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Beyond the 'moments' of law and development
Law and development scholarship in a globalized economy
An integral aspect of law and development (L&D) studies have been its intimate relationship with the global economy and the regulatory framework which governs it. A rapidly emerging arena of scholarship on law and development in recent years has been on the intersections between international economic law (IEL) and development. The emergence of this body of scholarship under the broad umbrella of L&D studies has important consequences for law and development's place within wider legal scholarship, demonstrating the salience of a 'law and development' epistemology within the field of international economic law.
Critical traditions of the law and development movement, in particular, stand as vital counterpoints to more formalistic and universalising accounts of IEL and have the potential to contribute significantly to the methodological and conceptual reorientation of IEL as a discipline. Specifically, engagement with the critical strands of law and development studies can overcome the problem of what I call the 'methodological otherness' of IEL scholarship which continues to marginalise and exclude a heterogeneity of perspectives from its epistemological framework, including voices of precarity, vulnerability and inequality from different global and local constituencies (see Perrone and Schneiderman, 2018).
Challenging the Epistemologies of International Economic Law
The evolution of international economic law in the past three decades can be said to have been characterised by three notable features: the expansion in the substantive areas governed by international law, the growth and diversification of international economic actors, and the proliferation of multiple sites of international economic governance. Contemporary IEL is also marked by the heightened influence, if not dominance, of these rules and institutions, over other areas of international law and the domestic realm of law and regulation (see Faundez and Tan, 2010).
Orthodox methodologies of legal scholarship have been challenged by this expansion and the growing complexity of international economic law as a field of study. A rigid adherence to doctrinal categories and normative hierarchies under formal international law fail to: a) accommodate the diversity of normative orders of the contemporary IEL and the shift that Picciotto terms as the movement from 'hierarchy to polyarchy' in the sites of global economic governance (Picciotto, 2006: 2); and b) capture the range of legal and non-legal regulatory regimes 'beyond the state', including the vast array of transnational public and private regulatory standards that now govern global economic transactions.
What is also often missing in much of the scholarship on law and the global economy is the a consideration of its 'subtext' (Perry-Kessaris, 2012) or the 'moral' or the normative value of the legal 'text' that may or may not depend on the socio-economic and political 'context' in which the law operates. Traditional IEL scholarship can and do discount law's culturally productive role and its constitutive power in shaping and sustaining dominant patterns of production and consumption and hegemonic forms of social, economic and political organisation.
Conventional IEL scholarship can therefore suffer from a 'methodological othering', a technique that excludes, marginalises and discounts as inferior approaches to the discipline that do not fit within its normative framework of analysis. Like all dominant epistemologies, conventional methodologies of IEL can and do develop internal systems of classification and set internal rules of practice and methods that allow certain forms of knowledge to be selected and included and for others to be excluded and discounted (Tuhiwai-Smith, 2012: 13). This universalising tendency of IEL scholarship can and does impoverish the field at the same time as it silences voices that seek to challenge this dominant episteme.
Among other things, dominant narratives of IEL establish historical frames of reference (for example, the epochal shifts of modernity represented by the birth of the postwar Bretton Woods architecture while ignoring if not erasing the legacies of slavery and colonialism); delineate the scope of study (trade, investment, finance but not ecology or human rights unless framed as a normative or juridical construct to be enrolled in legal or political claims over the distribution of economic resources and/or dispersal of social, economic or ecological risks); and determine whose voices and perspectives count as valid fields of study and account (Eurocentric, state-centric, elite-centric and not the practice of the 'everyday' or what Rajagopal has termed international law 'from below').
Pluralising Scholarship on Law and the Global Economy
International economic law, through an interdisciplinary and pluralistic law and development lens, can move international scholarship on the global economy beyond the doctrinal and provide a richer understanding of international economic law as both a source of regulation and legitimation of contemporary and dominant patterns of economic production, consumption and circulation.
As a methodology, taking a 'law and development' approach can challenge the formalism of conventional legal scholarship by moving beyond a concern with legal rules, interpretative practice and reflective jurisprudence towards understanding the drivers of law and legal reform and their effect on the ground, whether as a pathway to normative social ideals – for example, economic development, social cohesion, human security, gender empowerment, community justice, ecological sustainability or human rights – or as a social ideal in its own right (see for example, Vandenhole, 2018)
Contextual and critical traditions of L&D studies draw upon understandings of law as part of a broader 'ideological-institutional complex' (Pahuja, 2011) that structure law and society, in this case, international law and recognise the regulatory structures of the global economy as deeply embedded within local, national and global hierarchies of wealth, political power and its rules as outcomes of power struggles and local contests that reflect and reproduce these hierarchies. Law and development scholarship have intersected with the study of IEL in considering these contests and outcomes within a deeply embedded social field (Ashiagbor, 2018 and Perry-Kessaris, 2014). L&D approaches have also challenged the idea of law's neutrality problematise the use of 'development' as an organising principle in national and international law and for legal reform and institutional change in developing countries (see Eslava, 2015; Szablowski, 2007; Tan, 2011).
Law and Development as Critical Praxis
L&D approaches recognise the dynamic and constitutive relationship law establishes with economic activity and can provide an alternative systemisation of discourses and knowledge about legal, social, economic and political organisation and cultural formations that are empowering and which resist attempts to foreclose radical reform of asymmetrical relations within the global economy, including problematic patterns of production and consumption.
Critical traditions of L&D scholarship counter instrumentalist approaches to the study of law and the global economy by not only problematising the 'law' but also deconstructing the term 'development' and its use as organising principles of law and legal reform. These epistemological traditions can reflect a critical praxis for the law and development movement by a) exposing the underlying power dynamics and paradoxical social and economic asymmetries the structure the relationship between law and the global economy and law reform and economic development; and b) mobilising resistance against the entrenchment of global asymmetries via legal and institutional reforms.
These epistemologies are rooted in the agency of southern actors within the international economic architecture, viewing southern states and communities as subjects and not objects of international development interventions.
Scholarship that accords primacy to voices and experiences from the south as it speaks about the role and impact of law, including international economic law, within developing countries can redress the aforementioned 'methodological otherness' characterising IEL. Grounded ethnography of law and development challenges the prevailing narratives that international economic law can only be told through the perspectives of the states (western or otherwise) and transnational elites (see Eslava, 2015; Ochoa, 2017).
In doing so, these critical traditions challenge the essentialist positions not only of prevailing IEL scholarship and but also the mainstream approaches of law and development movement that centres on particular constructions of Euro-American legalism and conceptualisations of law, justice and rights and reclaim the infrastructure of knowledge, systems of classification and 'regimes of truth' about the third world (Tuhiwai-Smith, 2012: 33) that have historically structured economic and geopolitical relations between the north and south and legitimised normative intrusions into developing countries.
Here, they can serve as a critical praxis 'to decolonize the dominant and homogeneous forms of Western legal knowledge and present alternative and complimentary systems of knowing and existing beyond the Global North' (Darian-Smith, 2013). As methodologies, critical law and development studies can overcome the sociology of absences that de Sousa Santos uses to describe the deliberate exclusion and marginalisation of the third world as a constituency from the infrastructure of knowledge inasmuch as they are marginalised from the institutional and regulatory architecture of the global economy.
Celine Tan is Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for the Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE) at the University of Warwick.
Cite as: Celine Tan, "Beyond the 'Moments' of Law and Development. Law and Development Scholarship in a Globalized Economy", Völkerrechtsblog, 16 July 2018, doi: 10.17176/20180716-101313-0.
Celine Tan


Dr. Jessica Gottlieb joined the Bush School after earning her PhD in political science at Stanford University. She also holds a master's degree in economics from Stanford University. While at Stanford, Gottlieb received the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship and was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Center for Democracy Development and the Rule of Law.
Her research focuses on the political economy of development and, in particular, constraints to government accountability in new democracies. Her work falls into three themes: information asymmetries and voter coordination, informal institutions and clientelism, and the political implications of unequal gender norms. Much of her research has been in sub-Saharan Africa, where she has conducted field experiments, behavioral games, and surveys. She has published articles in the American Journal of Political Science, World Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, and World Development.
Gottlieb conducted a large field experiment in Mali, which found that low citizen expectations of politicians helps explain why free and fair elections fail to generate government accountability in this new democracy. With several co-PIs and as part of EGAP's Metaketa project, she led another large-scale information experiment around the 2015 elections in Benin. This project demonstrated that voters need to be able to coordinate with one another—or know that others are getting the same information—if they are going to use the new information about politicians at the ballot box. Gottlieb has worked on projects in Senegal examining the role of political intermediaries in influencing voter behavior and how voter coordination determines public good distribution by parties. She is presently working in Senegal and Nigeria on a new research agenda on the political economy of informality and taxation. Specifically, the project aims to understand how taxation mediates political behavior in the informal sector, the social and political constraints to formalizing informal firms, and the consequences of firm formalization on electoral behavior. Her work has also taken her to Guinea, Liberia, and the West Bank, where she trained and recruited educators and other professionals and managed survey teams. Prior to her doctoral studies, Gottlieb worked at the Center for Global Development on a project encouraging donors, country governments, and multilateral organizations to better learn what works in development through improved impact evaluation.
Gottlieb has taught courses on the political economy of development in Africa, field research methods, and political and economic institutions. She also led capstone projects to Benin and Qatar.


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Human Rights in Afghanistan
Afghanistan: Human rights must be guaranteed during Taleban talks
Human rights, including women's rights, must not be traded away or compromised during any reconciliation talks with the Taleban in Afghanistan, Amnesty International said on the eve of a London conference set to discuss deteriorating security conditions in the country.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, other leaders and foreign ministers are to discuss security arrangements in Afghanistan for the next two years, including reconciliation programmes to reintegrate so-called moderate elements of Taleban.
"Any discussions with the Taleban must include clear commitments that they will respect and promote the rights of the Afghan people," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director.
"The Taleban established a terrible record of violating human rights during their rule and they have done nothing since then to indicate they will act differently if they return to power."
"The policymakers gathered in London this week have to show that they will not sacrifice the well-being of the Afghan people at the altar of political and military expediency."
Similar deals with the Taleban in neighbouring Pakistan led to increased human rights violations in areas under Taleban control and a significant escalation in conflict and insecurity.
The Afghan government and insurgent groups must both adhere to Afghanistan's obligations under international human rights law and domestic law, Amnesty International said.
The Taleban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan have shown little regard for human rights and the laws of war, deliberately targeting civilians, launching indiscriminate suicide attacks in which civilians are killed and engaging in the wholesale destruction of girls' education.
According to UN figures, the Taleban were responsible for two thirds of the more than 2400 civilian casualties in Afghanistan last year, the bloodiest year yet since the fall of the Taleban.
In areas under their control, the Taleban have severely curtailed the rights of girls and women, including the denial of education, employment, freedom of movement and political participation and representation.
Afghan civil society groups, in particular women's groups, have voiced serious alarms about the prospect of ceding any type of political control to the Taleban.
"Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict are a positive step forward," said Sam Zarifi, "but the rights of the Afghan people must never be negotiated away.
"It is our experience that peace without justice or human rights is not real peace and could ultimately lead to further conflict."
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برچسبها: Amnesty for Afghanistan, Human rights, women's rights
UNAMA calls for safety first, as civilian casualties rise by 14% in 2009
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in conjunction with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), today called on all sides of Afghanistan's conflict to uphold their obligations under international law and minimize the impact of fighting on civilians. New statistics released by the UN mission showed that 2009 proved to be the deadliest year yet for civilians since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
The UN mission recorded 2,412 civilian casualties during 2009, up by 14 per cent from 2008 when the mission recorded 2,118 civilian deaths.
Of the 2,412 deaths reported last year, 1,630 (67%) were attributed to anti-Government elements while 596 (25%) were attributed to pro-Government forces. The remaining 186 deaths (8%) could not be attributed to any of the conflicting parties as they died as a result of cross fire or by unexploded ordinance. Ms Norah Niland, Chief Human Rights Officer said: "Anti-Government elements remain responsible for the largest proportion of civilian deaths, killing three times as many civilians as pro-Government forces.
It is vital that determined efforts are now made by the insurgency to put into effect the Taliban "Code of Conduct" that calls on them to protect the lives of civilians. "Civilian deaths caused by the armed opposition increased by 41 per cent between 2008 and 2009 from 1,160 to 1,630. Suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices caused more civilian casualties than any other tactic killing 1,054 civilians last year.
Civilians are also being deliberately assassinated, abducted and executed if they are perceived as being supportive of, or associated with, the Government or the international community. "At the same time during 2009 we saw a reduction in the number of civilian casualties caused by pro-Government forces by 28 per cent between 2008 and 2009. This decrease reflects measures taken by international military forces to reduce the risk posed by military operations on the civilian population.
"However despite positive trends, actions by pro-Government forces continued to take an adverse toll on civilians; we recorded 359 civilians killed during aerial attacks, which constitute 61 per cent of the number of civilian deaths attributed to pro-Government forces. International and Afghan security forces also conducted a large number of search and seizure operations. These often involved excessive use of force, destruction of property and cultural insensitivity, particularly towards women."
The UN mission also expressed concern on the location of military bases that are situated within, or close to, areas where civilians are concentrated saying that such bases increased the risks faced by civilians. Ms Niland underlined that all parties to the conflict have an obligation to avoid locating military assets, including personnel, in areas that put civilians at risk.
Ms Niland continued to say: "2009 has proven to be the worst year since the fall of the Taliban regime for civilians caught up in the armed conflict. The conflict has intensified and spread into areas that were previously considered safe. "Ensuring the safety and welfare of the civilian population must come first.
Anti-Government elements must realize that they too have obligations under international law while pro-Government forces must step up efforts to ensure that every measure is taken to protect civilians during the conduct of military operations. The United Nations calls for international law to be respected to minimise the impact of the conflict on civilians as we begin 2010." Notes to Editors
• The report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict in Afghanistan in 2009 is compiled in pursuance of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) mandate under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1868 (2009).
• UNAMA Human Rights undertakes a range of activities aimed at minimizing the impact of the conflict on civilians; this includes independent and impartial monitoring of incidents involving loss of life or injury to civilians and analysis of trends to identify the circumstances in which loss of life occurs.
• UNAMA Human Rights officers, deployed across Afghanistan, utilize a broad range of techniques to gather information on specific cases irrespective of location or who may be responsible. Such information is cross-checked and analyzed, with a range of diverse sources, for credibility and reliability to the satisfaction of the Human Rights officer conducting the investigation, before details are recorded in a dedicated database.
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برچسبها: 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, civilian casualties rise by 14% in 2009, Un in Afghanistan, UNAMA calls for safety
Embedded Canadian reporter becomes seventh woman journalist killed in 2009
Reporters Without Borders is shocked to learn that Canadian newspaper reporter Michelle Lang was killed yesterday in the southern province of Kandahar when a roadside bomb struck the Canadian military vehicle she was travelling in. Four Canadian soldiers were also killed.
"Lang's death just two days before the New Year is a cruel reminder of the dangers that journalists face in war zones," Reporters Without Borders said. "The growing number of cowardly, indiscriminate attacks by Islamist groups, not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan and Somalia, has greatly increased the dangers for reporters who take the risk of covering events close up."
"'We offer our sincerest condolences to Michelle Lang's family and condolences," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard and François Bugingo, the president of the organisation's Canadian section.
A total of 19 journalists, 11 of them foreign, have been killed in Afghanistan since 11 September 2001. Five of the victims, including Afghan journalist Zakia Zaki and French journalist Johanne Sutton, were women.
Lang, who worked for the Calgary Herald, was on her first assignment to Afghanistan and was embedded with the Canadian troops whose main base in is the extremely volatile province of Kandahar. She was riding in a Canadian military vehicle that was hit when a roadside bomb went off at around 4 p.m. yesterday.
She was the seventh woman journalist to be killed in 2009. Three of the others were Russian, including journalist and human rights investigator Natalia Estemirova, who was killed in Chechnya. The other three were among the 30 reporters who were killed in an election-related massacre in the southern Philippines on 23 November.
Radical Islamist groups have caused the death of at least 16 journalists worldwide. The Al-Shabaab militia in Somalia has stepped up its targeting killings and suicide bombings. At least nine journalists have been killed in Somalia, including four working for Radio Shabelle, a station that has tried to keep covering developments amid the chaos.
Reporters are also increasingly being targeted by the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan. And Faheem Siddiqi, a Pakistani reporter working for Geo TV, was badly injured in a suicide bombing on a procession marking the Shiite religious ceremony of Ashura in Karachi on 28 December.
برچسبها: Freedom of Exp, Michelle Lang killed in Afghanistan
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Syria dismisses HRW chemical weapons report as unprofessional and non-credible
Syria: The battle of combating terrorism continues until cleansing all Syrian lands
Syria categorically rejects Erdogan's statements on establishing a safe zone in northern of the country
Sabbagh: Countries that provided support to terrorists and enabled them possessing chemical weapons must be held accountable
Damascus, SANA – The Syrian government denies categorically the false allegations brought up in the report of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the Syrian forces and their allies used toxic substances in the operation to liberate Aleppo, an official source at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said on Wednesday.
"The fact that the Human Rights Watch organization relied on the terrorists' media sources and on absolutely non-credible false witnesses proves the lack of credibility of the report," the source said in a statement to SANA.
"This report comes to justify the terrorists' defeat and the victories of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies," the source added.
It dismissed the HRW report as "unprofessional" and "non-scientific" and based on distorting facts, stressing that the report will definitely lose ground when faced with any scientific study or legal evidence.
"The Syrian Arab Republic, which has met all its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, strongly condemns this misleading report that came out in implementation of Western agendas before the convening of meetings in Astana and Geneva and any other meetings that might be held later on the Syrian file," the Foreign Ministry source said.
The source reiterated Syria's condemnation of the use of toxic chemical weapons by any part, in any place and for any reason, stressing that all these allegations will not discourage it from continuing its war against the terrorist organizations and their backers.
H. Said
chemical weapons Chemical Weapons Convention Foreign and Expatriates Ministry HRW Human Rights Watch report Source 2017-02-15
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How is an Eyelid Lift (Blepharoplasty) performed?
This 53 year old patient had Upper Blepharoplasty or "eyelid lift" surgery with Dr. Anthony P. Lockwood. The after photographs you see were taken 4 months after her surgery.


Jerrold Nadler has 971 videos in the C-SPAN Video Library; the first appearance was a 1992 Congressional News Conference as a Democratic Representative for New York's 8th district. The year with the most videos was 2005 with 54 videos. The year with the highest average number of views per program was 2010 with an average of 9,927 views per program. Most appearances with Sheila Jackson Lee (23), Nancy Pelosi (19), John Conyers Jr. (16). Most common tags: Federal Budget, Intelligence, World Trade Center / Pentagon Attacks.
* The first paragraph of this page uses material from the Wikipedia article 'Jerry Nadler', which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Footnotes and parentheticals have been removed.


There were 602 press releases posted in the last 24 hours and 153,891 in the last 365 days.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I'm glad to have with us today [Senior State Department Official]. He's going to talk to us today on background about Secretary Pompeo's travel tomorrow to Mexico City. Again, this call will be on background. He will be referred to as a SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL. The contents of this call are embargoed until the end of the call.
And with that, I'll turn it over to [Senior State Department Official]. Thank you.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you, [Moderator]. And thanks to everyone who's joining us today.
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo will travel to Mexico City on Friday, July 13th to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto, Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray, and President-elect Lopez Obrador. This is an important trip scheduled at a key moment in our bilateral relationship. Secretary Pompeo will reaffirm the U.S. partnership with Mexico to combat transnational criminal organizations and address the opioid epidemic. He will also discuss efforts to enhance trade, curb irregular migration, and manage our shared border. The Secretary will discuss continued U.S.-Mexico cooperation with the Pena Nieto administration throughout the transition.
The United States also looks forward to working closely with President-elect Lopez Obrador to continue strengthening the U.S.-Mexico relationship after his new administration takes office on December 1.
Secretary Pompeo will travel to Mexico with a high-level U.S. delegation, including Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner, Secretary of Homeland Security Nielsen, and Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin. This delegation is noteworthy and a testament to the importance the administration and the United States places on the bilateral relationship.
Turning quickly to the trip schedule, Secretary Pompeo will fly down to Mexico City on Friday morning. After he lands, he will go directly to Los Pinos to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto. Following this meeting, he will meet with President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The Secretary will then meet with his counterpart, Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray, and participate in a joint press availability at the ministry of foreign affairs.
I want to emphasize the Secretary's visit is about the strength and importance of our ongoing cooperation with Mexico. The Mexican political transition is long in comparison to what we have here in the United States – about five months. So there's a lot of important work we will continue to do over the next months with the administration of President Pena Nieto.
The visit is also about our future relationship with the incoming government. President Trump had a very positive call with President-elect Lopez Obrador following the Mexican elections, and this trip will be a good opportunity to continue our conversation and to get to know each other.
Thank you. And with that, I'm happy to take your questions.
MODERATOR: Thank you. We'll take the first question.
OPERATOR: We have a question from the line of Elise Labott with CNN. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Thanks very much, [Senior State Department Official]. The first thing you mentioned in terms of the visit was – in terms of the bilateral relationship was combatting transnational criminal organizations. I'm wondering if in particular you're referring to MS-13, and also whether you're kind of suggesting that that's kind of the problem with the immigrant crisis that we're seeing right now. It seems as if there has been a little bit of a conflating with transnational crime and all of the immigrants that are coming in.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you for the question. Our effort to combat transnational criminal organizations in Mexico is directly linked to our concern about the opioid crisis in our country and the flow of drugs across our border. And so we will want to continue to work closely with the outgoing Mexican Government on those efforts and look forward to discussing that issue with the Mexican president-elect.
OPERATOR: We have a question from the line of Carol Morello with The Washington Post.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) talk with you briefly. I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the agenda, particularly whether you expect to be discussing a safe third party agreement. And with the inclusion of Secretary Mnuchin, does that suggest that you are going to be offering them some sort of a proposal? I was wondering what kind of incentives you might offer. And while you're at it, could you tell us if you plan – if they plan to discuss the border wall? Thanks.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you, Carol. The fact that the State Department, DHS, and Treasury, and the President's senior advisor Jared Kushner are traveling together shows that this is a whole-of-government approach and underscores the importance of our relationship with Mexico. There will be, as I outlined in my opening comments, a broad discussion of the ongoing issues and cooperation with the Pena Nieto administration, and I expect that we will want to ensure that the incoming administration is aware of those issues as well.
With regard to the specific items you raised, I think we'll have to wait to see how the meetings go.
MODERATOR: Thank you. We'll take the next question, please.
OPERATOR: We have a question from the line of Nike Ching with Voice of America. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you very much. Yes, my question is a follow-up on the safe third country discussion between the two countries. What is the incentive for Mexican Government to agree on such a deal, and would the United States consider providing financial aid to help Mexico settle new asylum seekers? Thank you.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you for that question. Again, as I said, we have a broad agenda related to this visit. Migration issues are an incredible, important, and complex issue that we are – that the administration is addressing. With respect to specific agreements, I would defer – I would refer you to the Department of Homeland Security that is taking the lead on those discussions.
OPERATOR: We have a question from the line of Susannah George with Associated Press. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi there. Thanks so much for doing this call. I was wondering if the Secretary of State or the Trump administration has found someone in the incoming – in the president-elect's circle who could act as a point person in the way that the Mexican foreign minister has acted over the past more than a year and a half now with regards to U.S.-Mexico relations.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you. As I stated, President Trump and the president-elect had a very positive phone call immediately after the Mexican elections, and this visit is to build and to move forward on that call and to begin previewing and reviewing the broad agenda we have with Mexico across the different areas such as migration, the commercial relationship. And so I expect that on this first visit tomorrow we will have a chance to meet the president-elect and members of his team and ensure they are aware of the depth and breadth of our relationship.
OPERATOR: We have a question from the line of Jesus Esquivel with Proceso magazine. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, my question is with regard to the – if there is any possibility that in this trip Secretary Pompeo will invite formally Andres Lopez Obrador, as president-elect, to have a meeting with President Trump in Washington or in another state inside of the United States.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I think that's an excellent question. I don't have anything for you on that. I will check into it.
OPERATOR: We have a question from the line of Daphne Psaledakis with Reuters. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing this. I wanted to ask if you are going to have any discussions on NAFTA and what kind of details you're looking to get moving forward, as well as what areas you see for cooperation with the Lopez Obrador administration given that he was elected with a landslide 53 percent of the vote, or will that make it more difficult to find agreement?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Daphne, thank you for that question. The United States is committed to a comprehensive NAFTA negotiation process that will modernize the agreement, establish 21st century standards, and advance fair and reciprocal trade. Our negotiators are working constantly with Canada and Mexico to make progress. There is an established channel that our three governors work through – our three governments work through regularly, and I'm not going to go into the details of ongoing negotiations at this time.
OPERATOR: The next question is from Carrie Kahn with NPR. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. Thank you. I wanted to know if there's any concern about the – what seems to be the new approach from the President-elect Lopez Obrador's campaign group, that he signaled that he's going to cancel the helicopter contract, the eight helicopters that were on line to be bought by – from Lockheed Martin, and also that he wants to talk more about poverty alleviation instead of joint military operations. Can you talk about your feelings about that and if you're concerned about this new approach?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yeah. With respect to the two issues that you asked about President-elect Lopez Obrador raising – with regard to the helicopter procurement, that is a Mexican Government process and action. I'd refer you to the Mexican Government on the status of that procurement. And as I said, we look forward to discussing every aspect of the U.S.-Mexico relationship on this trip. There's a broad range of issues that are of mutual interest to our country, to our countries. And I think the Secretary looks forward to spending some time tomorrow with President-elect Lopez Obrador and understanding his agenda.
OPERATOR: The next question is from the line of David Adams with Univision. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you very much. I just wanted to be clear to a previous question about transnational crime and MS-13. You mentioned that the concern of the administration is the – principally the opioid crisis in the country and the flow of drugs across the border. Were you saying that that's MS-13's responsibility, or is that transnational crime, or is that one and the same thing? I think some people would say that MS-13 – there's not a lot of evidence for MS-13's involvement in drug trafficking across the border.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I appreciate the question. Our two governments work to address the issue of narcotics trafficking through Mexico and across our southern border on a regular basis. Transnational criminal organizations are – there are many that're responsible for many different aspects of the drug trafficking problem. We look forward to working and continuing our work with the Mexican Government to address any and all transnational criminal organizations that are responsible for the heroin entering our country and creating the opioid crisis here.
MODERATOR: We'll take the next question, please.
OPERATOR: The next question is from the line of Tracy Wilkinson with the LA Times. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. Thank you. [Senior State Department Official], you talked about reinforcing the strength and importance of the ongoing relationship between Mexico and the United States, but the relationship has been so bad this last year and a half, I'm curious about whether – or where – you can find sources of a better understanding, a closer working relationship, anything. I mean, the two countries are in a trade war, tense NAFTA negotiations, a President who insults Mexico routinely. Where do you find a better venue or place for agreement and cooperation?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Tracy, I think the key issue here is that President Trump and President-elect Lopez Obrador had a very positive and constructive phone conversation after the Mexican elections. The whole goal of Secretary Pompeo's trip is to advance that positive agenda and to work with the Mexican Government across all of the issue areas where we can make progress on.
OPERATOR: The next question is from the line of Brett Fortnam with Inside U.S. Trade. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, and thanks for holding the call. On NAFTA, I notice there aren't any trade officials in the delegation. I was wondering why that was and if – what your response is to the chief NAFTA negotiator for the incoming Mexican Government saying that they would respect a deal negotiated by the Pena Nieto government. Is one expected to be finalized before the transition is complete?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Could you repeat the question? I'm not sure I understood it completely.
QUESTION: I was wondering – you mentioned at the top of the call that part of the discussions were going to be to enhance trade. But I noticed there weren't any high-ranking trade officials in the delegation. I was wondering why that was and to what extent NAFTA was going to be discussed and if it is possible to get a deal finalized before the Mexican transition is complete in December.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Okay. Thank you. Again, I want to emphasize that we have a high-level delegation with Senior White House Advisor Kushner on the trip, the DHS Secretary, the Treasury Secretary. This really is a traveling together demonstration of a whole-of-government U.S. approach to the important relationship with Mexico.
As you know, there are established channels that our three governments are working through regularly with regard to the NAFTA negotiation, and I'm really not going to go into the details of the ongoing negotiations. But I can say that Secretary Pompeo and the U.S. delegation will discuss every aspect of the U.S.-Mexico relationship on this trip – not just the commercial and economic matters, but also security, migration, and all the other issues of mutual interest of our country that we – between our countries that we continue to work on on a day-to-day basis.
MODERATOR: Thank you. We'll take the last question now, please.
OPERATOR: The last question is from Rosiland Jordan with Al Jazeera English. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. Thanks for the call. Will the Secretary have any time, one, to meet with any civil society groups? And two, do you know whether the Secretary is going to have an opportunity to deal with the question of corruption across various parts of the Mexican Government? Thank you.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you for that question. As I outlined at the beginning of the call, the Secretary will meet with President Pena Nieto, he will meet with President-elect Lopez Obrador, and he will met with Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray. We will, in those meetings, review the ongoing cooperation between our two governments and discuss the relationship with the president-elect. And the Secretary agenda is a very full one for tomorrow. Thank you.
MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today, and thank you to [Senior State Department Official] for the background call. We now lift the embargo and remind you that the speaker is – should be attributed as SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL. Thanks, everyone. Have a good afternoon.


Deep in the forest of Karnataka there are some pristine spots, largely untouched (yet). Jogigundi is one such lovely waterfall tucked in the wilderness of Agumbe. The Jogigundi Falls is located around 3 km from Agumbe. Situated on the way to the Barkana Falls, it can be reached by a small trek of around ~500 mts. When the conditions are right, you can also enjoy swimming in the turquoise green water. Even during the monsoon time, water was inviting and pretty refreshing from the afternoon heat.


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In the past, I have joked that I do not trust anyone whose YouTube suggestions do not include lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax/study to. Since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic, as we (privileged sheltered) have receded to our homes to continue day-to-day life, leisure, and work, we have adopted video calls as a primary means of communication1Simon Kemp, 'Report: Most Important Data on Digital Audiences during Coronavirus', Growth Quarters | The Next Web, 24 April 2020, … Jump to footnote. With the screen share function coming in handy across all popular video meeting platforms, we have all seen more of each others' web activity recently. And so, whether heading to YouTube to play an educational video for a class or simply sharing music socially, there has been more opportunity than ever to see who does and who does not boast that iconic image on their YouTube 'home page'; who has or hasn't spent time tuned in to the most popular channel playing a kind of music labelled lofi hip hop (thereby determining the ingroup and outgroup of the YouTube lofi hip hop camp). There's more to be said here about YouTube's recommendation algorithm, but I'll put that aside for another day.
The quintessential image of lofi hip hop, and basically the benchmark for good human beings.
Lofi hip hop is by now an established genre taking pride of place in YouTube's live radio and 'mix' categories, the latter term describing a curated playlist of songs uploaded as a single video (usually around an hour or longer in duration). The music has also been referred to as chillhop or referred to as lofi beats, with several variations on spelling like lo-fi and lo fi beats, though lofi is far and away the most common name, sometimes as a standalone label. It's an ambiguous term, considering the genre relies entirely on digital technologies for both its production (almost always using DAWs) and consumption (streaming video online from YouTube). After all, the inverse term hifi – high-fidelity – was first used to describe technological advances in audio quality2Keir Keightley, '"Turn It down!" She Shrieked: Gender, Domestic Space, and High Fidelity, 1948-59', Popular Music 15, no. 2 (1996): 149–77.. Nonetheless, the people have spoken, and this style of hip hop sounds sufficiently low-fidelity, especially due to analogue-inspired audio imperfections such as white noise, vinyl hiss and crackle, and cassette tape pitch-wavering (most often produced through 'high-tech' – which is to say digital – means)3Adam Harper, 'Lo-Fi Aesthetics in Popular Music Discourse' (DPhil Thesis in Musicology, Oxford, University of Oxford, 2014), 371..
Method and Scope
This blog post presents some in-progress research into lofi hip hop as a digital-native phenomenon (that is, something born – and continues to thrive – in the digital domain). A fantastic introduction to the genre has been published by Emma Winston and Laurence Saywood4Emma Winston and Laurence Saywood, 'Beats to Relax/Study To: Contradiction and Paradox in Lofi Hip Hop', IASPM Journal 9, no. 2 (24 December 2019): 40–54., which I would highly recommend to any uninitiated readers. Here, I focus on the most recent chapter in the life of lofi, examining changes in discourse during the novel coronavirus pandemic. My precise research question is: (how) has discussion on lofi hip hop changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic?
This study forms part of a series of posts testing out a word frequency method using the software Mozdeh. For more on methodology, please see my previous post here – note that this time I am comparing two subsets of texts by date rather than texts associated with commenter gender. By studying the words audiences use in commentary on the music in question, I aim to determine the values they hold. The text association comparison follows a standard thematic analysis procedure, which I support with more conventional cultural readings. This dual approach forms part of Digital Flows' methodological innovation, combining data-scientific methods with close critical analysis. This post is the first of two I'll write on lofi during COVID-19, since the study revealed several important findings, and I want to keep the post length manageable.
The representative sample of lofi hip hop selected for this research comprises 30 YouTube mixes published between 2016 and 2020. Combined, they have half a billion views5482.1 million views as of 17 December 2020, with some rounding. The videos individually range from 3.2 to 51.1 million views, with extreme disparities in the ratios of views to comments. There are approximately 367k combined comments.. Uploaders include ChilledCow, the bootleg boy, Homework Radio and Chillhop Music. Although I borrow its title for this post and it has a considerable number of comments, I excluded "chill beats to quarantine to", uploaded by actor and musician Will Smith to promote Bel-Air Athletics merchandise. My reasoning was that a video making such specific mention of COVID-19 measures – and posted by a well-known figure – would generate anomalous commentary and add unnecessary noise to the sample. Note that no radio-style, live-streamed YouTube videos were used, because this format disables static comments preserved on the page in favour of a live chat function where comments cross the screen in realtime. As such, text is not as easily accessible or archivable by viewers of the public webpage (instead stored privately, one would expect, by Google).
The mixes were selected for having a high quantity of comments (at least 4k, up to 34k) and a range of musical and semantic signifiers that are associated with lofi hip hop. Given the memes that circulate around the genre title, here are some quick insights on the mix titles: two thirds (20) of them used the word "lofi", half (14) used "hip hop" and/or "chill", and around a third (9) made some mention of time (e.g., "2 A.M.", "late night"). The term "study" was mentioned in a third of titles (9), as was "beats" (8) and "jazz" (8). Five video titles used aesthetic text (more on this in the next blog post). As an indicative lofi mix title, Feardog Music captured most of the common keywords with the video "3:30 a.m. ~ lofi hip hop / jazzhop / chillhop mix [study/sleep/homework music]". These terms have gained cultural popularity to the extent that Australian clothing company Cool Shirtz has taken to printing (and in December 2020 had sold out of) t-shirts with a pastiche of Universal Music Group's Now That's What I Call Music compilations.
© 2020 COOL SHIRTZ. Text memes about lofi video titles circulated on discussion platforms like Tumblr long before commercialisation in formats like this.
I collected 97k comments posted prior to March 2020 and 85k comments posted in the subsequent nine months (between 1 March 2020 and 27 November 2020), a period which included government-ordered lockdowns affecting half of the global population6Gerry F. Killeen and Samson S. Kiware, 'Why Lockdown? Why National Unity? Why Global Solidarity? Simplified Arithmetic Tools for Decision-Makers, Health Professionals, Journalists and the General Public to Explore Containment Options for the 2019 … Jump to footnote. Although provinces in mainland China announced quarantine measures in January and the WHO did not declare COVID-19 a pandemic until 11th March, many major countries launched lockdowns throughout March. 1st March was chosen as the cutoff point as a neat division between pre-pandemic conditions and the current period, which includes a number of ongoing public health measures. Given that YouTube is an American platform, lofi hip hop is predominantly communicated and commented on in English, and it is fair to assume that the audiences generally reside in English-speaking countries and other territories with high levels of internet connectivity and streaming platform use (USA, India, UK, Germany, France).
The prominence of the proposed function – beats to study/relax to – is worth some attention. There has been widespread commentary on the implications of this elision, as though studying and relaxing are interchangeable activities (or at least benefit from similar accompaniment)7Adam Harper, 'What Is Lo-Fi? A Genealogy of a Recurrent Term in the Aesthetics of Popular Music Production' (Research Seminar, City University London, 9 December 2020); Michael Wu, 'What Are Lofi Hip Hop Streams, and Why Are They So … Jump to footnote. Moreover, the conversations about homework and academic expectation that play out in the live chat indicate a large student audience attempting to relax while studying, playing the music as a means of enhancing periods of high-pressure and anxiety-provoking academic work. Rather than high-octane music used for 'motivation', lofi purports to offer the opposite. It resolves to calm the listener, as the pairing of study/relax alludes to seeking a more relaxed form of studying. Lofi hip hop is clearly a tool employed effectively by students while working, a practice which may have proliferated when COVID-19 caused many educational institutions, especially colleges and universities, to transition to virtual forms of engagement8Olasile Babatunde Adedoyin and Emrah Soykan, 'Covid-19 Pandemic and Online Learning: The Challenges and Opportunities', Interactive Learning Environments (2 September 2020): 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1813180.. It is worth examining how lofi's student audience has been affected.
Essentially, I was interested to see whether discourse on lofi hip hop has changed since the pandemic became a fact of everyday life, so I compared the texts posted before March 2020 with those appearing after in order to determine statistically significant differences in the proportions of words used in comments. Reading the terms that had substantially increased and declined in popularity revealed a variety of changes in the contexts of listening, conventions of lofi discourse, and emotional expressions. This post focuses on the first of these: how listeners discussed the circumstances of their engagement with the videos. In a Dazed article profiling the genre, Kemi Alemoru points out that the collective sentiments of the YouTube comments on lofi mixes are (by YouTube's standards) "uncharacteristically friendly" and that commenters form a "therapeutic community"9Kemi Alemoru, 'Inside YouTube's Calming "Lofi Hip Hop Radio to Relax/Study to" Community', Dazed, 14 June 2018, https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/40366/1/youtube-lo-fi-hip-hop-study-relax-24-7-livestream-scene.. Similarly and more specifically, Winston and Saywood note the prevalence of listeners sharing "confessions and worries", as well as the "relative anonymity and consequence-free interactions between strangers" that facilitate acts of "interpersonal care"10Winston and Saywood, 'Beats to Relax/Study To', 50.. Given that the comment sections are typically emotionally expressive, interactive, and mutually supportive, and that the pandemic has prompted significantly more use of online spaces for interpersonal communication, I was keen to find out whether such conventions would be altered by the pandemic conditions, and if so, in what ways. Here's what I discovered.
Themes: Listening Context
It should come as no surprise that there were many more discussions related to COVID-19 during the pandemic than there were prior to its onset. The terms "quarantine", "corona", "covid", "virus", "pandemic", "coronavirus", "lockdown", and "covid-19" appeared in the sample with extreme statistical significance (in order from most to least significant: "covid-19" appears about a tenth as commonly as "quarantine"). There were hardly any mentions of each of these terms before 1 March 2020 – "covid", "pandemic", and "lockdown" do not appear even once – compared to hundreds of uses in the subsequent period. The most popular term, "quarantine", emphasises the social effects and personal implications of the pandemic, generating at least 500 comments in which listeners report their specific circumstances11All example texts are paraphrased, or cut up and rearranged, to preserve poster anonymity. I rarely introduce entirely new words so that a faithful portrait of the sentiments expressed in lofi commentary is maintained.:
'This made me think of better times before the quarantine'
'Listening to this in quarantine'
'I'm so lonely now my city's gone into quarantine'
The melancholy tone is characteristic of lofi discourse, with a notable presence of nostalgia. A number of comments express gratitude for the music bringing comfort or improving relaxation during lockdown periods. There were relatively few comments on the reasons for quarantine, such as preventative measures or discussion of the virus itself, which suggests the audience to be accepting the orders as a fact of contemporary life (though the occasional "fuck quarantine" does appear). More technical terms like government, state, and transmission did not appear in statistically significant proportions of comments before or after March.
The word "stay" saw a large increase in usage (more significant even than "covid-19")12When I read this back, it seemed erroneous, so I checked the stats. "Covid-19" previously appeared in 0% of texts (0 mentions) and appears in 0.0686% of texts after 1 March (58 mentions). "Stay" jumped from 0.9457% (921) to 1.3821% (1168), … Jump to footnote, likely because it carries several meanings relevant to the pandemic. It has long been a word in common use across lofi comment sections, however: the phrase "stay awake" was often posted by tired students and "stay alive" was advocated by emotionally supportive participants. During the pandemic, the phrases "stay safe" – either as a genial expression or personal desire – and "stay inside" – as a recommendation or received instruction – have also become prevalent. Notably, these uses "stay" are fairly conversational expressions, implying commenters responding to one another. In the following blog post, I'll make some more in-depth inferences about how interpersonal discussions have changed during the pandemic. In any case, I should note that "stay" has a very broad range of uses beyond the few common ones I've highlighted, frequently appearing when listeners report their current circumstances or state of mind more generally, as in "still staying at home", "I just want to stay in bed", or "trying to stay chill".
As well as positioning oneself in the specific circumstances of the pandemic, lofi listeners increasingly report periods of study accompanied by the YouTube mixes. A range of associated terms speak to the pervasiveness of studying while listening: "online", "doing", "module", "assignment", "study", "finished", "homework", "studying", "session", and "classes". Although lofi videos have customarily advertised the benefits of 'beats to study to', this appears to have become much more common during the pandemic, as listeners increasingly discuss putting music to this very use. While "doing" would seem too broad to consistently indicate education, it almost always occurs in relation to another word in this theme, especially "online school" or "online class". This makes sense. Many students are working from home during lockdowns and have unprecedented control over their background music: they might enjoy a lofi mix while on a video call for a lesson or lecture, for instance, a privilege likely denied in a physical classroom. The term "school" has only become ever so slightly more popular, and is not even close to the benchmark for statistical significance13All terms quoted as significant in this article use p≤0.001., evidencing the novelty and ubiquity of "online" learning in particular.
With education primarily taking place remotely, there is a lot of "homework" done (or at least reported) by lofi's listener base. Granted, this was conventional for lofi pre-pandemic, though the public health measures find commenters making more mention of it than ever before. I was struck by the personal organisation and time management implied by some of the terminology, as people frequently write about a "module" or "session" (supposedly commenting after study to mark their completion of a study period – high levels of discipline, too!). The use of such formal time divisions invites further analysis. Presently, there might be a popular conception that remote school and university learning enables students to pay less attention and get by without putting in much effort. For instance, The Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University released a report on "Estimates of Learning Loss" and USA Today recently reported "alarming numbers of kids falling behind, failing classes or not showing up at all"14Erin Richards, 'Students Are Falling behind in Online School. Where's the COVID-19 "disaster Plan" to Catch Them Up?', USA Today, 14 December 2020, … Jump to footnote. Putting aside how these institutions undoubtedly amplify the pressure placed on students to meet arbitrary benchmarks, it is worth noting that concerns about cyber-slacking long precede the widespread rush to distance education15Li Li and Scott Titsworth, 'Student Misbehaviors in Online Classrooms: Scale Development and Validation', American Journal of Distance Education 29, no. 1 (2 January 2015): 41–55, https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2015.994360; Aakash Taneja, … Jump to footnote.
However, instead of learning less, the students using lofi hip hop are more expressive than ever about the work they are getting done in this period: the term "module" had 3 total references prior to March compared to 152 mentions after. This might simply emphasise the novel structure of virtual learning environments, but it is still a striking increase indicating where commenters' attention is directed. At least twice as many commenters took to the comments to report being "finished" with a chunk of work during the first 9 months of the pandemic compared to the three years prior. For what it's worth, I don't have any evidence to suggest a causal link between the use of lofi and actual student productivity, although it seems intuitive that students would benefit from the ability to customise their environment to suit their learning preferences. This applies at least to those with the privilege of home computer access and who submit their thoughts to the public forum to celebrate (for example) "another online module finished!".
Further challenging the narrative of the pandemic as an early and extended summer break, it may be the case that students are generally spending more time studying under COVID-19 conditions.
The lofi audience, at least, appears to be taking more responsibility for their own learning, perhaps due to anxieties about 'keeping up' with class. There is a clear precedent for this commitment to productivity and schoolwork (or other educational labour) in the community, which Winston and Saywood associate with the social frame of Jonathan Crary's "24/7 capitalism"16Jonathan Crary, 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep (London: Verso Books, 2014).. They describe lofi hip hop as a fitting soundtrack to a (principally U.S.) context where the time spent in school and doing homework has continuously increased since the 1980s, and where periods of time formerly used for leisure and relaxation (especially, I would note, evenings) have been filled with more work17Winston and Saywood, 'Beats to Relax/Study To', 49.. As distance learning boasts various capacities for surveillance – consider Zoom's controversial attention monitoring feature18Zoom removed this feature in April, although competitors like GoToWebinar retain it., or virtual learning environments' activity completion tracking – it is clear to see how greater demands for work are regulated, a convention likely intensified by the pandemic, as manifested in the lofi comment sections with its abundant references to "doing", "homework", "studying", and "classes". That said, the organised implications of a study "session" or "module" that I raised above imply that students are successfully putting boundaries around periods of study accompanied, of course, by lofi beats.
If quarantine and studying have largely been occupying the minds of commenters in the last 9 months, it follows that there are fewer references to other distinct times and places. Indeed, the terms "night", "Monday", and "summer" were much more frequent prior to the pandemic. The declining use of the term "night" might be surprising in the face of cultural commentary pointing out how uncanny the passing of time has felt and how poor sleep practices have been exacerbated since March, not to mention ongoing research into sleep quality as a public health concern. Taken together, these perspectives imply that more individuals are awake at nighttime (even if they are looking for 'beats to sleep to'). However, lofi's audience has significantly reduced reports of listening late at night (e.g., 'It's 1am here, a perfect night to forget about everything'), and on Mondays, in line with the declining popularity of the 2017 video titled "early monday mornings".
Memes exemplifying the general mood of timelessness and screen use that imply declining sleep hygiene.
There has also been less reflection on "summer", despite this word appearing in many nostalgic texts both before and during 2020, (e.g., posts to the effect of 'this takes me back to the summer of 2015'). It would be fair to assume that listeners' memories of simpler and more innocent times might be more common now, but this is not reflected in the commentary. A simple explanation is that attention is so focused on COVID-19 and its associated terms that the pandemic takes precedence in commenters' thoughts: for instance, a user might write "I'm still awake listening in lockdown" rather than "I'm still awake listening late at night". Interestingly, the word "during" appears much more frequently since March 2020, and it works in context with many of the terms that have appeared in this section: 'listening during quarantine', 'on in the background during my classes on zoom', 'this kept me going during hours of homework'. Such comments appear to serve a purpose of recording current feelings and/or diarising, with sentiments frequently shared by the wider community. These range from the trivial – essentially, 'who else is using these "beats to study to" to study to?' – to the strikingly specific, where one finds microfiction like:
'these comments are giving me loads of comfort during a really shit time. You are all lighting up this dark place I feel like I'm in. I'm supposed to be studying for my math exam but I couldn't stop crying. Now it's 2am and all I can hear is this calming music, and it's putting me in a much better mood'.
Jotting down thoughts like this can be considered a form of digital lifelogging19Stefan Selke, ed., Lifelogging: Digital Self-Tracking and Lifelogging – between Disruptive Technology and Cultural Transformation (Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 2016), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-13137-1_3., a particularly significant practice during the exceptional circumstances introduced by COVID-19. Comments that position individual expressions in time and place act as a kind of chronicling, accruing to a record of cultural responses to the pandemic. Individuals in the lofi audience seem eager to acknowledge their environments and publicly attest to their living through this notable period, often in the form of questions ('who else is listening in quarantine?'). Perhaps this kind of expression acts as self-affirmation or aims to stave off loneliness. More on this in the subsequent post!
This blog post analysed a sample of around 182k comments on lofi hip hop YouTube mixes to determine changes in commentary during the first 9 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between March and December 2020, commenters more often described the current contexts of their lofi listening (compared to before the pandemic), emphasising quarantine/lockdown circumstances and the use of lofi mixes while attending online school and doing homework . References to other specific times, such as "night" and "summer", reduced in this period as the social effects of COVID-19 took centre stage. The second half of this post will present other themes in January 2021, analysing lofi as a genre and community – as revealed by differences in commentary prior to and during the pandemic – in addition to considering the changing role of emotional expression among the lofi audience.
Click me for part 2!
↑1 Simon Kemp, 'Report: Most Important Data on Digital Audiences during Coronavirus', Growth Quarters | The Next Web, 24 April 2020, https://thenextweb.com/growth-quarters/2020/04/24/report-most-important-data-on-digital-audiences-during-coronavirus/; Ella Koeze and Nathaniel Popper, 'The Virus Changed the Way We Internet', The New York Times, 7 April 2020, sec. Technology, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/technology/coronavirus-internet-use.html; Minh Hao Nguyen et al., 'Changes in Digital Communication During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic: Implications for Digital Inequality and Future Research', Social Media + Society 6, no. 3 (9 September 2020), https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120948255.
↑2 Keir Keightley, '"Turn It down!" She Shrieked: Gender, Domestic Space, and High Fidelity, 1948-59', Popular Music 15, no. 2 (1996): 149–77.
↑3 Adam Harper, 'Lo-Fi Aesthetics in Popular Music Discourse' (DPhil Thesis in Musicology, Oxford, University of Oxford, 2014), 371.
↑4 Emma Winston and Laurence Saywood, 'Beats to Relax/Study To: Contradiction and Paradox in Lofi Hip Hop', IASPM Journal 9, no. 2 (24 December 2019): 40–54.
↑5 482.1 million views as of 17 December 2020, with some rounding. The videos individually range from 3.2 to 51.1 million views, with extreme disparities in the ratios of views to comments. There are approximately 367k combined comments.
↑6 Gerry F. Killeen and Samson S. Kiware, 'Why Lockdown? Why National Unity? Why Global Solidarity? Simplified Arithmetic Tools for Decision-Makers, Health Professionals, Journalists and the General Public to Explore Containment Options for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus', Infectious Disease Modelling 5 (1 January 2020): 442–58, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idm.2020.06.006.
↑7 Adam Harper, 'What Is Lo-Fi? A Genealogy of a Recurrent Term in the Aesthetics of Popular Music Production' (Research Seminar, City University London, 9 December 2020); Michael Wu, 'What Are Lofi Hip Hop Streams, and Why Are They So Popular?', Study Breaks, 2 December 2018, https://studybreaks.com/culture/music/lofi-hip-hop-streams-popular/; Winston and Saywood, 'Beats to Relax/Study To', 49.
↑8 Olasile Babatunde Adedoyin and Emrah Soykan, 'Covid-19 Pandemic and Online Learning: The Challenges and Opportunities', Interactive Learning Environments (2 September 2020): 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1813180.
↑9 Kemi Alemoru, 'Inside YouTube's Calming "Lofi Hip Hop Radio to Relax/Study to" Community', Dazed, 14 June 2018, https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/40366/1/youtube-lo-fi-hip-hop-study-relax-24-7-livestream-scene.
↑10 Winston and Saywood, 'Beats to Relax/Study To', 50.
↑11 All example texts are paraphrased, or cut up and rearranged, to preserve poster anonymity. I rarely introduce entirely new words so that a faithful portrait of the sentiments expressed in lofi commentary is maintained.
↑12 When I read this back, it seemed erroneous, so I checked the stats. "Covid-19" previously appeared in 0% of texts (0 mentions) and appears in 0.0686% of texts after 1 March (58 mentions). "Stay" jumped from 0.9457% (921) to 1.3821% (1168), which is a more statistically significant jump according to the Bejamini-Hochberg procedure.
↑13 All terms quoted as significant in this article use p≤0.001.
↑14 Erin Richards, 'Students Are Falling behind in Online School. Where's the COVID-19 "disaster Plan" to Catch Them Up?', USA Today, 14 December 2020, https://eu.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/education/2020/12/13/covid-online-school-tutoring-plan/6334907002/; The Center for Research on Education Outcomes, 'Estimates of Learning Loss in the 2019-2020 School Year' (Stanford University, October 2020), https://credo.stanford.edu/publications/estimates-learning-loss-2019-2020-school-year.
↑15 Li Li and Scott Titsworth, 'Student Misbehaviors in Online Classrooms: Scale Development and Validation', American Journal of Distance Education 29, no. 1 (2 January 2015): 41–55, https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2015.994360; Aakash Taneja, Vincent Fiore, and Briana Fischer, 'Cyber-Slacking in the Classroom: Potential for Digital Distraction in the New Age', Computers & Education 82 (1 March 2015): 141–51, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.11.009.
↑16 Jonathan Crary, 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep (London: Verso Books, 2014).
↑18 Zoom removed this feature in April, although competitors like GoToWebinar retain it.
↑19 Stefan Selke, ed., Lifelogging: Digital Self-Tracking and Lifelogging – between Disruptive Technology and Cultural Transformation (Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 2016), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-13137-1_3.
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Detailed Itinerary Vatican in a Day Tour with Sistine Chapel
Enjoy the fine art and deep religious history
5 / 5 See All 99 Reviews · 5.0h 13 max · Vatican, Italy
This five hour complete Vatican tour includes skip the line tickets, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and hidden gems that include the Pinacoteca and Papal Tombs. Make the most of your time in Vatican City.
Skip the line Vatican tickets
Gallery of the Candelabra
Gallery of the Tapestries
Gallery of Maps
Borgia Apartments
St. Peter's Basilica
La Pietà by Michelangelo
Baldacchino by Bernini
Laocoön and His Sons
Nero's Bath
Belvedere Torso
Pinecone Courtyard
The Underground Crypts
Vatican Pinacoteca
If you're a major art history nerd or history buff and you want to experience the Vatican Museums as in-depth as possible, this is the best Vatican tour for you. On the Detailed Itinerary Vatican Tour, skip the regular entrance line and visit the best highlights and hidden gems of the Vatican Museums. With the help of a passionate Vatican guide, learn the most interesting and bizarre stories related to the Vatican City State, the popes, the collections housed at the Vatican Museums. This five-hour tour includes:
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel
Skip the line early access Vatican Museums tickets
A professional English-speaking guide
Skip the line entrance to St. Peter's Basilica
Some delays at the security check may occur during the busiest months, June and July. We do, however, have a team of experts at the Vatican every morning to help our groups avoid delays as much as possible.
If you wish to stay in the Vatican Museums toward the end of your tour, you must forgo the guided visit to St. Peter's Basilica. If you choose to do this, you'll lose the chance to use the special entrance to St. Peter's Basilica from the Sistine Chapel and skip the lines with your guide. If you decide to leave the tour early, remember to return your headset to the tour guide.
Want to skip the line at the Vatican without having a guided tour? Click here for skip the line Vatican tickets.
COMPARE ALL VATICAN TOURS
Michelangelo's Masterpiece - The Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel is one of the most famous sites in the world due to the monumental fresco paintings that cover the walls and ceiling. If you book this Detailed Itinerary Vatican tour in the morning, it includes early access privileges. This means you get to visit the Sistine Chapel before it's open to the general public. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the Sistine Chapel is located inside the Vatican Museums.
The private chapel of the pope, this is also where cardinals from around the world gather to elect a new pope. Now restored, every detail and color in the frescoes is easily admired. The best way to see the chapel is by entering as early as possible. Consequently, this is why an early access, skip the line Vatican tour is your best option to experience Michelangelo's masterpiece.
The Sistine Chapel is a place of worship, therefore, speaking inside is not allowed. Since our guide cannot explain the frescoes while you are inside, we explain the chapel in advance and provide you with a map/handout for reference before you enter. Men and women must cover their knees and shoulders before entering. We understand the summers in Rome get hot, a good alternative is to bring a scarf or shawl to cover up with before you enter.
The Vatican Pinacoteca
One of the most rewarding rooms at the Vatican Museums is the Pinacoteca, also known as the Vatican Art Gallery. Arranged through a series of rooms, in chronological order and divided by art school, the Pinacoteca is home to some of the most impressive paintings in the Vatican. Get up close and personal to a total of 460 works of art, painted by the likes of Caravaggio, Raphael, Titian and Leonardo. The Pinacoteca (Picture Gallery) is one of the more modern sections of the Vatican Museums. This is why it's often overlooked by other Vatican tours. Not for you though, you get to experience it all!
The Carriage Pavilion
Another hidden gem of the Vatican, rarely visited by Vatican tours, is the Carriage Pavilion. This underground exhibit houses an impressive collection of historical vehicles used by different popes, including a Fiat Campagnola. This Fiat is known around the world because this is where Pope John Paul II was standing on the day of his attempted assassination in St. Peter's Square back in 1981. The collection also contains three Popemobiles and the Renault 4 donated to Pope Francis in 2013.
Pio-Clementino Museum Tour
Next up is a visit to the Bramante Courtyard. Designed by Bramante Lazzari, this part of the Vatican Museums is home to the "Apollo Belvedere", "Laocoön and His Sons" and the "Belvedere Torso". Learn about the myths and legends associated with these iconic sculptures, before visiting the biggest and oldest bathtubs in existence. Nero's Bathtub measures an incredible 25 feet in diameter. The massive tub is made from a rare red marble so precious, there's no way to recreate it again.
Cabinet of the Masks
Deep inside the Pio Clementino museum, locked away in a guarded room, sits one of the Vatican's best kept secrets: The Cabinet of Masks. Most visitors to the Vatican miss out on the beautiful mosaics and frescoes kept here, but we've worked hard to grant you special VIP access to this spectacular feature. With a mosaic taken directly from the Villa of Emperor Hadrian, the Cabinet of Masks receives few visitors. It's truly one of the Vatican's best-kept secrets.
Top Three Vatican Galleries
Explore the Gallery of the Candelabra, Gallery of the Tapestries and our personal favorite, the Gallery of the Maps. Back in the day, pontiffs rarely left Rome. In order to explore the Italian peninsula without endangering his life, Pope Gregory XIII commissioned 40 giant meticulous maps. Most of these maps measure more than 15 by 16 feet, and the end result is nothing short of spectacular.
Raphael, one of the most famous Renaissance artists, designed and frescoed a series of papal apartments now called the Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms). One of the most celebrated works on display here is the "School of Athens" - a painting that represents a gathering of the greatest mathematicians, philosophers and scientists. In an early version of a selfie, Raphael included himself in the painting.
Downstairs from the Raphael Rooms and occupied by Borgia Pope Alexander VI, these private chambers were frescoed by early Renaissance artist Pinturicchio. A co-pupil of Raphael's under master Perugino, Pinturicchio had a penchant for embedding fake jewels and other three dimensional objects like metal saddle studs in his frescoes. The Borgia Apartments also contain another hidden gem - the first European depiction of Native Americans.
St. Peter's Basilica and the Papal Tombs
Except on Wednesdays
Skip the lines to St. Peter's Basilica and enter through a special door to enter the most opulent church in the world. Once inside, admire celebrated artwork including the Baldacchino, La Pieta, the Statue of St. Peter and more. Then, go underneath the church's floors to visit the tombs of hundreds of Popes, as well as a Swedish Queen who converted to Roman Catholicism. Learn the stories behind some of the most fascinating leaders of the Roman Catholic church, as you visit their final resting places. Please note: if your Vatican tour lands on a Wednesday, St. Peter's is not open for tours. This is because Papal Mass takes place on Wednesday mornings.
Remember, it isn't possible to return to the Vatican Museums from St. Peter's Basilica. If you want more time inside the museums, you must forgo the guided tour of the basilica. Also, if you'd like to stay in St. Peter's Basilica longer, don't leave with the guide to take photos in the piazza. Because the security line is long and re-entry on your own is not recommended, we suggest you stay inside St. Peter's and explore on your own after the tour concludes.
What you get with this tour
Vatican tickets included
Skip the Line
Very Detailed Tour
If you are seeking a single tour that will give you all of the info, show you all of the sights, and cover all of the highlights, this is your tour. It was a long tour, but that's required if you want to see Vatican City's points of interest in one visit. Totally worth it!
Kevin Leitch
Could not have asked for a better experience. Thorough and enjoyable. We learned so much and enjoyed every minute. It's a long tour, so I suggest bringing a snack to eat, but it was absolutely worth it. As for the way this business is run, I had several questions and The Tour Guy got back to me quickly and answered all my questions I had. Would 100% recommend this tour and this business!
Morgan Lentini
Our tour guide was incredibly experienced, informative, and knowledgeable! Her enthusiasm enhanced our experience and we would definitively recommend this tour to anyone visiting The Vatican.
In front of Caffé Vaticano – on Viale Vaticano, 100. This is across the street from the Vatican Museum Entrance. A representative will be there holding a sign with our company name on it.
The Vatican dress code dictates you cover your knees and shoulders. If you do not meet the dress code, you may be denied entry! No need to dress like the people living there, covering your knees and shoulders is sufficient. Wear comfortable shoes.
Is there a dress code to enter the religious sites on this tour?
We ask both men and women to cover knees and shoulders, otherwise you may be refused entry to religious sites and miss out on a portion of your tour. We understand the summers in Rome can be hot, so a great alternative is to bring a shawl/scarf/sweater with you. That way, you can cover your knees and shoulders when necessary.
Is there a way to see the Vatican without a guided tour?
Of course. Click here for skip the line Vatican tickets.
I have some doubts about my mobility. Is this tour right for me?
If you have any doubts about your mobility, we strongly suggest you take a private Vatican tour.
What are the chances my tour will be canceled or the Vatican will close something?
We run the tour rain or shine all year round. Although it is rare, sometimes part of the Vatican City closes for special religious events. If an area normally covered on a tour is closed, our guide will still provide explanations of the closed areas from outside. Plus, we will show you an extra site or gallery to compensate.
Does the tour go inside at 7:30 am without waiting in any lines?
As an accredited tour operator we do not have to wait in the ticket line, but we still have to wait in a security line. For this reason, we leave the meeting point as early as possible and get in the security line reserved for tour operators. The doors open for us at 8 am, an hour before the general public.
Does this tour always include St. Peter's Basilica?
St. Peter's Basilica is closed on Wednesday's in the morning due to the papal audience. We still run the tour because it might be your only day in Rome! Instead, we visit some of the most iconic statues in the world and Emperor Nero's enormous marble bathtub.
Total: $120.94 as low as $108.84
1 x Adults
Adults $120.94
Youth (6-17) $102.79
Child (5 & under) $0.00
24-hr cancellation on group tours! Learn more about our cancellation policy
Reserve Now $120.94 as low as $108.84
$120.94 as low as $108.84
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