Showing papers on "Cultural analysis published in 1995"

Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography

Abstract: This review surveys an emergent methodological trend in anthropological research that concerns the adaptation of long-standing modes of ethnographic practices to more complex objects of study. Ethnography moves from its conventional single-site location, contextualized by macro-constructions of a larger social order, such as the capitalist world system, to multiple sites of observation and participation that cross-cut dichotomies such as the “local” and the “global,” the “lifeworld” and the “system.” Resulting ethnographies are therefore both in and out of the world system. The anxieties to which this methodological shift gives rise are considered in terms of testing the limits of ethnography, attenuating the power of fieldwork, and losing the perspective of the subaltern. The emergence of multi-sited ethnography is located within new spheres of interdisciplinary work, including media studies, science and technology studies, and cultural studies broadly. Several “tracking” strategies that shape multi-site...

Researching Culture: Qualitative Method and Cultural Studies

Abstract: Introduction PART ONE: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH AND CULTURAL STUDIES What is Qualitative Research? What is Cultural Studies? PART TWO: THE PRODUCTION OF OBSERVATIONS Theoretical Framework and Method The Factist Perspective Cultural Distinctions Narrativity The Interaction Perspective The Structures of Interaction Cross-Tabulation and Quantitative Analysis PART THREE: UNRIDDLING Asking Why Generalization The Research Process The Writing Process

Cultural studies and cultural value

Abstract: Cultural Studies and Cultural Value is a major critique of the important new discipline of cultural studies. Cultural studies has generally organized itself around the opposition of high to low culture, reversing the traditional hierarchy of value, but leaving intact the polarity and the direct correlation of culture and class. Through detailed readings of the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Michel de Certeau, Stuart Hall, and Ernesto Laclau, John Frow challenges this key assumption. He argues that the field of culture now has multiple centres and multiple domains of value and that these are irreducible to a single scale. Intellectuals play the crucial role in the mediation of the cultural field; their possession of cultural capital endows intellectuals with specific class interests which are distinct from those of the classes of groups for whom they claim to speak. Cultural Studies and Cultural Value seeks a revitalized and 'poststructuralist' account of social class, a basis from which cultural studies can effect a much-needed reorientation.

Science as Culture, Cultures of Science

Abstract: Although controversial, science studies has emerged in the 1990s as a significant culture area within anthropology. Various histories inform the cultural analysis of science, both outside and within anthropology. A shift from the study of gender to the study of science, the influence of postcolonial critiques of the discipline, and the impact of cultural studies are discussed in terms of their influence upon the cultural analysis of science. New ethnographic methods, the question of “ethnosciences” and multiculturalism, and the implosion of informatics and biomedicine all comprise fields of recent scholarship in the anthropology of science. Debates over modernism and postmodernism, globalization and environment, and the status of the natural inform many of these discussions. The work of Escobar, Hess, Haraway, Martin, Rabinow, Rapp, and Strathern are used to highlight new directions within anthropology concerning both cultures of science and science as culture.

Cultural Practices: Toward an Integration of Culture and Development.

Abstract: This chapter explains why the notion of cultural practices has been appealing to developmental researchers and introduces the conceptual framework for the volume.

Cultural awareness in the human services : a multi-ethnic approach

Abstract: Each chapter ends with "Follow Up." Preface. I.CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL SERVICES. 1.Race, Ethnicity, and Social Services. Diversity and Human Services. Race and Culture. Ethnicity. Concepts of Ethnicity: Categorical and Transactional. Social Work-Ethnic Group Relationships. Social Work as an Ethnic Community. A Human Services Model of Cultural Competence. Postmodernism, an Emerging Approach. 2.Help-Seeking Behavior: The Cultural Construction of Care. Care as a Cultural System. Help-Seeking Behavior: A Model for Cross-Cultural Service Relationships. DSM-IV and the Cultural Construction of Care. Cultural Competence as a Way of Working. 3.Method in Cross-Cultural Social Work. Cross-Cultural Learning. Cultural Competence. Steps toward Cultural Competence. Empathy and Cultural Competence. Organizational Competence. 4.Language and Cross-Cultural Social Work. Language and World View. Words, Meanings, and Client Perspectives. Language and Meaning. Interviewing for Emic Insight. Planning the Ethnographic Interview. Working with a Translator. Is Ethnographic Interviewing Therapeutic? Narrative as Storied Insight. Constraints on Cross-Cultural Communication. II.CULTURAL COMPETENCE IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXTS. 5.Cross-Cultural Problem Resolution. Step I: Building the Critical Knowledge Base. Step II: Cultural Salience in Problem Solving. Step III: Individualizing the Client within Context. Step IV: Cultural Competence and Power. Step V: Thinking and Working Comparatively. Getting from Here to There. American Ethnicity. 6.African Americans, Diaspora, and Survival. "Roots" and African American Ethnicity. Variations in the African American Community. African Americans and Social Services. Ideology and Care. Cultural Contrasts and Competent Practice. Developing Skills for Service. Other Black Communities. 7.American Indians in a New World. Who Is a Native American? Contemporary Aspects of Native American Life. Native Americans and Social Services. The Special Case of Alcohol. Native American Suicide. Cultural Contrasts and Cultural Competence. Developing Skills for Service. Who Is a Native American?-Again. 8.Latino Cultures and Their Continuity. Latino Diversity. Spanish-Speaking Communities and Social Services. Health, Illness, and Belief Systems. Cultural Contrasts and Cultural Competence. Family Life. Acculturation-Is it for Everybody? 9.Asians and Pacific Islanders. A Historical Overview. Adaptations to American Life. Social Service Needs among Asian Americans. Cultural Contrasts and Cultural Competence. The Chinese. The Japanese. Filipinos. The Vietnamese. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

Internalized Culture, Culturocentrism, and Transcendence

Abstract: Internalized culture is introduced as a psychological, rather than anthropological, construct most useful to counselors. It addresses explicitly both between-group and within-group variations resulting from individual differences in enculturation and helps to sensitize counselors against stereotyping. The problem of defining cultural boundaries arises, with serious difficulties in defining three specific classes of cultural phenomena. It is argued that there is a basic continuity from intracultural to intercultural understanding. In a sense, all interpersonal encounters are cross-cultural in nature. Accordingly, all counseling requires an awareness of cultural processes and the transcendence of one's internalized culture.

Measuring Culture: A Canadian Perspective

Abstract: The objectives of the Cultural Statistics Program (CSP), established by Statistics Canada in 1972 in order to statistically analyse cultural activities so as to develop systematic cultural policies, are presented. The expansion in its scope to conduct surveys from both an economic and cultural perspective is discussed, also describing the current and future challenges for the CSP in designing cultural surveys.

Ambiguity in policy discourse: Congressional talk about immigration

Abstract: Talk about immigration legislation in Congress between 1975 and 1986 drew upon competing interpretive frameworks to define ambiguous policy areas. The problem for both legislators and witnesses, as it is for all social actors, was that social realities are not objectively constituted, but socially constructed and tendentious. This essay is a cultural analysis of the language practices of legislators and other participants in the discussions, through which they created understandings of immigration. Congressional talk about immigration invoked the natural history language of ‘population.’ Despite an explicitly stated intention to avoid racist, nativist or jingoistic talk, which was largely achieved, this population talk, drawing on the ambiguous properties of language, allowed such prohibited concepts to be expressed. Particular understandings of race, gender, and class were reproduced, and not avoided or dismantled, by use of the natural history framework. It enabled speakers to displace fears and ambiguities onto objects of their talk, groups which were variously identified as ‘the problem.’ Data come from transcripts of hearings and speeches in Congress and from publications of the US Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy.

Understanding knowledge and attitudes about breast cancer. A cultural analysis.

Abstract: Author(s): Chavez, LR; Hubbell, FA; McMullin, JM; Martinez, RG; Mishra, SI | Abstract: ObjectiveTo evaluate knowledge and attitudes about breast cancer risk factors among Latinas, Anglo-American women, and physicians.DesignEthnographic interviews employing systematic data collection methods.ParticipantsTwenty-eight Salvadoran immigrants, 39 Mexican immigrants, 27 Chicanas, and 27 Anglo-American women selected through an organization-based network sampling and a convenience sample of 30 primary care physicians in Orange County, Calif.Main outcome measures and resultsData analysis using qualitative content analysis and quantitative cultural consensus analysis, a mathematical technique that determines the degree of shared knowledge within groups and estimates "culturally correct" answers (cultural models), was employed. The content analysis revealed different beliefs about breast cancer risk factors, particularly between the Latinas and the physicians. The cultural consensus analysis found two broad cultural models (defined as groups with ratios between the first and second eigenvalues of g or = 3 and no negative competency scores). A Latina model (ratio = 3.4), formed by the Salvadorans, Mexicans, and Chicanas, emphasized breast trauma and "bad" behaviors, including drinking alcohol and using illegal drugs as risk factors. A biomedical model (ratio = 3.0), embraced by physicians and Anglo-American women, emphasized risk factors described in the medical literature, such as family history and age. Within these broad models, each group of respondents also differed enough in their beliefs to form their own, often stronger, cultural models.ConclusionsEthnography can provide important insights about culturally based knowledge and attitudes about disease. An understanding of the distinctive cultural models regarding breast cancer risk factors will aid future cancer control interventions.

Across the great divide: Cultural analysis and the condition of democracy

Abstract: (1995) Across the great divide: Cultural analysis and the condition of democracy Critical Studies in Mass Communication: Vol 12, No 1, pp 89-95

Resident Alien: Feminist Cultural Criticism

Abstract: List of Plates. 1. The Female Stranger: Marginality and Modes of Writing. 2. Eddie Cochran, Donna Anna and the Dark Sister: Personal Experience and Cultural History. 3. Memoirs and Micrologies: Walter Benjamin, Feminism and Cultural Analysis. 4. Death and the Maiden: Does Semiotics Justify Murder? 5. Dance Criticism: Feminism, Theory and Choreography. 6. The Artist and The Flaneur: Rodin, Rilke and Gwen John in Paris. 7. On the Road Again: Metaphors of Travel in Cultural Criticism. 8. Angry Young Men and Minor (Female) Characters: The Idea of +ACI-America+ACI- in 1950s Popular Culture. Index.

Northern Intellectuals and the EZLN

Abstract: In recent decades, important trends in social and cultural analysis have been qualified with the prefix "post." Today social scientists, for instance, are expected to know something about poststructuralism, postmodernism, post-Fordism, and even something called post-Marxism. A situation once identified as "colonial" is said by some to have been supplanted by another, called "postcolonial." Whatever the virtues of these perspectives—for the challenges they present to conventional understandings, for generating new forms of critique—they are of little value for understanding contemporary historical developments; worse, they have introduced a vocabulary and form of presentation that obscure considerably more than they reveal.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

History and Postmodernism

Abstract: The growth in popularity of postmodern critical theory in the field of Asian American Studies provokes mixed feelings in me as a historian (and it is from the viewpoint of a historian specializing in Asian American history that I speak in this essay). There is much that is positive in the development but much that troubles me at the same time. As an interdisciplinary field, Asian American Studies can only benefit from the insights and originality that postmodernism, and for that matter any theoretical and analytical approach from natural science, social science, or other humanistic area, encourages among practitioners in the field. In particular, postmodern theory (I acknowledge that many different ways of thinking can be called postmodern, but in this essay, postmodernism means the current analytical concentration, posited in an epistemology of radical philosophical skepticism, on discourse) has inspired innovative work in literary criticism, creative production, and cultural analysis. At the same time, it has also promoted in the historical field a heightened sensitivity to the problematic nature of evidence, to the limits of knowledge and of truth claims, to the imbedded silences and contradictions in any effort to recover human experience, to the responsibilities of authorial voice and power, and to the complexity and variety of human experience itself, alerting us to the dangers of essentialism and overgeneralization. These effects have been all to the good. One of the great strengths of postmodern theory is its critical power and, as such, it has furthered counterhegemonic efforts, which Marxists, ethnic studies specialists, and feminist scholars,

Cultural Studies and Beyond: Fragments of Empire

Abstract: This lively book will be essential to all those attempting to understand the state of Cultural Studies in the West today. Ion Davies, who was in at the birth of Cultural Studies in Britain and followed its development in many parts of the world, is uniquely qualified to add historical depth and comparative breadth to this subject. Introducing the central theoretical issues, as well as the key personalities, Cultural Studies and Beyond traces the origins, growth and diffusion of the subject.

Inside the mouse : work and play at Disney World

Abstract: This entertaining and playful book views Disney World as much more than the site of an ideal family vacation. Blending personal meditations, interviews, photographs, and cultural analysis, "Inside the Mouse" looks at Disney World s architecture and design, its consumer practices, and its use of Disney characters and themes. This book takes the reader on an alternative ride through "the happiest place on earth" while asking "What makes this forty-three-square-mile theme park the quintessential embodiment of American leisure?"Turning away from the programmed entertainment that Disney presents, the authors take a peek behind the scenes of everyday experience at Disney World. In their consideration of the park as both private corporate enterprise and public urban environment, the authors focus on questions concerning the production and consumption of leisure. Featuring over fifty photographs and interviews with workers that strip "cast members" of their cartoon costumes, this captivating work illustrates the high-pressure dynamics of the typical family vacation as well as a tour of Disney World that looks beyond the controlled facade of themed attractions.As projects like EuroDisney and the proposed Disney America test the strength of the Disney cultural monolith, "Inside the Mouse" provides a timely assessment of the serious business of supplying pleasure in contemporary U.S. culture. Written for the general reader interested in the many worlds of Disney, this engrossing volume will also find fans among students and scholars of cultural studies."

Theorizing culture : an interdisciplinary critique after postmodernism

Abstract: This highly original and timely volume engages scholars from the breadth of social science and the humanities to provide a critical perspective on cultural forms, practices and identities. It looks beyond the postmodern debate to reinstate the critical dimension in cultural analysis, providing a "student-friendly" introduction to key contemporary issues such as the body, AIDS, race, the environment and virtual reality. Theorizing Culture is essential reading for undergraduate courses in cultural and media studies and sociology, and will have considerable appeal for students and scholars of critical theory, gender studies and the history of ideas.

The New Georgia: Space, Society, Politics

Abstract: After the collapse of the socialist political system that had glued the Soviet Union together, two dozen nations re-emerged on the world stage. "The New Georgia" presents both a broad and an intimate view of society in one of those nations, a country previously best known to the West as the home of the infamous Stalin. Composed by candlelight and typed during short intervals when electricity was available, the book begins with general geographical and historical background of this country, sitting precariously at the political crossroads of eastern Europe and western Asia. Part I also includes sections on many aspects of social geography, including population and family dynamics, education, employment, class stratifications, housing, ethnicity, and religion. Part II analyzes the specific issues of a rapidly changing society, including the sudden transition to a market economy, regional variations in welfare, crime and drug abuse, urban-specific problems, and ethnic tensions. Despite the maze of problems in post-Soviet Georgia, Gachechiladze concludes hopefully that "Georgia will come closer to the way of development that all progressive countries of the West have. . . . According to Stjepan Mestrovi, editor of the Eastern European Series and author of "Habits of the Balkan Heart," "The New Georgia" "engages in a cultural analysis that will be of interest to readers in diverse fields."

Men in Perspective

Abstract: This book has been written specifically to address the need for a systematic but critical review of contemporary perspectives on masculinity and identity. The authors cover a range of perspectives from biological analysis and psychoanalytical accounts, through role theories, sociological theories of social structure and social relations, to cultural analysis and feminist approaches.

Dynamics of Negation in the Identity Politics of Cultural Other and Cultural Self

Abstract: This paper examines the findings of Shi-xu (1995) in terms of how texts that represent a cultural Other may be interpreted as a way of constructing a cultural self. Even when attempting to move beyond colonial and demeaning representations of the cultural Other, these western writers in fact construct a vision of the Other that signifies their own desires and values. Westerners construct their identity dialogically in the texts analyzed by Shi-xu, primarily by defining what the cultural Other is not. The frequency with which western writers define their identities through negations compounded with the demeaning images of the cultural Other points to the difficulty and challenge of constructing a post-colonial discourse and an affirming recognition of the cultural Other.

Cultural Bias in Assessment: Historical and Thematic Issues

Abstract: In this introductory article the development of ideas on cultural bias in tests since the sixties is briefly reviewed and three approaches are mentioned. A distinction is made between the tradition of culture fair use of tests that is directed more towards selection in a multicultural society and the tradition of cross-cultural comparison that is concerned more with theoretical questions about cultural differences in behavior. The concerns of the former tradition have formed the main impetus for the development of psychometric analysis techniques. It is argued that some key problems of bias cannot be solved by further sophistication of statistical procedures, suggesting that a broadening of perspective in the field of bias analysis is desirable. Directions in which this can be achieved are indicated.

Ethnography as a Bridge to Multicultural Practice

Abstract: This article describes an ethnographic research method that is taught as a way of studying different cultural groups. Students learn to be sensitive observers of other cultures by conducting ethnographic interviews and forming assessments within a culturally relevant framework. In using this approach, faculty, fieldwork instructors, and students alike have noted improvement in students’ awareness of diversity and their ability to bridge cultures with sensitivity. In essence, students learn how to learn about other cultures.

Understanding Martin Amis

Abstract: "Understanding Martin Amis" is a comprehensive guide to the novels, short stories and non-fiction by one of Britain's most highly acclaimed and controversial authors. Building on the first edition, of 1995, James Diedrick draws on personal interviews, reviews and criticism to map the distinctive features of Martin Amis's imaginative landscape - the sociosexual satire of "Money" and "Yellow Dog", the bold experimentation of "Time's Arrow" and "Night Train", and the provocative blend of autobiography and cultural analysis in "Experience" and "Koba the Dread". Diedrick illustrates how Amis has reshaped the British literary landscape, expanding its stylistic and thematic range while creating forms adequate to the experience of postmodernity. Diedrick analyzes an increasing cultural conservatism in Amis's work, rooted in Amis's relationship with his father, the novelist Kingsley Amis. During his early career, the younger Amis opposed his father's political and aesthetic conservatism. But his opposition has given way to frequent expressions of political and literary solidarity. Diedrick shows how this filial relationship continues to shape the son's outlook and writing. Diedrick also identifies two complementary impulses in Amis's work. The first is journalistic and satirical, expressed in an incisive wit aimed at contemporary social realities. The second is aesthetic, manifesting a Nabokovian love of verbal play and formal experimentation. Besides analyzing the ways Amis's fiction forges the topical into the literary, Diedrick argues for the importance of Amis's considerable journalistic oeuvre and provides close readings of his non-fiction collection and his uncollected essays and reviews.

Learning to consume: An ethnographic study of cultural change in Hungary

Abstract: The economic transformations of East Central Europe opened the floodgates to a sea of western advertising and other symbolic activities aimed at informing the public about new products, their appropriate use, and their social and cultural meanings as markers of status. The significance of advertising and other marketing activities in such a setting lies not in their direct pitches to purchase this or that product, but rather in their subtle instruction in how to experience and express one's cultural identity through spending. Using ethnography and other qualitative approaches, this study explores how people in one particular post‐communist society are making sense of this cultural transition. Specifically, it investigates the ways in which social actors in Hungary—cultural producers as well as the lay public—conceptualize and articulate their experiences as subjects in that nation's transition to a culture of consumption.

The cultural shaping of accounting

Abstract: Preface Cultural Relativism in Accounting Cultural Determinism and the Perception of Accounting Concepts Cultural Determinism and Professional Self-Regulation Cultural Determinism and Accounting Disclosure Requirements of Global Stock Exchanges Cultural Determinism and Compensation Practices Index

The Point of Theory: Practices of Cultural Analysis@@@Deconstruction and the Visual Arts: Art, Media, Architecture@@@Visual Culture: Images and Interpretations@@@The Practice of Theory: Poststructuralism, Cultural Politics, and Art History

Abstract: This collection of essays aims to make the workings of culture understandable through interdisciplinary analysis, demonstrating what the point of \"theory\" is for the practice of the analysis of culture. The contributors include Parveen Adams, Jane Beckett and Griselda Pollock.

Simulations: a safe place to take risks in discussing cultural differences

Abstract: Non-western cultures, such as Indonesia, provide different perspectives about psychological functions that are surprisingly relevant in western cultural settings Specific examples developed in Indonesia and Malaysia of simulations and strategies for teaching about psychology are discussed The uniquely positive function of simulations in teaching about psychology is presented and discussed