Dr Tatsuma Padoan publishes special issue on "The Inventiveness of Tradition" for Versus, the journal founded in 1971 by Umberto Eco

This special issue critically engages with The Invention of Tradition debate initiated in 1983 by E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger. 

Dr Tatsuma Padoan has co-edited a special issue for the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Versus: Journal of Semiotics, founded in 1971 by Umberto Eco:

Padoan, Tatsuma, and Mangiapane, Francesco (eds.) (2025) The Inventiveness of Tradition, in Versus VS: Quaderni di Studi Semiotici, 1: 1–124.

https://www.rivisteweb.it/issn/0393-8255/issue/9838

In contrast to the idea of "invented tradition" famously advocated in this debate - as a fabricated claim of authenticity unmasked by Western historians - and in line with M. Sahlins's counter-argument on the "inventiveness of tradition", this special issue shows how 'culture' and 'tradition' might be better conceptualised as processes of invention, based not so much on true/false criteria, but on the principles of creativity and efficacy. Using semiotic, anthropological, media and cultural studies perspectives, the volume convincingly reframes the concept of tradition in film, tourism, arts, music, food, and public discourse. Tradition is here reconsidered as a mechanism of invention and convention, difference and repetition - transforming social conventions into material for creative improvisations - namely as culture itself in its making.