthless exploitation of nature. As Leff points out, "the natural has become a fundamental argument to legitimize the existing, objective order" [20]. Undoubtedly, nature in capitalism is considered only as a productive process.

 The forced dispossession, the subjection of creative work to forms of capitalist production, and the migration of people who go in search of employment tell us that accumulation by dispossession still stands. This fact for Marx is understood as the "original sin" of capital. Unlike Harvey, Marx does not expose the "primitive accumulation" to indicate that after this what remains to the current world is "an enlarged reproduction" (although the exploitation of live labor in production is mediated), in conditions of "Peace, property and equality" [13]. On the contrary, Marx considers that original sin is the beginning of an incessant struggle in and under the capital-labor relation.

 On the other hand, the interest of the companies in Espinar grew in the mid-1990s because there was a rise in the price of gold and silver. This generated a radical turn of the social and labor activity of the peasants. The forced territorial dispossession brought with it a generalized form of unemployment and job insecurity; in turn, a relative growth of private property was being generated. The accelerated change of industrial expansion in Peru and the legal facilities that the state provided to the private sector was well regarded by foreign capital:

*While the global investment in exploration grew 90% and quadrupled in Latin America, between 1990 and 1997, in Peru it increased twenty times … In 1997, the peak of exploration in the five-year period 1995–2000, Latin America (US \$ 1242 million) was the place with the highest proportion of explorations in Australia (US \$ 875 million), Africa and Asia (US \$ 550 million each) [19].* 

The increase in copper prices caused capital to move to spaces where conditions were favorable. In 1996, the copper and gold deposits controlled in Espinar by Magma Copper Company were acquired by the Australian transnational Broken Hill Proprietary Inc. (BHP). This new company also began to buy and expropriate more territories, causing the population centers around the company to increase. For just citing:

*In 1996, BHP Tintaya S. A purchased 1263 ha of land from the community of Tintaya Marquiri, former annex of the community of Antaycama. This operation displaced some families that happened to form the Tintaya Marquiri town center, established adjacent to the property of the Mining camp. [21]* 

However, the good situation of metals in the world forced more transnational capital to mobilize. After BHP bought Macma Magma Copper, it decided to merge with Billiton Plc, in 2001, under the name of BHP Billiton Tintaya SA. The purpose of its merger, in addition to its metal-mining production, was to control the world copper market and operate throughout the globe [22].

The operations of the transnationals in Espinar are marked by an open struggle of the peasants against their presence. In 1996, for example, BHP Billiton considered it necessary to acquire 1263 hectares, this time from the Tintaya Marquiri Peasant Community. Not only that, the company acquired 246 hectares of the Alto Huancané Community to provide security to the tailings dam produced by the extraction of minerals. In addition, this same company sought to award another 400.85 hectares of the Huano Huano Community and 477 hectares of the Alto Huarca Community as a result of the exploration work carried out by company specialists [23].

In 2006, the peasants of Espinar mobilized against BHP for the tailings contamination that this company was generating. This mobilization involved the sale of BHP Billinton and Billiton Plc to the Swiss company Xstrata Copper, now known as Xstrata Tintaya. This company is the fourth largest producer of copper in the world and is currently in charge of the Antapaccay Project in Espinar, which, as a mining reserve area, started operating since 2010 (**Figure 1**).

According to CooperAccion until 2010, mining had caused more than 34% of the territory of the province of Espinar to concession to transnational companies (see **Figure 2**). However, we believe that in order to carry out territorial concessions in

**Figure 1.**  *Territorial expropriation in Espinar [24].* 

*Social Exclusion and Territorial Dispossession: A Reflection on Mining… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80689* 

**Figure 2.**  *Map of municipalities of Puebla with concessions to companies (source: [30]).* 

favor of transnationals, it is necessary to consider the decisive participation of the state. As we mentioned above, it is an entity that supports one of the wildest forms of accumulation and reproduction of capitalism. We refer to a form of accumulation by forced dispossession that, in areas where the territory is vital for the social reproduction of the community, is legitimized by the state.

The communications launched by Xstrata indicate that in 2013 the mining project Antapaccay de Espinar will produce an average of 160,000 tons of copper, in addition to other minerals such as gold and silver. Over time, this growth will continue causing greater dispossession. To date, the territory of the Espinar communities under concession in favor of the transnational company Xstrata exceeds 180,000 hectares.

#### **4. The mining capitalism in the Sierra Norte de Puebla**

Puebla is not considered as an area with mining tradition; on the contrary, in fact the image we see is that of a place where something new begins whose magnitude of the devastating consequences (of what arises) is still unthinkable for thousands of people. It is not only about generating innocuous economic activities to promote "development" in the Puebla region, but it is also a vision of a neoliberal society that does not contemplate the needs of the population, which is little by little stripped of its own resources. In addition to resources, we are seeing the radical transformation of life where centralization and authoritarianism cancel the possibilities of a plural and democratic life. In Puebla, capitalism has taken a turn since 2011 where they want to carry out by the use of force and intimidation economic projects linked to transnationals that few benefits will bring to the population: water privatization, gas pipeline projects, mining, and planning of megahighways like Arco Norte and Arco Sur Poniente. The Integral Morelos Project (PIM), which involves two thermoelectric plants (which are said to give energy to mining companies), a gas pipeline (Morelos gas pipeline) and an aqueduct with a total investment of 1600 million dollars, has

 been questioned by residents of Puebla, Tlaxcala, and Morelos not without the violent response of the state. They are large exploitation complexes that have tried to establish themselves sometimes with the use of deception. Daniel Rojas, leader of a group, estimated that with the work to be developed, about 800 "ejidatarios" from 19 municipalities would be affected, which will affect the cultivation of vegetables [25].

In the case of mining companies, the situation is part of that neoliberal vision to increase the economic supply. Thus, we have since 1992 the mining legislation that has been in force as long as this activity has been arranged for private investment, both public and private. The problem before these privatizations promotes the end of the sovereignty that the nation has to have some contribution for this activity and that this development represents a violation of the fundamental rights of the workers and the contamination of the environment.

 On December 20, 2013, the Energy Reform was enacted, where it is supposedly intended to modernize Mexico; others consider that this reform is the continuation of a conservative revolution that was evidenced in 1992, where the distribution of land was clearly ended and the way was opened for the expropriation of *ejidos* and communal lands. In 2013, from the state, proposals are still made to reform articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution (economic chapter) since both evidence the illegality and contradiction that is manifested in the Foreign Investment Law, which in addition to allowing an investment 100% foreign investment displaces the state as rector of a strategic industry where the benefits that could be obtained from the said exploitation of resources become only minimal symbolic contributions, that is, fair contributions are not received for extracted minerals [26]. We believe that we should talk about privatization in the context of mining companies because of the insistence on modifying the aforementioned constitutional articles that promote dispossession and lack of rights.

 The mining legislation, as Jaime Cárdenas [27] points out, infringes on constitutional rights. This situation was addressed in the so-called Pact for Mexico. In this political agreement, among other things, it meant preserving, at least on paper, the regulation of the state as well as respecting the rights of indigenous communities and peoples. However, this document did not specify the specific strategy to increase contributions for the mining activity, nor did it indicate the manner in which the redistribution of these resources would be made, nor did it say anything about how they could access justice to people who will be affected by these activities.

 Thus, by October 2013, 69 authorized projects were counted in the Sierra Norte de Puebla with the outrage of many organizations who were not even consulted about the project. Such was the case of the municipality of Cuetzalan del Progreso where its municipal president noted that the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) had refused to provide information on mining concessions [28]. This pressure on the part of the population has been an agreement of the resistance for the government to deny exploration and exploitation which permits entrepreneurs without prior popular consultation. The resistance in Zautla or Tetela de Ocampo, that Huauchinango, Huehuetlan el Grande, Tlatlauquitepec, Olintla, etc., are just some of the towns that have organized to stop the imminent advance of the Canadian, the Australian, and especially the Mexican mining Group Frisco, which belongs to Carlos Slim [28].

 In Puebla, according to the data provided by Project Poder, 45% of the concessions were from Mexican companies (with a predominance of Grupo Frisco and Grupo México), 35% were in the hands of foreign companies, and the rest were private individuals. These miners have obtained 35 concessions equivalent to 918,000 hectares for mining exploitation; instead, it calculates 12,800 hectares for hydrocarbons. By the end of 2013, they had identified "six hydroelectric projects that will affect 18 municipalities and 12 rivers" [29]. These miners try to extract material through hydraulic fracturing either to obtain gas, oil, or metals.

*Social Exclusion and Territorial Dispossession: A Reflection on Mining… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80689* 

#### **5. Conclusions**

One of the greatest effects produced by mining capitalism in the so-called Third World countries such as Peru and Mexico have been exclusion and social marginalization. Moreover, although the state points out that private investment and the exploitation of natural resources generate social welfare and economic growth, the results have not been as expected. On the contrary, in the places where the mining industry has settled, there has been an accelerated reorganization of space and daily work. Of course, this phenomenon is not a novelty, but it is currently presented as a unique and modernizing event for the society.

 The precedent of this contradictory experience is Espinar. It is a region where the accumulation of dispossession has forced thousands of peasants to leave their territories and offer their labor power to large mining companies at a cheap price. In other words, this phenomenon in Espinar has become the norm, in a form of prolonged accumulation described by Marx as the origins of capitalism and the beginning of the history of domination and resistance.

On the other hand, in the case of the Sierra Norte, the tendency seems to be the same, but the resistance of the so-called Meeting of Peoples in Resistance, Tiyat Tlalli, and MAPDER (Mexican Movement of Affected and Affected by Dams and in Defense of the Rivers) has managed to stop the advance of this new form of capitalist accumulation. All these mobilizations are undertaking various strategies of struggle despite the repression exercised by the state; however, the power of capital will not rest to enforce these so-called death plans. In Latin America the scenario is dark, and the onslaught and the return of it may involve a greater participation of the state, but of course the resistance will depend on how these contradictions are understood by the civil society itself.

#### **Author details**

John Kenny Acuña Villavicencio Hippocrates University, Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

\*Address all correspondence to: johnkenny291@yahoo.com.mx

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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[2] Bury J. Neoliberalism, mining and rural changes in Cajamarca. In: Mining, Social Movements and Peasant Responses. A Political Ecology of Territorial Transformations. Lima: IEP; 2007. p. 49-80

[3] ECLAC. Macroeconomic Report of Latin America and the Caribbean, June 2012 of ECLAC. Santiago de Chile: United Nations;

[4] La República. Cusco es la región peruana que recibe más canon minero. Perú: La república; Noviembre 13, 2012. p. 1

 [5] La República. Espinar y la convención en la pobreza a pesar de ingresos. Perú: La República; Mayo 27, 2012. p. 1

[6] National Institute of Statistics and Informatics. Technical Report. Evolution of Poverty to 2009. [Online]. 2009. Available at: http://censos. inei.gob.pe/DocumentosPublicos/ Pobreza/2009/Infome\_Pobreza.pdf [Accessed: June 23, 2014]

[7] Ministry of Energy and Mines. Territorial Analysis. [Online]. 2011. Available at: http://www.mef.gob.pe/ contenidos/inv\_publica/docs/boletines/ boletines\_pi/boletin4/analisis\_territorial. pdf [Accessed: November 30, 2012]

[8] Ortiz P. Extractive capitalism, mining and rights: Can they cohabit? Journal of Social Sciences. 2011;**39**:11-23

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[10] Gonzales E. Neoliberalism to the Peruvian. Lima: IEP; 1998. p. 146

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[12] Marx C. Fundamental Elements for the Critique of Political Economy (Grundrisse) 1857-1858. Mexico: Siglo XXI; 2009. p. 500

[13] Harvey D. El Nuevo Imperialismo. Madrid: Akal; 2004. p. 176

[14] Guerra D, Skewes JC. Accumulation due to dispossession and local responses in the remodeling of the estuarial landscapes of southern Chile. Revista de Antropología Chilena. 2010;**42**(2):451-363

[15] Marx C. El Capital I. Critica de la Economía Política. FCE: Mexico; 2006

[16] La República. Los cuatro megaproyectos mineros que estimularán la economía peruana en el 2013. Perú: La Republica; Enero 5, 2012. p. 1

[17] Palacios M. A century of transnational mining, the same business conduct. One hundred years of resistance and community struggles for mother earth 131. In: José de Echave C, Hoetmer R, Panéz MP, editors. Mining and Territory in Peru. Conflicts, Resistance and Proposals in Times of Globalization. Lima: Democracy and Global Transformation Program. pp. 131-154

 [18] La República. Monitoreos participativos e informes de censopas revelan que la mina no contamina los ríos. Perú: La Republica; Junio 14, 2012. p. 1

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[19] Gil V. Mining landing. In: Culture, Conflict, Negotiations and Lessons for Development from Mining in Ancash. Peru, Lima: IEP; 2009. p. 424

[20] Leff E. Political ecology in Latin America. A field under construction. In: The Torments of Matter. Contributions for a Latin American Political Ecology. Argentina: CLACSO. pp. 21-40

[21] Vector Peru. Closing plan. Tintaya Mining Unit. Cuzco, Peru. Vol. I, Miraflores; 2006

 [22] Russi D, Martinez J. The environmental liabilities. Journal of Social Sciences. ICONOS; 2002;**15**:123-131

[23] Borda J. Espinar and the mining: Between mobilizations, dialogue processes and lessons of social resistance. In: Hoetmer R, Castro M, Daza M, De Echave J, editors. Mining and Social Movements in Peru. Instruments and Proposals for the Defense of Life, Water and Territories. Democracy and Global Transformation Program: Coper Accion, ACSUR; 2015. pp. 315-330

[24] CooperAcción. Monitoring Report of Mining Concessions in Peru. 2010. p. 5

 [25] Camacho F. Megaproyectos económicos, entre los mayores productores de conflictos en el país. México: La Jornada; Diciembre 30, 2014. p. 13

[26] Cárdenas, J. Mining in Mexico: Dispossession of the nation. Constitutional Issues [Internet]. 2013 (January–June). Available at: http://www. redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=88527465002 [Accessed: October 4, 2014]

[27] Hernández M. El presidente municipal de cuetzalan promete no autorizar proyecto minero. México: La Jornada; Abril 11, 2014. p. 35

 [28] Henríquez E. Anuncia el EZLN festival de las resistencias y la rebeldía. México: La Jornada; Agosto 11, 2014. p. 17

[29] La Jornada. October 11, 2013

[30] Municipios. Concesionada casi 25% de la Sierra Norte de Puebla a Almaden Minerals [Internet]. 2013. Available from: http://municipiospuebla.com. mx/nota/2013-11-04/huauchinango/ concesionada-casi-25-de-la-sierranorte-de-puebla-almaden-minerals [Accessed: July 07, 2014]

**57**

**Chapter 5**

*Vivian Hsiang*

**Abstract**

metaphor theory

**1. Introduction**

**2. Literature review**

Constructing the Notion of

Chinese TV Dating Shows

"Desirable" Men and Women in

The current study wants to explore the particular identity, desirability, from two Chinese TV dating shows. The theoretical frameworks of this study adopt interactional sociolinguistics, specially contextualization cues and conceptual metaphor theory in cognitive linguistics. The data of this study derive from two particular TV dating shows in Taiwan and Mainland China respectively. The results indicate that the males in Taiwan and Mainland China both construct themselves using positive perspectives, such as kind or knowledgeable. However, one applies words related to the spirit level, while another adapts words related to the physical level. The female or male desirability can be expressed by using metaphor. By analyzing those metaphor examples, we as

readers can understand the criteria for being a desirable female and male.

**Keywords:** desirability, TV dating shows, interactional sociolinguistics, conceptual

This study aims to construct one particular identity, so-called "desirability," from one particular interaction, TV dating shows. Specifically, this study will explore how the notion of desirability that people use in TV dating shows is constructed by using sociolinguistic discourse analysis, especially interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication approaches and the theory of metaphor. These three approaches are adopted to investigate gender. Holmes ([1]:195) points out that linguistic behavior expresses complex social meanings. Also, as many researchers have demonstrated in their works, language is used to symbolize different social identities, and in any particular interaction we use its symbolic power to construct a particular identity or identities ([2–6] cited in Holmes [7]:195). In TV dating shows, females and males use certain discourse elements to convey their identities; in other words, they want to construct themselves as desirable people in order to attract other participants' attention. The following section will discuss the notions of gender and the studies related to gender, followed by a discussion of the theories in sociolinguistics and cognitive sociolinguistics.

Since this study investigates gender as its primary theme, the notion of gender and studies related to gender and language usage are discussed in Section 2.1. Under

#### **Chapter 5**

## Constructing the Notion of "Desirable" Men and Women in Chinese TV Dating Shows

*Vivian Hsiang*

#### **Abstract**

 The current study wants to explore the particular identity, desirability, from two Chinese TV dating shows. The theoretical frameworks of this study adopt interactional sociolinguistics, specially contextualization cues and conceptual metaphor theory in cognitive linguistics. The data of this study derive from two particular TV dating shows in Taiwan and Mainland China respectively. The results indicate that the males in Taiwan and Mainland China both construct themselves using positive perspectives, such as kind or knowledgeable. However, one applies words related to the spirit level, while another adapts words related to the physical level. The female or male desirability can be expressed by using metaphor. By analyzing those metaphor examples, we as readers can understand the criteria for being a desirable female and male.

**Keywords:** desirability, TV dating shows, interactional sociolinguistics, conceptual metaphor theory

#### **1. Introduction**

 This study aims to construct one particular identity, so-called "desirability," from one particular interaction, TV dating shows. Specifically, this study will explore how the notion of desirability that people use in TV dating shows is constructed by using sociolinguistic discourse analysis, especially interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication approaches and the theory of metaphor. These three approaches are adopted to investigate gender. Holmes ([1]:195) points out that linguistic behavior expresses complex social meanings. Also, as many researchers have demonstrated in their works, language is used to symbolize different social identities, and in any particular interaction we use its symbolic power to construct a particular identity or identities ([2–6] cited in Holmes [7]:195). In TV dating shows, females and males use certain discourse elements to convey their identities; in other words, they want to construct themselves as desirable people in order to attract other participants' attention. The following section will discuss the notions of gender and the studies related to gender, followed by a discussion of the theories in sociolinguistics and cognitive sociolinguistics.

#### **2. Literature review**

Since this study investigates gender as its primary theme, the notion of gender and studies related to gender and language usage are discussed in Section 2.1. Under the theme of gender, there are two large fields in the current proposal: discourse analysis (in Section 2.2) and cognitive sociolinguistics (in Section 2.3). In discourse analysis, I also cover theoretical notions in relation to interactional sociolinguistics. Then, I review the literature related to reality TV shows (RTV). Since a TV dating show is a kind of RTV, it is necessary to review some studies in this field. Finally, the theory of metaphor in cognitive sociolinguistics is discussed.

#### **2.1 Gender**

 Overall, there are three waves of changes in language and gender. First, gender is an emergent feature of social situations, both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions of society ([8]: p. 126). More specifically and traditionally, gender nominates a set of categories that people can give labels to cross-linguistically or cross-culturally because those categories have some connections to sex differences [9]. Second, Tannen [10] proposes that women and men speak differently because of fundamental differences in their relation to their language. This has been taken as representative of the second wave of studies on gender and language ([11]: p. 1). These kinds of gender studies focus on the correlation between pre-determined macro-level social categories and particular linguistic variables. However, there is another paradigm that emerged in the study of language and gender ([11]: p. 4). It relates to how women and men speak and how they are spoken of. For these kinds of gender studies, analysts view gender as involving what people "do" ([11]: p. 4). Gender is continually produced, reproduced, and indeed changed through people's performance of gendered acts [11]. Third, Cameron [12] points out that gender is socially constructed, rather than "natural." In other words, gender has to be constantly reaffirmed and publicly displayed by repeatedly performing particular acts in accordance with the cultural norms ([12]: p. 339). This performative model sheds an interesting light on the phenomenon of gendered speech ([12]: p. 340). In other words, gendered speech is a kind of "repeated stylization of the body" ([11]: p. 340). The difference among Shapiro [9], representing the first wave, Tannen [10], representing the second wave, and Cameron [12], representing the third wave, is that Shapiro [9] seems to view gender as a pre-figured and well-defined category, with gender being equal to sex. The second wave seems to view gender in terms of males and females having different ways of speaking. The third one seems to view gender as performing or styling, and gender is separate from sex in this view. People *do* perform gender differently in different contexts, and they do sometimes behave in ways we would normally associate with the "other" gender ([12]: p. 340). Based on the view of gender performance, Cameron [12] further points out that masculine and feminine styles of talking that have been identified by researchers might be thought of as the result of repeated acts by social actors trying to constitute themselves as "proper" men and women.

There have been many studies on the relationship between language and gender [1, 13]. Erlandson [14] indicates that research exploring language use has identified several language features that differentiate women and men. Coates [13] has a specific chapter that discusses gender differences, with extensive evidence from various studies showing that women and men speak differently in their use of language. Coates [11] lists eight aspects: minimal responses, hedges, tag questions, questions, commands and directives, swearing, taboo language, and compliments. For example, research on the use of minimal responses such as"yeah," "right," and "mhm" is unanimous in showing that women use them more than men ([1], cited in [13]: p. 87). In the aspect of commands and directives, Goodwin [15] gives an example of observing a group of players in a Philadelphia street; she notices that among this group, boys use different sorts of

#### *Constructing the Notion of "Desirable" Men and Women in Chinese TV Dating Shows DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81940*

 directives from the girls. In their conversation, Goodwin notices that boys use"gimme" and "get off" in their speech, and Goodwin calls these"aggravated" directives. The boys use aggravated directives to establish status differences. In contrast, the girls typically use more"mitigated" directives like"let us" or"gonna" [15]. Meanwhile, West [16] explores doctors' usage of directives when they talk to patients. The results indicate that male doctors like to use aggravated forms like"lie down" or"take off your shoes," whereas female doctors use mitigated ones more commonly, even sometime using "we" in their directives, such as"so let us stay on what we are doing." In the final aspect, compliment, researchers in New Zealand [17] and the US [18] both indicated that women both give and receive more compliments than males [13]. Holmes [17] uses a New Zealand's corpus that contained 484 complimentary exchanges; after analysis, the author found that 248 out of the 484 exchanges were given by a woman to another woman, with only 44 out of 484 being given by a man to another man. Further, in Herbert [18], the author found that women like to use more personalized forms, like compliments with a first or second person focus, whereas men prefer to use more impersonal forms, like a third person focus.

 In the previous literature, there remains a research gap that this study aims to address, namely the gender identities displayed in TV dating shows. The notion of "desirable" females and males is constructed via TV dating shows; therefore, in this study the meaning of "desirability" will be discussed in detail. According to Harrington [19, 20], there are seven traits that scientists have found that make women more attractive to men. First, men are more attracted to women who are ovulating. Second, men like women who laugh at their jokes, since it touts their egos. Third, men prefer honest women, particularly for long-term relationships. Fourth, men gravitate to women wearing red, and vice versa. Fifth, men like it when women subtly mirror their actions. Sixth, women appear even more attractive in groups, a phenomenon referred to as the "cheerleader effect." Seventh, men prefer women with positive personality characteristics, like openness, kindness, and assertiveness. If a woman has all the traits mentioned above, she is more likely to receive the attention of males, according to the author. Harrington [19, 20] also lists 11 qualities that scientists have thought attract women. First, good looks can be a factor, though this is not necessarily a factor, as women typically choose better-looking men for flings, but not for longterm relationships. Second, a sense of humor can make men seem more intelligent. Third, women prefer altruistic men who are kind and who do good deeds for long-term relationships. Fourth, women choose men who appear to be wealthy. Fifth, women may like older men because they have had time to accumulate more resources. Sixth, do what you want with your face, you will attract the right mate. Seventh, "playing hard to get," or appearing to be unavailable, can be an effective way to attract women. Eighth, men with dogs do better with ladies. Ninth, women are more attracted to men who are mindful, as it suggests they are attentive and nonjudgmental. Tenth, men wearing red seem to be more attractive. Finally, women like men who take heroic and primal risks, like saving people's lives.

The above two articles list some potential traits about "attractive" females and males in Western societies. But what are the traits of "attractive" females and males in Eastern societies? In Chinese societies, the desirable males have a different name, 新好男人, or "good new man." There are many articles online that list the characteristics of a 新好男人. The Chinese definition of 新好男人, from the official definition of the Ministry of Education, is as follows:

民國八十年代末期對男人要求的新形象,為求取性別關係平衡過程中所提出的 一種看法。綜合概念為具幽默感,能讓人舒適、可信賴,生活態度真誠、認真,堅 持道德與理性,有為有守,尊重生命,體貼女性等。.

"In the late 1990, new image of men required for obtaining a balanced view of gender relations in the process. Comprehensive concept as having a sense of humor can make people comfortable, reliable, the attitude of life of honest, serious, moral and rational insisted; have moral integrity and be promising; respect for life; care about women."

 However, Shi [21] criticizes the official definition for its lack of mention of family-related qualities, such as being a loving husband or taking care of children (愛慕妻子, 照顧子女). In other words, there is still sexual discrimination contained in the official definition of 新好男人. There are also many blog articles (e.g., 小牟 [41], Yanlkce [39]) that mention many criteria of 新好男人. For example, Yanlkce [39] mentions that a 新好男人 must have "four highs plus ten bonuses" in order to be a good husband: first, 耐操度高 (first, men are able to work hard under a tight schedule); second, 出席率高 (second, men are high attentive); third, 鑑別率高 (third, men are able to distinguish themselves and stand apart); and fourth, 紅利高 (fourth, men have unique advantages). The definition of 新好男人 in this chapter has major differences from the one created by the Ministry of Education. This study adds one more criterion to complement the definition, i.e., that a good husband must be willing to take care of children. From all of the above-mentioned definitions of 新好男人, it can be seen that the definition has undergone some changes. The definition of 新好男人in Chinese societies has a different focus from the one in Western societies. In Chinese societies, males need to be geniuses, with a broad range of skills, if they are to be seen as desirable.

From the above paragraphs, it can be seen that there are many standards or criteria for the meaning of "desirability." However, what are the criteria or standards of the notion of desirability for males and females in TV dating shows? Do they require the same criteria as mentioned above, or do they vary to any degree? This is a question worth investigating.

#### **2.2 Discourse analysis**

In this section's discourse analysis, the particular sociolinguistic theory and Van Dijk's [22] notion of "discourse analysis as ideological analysis" are reviewed, and these will serve as the main theoretical frameworks.

The sociolinguistic theory is interactional sociolinguistics. Interactional sociolinguistics is based in anthropology, sociology and linguistics, and it shares the concerns of all three fields with culture, society and language ([23]: p. 97).

 Gumperz's contextualization cues play an important role in his sociolinguistics of interpersonal communication. His contextualization cues are the aspects of language and behavior (verbal and nonverbal signs) that relate what is said to the contextual knowledge that contributes to the presuppositions necessary to the accurate inferencing of what is meant ([23]: 99–100). The contextualization cues can affect the basic meaning of the message, so when listeners share speakers' contextualization cues, subsequent interactions proceed smoothly ([23]:100). In Schiffrin ([23]:102), the author mentions that the key to Gumperz's sociolinguistics of interpersonal communication is a view of language as a socially and culturally constructed symbol system that is used in ways that reflect macro-level social meanings, such as group identity, and create micro-level social meanings like what one is saying and doing at a particular moment.

Van Dijk [24] mentions "ideological analysis of discourse," a different line of research that deals with discourse. Ideological analysis of discourse views the relations between socioeconomic infrastructures and cultural superstructures ([24]: p. 8). That is to say, it is the fundamental triangulation of discourse, cognition and society [25]. Here, ideologies are defined within a multidisciplinary framework that combines a social, cognitive and discursive component [25]. They consist of social representations that define the social identity of a group [25]. Ideologies are

*Constructing the Notion of "Desirable" Men and Women in Chinese TV Dating Shows DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81940* 

 abstract mental systems that organize socially shared attitudes (Van Dijk [22]: 18). Using more simple explanations, they are primarily some kind of "ideas" or "belief systems" ([25]: p. 116). Those belief systems can be shared widely and quickly, and they sometimes become part of the generally accepted attitudes, obvious opinions or common sense of an entire community. Based on this, the present study asks the question: what ideologies can be found in the particular communities of TV dating shows? Van Dijk's [22] "discourse analysis as ideological analysis" is used as one of the theoretical frameworks for addressing this question.

#### *2.2.1 Language use in reality television (RTV)*

 When we think of language use, we think of activities in which language plays a necessary role [26]. Because it is so common, people sometimes forget it is unique and value and even neglect the social meanings behind the language. We can view language use in many ways. One way is to treat it as a class of human actions [26]. Another way, which is a more common view, is to treat language use as a product or expression of people's competence in a language [26]. In order to narrow down this body of research, this study will discuss the literature related to language use in reality television (RTV).

Reality television (RTV) takes place within an institution, that of broadcasting, and can therefore be regarded as public discourse (Lorenzo-Dus and Garces-Conejos Blitvich [27]. Ren and Woodfield [28] propose that because of the difficulty in collecting sufficient naturalistic data for analysis, the RTV program provides an unprecedented opportunity to investigate how individuals interact and to gain insight into the ways they express politeness. Therefore, academic interest in RTV has grown steadily, especially post-2000 [27].

#### **2.3 Cognitive sociolinguistics**

 Cognitive sociolinguistics is a field that explores language use by merging the methods and theoretical frameworks of cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics [29]. Liu mentions that cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics are interested in analyzing the contextualized meaning of actual language use in objective ways (2010:2845). In other words, it extends cognitive paradigms into social patterns ([30], cited in [31]: 5).

In cognitive sociolinguistics, gender issues can be treated as the product of everyday language and participants' experience of meanings. This study tries to clarify the variation of the notion of "desirable" that is observed with one particular speech community, TV dating shows. Fiksdal [32] also points out that, within cognitive sociolinguistics, there is extensive literature on the study of metaphors, and researchers have begun to examine variation in the use of metaphor in naturally occurring conversation. Therefore, the gender issue in cognitive sociolinguistics can be viewed as a combination of empirical methods such as how participants construct the notion of desirability with the social aspect of language.

#### *2.3.1 Conceptual metaphor theory*

Lakoff and Johnson's *Metaphors We Live By* [33] is considered a classic study of metaphor. In their book, they introduce conceptual metaphor theory (CMT). In this theory, conceptual metaphors are defined as systematic sets of correspondences, or "mappings," across conceptual domains, whereby a "target" domain is partly structured in terms of a different "source" domain ([34]: p. 5).

Shie [35] states that metaphor is conceptualized as a process of cross-domain mapping that produces systematic correspondences between the source domain and the target domain. There is a famous metaphorical example "life is a journey," where "life" is the target domain and "journey" is the "source" domain. In this metaphor, people correspond to travelers, action to forward movement, choices to crossroads, problems to impediments to travel, and purposes to destinations ([34]: p. 6). More specifically, target domains typically correspond to areas of experience that are relatively abstract, complex, unfamiliar, subjective or poorly delineated. In contrast to target domains, source domains typically correspond to concrete, simple, familiar, physical and well-delineated experience ([34, 36]). In general sayings, the knowledge of the source domain and inferences appropriate to it determine the comprehension of and reasoning in the target domain ([35]: p. 1322), [37–41].

Therefore, the three research questions are as follows:


 The first research question aims to analyze in detail how people construct the notion of desirability in two TV dating shows. The second question explores what the similarities and differences are (if they are found) in constructing the idea of desirable men and women between Taiwan's and Mainland China's TV dating shows. The third question is related to cognitive sociolinguistics; in people's usage of language, how are metaphors used? After presenting an overview of how metaphors are used in the two TV dating shows, a more detailed analysis of language use will be presented. The differences in the usages of metaphor in the two TV dating shows are also discussed.

#### **3. Methodology**

 In this section, the methodology of the construction of the notion of "desirable" in Chinese TV dating shows is discussed. The data collection and data analysis of this study are arranged as follows. In the data collection, the choice of the two TV dating shows is presented. These shows are then introduced in order for people to understand and realize the background and the procedures of the two TV dating shows. After the introduction of the two TV dating shows, the data analysis of this study is given.

#### **3.1 Data collection**

 Two TV dating shows are selected from two areas in order to explore the three research questions. "Take Me Out, Taiwan (王子的約會)" is chosen to represent Taiwan, while "Take Me Out (我們約會吧)" is chosen to represent Mainland China. Regarding the other TV dating show chosen for this study, Take Me Out, Taiwan is the only TV dating show that is produced and broadcasted by Taiwan Television Enterprise, Ltd. (台灣電視公司; 簡稱台視) in Taiwan.

 The data of this study is collected from the above two TV dating shows. "Take Me Out, Taiwan (王子的約會)" launched on 18 August, in 2012 and was off the air on 26 April in 2014. But the duration of data collection is from February 2013 to August 2013. In contrast with "Take Me Out, Taiwan (王子的約會)," which aired

once weekly, "Take Me Out (我們約會吧)" aired twice a week, and Tuesday and Wednesday. But the duration of data collection is from August 2012 to August 2013.

### **3.2 Data analysis**

 After collecting the episodes from both TV dating shows, they are first categorized according to country, Taiwan or Mainland China. The three research questions can be further categorized in two fields. The first Section 3.2.1, concerns the first two questions, or how the notion of desirable is constructed and the similarities and differences in these constructions. The second Section 3.2.2, relates to the usage of metaphor and the differences between each show.

#### *3.2.1 The first two research questions*

 The conversations in the TV dating shows are analyzed and compared using the theories of interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication and Van Dijk's discourse analysis. In this part, to examine how males in Taiwan and Mainland China construct the notion of desirability, I not only select males who successfully got a date but also those who were unsuccessful. This is done in order to look at both possible scenarios, as this can provide clear comparisons and also reinforce the audience's memory. As for the how the females in Taiwan and Mainland China construct themselves as desirable people, I look at females' conversations towards the male contestants as well as towards the hosts. The reason for this is that females sometimes express their own criteria of desirability when having conversations among males or hosts. I not only look at how they convey their criteria for desirability in obvious and expressive ways but also analyze meaning hidden in the contexts of the conversations, as these hidden meanings sometimes reflect people's perspectives or reflect certain unique cultural values.

 In the following examples, the males and females in the two areas are listed separately and with explanations. In the following set of examples, the first example is the male who successfully gets a date. The second example is a male who does not get a date.

 (1) The Taiwanese males

a.

A男: 我平常興趣是喜歡看喜劇, 因為我覺得如果人要活得快樂的話,必須要. 把生活的所有事情都看做喜劇一樣,這樣就可以活得很坦然。而對於我喜. 歡的女孩子呢!!如果你要我搞笑我可以搞笑給你看,但是如果你需要一個傾. 聽者的話,我可以靜靜的待在你身邊陪著你...

Male A: I like to watch comedy in my leisure time because, in my opinion, you have to regard everything in a relaxed way to live happily and comfortably. As to the girl I fancy, I can do whatever she wants. I can amuse her, and I can also be a good listener.

b.

A女:可以問一下你上一段是因為什麼事情分手?

 Female A: Can I ask the reason why you broke up with your ex-girlfriend?

B男:其實我跟上一段感情的女朋友還是很好,那會分手的原因是因為我覺得. 交往就是要以結婚為前提,那如果最後可能因為雙方家庭的一些問題的. 話無法繼續在一起,不是因為個人感情因素,那最後還是當朋友會比較. 合適。

 Male B: Actually, I am still in a good relationship with my ex-girlfriend. The reason why we broke up is because I date for marriage. If we break up due to family issues instead of emotional factors, then I think it's better to stay friends.

 From the two examples above, male A constructs himself as a wise, optimistic person and also a "desirable" boyfriend. He has a very bright perspective about always looking on the positive side. This shows that he has an optimistic personality and will not be daunted by anything. He has an image of being a strong pillar, suggesting that the female can feel comfortable when she stays besides him. This serves as a symbol of what he is going to say. Again, he presents a personality of someone who can accompany the female if she needs him. He is a good listener. He accepts everything that the female does not want just in order to make the female feel better. He wants to convey that he has both extroverted and introverted sides of his personality. He emphasizes that he can be a good listener with an introverted personality, as well as being a vivacious person with an extroverted personality. If males have both introverted and extroverted personality traits, they are the considered to be desirable boyfriends to females. When mentioning his ideal girlfriend, he mentions that he has both extroverted and introverted sides to his personality instead of giving specific characteristics. If he were to give specific characteristics, it may easily offend other females who do not think of themselves as having these specific characteristics. For females, they may think that males are picky and nagging. If females have a bad impression of the male, it may lower the likelihood of successfully getting a date. Hence, for him, it is very clever that he does not mention specifics when answering this question. For male A, he constructs himself as having those previously mentioned advantages in order to attract females' attention. Those advantages serve as the contextualization cues. In the end, he successfully gets a date.

However, for male B, the situation is different. He constructs himself as a "player" and a somewhat distrustful person. He not only mentions a so-called "forbidden" topic but also indicates that he is still friends with his ex-girlfriend. In the TV dating shows, the males' results are miserable if they mention their ex-girlfriend. Hence the topic of "ex-girlfriend" is viewed as a forbidden topic. Meanwhile, the male says that he is still "friends" with his ex-girlfriend. This sentence touches on two things, "ex-girlfriend" and "still friends." These two phrases serve as the contextualization cues. For females, it is generally not good to hear that our boyfriend is still friends with his ex-girlfriend. For girlfriends, the phrase "still friends" may suggest that they could potentially reconcile. Meanwhile, he gives excuses for this behavior; he states that if the reason for breaking up is not due to particular faults of either party, they can still be friends and have an intermittent relationship. With such statements, male B's behavior makes females think he cannot be trusted and that he cannot be a pillar to the females. Therefore, in the end, male B is rejected.

From the above examples, how males construct themselves does matter. If the male constructs himself in positive perspectives, like being a pillar of females, an intelligent male, or a considerate male, it increases the likelihood of getting a date. However, if the male touches on forbidden topics, such as ex-girlfriends, or constructs himself as a distrustful person, the females do not hesitate to reject him.

(1) The males in Mainland China

c.

C男: 我做過最讓我自豪的事情就是,做過很多的公益事業,比如說我們的汶川.

地震期間,我組織一些明星去義演,然後去籌款,捐了56萬,然後我剛剛. 又為我們的雲南魯甸地震製作了一首歌曲,來為災區的朋友第一時間送去溫. 暖。

 Male C: The proudest thing I have done is that I do a lot of charity work. For example, after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, we raised RMB560,000 for charity. And I also produced a song for the 2014 Ludian earthquake, to comfort the victims. *Constructing the Notion of "Desirable" Men and Women in Chinese TV Dating Shows DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81940* 

d.

D男: 我希望他跟我年齡群比較接近,最好不要是90後,因為我覺得他們還不. 夠成熟,謝謝。.

Male D: I do hope her age is close to mine. It better not be after the 90s generation, because I think they are not mature enough.

主持人**:** 為什麼你還在嫌棄他們不夠成熟?

 Host: Why do you still turn away from people who you think are not mature enough?

D男: 我覺得他們有點小孩子氣吧,有點那個拜金,完了之後他們那個喜歡熬夜熬到 天量,好像目前很多身邊的人都不想結婚的90後太多了,不是我想要的那個類型。.

Male D: Because I think they are a little childish, and they worship money. They also like to stay up late, even till dawn. Most people nowadays do not like to get married because there are too many people who grew up after the 1990s. Not my ideal type.

主持人: 就是憑你接觸的幾個90後,完了一竿子把90後全打倒,一竿子打倒. 任何一件事情,你帶來的就是炮轟。.

 Host: You paint all the post-90s generation with the same brush. If you do anything like this, you'll be admonished.

 In the beginning of example (c), the male constructs himself as a compassionate person by mentioning that he does a lot of charity work. He wants to construct one particular concept, being an understanding and caring person, by providing a lot of evidence. Those pieces of evidence serve as the contextualization cues. By mentioning what he does, the females may have a good impression of him, which may increase his likelihood of getting a date. However, there are two other possible interpretations when he mentions what he does in his conversation. First, when he refers to raising RMB560,000 for charity, it expresses the notion that he is wellconnected and that he knows a lot of wealthy people. It also implies that he, himself, may be wealthy, which accounts for his largesse. Second, he also conveys the notion of being a smart and well-educated person when he mentions that he has produced a song for disaster victims. Producing songs requires certain advanced skills and training, and lyricists must know how to write and arrange songs. This is therefore a means of conveying that he is smart and well-educated. In summary, male C constructs himself as a compassionate, well-connected, wealthy, well-educated and smart person. Rather than directly pointing out these advantages and appearing to show off, he uses "charities" to package those ideas. This proves again that he is smart and knows how to package himself. In the end, he successfully gets a date.

 In example (d), he constructs himself as a picky, hard-to-please person. He directly points out that he dislikes the 90s generation, even criticizing them pointedly by referring to their immaturity, childishness, and worship of money, all of which are negative terms. However, he makes these judgments against the female guests whom he was meeting for the first time. In addition, he criticizes everyone onstage who comes from the 1990s generation, painting them all with the same brush in front of a national audience. That is why the host warns that such actions will result in admonishment; even the host, who is supposed to be somewhat neutral, is repelled by the male's statements. In the end, he is rejected completely by the females.

From the above two examples in Mainland China, it can be seen that males construct themselves in different ways. If a male constructs himself by using positive perspectives or intelligent approaches, he is more likely to get a date, but if he appears dismissive and confrontational, he has little hope of getting a data.

From the two sets of examples, both the males in Taiwan and the males in Mainland China construct themselves by using positive attributes, like supportive or compassionate, with the Taiwanese male in example (a) going so far as to mention more spiritual or philosophical concerns. One of the males, the male in Mainland China in example (c), focuses on mentioning physical or superficial aspects. It is important to mention that these are just rough findings, based on limited data.

(2) The Taiwanese female

A女: 因為我好奇心還滿強,所以我覺得王子的博學多聞應該可以滿足我。.

 Female A: Because I am full of curiosity, I think a wealthy and knowledgeable person will suit me well.

(2) The females in Mainland China

a.

B女: 我叫XXX,我也是跟在座的女嘉賓一樣也大你倆歲,不過我不介意你. 小我倆歲,因為我覺得你不成熟我成熟就夠了,而且我覺得你是一個表. 面看起來顯小,但是內心有大徹大悟得一個男孩兒,我覺得你說話啊以. 及你表現出來得那個氣場,我都覺得還不錯,而且我特別特別喜歡你這. 張臉,我很喜歡單眼皮得男孩兒。.

 Female B: I am XXX. I am two years older than you, same as the ladies here, but I do not mind that you are younger than me because I think I am mature enough to cover both of us. I also think you are more mature than your appearance. I like the way you talk and look, especially your single-eyelid.

b. C女: 我覺得咱倆如果在一起的話,我願意做你的美人魚,永遠不劈腿,你願意. 做我的小火車,永遠不出軌嗎?

Female C: I am willing to be your mermaid if we become lovers. I will never cheat on you, forever. Would you willing to be my little train and never cheat on me?

 From the three examples above, the Taiwanese female constructs herself as a knowledgeable and curious person. These two words serve as the contextualization cues. The females in Mainland China, however, construct themselves in two different ways. Female B constructs herself as an intelligent and understandable person, as shown by sentences like, "I do not mind that you are younger than me" or "I also think you are more mature than your appearance." These two sentences have the function of contextualization cues. From these two sentences, it is clear that Female B is not concerned about dating a younger man because she thinks the male is more mature than his appearance. This is a crucial point. For her, whether the male is mature or not is more important than his age. If the male is mature, he will think twice and be a responsible man. For females, this is an important factor when considering spouses or boyfriends. That is why Female B constructs herself as an intelligent and understandable person.

 Female C takes a different approach. She constructs herself as being a male's subordinate. In her metaphors, she chooses words like "mermaid" (美人魚) or "little train" (小火車), indicating that she views males in a dominant position. These are stark contextualization cues. A mermaid (美人魚) has no feet and thus cannot betray or run away from males. This implies her loyalty to males. However, it also begs the question of why males are not described as being mermaids. Also, "little train" (小火車) is an oppressive statement. Train (火車) has the meaning of leading something to a place, so the female's suggestion is that the male will be her train, leading her and thus taking on a position of dominance in their relationship. In saying this, she puts herself in a follower or subordinate place. Moreover, she states that

#### *Constructing the Notion of "Desirable" Men and Women in Chinese TV Dating Shows DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81940*

 she will not disobey him; she views him as her king or her everything. She wants the male to lead her to their shared future. Finally, the use of the word "forever" (永遠) is quite powerful, as it means loyalty until death. She bets her entire life on the male, which puts her in an extremely low, passive, almost subservient position. This is a kind of oppressive relationship.

In these three examples, the females in the two areas have the tendency to construct themselves with positive perspectives, like being a knowledgeable and understandable person. However, the females in Mainland China have the tendency to lower their position in order to cater to the males. This is quite a unique phenomenon in Mainland China. Besides lowering herself, the females in Mainland China also have the tendency to mention more superficial factors, such as physical appearance. In contrast, the Taiwanese female tends to mention inward things like being curious or knowledgeable. Again, these are just the rough findings.

#### *3.2.2 The third research question*

 In TV dating shows, females and males have the tendency to use metaphors in their examples. The use of metaphors allows them to express themselves without directly stating their thoughts or intentions. In TV dating shows, participants, both male and female, all have the same goal, that of finding their desired spouse. Hence, the criteria for desirable males or females can be found in their conversation. The following examples relate to the participants' use of metaphors. By analyzing the usage of metaphor in the examples, the males' and females' criteria for desirability can be seen.

#### (a)

A女: 我覺得王子的所有條件都很好,可是唯一有一點讓我很害怕的就是,我不 太喜歡男生肌肉那麼明顯,我比較喜歡五花肉。.

Female A: I think that the male has many advantages, but there is one thing that I am very afraid of, which is that I do not like males who look macho. I prefer a male who has a "pork belly."

 In this example, the female expresses her notion of a "desirable" male by using the concept of food, stating that she likes a male with a "pork belly." The phrase "pork belly" here is a metaphor. The literal meaning of "pork belly" is the fatty, oily belly of pigs. Female A contrasts "macho" men with men who have a "pork belly," with the implication that she prefers men who are slightly overweight or who have a "beer belly." In this example, "pork belly" is the source domain, and the target domain in example (a) is fatty and oily, which is more abstract. Therefore, she applies the pork belly, the concrete notion, to the abstract notion, fatty and oily. In this example, the female clearly shows what her criterion for a desirable male is. For her, she wants the male to be soft and overweight rather than muscular, "macho" men.

(b)

B 男: 今天我給大家推薦一款產品,他外觀時尚、功能強大,而且還終身保修。.

Male B: Today, I want to recommend one particular "product" to everyone. This product has a fashionable appearance, powerful function, and, importantly, has a lifetime warranty.

In this example, the male expresses his criteria of desirable males by adapting the concepts of electronic goods. In the literal meaning, there is no relationship between "products" and desirability. However, he uses the metaphor of "products" to express himself. The elements of the product are appearance, function, and warranty. These three elements are the key elements that customers will consider when buying the product. Hence the male adapts these three characteristics in his example. When customers select products, they consider the above three ones. In the same logic, if

females want to choose their spouse, they will also consider the same criteria. Hence the "product" in his example refers to the male himself. He maps the target domain, "product" with the source domain, "himself." Next, "fashionable appearance" not only means the appearance of the goods, but also means the appearance of the male. It means that the male is handsome. "Powerful function" means the male can do plenty of things, like cooking, cleaning, or taking care of the female, which further suggests that he is intelligent. If he says there is a lifetime warranty, it can have two meanings. First, it means that all of his characteristics, like being good-looking or multi-talented, will last forever. Second, it means that he will never cheat or betray the female. As the product has a warranty, it means that if there are any problems or if something is broken, it can be repaired or renewed. Therefore, we can say that the female has the male words of always loyal to the female. The male maps concrete concepts like appearance, function and warranty with the abstract concepts, handsome, capable, and loyal.

In example (b), the characteristics of a desirable male are conveyed using a goods metaphor. For this particular male, he considers that males need to be handsome, capable and loyal in order to be considered desirable.

(c) C女: 我已經含苞代嫁,但是男嘉賓實在是無法下嚥,太嫩了!

Female C: I am a budding female. But the male is still too tender to swallow.

 In this example, the female does not directly mention the age problem. Instead, she uses a metaphor to express her thought. First, she uses the metaphor of a flower to express that she is in her prime. "Budding" means the flower is ready to bloom. Once the flower blooms, it quickly withers. Hence the "budding" has the meaning that she is ready to get married and that she is at her most beautiful. Once she gets married, she will no longer have that value of being a single woman. She uses a budding notion to convey that she is ready to get married. Here "flower" is the source domain, and "ready for marriage" or "at the prime age" is the target domain. Second, "budding" can also mean that she has a lot of life experience and is ready to show her experience. The flower being in bud means that it has gone through a lot of challenges and is ready to bloom. Again, she uses "flower" as the source domain and "a lot of age or life experience" as the target domain. In the first part of the example, the metaphor of "flower" can be mapped to have the meanings of "ready for marriage," "at the prime age" and "a lot of age or life experience."

 In the second part of her example, she uses a metaphor in relation to "vegetable" by mentioning that the male guest is too tender to swallow. People often use "tender" to describe the condition of vegetables. So "too tender" can mean that the male guest is young and lacks life experience. Hence, he is not ready to get married. Here, the "vegetable" is the source domain and the age or life experience is the target domain. Besides having the meaning of "young" or "naïve," "vegetable" can also have the meaning of being a vegetarian. The male is refused, with a metaphorical implication that the female is carnivorous. The male is too young, naïve and vegetarian, and that is why the female refuses him. Again, "vegetable" can be mapped to have the meaning of "young, naïve and vegetarian" in the second part of the example. Meanwhile, the verb "swallow" is also a kind of metaphor. "Swallow" means taking something into the stomach without chewing it. It corresponds to what was previously said. She wants to swallow the male without chewing, and she also suggests the meaning that she does not have time to chew the male. This indicates that she is eager for getting married. The word "swallow" is the target domain and can be mapped to have the meaning of "desirous of getting married," the source domain.

*Constructing the Notion of "Desirable" Men and Women in Chinese TV Dating Shows DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81940* 

In example (c), the female uses three different things as the metaphor, such as flower, vegetable, and the notion of swallowing, to express her thoughts while saving face for the male. For her, a desirable male has to have enough life experience or maturity.

(d) D女: 我覺得這匹野馬我駕馭不了,我們家也沒有草原。.

Female D: I do not think that I can ride this wild horse. We do not have grassland at home.

 In example (d), she does not directly mention the male's personality; instead, she uses metaphor to express her thought. She uses a "horse" to describe the male guest's personality. In reality, horses already need to be trained and taught in order to be tame, and this is especially true of wild horses. The wild horse is untamed and cannot be trained, which means that the male's personality is similarly too profligate and unrestrained. Moreover, it can imply that the male has a tendency to cheat on the female. The female maps a "wild horse," a concrete concept with personality and affair, with the abstract concepts. Besides "wild horse," the verb "ride" also serves as a metaphor. Riding horses has the meaning of getting control over the horse. Here, she maps "ride horses," the target domain, with the meaning of "getting control of the male," the source domain.

In the second part of her example, she uses "grassland" as a metaphor. "Grassland" means the space for the horse to gallop freely. It also has the meaning of someone's breadth of mind. In example (d), it means that the female's breadth of mind is limited. She cannot tolerate his profligate and unrestrained personality, such as if the male cheats on her. She maps the "grassland," the concrete concept, with the abstract concepts of "unrestrained personality" or "having an affair." Additionally, she uses "we" and "our family" to strengthen her points. None of her family members, including herself, have an unrestrained personality or has had extramarital relations. That is why she refuses him.

In example (d), she uses two simple and easily understood objects, horse and grassland, in her utterance to express her actual meaning. She avoids directly pointing out his personality so that he can save face. Again, for her, the desirable male has to have a good personality and also be loyal to her.

In conclusion, from the above examples and explanations, the answers to the three research questions are proposed. For the first and second research questions, the males in Taiwan and Mainland China both construct themselves using positive perspectives, such as kind or knowledgeable. However, one applies words related to the spirit level, while another adapts words related to the physical level. For example, the male in Mainland China mentions that he organizes the benefit performance and donates money to the victims, whereas the male in Taiwan tends to use mental expressions, like accompany, when constructing desirability. These are the differences and similarities between the two males in Taiwan and Mainland China. The females in Mainland China and Taiwan all construct themselves by using positive perspectives, just as the males in Taiwan and Mainland China had done. The females in the two areas are thus similar in this way. Regarding their difference, Taiwanese females tend to adapt inward concepts, while the females in Mainland China tend to mention the males' appearances in their utterances. Also, the females have the tendency to pander to the males. In other words, she degrades herself by using an oppressive relationship. For the last research question, we can realize that female or male desirability can be expressed by using metaphor. By analyzing those metaphor examples, we as readers can understand the criteria for being a desirable female and male.

There are three theoretical contributions in this study. First, few studies use Chinese TV dating shows as the data resources. TV dating shows are still a new

#### *The New Forms of Social Exclusion*

 area for researchers to research. Meanwhile, few studies have explored females' and males' language usage in TV dating shows, and there has been no discussion of how they use language to construct the notion of desirability. Second, few or no studies have adopted conceptual metaphor theory to analyze the language usage in TV dating shows. Third, this study provides cross-field analysis of the language usage in TV dating shows, including analysis from sociolinguistic, cognitive sociolinguistic, and sociological perspectives. Therefore, the practical application of this study is that it integrates these new perspectives to analyze language, thus providing a whole new view of how people use language to construct their identity.

#### **Author details**

Vivian Hsiang Institute of Linguistics, National Chung Cheng University, Minxiong, Taiwan

\*Address all correspondence to: vivian4586@gmail.com

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Constructing the Notion of "Desirable" Men and Women in Chinese TV Dating Shows DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81940* 

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### *Edited by Rosalba Morese and Sara Palermo*

Tis is the frst book that broadly delves into the theme of social exclusion and how it has changed through culture and society. It represents a very important, innovative, and current atempt to describe new forms of social exclusion in society and takes into account the contribution of diferent disciplines with diferent points of view. Te authors ofer a very interesting and novel contribution to the feld of new forms of social exclusion, reporting their theoretical perspectives, the original results of their research, and their discussions.

*"Exclusion is always dangerous. Inclusion is the only safety if we are to have a peaceful world." Pearl S. Buck* 

Published in London, UK © 2019 IntechOpen © Om Prakash Sethia / unsplash