Showing papers on "Westernization published in 2001"

Cultural Values Reflected in Chinese and American Television Advertising

Abstract: This study examines cultural values as reflected in U.S. and Chinese advertising appeals. The findings support most of the hypotheses, indicating that the portrayal of traditional Chinese cultural values remains relatively stable. However, subtle changes in cultural values and advertising strategies are visible. In particular, the youth / modernity appeal that reflects the westernization, as well as the modernization, trend in China seems as prominently displayed in Chinese commercials as in the U.S. commercials. Implications for standardization versus specialization advertising strategies are also explored.

Exposure to westernization and dieting: a cross-cultural study.

Abstract: Objectives The study aimed to establish whether an index of exposure to westernization would predict dieting behavior over and above the predictors of body mass index (BMI) and social influences. The study also sought to compare dieting behaviors among adolescents from three different cultural backgrounds. Method A total of 100 females from Beijing, China, 60 females of Chinese heritage living in Sydney, Australia, and 100 female Australians of no Chinese background were assessed. The exposure to westernization index incorporated the country of birth, the predominant language spoken at home, the country of birth of one's parents, and the country of residence. Results Exposure to westernization was found to be a significant predictor of dieting status. The westernization index remained an important predictor when BMI and social influences to diet were taken into account. Interestingly, the Chinese Australian girls dieted the least, although the Chinese girls living in China perceived more influence from their peers to diet, despite their lower BMI. Conclusion The exposure to westernization index provides a useful assessment of important influences on dieting in adolescent females. © 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 29: 289–293, 2001.

On Cultural Globalization

Abstract: Cultural globalization and economic globalization are two co existent phenomena.Cultural globalization,not meaning the same as Westernization or Americanization,reveals a magnificent prospect of pluralistic exchange,understanding and fusion.Under the circumstances of cultural globalization,the development of the national culture lies in its comprehensive creation.

Women's rights as human rights: The Turkish case

Abstract: The concept of human rights has been seen in many non-western countries as a tool of western colonialism, used self righteously by western countries to criticize non-western ones for human rights abuses. The Turkish case, however, is different. Even though one could depict a complicated love-hate relationship between the Turks and the West, it is also true that Turks began to adopt European ways following their failure to conquer Europe in the 18th century (Heper et al eds., 1993). They fought a national war of independence against western powers between 1919 and 1922 to establish the Turkish Republic, but once the Republic was established, it was western culture, laws and norms that the state formally adopted and the people mainly complied with. There were reactions to westernization, both from the left that was threatened by capitalist exploitation and the right that was concerned to preserve traditional norms, at different stages of Republican history. However, by the year 2000, at a time when Turkey has become a candidate for membership in the European Union, there is a large consensus both at the level of the state and of society that becoming part of Europe and the West is what is desired. Those who were once wary of the West agree that Turkey can benefit from human rights standards upheld in Europe. Along with the social democrats, even the Muslim right supports integration to Europe. It is in this context of increasing endorsement of integration with the West through Europe and wider legitimacy accorded to human rights that I shall discuss women's rights as human rights in Turkey. Human right norms have in fact played a significant role in promoting women's rights in Turkey, and while it is difficult to establish causal relationships between developments which ameliorate women's standing and the factors which account for these results, it is possible to point to the ways in which human rights norms have been used in promoting women's causes. In this essay, I intend to do the latter and analyze how women's human rights norms helped women in the local context precipitate the advancement of their cause in Turkey. Human rights norms have not merely given legitimacy to

The Internationalization and Globalization in Central and East European Higher Education

Abstract: 1. I want to focus here on the public policy consequences of the emerging question of tense relations between internationalization and globalization of higher education assuming the perspective of internationalization as a possible response to worldwide-felt globalization pressures in higher education. Globalization of higher education (with its introduction of business culture and corporate ethos) and internationalization (with its focus on internationalizing curricula, developing exchange programs for students and faculty, interdisciplinary, international and team-oriented research etc) are manifestations of strong Westernization of Central and East European (CEE) higher education. The rationale of the two processes seems to be different, though: political and economic in the case of globalization of higher education, academic and social/cultural (following the Bologna Declaration also increasingly political and economic) in the case of internationalization of higher education. Both processes are main challenges for higher education today: one as a catalyst, the other as a response. Central and Eastern Europe in this respect is not an exception to a worldwide trend.

Diabetes: the by-product of westernization in Papua New Guinea.

Abstract: Before the 1960s diabetes was rare in Papua New Guinea But by late 1970s there was evidence that diabetes type 2 was increasing among some urban dwellers The problem is getting worse and in some urban communities the prevalence of diabetes has doubled within 14 years Unfortunately no one knows the exact magnitude of the problem Secondly there are simply not enough resources to handle the current known cases This is compounded by the fact that many Papua New Guineans welcome western lifestyle with open arms A change of eating habits and lifestyle is vital if any change is to be made to this by-product of westernization

Islamic ideology and its formative influence on education in contemporary Iran

Abstract: Despite the ridiculous claims on the demise of religion in human beingsi everyday life in the shrunk modern world, its continuous and significant role has been considerable in forming new social forms correspondent to Islamic requirements since Islamic revolution of 1979. The undeniable role of Islamic ideology, however, has already been proved by the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911), nationalization movement (1951-1952), the uprising of 1963 and finally the appearance of Islamic Revolution (1978-1979) after all attempts made under the Pahlavi dynasty towards modernization, westernisation and secularisation of the country during last century. The main aim is to explore the influence of ideas and values on the development of social structures and processes. In order to examine the degree to which these ideational factors influenced Iranian postrevolutionary educational system, I conducted two fieldworks in a rural area of North Western Iran based on ethnographic study of religion and everyday life in 1995-1996. The focus of this paper will be the study of changes that have occurred in school curricula since 1979. According to findings, the effects of the Islamic Revolution on curricula and textbooks represent a particular interesting compromise between aspects of tradition and aspects of modernity.

Globalization and its consequences

Abstract: There is no such thing as globalization in the world today. What we have is Westernization in general, and Americanization in particular. By “globalization”, and I like the word, I would mean a world where both genders, all three generations, all races, all classes, all nations and all states would pull together for the sake of livelihood and dignity for all. The only organization that could be a vehicle for such endeavors would be the United Nations. But the UN is being crippled, particularly by the vehicle for the key project: Americanization.

An Examination of Church-State Relations in the Byzantine and Russian Empires With an Emphasis on Ideology and Models of Interaction

Abstract: The legacy of early Christianity Constantine - archetype of the Christian sovereign the nature of power and authority in a Christian state the political language of orthodoxy unity, citizenship, church, and nation the importance of founding a new Rome the theory of symphony speaking truth to power mission work and church-state relations symphony in practice - the case of medieval Georgia symphony in practice - the theocratic republicanism of the medieval Russian north the challenge of non-Christian emperors - khans and sultans the failed third Rome - Russia and the impact of westernization the Slavophile conception of church-state relations being subject to the higher powers - four attitudes of the Russian church towards the Soviet regime church-state relations in Romania, 1947-1958 - the attempt to create symphony within a communist state concluding thoughts.

Chinese Encounters with Other Civilizations

Abstract: This article is a comparison of two cases of introducing foreign faiths in China. One case is that of Buddhism being brought from Central Asia and then directly from India. This Indian faith was ad...

The Politics of Implementing Women’s Rights in Turkey

Abstract: Since the founding of the Republic in 1923, the most important movement in Turkey has been toward westernization. The content of westernization has not only been economic and political, but also cultural, where the role of women within the society has assumed significance as a symbol of progress toward this endeavour. The reforms involving women’s rights were some of the most important, if not the most important attempts to break away from the Muslim world and turn toward the West. The major reforms that led to full citizenship for women, abolition of polygamy, equal rights in divorce and inheritance, and the granting of all civic equalities including political rights to women, were recognized as major accomplishments. Despite efforts by the state and the westernizing middle classes that adopted this new western ideal, the majority of the people retained their traditional lifestyles and perspectives. Throughout the twentieth century, westernized life styles infiltrated large sections of the population. Improved economic prosperity and increasing relations with the western world led to higher levels of education and a tendency to emulate the middle class. Equally significant sections of the population did not accept these western ideals of modernization and democratization, however. Some groups resisted and organized to oppose westernization.

Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance

Abstract: In this book, based on the 1995 Ohlin Lectures, Deepak Lal provides an accessible, interdisciplinary account of the role of culture in shaping economic performance. Topics addressed include a possible future "clash of civilizations," the role of Asian values in the East Asian economic miracle, the cultural versus economic causes of social decay in the West, and whether modernization leads to Westernization. Lal makes an important distinction between material and cosmological beliefs, showing how both were initially shaped by factor endowments and how they have evolved in response to changing historical pressures in different civilizations.

Westernisation of Gender Roles in House Construction in Botswana

Abstract: Women in Botswana and other sedentary pastoral communities in Africa have traditionally been house-builders. However, recent studies and census reports indicate that house construction—especially of modern buildings—has become a ‘man's job’, in that women are absent or grossly under-represented at construction sites. Those women who are employed in the construction industry have badly-paid, unskilled and peripheral jobs such as cleaning, mixing concrete and cooking. While some scholars have attributed this male appropriation of female roles to the transfer of housing from the female domestic sphere to the male public sphere, this paper uses Westernisation theory to account for the changes. With the introduction of Western socioeconomic, political and institutional systems, gender roles have tended to become more European than African. The paper shows that through the widespread adoption in Lobatse, Botswana, of Western building processes, skills, house designs and materials, African women have lost their ...

Translation and Westernization:Gulliver's Travelsin Ladino

Abstract: leksander Ben Ghiat's translation ofJonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is an important literary document as well as a valuable resource for the student of Sephardic social and intellectual history, and my goal in this article is to provide a philological analysis of it.' Ben Ghiat was a prolific writer. He was born in Izmir, Turkey, and received his education there, first in a meldar (a Jewish religious primary school), then in one of the schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle (AIU). These schools were opened in the Ottoman Empire after 1860 by French Jews, whose goal was to bring Western cultural values, progress, and moral education to their Oriental co-religionists. The AIU saw its work as a civilizing mission. The general system of teaching imitated those principles dominant in nineteenth-century Republican France. At first the teachers came from Paris, but later they were recruited in the Middle East and instructed in France. For the

Global Media Corporations and the Nation-State: Balancing Politico-Economic and Socio-Cultural Globalization

Abstract: Socio-cultural change is an invariable concomitant of the politico-economic globalization being embraced by most countries. Yet the interrelated roles of global media corporations and nation-states in the process of globalization have been relatively untouched in global business research. This article examines the role of the global media industry as a cultural change-agent, even a source of cultural imperialism. Drawing on a critical analysis of literature from other social science disciplines, this article argues that media corporations are not solely responsible for the socio-cultural upheaval that accompanies politico-economic globalization. There is also insufficient evidence for the homogenization or Westernization of cultures via the media. Still, given the sensitivity of nation-states to national culture, this article concludes that the impact of the conver gent media, information and communications industry needs to analyzed in the wider context of the global ization of their politico-economic and socio-cultural environments.

Introduction: From Khomeini to Khatami

Abstract: For more than two decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been a dominant concern of policymakers in the Muslim world and the West. Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1978–79 was clearly one of the major turning points of twentieth century history. It shattered the myths of modernization and development theory, which presupposed the Westernization and secularization of society, and signaled the resurgence of Islam in Muslim politics and society. Much of the 1980s was dominated by the image of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the threat of Iran’s export of its revolution. Indeed, Iran pursued twin goals: institutionalization of the revolution at home and its export abroad. Shortly after the revolution, the militant clergy moved quickly to consolidate their power. Early lay reformers and leaders such as President Abolhasan Bani Sadr and Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan were forced from office as Iran emerged clearly as a clerically dominated state. The clergy assumed key positions in political, judicial, and educational institutions, and dominated the Islamic Republican Party and the media. Any and all significant opposition, clerical and lay, were silenced.

Westernization, modernization and Turkish-Arab relations during Democrat Party era

Abstract: Ankara : The Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Bilkent University, 2001.

Westernization and Westification: Social and Media Change in Central and Eastern Europe. A Polish Case Study

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to test one of the many ways of tracking the progress of media transformation in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of European integration, based on a descriptive/analytical and relativistic research approaches. The conceptual and analytical framework adopted for the analysis of the process is an institutional and cultural one, which is best suited in this case of “systemic transformation” of an exceptionally large scope. The dissidents’ primary weapon of struggle against the Communist system, and their main objective for the future was civil society, a model of “ethical” civil society with its many idealistic features. This and concept of the media institutions of civil society, as described in the article, are taken as the criteria for assessing the results of the systemic transformation. Because of a number of characteristics of post-Communist societies, including a high politicisation of public life, a weak state and weak society, a low level of public involvement on the part of citizens, etc. the goal of developing a civil society has not truly been attained. Also the media system falls short of what the dissidents hoped it would be, involving only the privately owned print media and public and commercial broadcasting. In most post-Communist countriest this “standard model” has meant the empowerment primarily of the new political and business elites. This analysis shows that in the Polish case the views of the 1980s dissidents could not serve as an accurate predictor of their own later policies and behaviour, nor indeed of the direction and consequences of transformation. Therefore, the early views and concepts of the initiators of that transformation cannot provide a set of criteria for judging the progress and success of that process.

Ukrainian Higher Education in Transition: Perspectives and Policy Implications

Abstract: Study, Study, Study," the Leninist quotation reads. "The Party Is the Mind of the Nation." The quotation, a leftover from the Soviet era, sits high atop Building Number One of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. (1) But inside the building and others that house the academy, administrators, faculty, and students are working to make sure that the culture of the Soviet era and the education system associated with it remain firmly in the past. Kyiv-Mohyla is symbolic of the impact of visionary leadership on institutions in Ukraine. Symbolic too of what can happen to an institution with clear ties to the West and a steady stream of western funding for reform initiatives. On the other hand, the story of Mohyla highlights how far Ukrainian education has to go and the challenges facing western policymakers whose support for higher education constitutes a pivotal component of democracy promotion and the building of an open society in Ukraine and other countries in the region (Poland and Russia in particular). Ukraine is the third-largest recipient of American governmental assistance, trailing only Israel and Egypt. By looking at Mohyla, we can begin to understand what is right and what is wrong, or at least problematic, with Ukrainian higher education and what it means for our policymakers. The academy is at once Ukraine's oldest and one of its youngest universities. (2) Mohyla was founded in 1632 by the leading orthodox clergyman of Kyiv, Petro Mohyla, who was convinced that the "survival of orthodoxy" depended on radical and immediate reform of the monastical order. The curriculum was based on the Jesuit model, replacing Old Church Slavonic with Greek and Latin. Mohyla, to the dismay of some of his more conservative orthodox colleagues in Kyiv and elsewhere, sent many of his fellow priests off to Poland for additional training. (3) He was successful beyond his wildest imaginings but not in the way he intended or foresaw. Within a generation of Mohyla's establishment, Kyiv and two-thirds of modern day Ukraine lay in Russian hands, but the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by the Patriarch Nikon, took most of its priests from the academy. (4) Unfortunately, at least for Mohyla, that happy occurrence did not last because by the early nineteenth century, Mohyla's doors were closed forcibly, because of St. Petersburg's suspicions that Polish influence was still too strong in Kyiv and that culturally conscious Ukrainians might destabilize the empire. The doors remained closed from 1819 to 1991, when, like Ukraine itself--that is, less a result of general social movements than of the maneuvering of small groups at the center--the doors reopened and a new academy emerged, an academy dedicated to the aims of its founder: westernization, this time with a secular twist. The founder of the new academy and nearly a decade later still its president, Vyacheslav Brioukhovetsky, was a leader of Rukh, a coalition of democratically minded Ukrainian nationalists formed in 1989 to oppose Communist and Russian rule. Brioukhovetsky and those around him saw the re-establishment of the once famous academy as their contribution to Ukraine's renaissance. At the undergraduate level, Mohyla resembles an American liberal arts college with its tripartite division into humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Three years after its inception, Mohyla opened the country's first graduate school of social work. One year later, master's degrees were introduced in most of the liberal arts disciplines. There is a law school. And earlier this year an Institute of Civic Education opened to serve as a resource center for democracy studies and to help implement a western assistance grant to train high school teachers in democracy education. Finally, although centered in Kyiv, smaller versions of the main campus function in Mikolaev, in southern Ukraine, and in Ostrog, the latter not far from Lviv to the west. The academy is aided by a nationwide consortium of so-called "feeder" schools, although anyone can apply to the university. …

The Generals' Discontent:

Abstract: I N DECEMBER 1999, THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) GAVE THE GREEN LIGHT TO TURKEY'S EVENTUAL membership. But Turkey's powerful generals, who favor nearly all possible alliances with the West, are apparently balking at the idea of taking this ultimate step in the process of Turkey's Westernization. The generals-usually known for upholding the principles of Atatiirk and the rapid Westernization process he embarked on in 1923-seem to be turning their faces away from the EU.

Continuing the Debate on Education and Development

Abstract: Formal studies of education and national development grew rapidly in the 1960s supported by human capital and modernization theories. Human capital investments include investments for additional schooling or training, for health care, for information about job opportunities, or for migration to where higher income is available. Such decisions may be undertaken by individuals on their own behalf or by society on behalf of its members. These choices are calculated, rational, and intentional. From sociology and social psychology emerged complementary modernization theories, at times emphasizing the systemic nature of society and the adaptive capacity of its institutions, and at other times focusing on individual attitudes and motivations. Both modernization and human capital theories expanded attention to the wide variety of education’s potential contributions.1 Criticisms of human capital theory and modernization theory became increasingly frequent during the latter part of the ‘‘development decade’’ of the 1960s and became a deluge in the 1970s and 1980s. The notions of human capital were subject to some modifications, but the core concept remained unscathed, and, indeed, its importance (as well as the importance of the discipline of economics) internationally as the rationale for educational policy has grown. Modernization theories fared less well. The ideas of modernization appeared to be too simple in a complex world and too closely associated with Westernization, and the latter was closely linked with

Radicalismos, violências e integração política na Turquia

Abstract: This article analyses the main obstacles to be faced for the political integration in Turkey. It shows that radicalism and violence spring from three sources; the Turkish-Kurd opposition; the Sunite-Alevite opposition and the rise of political Islamism, with its refusal to abandon religious reference.What has contributed to the present political fragmentation are the contradictions of the Kemalist doctrine, on which the legitimacy of the Turkish State is based; the successive military coups d'etat that cause constant party realignements; and the militarization of vast regions of Turkey to hold back the successive waves of Kurdish and Alevite violent uprisings, which, in turn, give autonomy to armed groups that tend to perpetuate the violent contends and repression. From this perspective, the future of Turkey depends, on the one hand, on the social integration of identifications and convictions (Kurds, Alevites and Islamites) for the recognition of regional cultures and, on the other, on the adoption of the principle of non-politization of religious convictions and the abandonment of social conservatism as an opposition to westernization.

Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance

Abstract: In this book, based on the 1995 Ohlin Lectures, Deepak Lal provides an accessible, interdisciplinary account of the role of culture in shaping economic performance Topics addressed include a possible future "clash of civilizations," the role of Asian values in the East Asian economic miracle, the cultural versus economic causes of social decay in the West, and whether modernization leads to Westernization Lal makes an important distinction between material and cosmological beliefs, showing how both were initially shaped by factor endowments and how they have evolved in response to changing historical pressures in different civilizations

No. 15 (2001): Americanization, Westernization, Sinification, Modernization or Globalization of China?

Abstract: The author argues that globalization has been an objective reality and inevitable tendency of human development from which no one can escape. So long as a country opens to the outside world, it will be in the process of globalization. China is no exception in this global age. Globalization is initiated and dominated by the US-led Western developed countries. How-ever, no country, including the US, is able to manipulate completely the process of globaliza-tion on which developing countries, including China, have been exerting more and more in-fluence. Globalization is a sword with negative and positive sides for both developed and de-veloping countries. Both of them can either benefit from or get lost in globalization. Global-ization changes modern world civilizations into a cosmopolity, no matter whether it origi-nated in the East or the West. Therefore, to learn from the West never means “Westerniza-tion” while to learn from the East never means “Easternization” exclusively, and China’s par-ticipation in WTO and introduction of market economy never means “Westernizing or Americanizing China” exclusively. Internationalization, nationalization and localization sup-plement each other. China has to participate actively in globalization if she wants to preserve her own unique civilization; just as China has to carry her national advantages forward if she wants to participate in globalization effectively. Globalization in an authentic sense is by no means an absolute “Westernization” or “Americanization”. It will prove a lack of foresight to argue that China would be “Westernized” or “Americanized” once it participates in the proc-ess of globalization.

Imagining European Women

Abstract: The European woman (zan-i Farangi) was the locus of gaze and erotic fantasy for many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Persianate voy(ag)eurs of Europe. The travelers’ recounting of their self-experience provided the material for the formation of competing discourses on women of Europe. With the political hegemony of Europe, a woman’s body served as an important marker of identity and difference and as a terrain of cultural and political contestations. The eroticized depiction of European women by male travelers engendered a desire for that “heaven on earth” and its uninhibited and fairy-like residents who displayed their beauty and mingled with men. The attraction of Europe and European women figured into political contestations and conditioned the formation of new political discourses and identities. These contestations resulted in the valorization of the veil (hijab) as a visible marker of the self and the other. For Iranian modernists, viewing European women as educated and cultured, the veil became a symbol of backwardness. Its removal, in their view, was essential to the advancement of Iran and its dissociation from Arab—Islamic culture. For the counter-modernists who wanted to uphold the Islamic social and gender orders, the European woman became a scapegoat and a symbol of corruption, immorality, Westernization, and feminization of power.