Westernization

About: Westernization is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1154 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15791 citations. The topic is also known as: occidentalization.

An Olympic Education: From Athletic Colonization to International Harmony

Abstract: Introduction Since Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, first recognized the value of using sport to reform France's educational system in the late 19th Century, the Anglo-American "cult of sport" has been used by many educational reformers from the Western world to infuse a sense of moral quality into education. The historically prominent (and most controversial) vehicle responsible for the spread of this cult was on the backs of British colonialists and American missionaries during the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s; however, the most popular vehicle has been the Olympic Games. Unlike the colonialists, the spirit of the Olympic Games is founded on the celebration of all humanity. Renewed every four years, the Olympics create convenient opportunities for different host countries to incorporate the pillars of Olympism (as well as the cult of sport) into their educational curriculum. The constant emphasis on the noble humanitarian values of Olympism including peace, equality, fair play, and international friendship, and the simultaneous downplaying of its political nature has enabled Olympic educational initiatives to escape the critical eye of many scholars. Given the plethora of studies conducted on the impacts of sport during the British and American colonial eras, it is surprising that the current body of sports studies literature, including Olympic studies, includes a disproportionately low amount of research investigating the socio-cultural and socio-political impacts of the Olympic Games. Consequently, the literature presents an incongruent image of modern sport. On the one hand, modern sport is associated with the darker side of Western civilization (colonization and cultural imperialism); while, on the other hand, it is associated with the most hopeful and beautiful aspects of Internationalism (Olympism). This very tension between the two faces of sport sets the premise of this paper. As the Olympics and Olympic Education continue to be diffused around the world, it becomes even more important that, alongside the celebration of a universal human spirit, its curriculum encourages cultural autonomy, cultural diversity, and self-determination among its many participating nations. Additionally, because international sport has become nearly synonymous with modernity and development (and, to a degree, with Westernization), it is even more critical to ensure the method of its incorporation into educational systems is not a subtle manifestation of cultural imperialism by the West. This paper attempts to address both of these issues with a preliminary investigation on the cultural impacts that modern sport and the Olympic Games have had on non-Western and minority communities through mass educational movements. In particular, this paper places Coubertin's educational vision into the larger discourse on sport and colonialism in order to determine which aspects of Olympic Education are exemplary models for international educational reform, and which aspects are simply less-threatening forms of cultural domination that should be modified. The paper's second section situates the Olympics and Olympic Education within the context of colonialism. The subsequent sectoin goes back to describe Coubertin's original goals of educational reform through sport in its own historic context. The fourth section returns to using a colonial lens and demonstrating how present-day Olympic Education tends towards neo-imperialism. The paper concludes with a discussion on how future Olympic Education programs might be improved so that they may move beyond their historical colonial associations and towards a future of true internationalism. Coubertin, the Olympic Games and the Colonial State For many sport historians, the age of Western imperialism laid the foundations for an intellectual playground, as well as an abundance of research on colonial and postcolonial sport. Although a comprehensive discussion of this literature is beyond the purview of this paper, it is necessary to point out that these studies have begun to illuminate how sport has produced a myriad of postcolonial sporting phenomena that we have normalized into our day-to-day experiences. …

Sporting Japanese-ness in an Americanised Japan

Abstract: As one of the only Asian nations to successfully modernise in the nineteenth century, the Japanese have been on the forefront of the West-East encounter. Many Japanese discussed the diffusion of American culture and the Americanisation of Japan, which accelerated during the inter-war (1920 – 40) period. Despite the fact that the Japanese masses enjoyed cinema, jazz, cafes and baseball, many Japanese were critical of the dynamics of Americanisation. Sport often became the flashpoint of how Japanese were addressing the processes of Westernisation and Americanisation in Japan. This essay discusses the inter-war debates on sport and the 1940 Imperial Anniversary (‘Kigen 2600’) to analyse how the Japanese conceptualised the problematic of projecting and resisting Americanisation vis-a-vis an imagined Japanese national, cultural identity.

IDENTITY SECURITY AND TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY IN THE POST-COLD WAR PERIOD: Relations with the EU, Greece and the Middle East A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Abstract: Since the establishment of the republic in 1923 there has never been a consensus over Turkey‘s national identity, either internally or externally. Westernization was a top-down project that fostered societal resistance from the outset and which received only partial recognition from the West itself. The end of the Cold War has further intensified the debates over Turkish identity both in Turkey itself and in the wider world. This thesis examines the implications of a complex and insecure identity for Turkey‘s political development and in particular its ability to develop an international role commensurate with its size and capabilities. In doing so, it demonstrates the connection between different notions of Turkish identity and foreign policy preferences whilst emphasising also the important role of the international institutional context (for example membership of NATO and the EU) in shaping the preferences of diverse state/societal actors within Turkey in the post-Cold War period. The focus in this regard is on the military, political parties and business/civil-society groups. The thesis engages recent debates between constructivists and rationalists and argues that a constructivist account of Turkish foreign policy is more helpful than a rationalist explanation, through the case studies of Turkey‘s relations with the EU, Greece and the Middle East in the post-Cold War period. It shows how rational actor assumptions operate within a constructivist context and aims to shed light on the relationship between identity, political interests and foreign policy. The thesis also demonstrates that an insecure identity is a barrier to pursue consistent foreign policy goals, thereby lending support to the view that a secure identity is a condition of developing a stable and influential role in the post-Cold War system.

Changes of Emphases : Greek Christendom, Westernization, South-Eastern Europe, and Neo-Mitteleuropa

Abstract: « The composition of a provincial history is only a legitimate undertaking if the province in question has formed down the ages a coherent social entity, distinct from and even hostile to its neighbours, enclosed within more or less stable frontiers, and conscious in some fashion of its unity. » In these words, Marc Bloch intended to delineate the matter on which he focused his research. Accordingly, we are going to see if we can agree on considering the Balkans a province of Europe. Seeing, ...