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A Differential Construct Methodology For Modelling Predictive Cultural Values, Béatrice Boufoy -Bastick

The Qualitative Report

This paper presents an explanatory model of cultural behaviours, which resulted from a four-year ethnographic study of the different academic attainments in English of indigenous Fijians and the Indo-Fijians in the Fiji Islands. Fiji is a natural laboratory for investigating differential cultural behaviours because of these two culturally distinct main ethnic groups. Their different cultural behaviours were found to serve different values within each culture. A three-construct grounded model of these different values emerged from observations and analyses of these behaviours. These constructs were then de-constructed to define and explain a fourth target construct of their Differential Teaching Behaviours, which …

Communication, Culture And Community: Towards A Cultural Analysis Of Community Media, Kevin Howley

The Qualitative Report

This paper promotes a research agenda committed to a sustained, multiperspectival cultural analysis of community-based media. In doing so, the essay takes up two interrelated arguments. First, it is suggested that community media represent a conspicuous blind spot in cultural approaches to communication studies: a situation that is at odds with the hallmarks of cultural studies scholarship, especially its affirmation of popular forms of resistance and its celebration of and keen appreciation for local cultural production. Second, the author maintains that as a site of intense struggle over cultural production, distribution, and consumption within and through communication and information technologies, …

The Ahimsa Acculturation Scale: A New Measure Of Acculturation For Adolescents In A Multicultural Society, C. Anderson Johnson, Paula Palmer, Jennifer B. Unger, Peggy Gallaher, Sohaila Shakib, Anamara Ritt-Olson

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Acculturation has been associated with adolescent health-risk behaviors. Most acculturation scales are inappropriate for adolescent surveys because they are too long, are not applicable to differing ethnic groups, or are language-based only. A brief, multidimensional, multicultural acculturation measure for adolescents was developed. Sixthgrade students (N = 317) in Los Angeles completed that scale and other measures of acculturation. The Acculturation, Habits, and Interests Multicultural Scale for Adolescents (AHIMSA) generates four subscores: United States Orientation (Assimilation), Other Country Orientation (Separation), Both Countries Orientation (Integration), and Neither Country Orientation (Marginalization). Three of the subscales were correlated with the subscales of a modified …

Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn't: Explaining Theological Incorrectness In South Asia And America, D. Jason Slone

Dissertations

Cross-cultural descriptions of religious thought and behavior in South Asia and America show that people commonly hold ideas and perform actions that seem to be not only conceptually incoherent but also “theologically incorrect” by the standards of their own traditions. For example. South Asian Theravada Buddhists are taught that the historical Buddha is unavailable because he attained enlightenment and achieved parinirvana (“complete extinction”) and yet conceptually and ritually represent him as if he is present and available for petition. Similarly, American Protestants represent the Christian God as having absolute divine sovereignty and yet reveal confidence in an inner locus of …

Learning And Living Difference That Makes A Difference: Postmodern Theory & Multicultural Education, Walter R. Jacobs

Faculty Publications, Sociology

The application of postmodern theory to a transformative understanding of multiculturalism can make a difference. Multicentered culture, antiessentialist race consciousness, and political equity—aspects of a transformative multiculturalism put forward in 1996 by Newfield and Gordon—can be juxtaposed with elements of a postmodern theorization of society as a consumer-driven economy saturated with multiple mediated unstable, fragmented, and evolving discourses and cultural interaction. This theoretical construct can be illustrated with research data from college classrooms and specifically an analysis of the television show The X-Files. This analysis shows how a discussion of whiteness creates larger discussion of transformative multiculturalism in which difference …

Pariahs Of The Wonderful City: Crime, Representation, And The Imagined Geography Of Citizenship In Rio De Janeiro, 1977-1982, Gianpaolo Baiocchi

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Explaining Differences In Civic Knowledge: Multilevel Regression Analyses Of Student Data From 27 Countries, Wolfram Schulz

Civics and Citizenship Assessment

What explains the differences in student knowledge about Democracy, institutions and Citizenship and their skills in interpreting political communication? Does the amount of 'civic knowledge' depend mainly on the home environment, on the students' level of communication and activities in the area of politics, or does school make a difference in acquiring this knowledge? Which student-level and school-level factors do have an effect on cognitive abilities in this domain? The second lEA Civic Education Study provides data on 14-year-old students from 28 countries from Europe, North America, South America, Asia and the Pacific which can be used to study the …

Hegemony: Methods And Hypotheses, Rares Piloiu

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Recent political thought from the left has re-awoken the interest in Gramscian theory. Even if, pace Louis Althusser or, in America, Michel Foucault, Antonio Gramsci's syntax of ideology as an integral form of relation between individual and society has been quite popular in cultural studies, the notion of hegemony has not enjoyed the same repute. It is therefore Ernesto Laclau's merit to have reintroduced the term in contemporary debates concerning problems of political power, authority, cultural policy and ideology. Hailing from a reinvented Marxist perspective (one that had to account, among others, for the failures of actual existing …

Naccs 29th Annual Conference, National Association For Chicana And Chicano Studies

NACCS Conference Programs

The Multiple Faces of Chicanas
March 27-30, 2002
Hyatt Regency at McCormick Place

This One's For The Children : Collaborative Leadership In A Rural Appalachian Community, Jennifer J. Scharf

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The current research is an ethnographic case study of one collaborative community group that worked toward solving complex problems related to early care and education in their community. The methods used consisted of conducting in-depth interviews and observations, recording and transcribing group meetings, and collecting documents that furthered understanding of the group. The research questions addressed were related to the nature of the relationships among the members, leadership enactment in the group, and how they created positive outcomes and overcame obstacles they faced. Several themes emerged related to each question, confirming and extending current understanding of collaboration and collaborative leadership. …

[Beatrice Whiting:] Introduction To Special Issue Of Ethos, Thomas S. Weisner, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The Society for Psychological Anthropology cosponsored a symposium at the American Anthropological Association meetings in November 1999, honoring Beatrice Whiting and her work. At this symposium, 14 former students, colleagues and collaborators presented papers and discussion comments. The organizers (Thomas Weisner and Susan Abbott) sought to reflect Whiting's varied interests and projects, and worked to include different generations, students, collaborators (graduate and undergraduate), and projects. This special issue presents a set of seven papers from the symposium. Each contribution focuses on one or more of Whiting's career-long interests, including gender, women's work and education, social structure and child socialization, adolescence, …

No. 09: Transnationalism And African Immigration To South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

The demise of formal apartheid has created new and as yet only partially understood opportunities for migration to South Africa. Legal migration from other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, for example, has increased almost ten-fold since 1990 to over four million visitors per year. South Africa’s (re)insertion into the global economy has brought new streams of legal and undocumented migrants from outside the SADC region and new ethnic constellations within. The easing of legal and unauthorized entry to South Africa has made the country a new destination for African asylum-seekers, long-distance traders, entrepreneurs, students and professionals (Bouillon 1996; Saasa …

Cultural Awareness Sensitivity Training, William L. Underwood

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In this study, employees of the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky; the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota; and the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Michigan were surveyed to determine the need for a Cultural Awareness Sensitivity Training program for staff within the United States Bureau of Prisons. In addition, if the need for this program was established, the Cultural Awareness Study was formulated to determine the scope and breadth of the coverage of the program. The respondents were asked to answer 72 questions in the following areas: (1) diversity training; (2) need assessment; (3) staff demographics; (4) inmate …

Race, Ethnicity, Class, And School Dropouts: A Policy Perspective, Richard C. Verdugo

Trotter Review

The author presents a review of literature on conditions and circumstances that cause youth to drop out before finishing high school. The essay explains the key features of both cultural and structural theories of low academic performance, and the author argues these theories might profitably be fused in order to formulate effective dropout prevention/intervention policies. The author recommends use of the public health model for prevention and intervention and synthesizes the findings of three recent reports on effective dropout programs.

Hermeneutics, Culture, And The Father Of The Faithful, Lael O. Caesar

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Ethnic Studies Review

Table of Contents for Ethnic Studies Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2002.

Contributors

Ethnic Studies Review

Contributors to Ethnic Studies Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2002.

Remembering Poland: The Ethics Of Cultural Histories, William Gorski

Ethnic Studies Review

Art Spiegelman's Maus, Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl, and Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation and Exit into History are recent American texts that draw upon cultural histories of Poland to launch their narratives. Each text confronts and reconstructs fragments of twentieth-century Poland at the interactive sites of collective culture and personal memory. By focusing on the contested relationship between Poles and Jews before, during, and after World War II, these texts dredge up the ghosts of centuries-long ethnic animosities. In the post-Cold War era, wherein Eastern Europe struggles to redefine itself, such texts have a formative influence in re-mapping the future …

[Review Of] Marilyn Halter, Shopping For Identity: The Marketing Of Ethnicity, Sarah Shillinger

Ethnic Studies Review

Marilyn Halter has written an informative book on the interaction between the marketplace and ethnic identity in the United States. Her book fills an important gap in ethnic studies literature. While research abounds on the role the marketplace has played in the Americanization of immigrants, few scholars have researched its role in the maintenance of ethnic identity.

[Review Of] E. San Juan, Jr., Racism And Cultural Studies: Critiques Of Multiculturalist Ideology And The Politics Of Difference, Joel Wendland

Ethnic Studies Review

Have academically fashionable cultural studies methodologies replaced mass social movements as political activity? This question is raised in E. San Juan, Jr.'s most recent study, Racism and Cultural Studies. Contemporary postmodern and postcolonial intellectual movements, because they valorize individualized discourses and relativist pluralism, have indeed "displaced the centrality of mass social movements" in the project of group liberation in San Juan's judgment.

Ethnic Studies Review

Ethnic Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Alternative School Administrators "At Risk": What Does It Mean For Children?, Christopher Dunbar Jr.

Trotter Review

Alternative public schools have evolved from their origins in school choice and the progressive education movement of the 1920's into a system of schools that have become the assigned "dumping ground" for a population of ill-prepared, behaviorally disruptive youth, a population that is also disproportionately composed of minority students. Research suggests these schools fall short of providing an optimal educational opportunity for their students. There are multiple factors that place alternative school administrators "at risk" of failing in their charge to educate. Using a case study from a Midwestern alternative school, the author focuses on policy and the role of …

Autotopography: Graffiti, Landscapes, & Selves, Deirdre Heddon

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

For some time now I have been interested in autobiographical performance -- some form of the theatrical, in which performers explicitly use personal material in their work. Within this general field of autobiography and performance, one area of research concerns performances that are dependent on being located in personalised space -- what could be called, then, site-specific autobiographical performance. A recent example of this would be the performance Bubbling Tom (2000), by the UK based performer Mike Pearson, which saw Pearson return to the village of his childhood, to reflect upon and re-enact certain memories, events and persons …

Being-There And Being-From-Elsewhere: An Existential-Analytic Of Exile, Farhang Erfani

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragrap]

I find myself in an unsettling position, as I do not know where to begin to talk about a philosophically neglected topic: exile. I cannot hide behind the famous names of the tradition; I cannot speak through them about exile in order to make my inquiry sound more legitimate since most of them did not address the topic. Isn't it interesting though that my inability to know where to start and the lack of legitimacy that I feel are in themselves two typical symptoms of the exiled? In all fairness, exile has become a buzzword and is fashionable …

Rorty's Complicit American Neo-Pragmatism, Haidar Eid

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Despite the obvious French origin of poststructuralism, its paradigmatic resonance can be found in the American philosophical scene, an essential part of which is Richard Rorty's neo-pragmatism -- the theoretical basis of American (post)modernism. However, different from poststructuralism's apparent antagonism to the authoritarian establishments, Rorty adopts the Derridean poststructuralist motifs of the decentering of the subject, and the disappearance of meaning and truth in order to defend the establishment -- or rather, the status quo.

On Guillermo Gomez-Peña's El Mexterminator And Cyber Vato, Michael Benton

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

While attending Bowling Green State University in 1997 I had an experience that changed my worldview. I was a teaching assistant in the Popular Culture department and part of my responsibilities included teaching Introduction to Popular Culture (POPC 100) and Introduction to Mass Media (POPC 165). I had been struggling to engage my students in examining the way in which social reality is represented to them through popular entertainments [2]. The majority of my students were white, middle class students from the surrounding Northern regions of Ohio. My students were well-versed in the ongoing controversy over whether or …

The Ruse Of The Social: Human Waste And The Gated Community, Liam Mcnamara

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

One of the central problems of contemporary society is that of “the social”: how it is defined, constituted, conjured into existence, and supported. Jean Baudrillard has employed the term “the social” in his work, but it is never explicitly defined; it is best understood as a form of simulation that has sprung into existence in the absence of symbolic social relations. The social is constituted of all the phenomena that are generally studied by sociology, so is therefore ideologically conceived of as an organic structure that is waiting for analysis. The “social” is society, both as it stands …

On Steven Duncombe's Cultural Resistance Reader (2002), Adam Reed

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

While the debates over the dis/connections between theory and practice have become essentially metaphysical, it is still useful to distinguish between micro, grassroots struggles and macro, ideological political agendas. In a world in which one of the Left's (old, new and contemporary) main achievements has been to merge the micro and macro in the popular imaginary, this distinction helps one appreciate the myriad of forces affecting social change that are condensed in primarily ideological narratives. A similar perspective is called for when one turns to cultural forms of resistance, which are usually erased by political narratives or mystified …

See Me, Touch Me, Feel Me':(Im)Proving The Bodily Sense Of Masculinity, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Ultimately, this paper stems from two cultural strands which intersect in one cultural form, self-improvement advertising aimed at men. The first of these is the figure of the new man, which appeared in the mid-1980s. The novelty lies in the positioning of masculine bodies precisely for the purpose of being seen. The available criticism was not equipped to account for these positionings. The second cultural strand, the proliferation of technologies which alter the body itself, as opposed to its coverings, makes the gap in the criticism more apparent. The two cultural trends intersect most noticeably in the advertisements …

Ideology And Public Sphere: A Preliminary Bibliography, Giorgio Bertellini, C. Paul Sellors

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Bibliography accompanies Bertellini & Sellors article Breaking the Mimetic Contract: Notes on Ideology, Intersubjectivity, and Film Theory