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Culture and Critique: An Introduction to the Critical Discourses of Cultural Studies
by Jere Paul Surber<p>Written by philosopher Jere Surber, Culture and Critique familiarizes students with both the broad and specialized meanings of cultural studies, providing detailed explanations of theoretical terms, critical strategies, and discursive traditions upon which it is based. In its broad and more theoretical sense, cultural studies indicates a range of modern discourses which, beyond disciplines and their particular theories, employ the notion of culture in a distinctive way and specify certain critical practices as appropriate for analyzing given cultural activities, products, and institutions. In its narrower sense, cultural studies is a recently developed type of discourse, first appearing in several British universities in the 1950s, which, while eclectically drawing on certain theoretical aspects of earlier forms of critical cultural discourse, orients itself toward the analysis and practical critique of concrete contemporary cultural distinctions based on economic and political inequities. <p>A useful reference for reading works in cultural studies, Culture and Critique puts unfamiliar terms and ideas into historical perspective and explains how the founding texts of the discipline first appeared.</p>
Culture and Customs of Singapore and Malaysia
by Jaime Koh Stephanie HoJamie Koh is a former journalist and writer who specializes in Asian history and culture, and she teams with former history teacher and museum educator Stephanie Ho to present students and general readers with this survey of the cultures and customs of Singapore and Malaysia. The authors provide chapters on religious thought, the arts, entertainment, housing and architecture, food and fashion, marriage and family life and leisure activities in these two independent yet closely related countries. A concluding chapter on the future of Singapore and Malaysian culture addresses the impact of modernization and globalization as well as this region's demographic shift toward multiculturalism. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Culture and Demography in Organizations
by Glenn R. Carroll J. Richard HarrisonHow do corporations and other organizations maintain and transmit their cultures over time? Culture and Demography in Organizations offers the most reliable and comprehensive answer to this complex question to date. The first book on the subject to ground its analysis in mathematical tools and computer simulation, it goes beyond standard approaches, which focus on socialization within organizations, by explicitly considering the effects of demographic processes of entry, exit, and organizational growth. J. Richard Harrison and Glenn R. Carroll base their analysis on a formal model with three components: hiring, socialization, and employee turnover. In exploring the model's implications through computer simulation methods, the authors cover topics such as organizational growth and decline, top management teams, organizational influence networks, terrorist organizations, cultural integration following mergers, and organizational failure. For each topic, they identify the conditions influencing cultural transmission. In general, they find that demographic processes play a central role in influencing organizational culture and that studying these processes leads to some surprising insights unavailable when considering socialization alone. This book, which also serves as an ideal introduction to the increasingly popular use of computer simulation, will be an indispensable resource for scholars and students of organization theory and behavior, cultural studies, strategic management, sociology, economics, and social simulation.
Culture and Early Interactions (Psychology Revivals)
by Tiffany M. Field, Anita Miller Sostek, Peter Vietze and P. Herbert LeidermanIn the late 1960s, after a period of intense acceleration of the pace of research on human infancy, a number of investigators – some anthropologists, some psychologists, some psychiatrists and paediatricians, and even a few ethologists – developed the conviction that certain contributions to the understanding of infancy would come from, and perhaps only come from, cross-cultural and cross-population studies. This book, originally published in 1981, represents part of the first fruit of that conviction, and its impressive range of chapters justifies not only the belief itself but also the several rationales behind it.
Culture and Educational Policy in Hawai'i: The Silencing of Native Voices (Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education)
by Ronald H. Heck Maenette K.P. BenhamThis comprehensive educational history of public schools in Hawai'i shows and analyzes how dominant cultural and educational policy have affected the education experiences of Native Hawaiians. Drawing on institutional theory as a scholarly lens, the authors focus on four historical cases representing over 150 years of contact with the West. They carefully link historical events, significant people, educational policy, and law to cultural and social consequences for Native Hawaiian children and youth. The authors argue that since the early 1800s, educational policy in Hawai'i emphasizing efficiency has resulted in institutional structures that have degenerated Hawaiian culture, self-image, and sovereignty. Native Hawaiians have often been denied equal access to quality schools and resulting increased economic and social status. These policies were often overtly, or covertly, racist and reflected wider cultural views prevalent across the United States regarding the assimilation of groups into the American mainstream culture. The case of education in Hawai'i is used to initiate a broader discussion of similar historical trends in assimilating children of different backgrounds into the American system of education. The scholarly analysis presented in this book draws out historical, political, cultural, and organizational implications that can be employed to understand other Native and non-Native contexts. Given the increasing cultural diversity of the United States and the perceived failure of the American educational system in light of these changes, this book provides an exceptionally appropriate starting point to begin a discussion about past, present, and future schooling for our nation's children. Because it is written and comes from a Native perspective, the value of the "insider" view is illuminated. This underlying reminder of the Native eye is woven throughout the book in Ha'awina No'ono'o--the sharing of thoughts from the Native Hawaiian author. With its primary focus on the education of native groups, this book is an extraordinary and useful work for scholars, thoughtful practitioners, policymakers, and those interested in Hawai'i, Hawaiian education, and educational policy and theory.
Culture and Everyday Life
by Andy Bennett'Bennett provides a well organized, very readable and interesting discussion of a number of significant everyday cultural forms and I am confident student readers will find the book very valuable' - Barry Smart, University of Portsmouth Culture and Everyday Life provides students with a comprehensive overview of theoretical models, issues and examples of contemporary cultural practice. Bennett begins by summarising and situating - in everyday settings - the key theoretical models applied in the study of existing cultural practices. This entails a systematic study of how academic thinking about mass culture has changed, from critical accounts of early mass cultural theorists to radical postmodernist critiques of mass cultural accounts and to 'the cultural turn', which explored how various social identities are culturally constructed. Following this are themed chapters that cover a particular aspect of late modern culture, such as media, music, fashion, tourism and counter-cultural ideologies and movements. In each case a comprehensive literature review is provided and its theoretical and empirical relevance to our understanding of the relationship between culture and everyday life in contemporary society is explained. Lucid, meticulous and illustrated with a host of examples, this is a superb text for teaching and research in the Sociology of Culture and Cultural Studies.
Culture and Everyday Life (The New Sociology)
by David InglisCulture is unquestionably a central topic in the contemporary social sciences. In order to understand how people think, feel, value, act and express themselves, it is necessary to examine the cultures they create, and are in turn created by. Here, David Inglis shows how the study of culture can be transformed by focusing in on how cultural forces shape, influence, structure - and occasionally disrupt - the day-to-day activities of individuals. Reconsidering different views on 'culture' - what it is, how it operates, and how it relates to other aspects of the human (and non-human) world - this new book covers key areas such as: high culture versus popular culture modern and postmodern culture globalization and culture culture and nature. Specific issues covered range from the everyday aspects of sportive play, artistic production and the mass media, to car culture and global cuisine, and students are introduced to some of the major thinkers on culture from Matthew Arnold to Bakhtin and Bourdieu. Written in a concise, student-friendly manner, theoretical arguments are illustrated with examples from film, architecture and daily life, making this an informative and indispensable introduction for those wishing to understand the complexities of culture.
Culture and Gender in Leadership
by James Rajasekar Loo-See BehThe overall aim of this volume is to present the research studies carried out in the Middle East and Asia in the fields of culture and gender and their influence on leadership in particular. The cultures and practices of these geographical regions are very much varied and this book, Culture and Gender in Leadership: Perspectives from the Middle East and Asia, brings together analyses of these themes in selected countries of these two regions. The chapter authors use detailed descriptions, case studies and vignettes to speak to the cultural relativism and gender in leadership in these countries and provide a unique and comparative perspective drawn from their own cultures. This volume also contributes to the development of theory and empirical research found in these regions and through the collective efforts presented in this book, attempts to strengthen the body of knowledge and practice in the fields of culture and gender in leadership. As Asia is becoming the engine of economic growth for the world and Arab Spring is opening up new vistas in the Middle East, this book is a must read.
Culture and Human Development: The Importance of Cross-Cultural Research for the Social Sciences
by Pradeep Chakkarath Wolfgang Friedlmeier Beate SchwarzAs intercultural encounters between people in the modern world become more common, important questions have been raised about the nature of culture-specific differences and similarities. Focusing on the relationship between culture and human development, this timely book offers an interdisciplinary exploration of key developmental processes. It combines psychological and sociological approaches with cross-cultural research to examine phenomena such as the transfer of culture between generations and the universality of attachment theory. Drawing on detailed research from a range of cultural groups, leading international researchers consider the impact of social change and modernization on the development of the individual and at the societal level. Theoretical and methodological issues are presented in terms of how to apply the results of cross-cultural research as well as recent empirical research done in specialized areas of the field. Finally, short-term intercultural exchanges are examined and used to suggest some of the potential practical uses of cross-cultural research for the future. This book will be essential reading for anyone studying or researching in cultural psychology, cross-cultural psychology, acculturation or behavioral development. It will also prove an invaluable source of information for anyone interested in sociology and the social sciences in general.
Culture and Neural Frames of Cognition and Communication (On Thinking #3)
by Ernst Pöppel Shihui HanCultural neuroscience combines brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potentials with methods of social and cultural psychology to investigate whether and how cultures influence the neural mechanisms of perception, attention, emotion, social cognition, and other human cognitive processes. The findings of cultural neuroscience studies improve our understanding of the relation between human brain function and sociocultural contexts and help to reframe the "big question" of nature versus nurture. This book is organized so that two chapters provide general views of the relation between biological evolution, cultural evolution and recent cultural neuroscience studies, while other chapters focus on several aspects of human cognition that have been shown to be strongly influenced by sociocultural factors such as self-concept representation, language processes, emotion, time perception, and decision-making. The main goal of this work is to address how thinking actually takes place and how the underlying neural mechanisms are affected by culture and identity.
Culture and Organizational Behaviour (SAGE Texts)
by Jai B SinhaCulture and Organizational Behaviour is a textbook for management studies that highlights the effect of the confluence of Western and Indian cultural influences. It adheres to the syllabi of the organizational behaviour courses followed in most major universities and management institutes. The book presents basic knowledge of organizational behaviour as developed in the West, adds to these the latest global research findings, and situates them in the Indian cultural perspective. It also highlights the issues that emanate from the interface of the Indian culture and organizational behaviour. Key Features: - Contains updated case studies from Indian organizations - Focuses on current and emerging strategies in organizational structures, leadership, power and politics - Covers topics like balancing work and other responsibilities, power and politics, and conflict and negotiation, which, though extremely crucial to organizational behaviour, have perhaps not got due attention in the existing literature - Presents the relatively unexplored effects of Indian culture on organizational behaviour. Provides a platform where both theoretical and practical issues can be addressed by managers, researchers, students and teachers alike.
Culture and Policy-Making: Pluralism, Performativity, and Semiotic Capital (Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action)
by Sergio Salvatore Terri Mannarini Marco Cremaschi Carlotta FiorettiThis book advances the understanding and modelling of sensemaking and cultural processes as being crucial to the scientific study of contemporary complex societies. It outlines a dynamic, processual conception of culture and a general view of the role of cultural dynamics in policy-making, drawing three significant methodological implications: pluralism, performativity, and semiotic capital. It focuses on the theoretical and methodological aspects of the analysis of culture and its dynamics that could be applied to the developing of policymaking and, in general, to the understanding of social phenomena. It draws from the experience and data of a large-scale project, RECRIRE, funded by the H2020 program that mapped the symbolic universes across Europe after the economic crisis. It further develops the relationship between culture and policy-making discussed in two previous volumes in this series, and constitutes the ideal third and final element of this trilogy. The book is a useful tool for academics involved in studying cultural dynamics and for policy-oriented researchers and decision-makers attentive to the cultural dimensions of the design, implementation and reception of public policies.
Culture and Politics: A Comparative Approach
by Svante Ersson Lane Jan-ErikThis title was first published in 2002: Examining problems that have caused much debate within political science, this book seeks to identify a proper place for the analysis of culture and values within political science. It goes on to explore the impact of globalization upon society.
Culture and Politics: A Comparative Approach (Routledge Revivals)
by Lane Jan-Erik Svante O. ErssonThis title was first published in 2002: Examining problems that have caused much debate within political science, this book seeks to identify a proper place for the analysis of culture and values within political science. It goes on to explore the impact of globalization upon society.
Culture and Power in the Classroom: Educational Foundations for the Schooling of Bicultural Students (Series in Critical Narrative)
by Antonia DarderThis is a timely second edition of the enormously significant book which changed how teachers and community activists view their own practice. This edition concludes with personal essays by teachers, professors, and community activists explaining the direct impact which Culture and Power in the Classroom has had on their lives. Unlike many texts that discuss educational failure, this book provides a historical context for understanding underachievement in our nation. Thoroughly revised to include the new thinking on diversity and learning, this edition includes a new chapter on assessment and the brain. This second edition will be welcomed by previous and new readers alike, and will help influence the approach of a new generation of teachers, whether they are based in schools, colleges or community centres.
Culture and Practical Reason
by Marshall Sahlins"The main thrust of this book is to deliver a major critique of materialist and rationalist explanations of social and cultural forms, but the in the process Sahlins has given us a much stronger statement of the centrality of symbols in human affairs than have many of our 'practicing' symbolic anthropologists. He demonstrates that symbols enter all phases of social life: those which we tend to regard as strictly pragmatic, or based on concerns with material need or advantage, as well as those which we tend to view as purely symbolic, such as ideology, ritual, myth, moral codes, and the like. . . ."—Robert McKinley, Reviews in Anthropology
Culture and Psychology: An Evolutionary Approach (Culture and Psychology)
by Ronald FischerHumans are complex social beings. To understand human behaviour, an integrated perspective is required - one which considers both what we regularly do (our personality traits) and what motivates us (our values). Personality, Values, Culture uses an evolutionary perspective to look at the similarities and differences in personality and values across modern societies. Integrating research on personality and human values into a functional framework that highlights their underlying compatibilities (driven by shared genetic and brain mechanisms), Fischer describes how personality is shaped by the complex interplay between genes and the environment, both over the course of human evolution and within the lifespan of individuals. He proposes a gene-culture coevolution model of personality and values to explain how and why people differ around the world and how genes, economics, social conditions, and climate jointly shape personality.
Culture and Resilience at Work: A Study of Stress and Hardiness among Indian Corporate Professionals (Routledge Focus on Business and Management)
by Pallabi MundIn 1979, Suzanne C. Kobasa propounded her theory of "hardiness" where she hypothesized her 3Cs: Commitment, Control, and Challenge, as the basic ingredients of hardiness that make an individual stress resilient. She was one of the early researchers who paid attention to personality features and illustrated that individuals who experience high level of stress without mental and physical illness have a different personality from those who become ill in stressful conditions. In current times, the discourse has enjoyed a sustained scholarly interest but there is hardly any study on the corporate professionals or the Indian context. Since the early 1990s, India has joined the corporate world and has been a fast-developing country. This changed state of affairs provides a broader scope of study on hardy personality in coping with stress in the Indian context. This book examines the efficacy of hardiness on the Indian corporate professionals in the post-globalization scenario. It endeavours to situate Kobasa’s foundational theorisation along with those offered by other scholars in the context of the contemporary life situations with a focus on India. It presents a hypothesis that in the Indian context, culture could be looked upon as yet another basic component of hardiness. Culture and Resilience at Work offers an assessment of the significant contribution of Indian culture as one of the major contributing components in enhancing hardiness in corporate professionals. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, professionals, and students in the fields of stress management, human resource management, social psychology, culture studies, and organizational behaviour.
Culture and Social Behavior: The Ontario Symposium, Volume 10 (Ontario Symposia on Personality and Social Psychology Series #Vol. 10)
by Dov Cohen James M. Olson Mark P. Zanna Richard M. SorrentinoCross-cultural differences have many important implications for social identity, social cognition, and interpersonal behavior. The 10th volume of the Ontario Symposia on Personality and Social Psychology focuses on East-West cultural differences and similarities and how this research can be applied to cross-cultural studies in general.Culture and Social Behavior covers a range of topics from differences in basic cognitive processes to broad level cultural syndromes that pervade social arrangements, laws, and public representations. Leading researchers in the study of culture and psychology describe their work and their current perspective on the important questions facing the field. Pioneers in the field such as Harry Triandis and Michael Bond present their work, along with those who represent some newer approaches to the study of culture. Richard E. Nisbett concludes the book by discussing the historical development of the field and an examination of which aspects of culture are universal and which are culture-specific. By illustrating both the diversity and vitality of research on the psychology of culture and social behavior, the editors hope this volume will stimulate further research from psychologists of many cultural traditions.Understanding cultural differences is now more important than ever due to their potential to spark conflict, violence, and aggression. As such, this volume is a "must have" for cultural researchers including those in social, cultural, and personality psychology, and interpersonal, cultural, and political communication, anthropology, and sociology.
Culture and Social Theory
by Aaron WildavskyAaron Wildavsky, along with Mary Douglas, identified what they called grid-group theory. Wildavsky began calling this "cultural theory," and applied it to an astounding array of subjects. The essays in this volume exemplify the theory's potential contributions to three seemingly disparate, but related, areas: the social construction of meaning, normative/analytic political philosophy, and a theory of rational choices. This book is the first in a series of Aaron Wildavsky's collected writings being published posthumously by Transaction. Wildavsky selected, sequenced, and grouped all but three of the essays included in Culture and Social Theory prior to his death. Some are presented here for the first time. Wildavsky's cultural theory provides ways to organize and interpret the world.In the first section, he shows how social scientists, particularly economists and sociologists, apply the theory. Wildavsky argues that concepts such as externalities, public goods, altruism, and even risk and rape are tools of rival, ubiquitous cultures engaged in perpetual struggle with one another. The second section deals with cultural theory as a way to interpret the works of normative and analytic political philosophers, including Thomas Hobbes and John Stuart Mill, on competing human objectives. Wildavsky argues that particular types of interaction among a society's cultures are necessary for effective realization of basic concepts such as democracy. In the third section, Wildavsky applies cultural theory in conjunction with instrumental rationality, the former as a theory of preference formation, the latter as a device for realizing preferences efficiently. High-priority objectives, and thus the character of norms and rational action, shift across cultures. The world and its various elements comprise a complex, frequently changing, and thus ambiguous reality, nowhere more so than in the dynamic contours of the United States. For cultural theory, individualistic, hierarchical, and egalitarian interpretations of the world are the only ones capable of forming and sustaining institutions and related patterns of social relations that will support human social groups.Wildavsky's central objective is to strip away the camouflage and to reveal varying domains of social life as fields of cultural competition. Culture and Social Theory will be a necessary addition to the libraries of political scientists, economists, and policymakers, not to mention all those who admire Aaron Wildavsky and his work.
Culture and Society: Critical Essays in Human Geography
by Nuala C. JohnsonHuman geographers have been at the forefront of research that examines the relationships between space, culture and society. This volume contains twenty-one essays, published over the past thirty years, that are iconic instances of this investigative field. With a focus on four broad themes - landscape, identity, colonialism, nature - these essays represent some of the best and most innovative interventions that geographers have made on these topics. From the visual to the corporeal, from rural Ceylon to urban America and from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first, this volume brings together a set of theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded works.
Culture and Sustainability: Exploring Stability and Transformation with the Cultures Framework
by Janet StephensonThis Open access book brings a cultural lens, and a distinctive analytical framework, to the problem of transitioning to a sustainable, low-carbon future. The world faces a seemingly impossible hurdle – to radically alter long-established social, economic and technological systems in order to live within the biophysical limits of the globe, while ensuring a just and enduring transition. The overarching premise of this book is that this cannot be achieved without widespread cultural change. ‘We need a change in culture’ is often used rhetorically, but what does this really mean?Stephenson starts by exploring culture’s elusiveness, describing its divergent interpretations before identifying core features of culture that are common across most definitions. These characteristics form the core of the cultures framework, an extensively tested approach to studying the links between culture and sustainability outcomes. The framework makes culture an accessible concept which can be analytically applied to almost any sustainability problem. Using many examples from around the world, Stephenson illustrates how cultural stability, cultural flexibility and cultural transformation all have a part to play in the sustainability transition. She guides the reader in the use of the cultures framework for policy development and to underpin research undertaken by individuals or by multi-disciplinary teams.Clearly and engagingly written, Culture and Sustainability is essential reading for academics, students, policy makers and indeed anyone interested in a sustainable future.
Culture and Sustainable Development in the City: Urban Spaces of Possibilities
by Sacha KaganThis book exposes the potential to advance a cultural approach to sustainable urban development. It explores urban "spaces of possibilities" and links them to the seized or missed opportunities for innovative forms of transversal partnerships throughout the city and of culturally sensitive urban policies. The call for sustainability brings with it challenges for which, in view of the urgency of social transformation, institutional innovations are necessary. Sustainable urban development will only succeed through creative impulses, experiments, trying out innovative ideas, and making alternatives visible, in particular through locally rooted urban initiatives, artistic actions, and social movements. Discussing many concrete examples from several years of empirical research in the cities of Hanover and Hamburg (Germany), Baltimore and Chicago (USA), Bangalore (India), St. Petersburg (Russia), Singapore, and Vancouver (Canada), the book connects urban spaces and their actors; looks at their guiding principles, strategies, and concrete practices; and identifies new levers, networks, and alliances. Readers will find in this book not only inspiring examples of culture in everyday life in the city but also explanations about the qualities that make local cultural initiatives especially full of potentials, and how they may translate into city-wide changes, engaging with the whole City as Space of Possibilities. The book will interest researchers and advanced students in the interdisciplinary fields of urban studies, sustainability science/sustainability research, cultural sciences, urban sociology, and sociology of the arts/cultural sociology; and those interested in the transdisciplinary collaborations between the arts, academia, and civil society.
Culture and Sustainable Development in the City: Urban Spaces of Possibilities (Routledge Research in Planning and Urban Design)
by Sacha KaganThis book exposes the potential to advance a cultural approach to sustainable urban development. It explores urban "spaces of possibilities" and links them to the seized or missed opportunities for innovative forms of transversal partnerships throughout the city and of culturally sensitive urban policies.The call for sustainability brings with it challenges for which, in view of the urgency of social transformation, institutional innovations are necessary. Sustainable urban development will only succeed through creative impulses, experiments, trying out innovative ideas, and making alternatives visible, in particular through locally rooted urban initiatives, artistic actions, and social movements. Discussing many concrete examples from several years of empirical research in the cities of Hanover and Hamburg (Germany), Baltimore and Chicago (USA), Bangalore (India), St. Petersburg (Russia), Singapore, and Vancouver (Canada), the book connects urban spaces and their actors; looks at their guiding principles, strategies, and concrete practices; and identifies new levers, networks, and alliances. Readers will find in this book not only inspiring examples of culture in everyday life in the city but also explanations about the qualities that make local cultural initiatives especially full of potentials, and how they may translate into city-wide changes, engaging with the whole City as Space of Possibilities.The book will interest researchers and advanced students in the interdisciplinary fields of urban studies, sustainability science/sustainability research, cultural sciences, urban sociology, and sociology of the arts/cultural sociology; and those interested in the transdisciplinary collaborations between the arts, academia, and civil society.
Culture and Tactics: Gramsci, Race, and the Politics of Practice (SUNY series, Praxis: Theory in Action)
by Robert F. CarleyWhile scholars of social and political movements tend to analyze tactics in terms of their effectiveness in achieving specific outcomes, Robert F. Carley argues by contrast that tactics are, above all, what social movements do. They are not mere means to an end so much as they are a public form of expression pointing out injustices and making just demands. Rooted in a highly original analysis of the tactically mediated relationship between race and mobilization in the work of Italian philosopher and revolutionary Antonio Gramsci, Culture and Tactics demonstrates how tactics impact the organizational structures of social movements and expand the affinities of political communities. Carley looks at how Gramsci used innovative tactics to bridge perceptions of racial differences between factory workers and subaltern groups, the latter having been denigrated to the point of subhumanity by a complex Italian national racial economy. Newly envisioning Gramsci as a theorist of race within a broader context of social struggle, Carley connects Gramsci's insights into the political mobilizations of racialized subaltern groups to contemporary critical race theory and cultural studies of racialization and racism. Speaking across disciplines and drawing on a number of empirical examples, Carley offers a battery of original concepts to assist scholars and activists in analyzing the tactical practices of protests in which race is a central factor.