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.

The Balkan Revolutionary Age

Abstract: Although Ottoman rule was avowedly Islamic in ideology from its very inception, historians have tended to discount the importance of the religion for both state and population during the nineteenth century. Historical accounts of the era dwell upon plans to modernize the empire, which are often equated with an aspiration to westernize, and thus to secularize. Such narratives treat matters of faith that contradict the secularization theme as tainted subjects unworthy of serious study.1 Ottoman invocations of religion are frequently dismissed as ‘reactionary’ and ‘conservative’ (and therefore petty-minded), or as socially acceptable formulae that disguised other interests. Yet assumptions that Islam denoted ignorance or was little more than a tool for political posturing obscure the nature of reform by misconstruing the conflicting pressures driving change. From top to bottom of Muslim society, religion was not only a matter of belief but also vital to personal identity and sense of social order, and Muslims acted when they perceived threats to Islam’s well-being. This article, therefore, challenges the concept of a ‘taint’ that has precluded consideration of religion in the nineteenth-century Ottoman empire, by means of a reinterpretation of the domestic context of reform. It focuses primarily upon the last decade in the reign of Sultan Mahmud II (1808–39), the ruler heretofore credited with committing the empire to modernization, westernization and secularization. After disastrous losses in wars with European powers, especially Russia, Mahmud and his advisers embarked upon a plan to centralize authority in Istanbul, but their motivation was less emulation of Europe than strengthening the state’s defence of the Abode of Islam (Dar al-Islam) against Christian enemies. Their forceful imposition of change on the population, in turn, drove many to take up arms against the state in order to defend what they perceived to be most at risk: the ethos...

Modernization and Gender: a history of girls' technical education in Turkey since 1927

Abstract: This article is a historical analysis of Girls’ Institutes in Turkey. These schools were established in the early Republican era in order to educate girl students to gender roles compatible with modernization and with the westernization project of the Turkish state. The analysis is based upon qualitative data (including interviews and focus groups). The findings point to four trends in the history of Girls’ Institutes and in the characteristics and lifechances of graduates in the period 1927‐70. These were (a) the shift from ‘good housewife and mother’ training schools to vocational schools; (b) the downgrading of the employment of graduates; (c) a shift from singleness to marriage; and (d) the redefinition of gender roles by women themselves.

Does a decade make a difference? A second look at western women working in Japan

Abstract: Purpose – To assess changes over the past decade in the self‐reported levels of adjustment, job performance, and professional acceptance of western women professionals working in Japan.Design/methodology/approach – Napier and Taylor's benchmark 1995 study of western women working in Japan is replicated ten years later on a similar sample group of women in Japan. Questionnaire responses to questions about cultural adjustment, job performance, and professional acceptance are compared for the original and new samples.Findings – Despite increased westernization of business practices in Japan and a greater representation of Japanese women in management positions, no statistically significant change is found in the scores for the three measures examined over the ten year period. The incidence of formal training, preparation, and support provided by employers was higher for the more recent sample.Research limitations/implications – The sample size is relatively small and represents only women in the Tokyo area, ...

From production to consumption : transformation of rural communities

Abstract: Up to a few decades ago, the anthropology of tourism was regarded as a way to become involved in effortless research in pleasant settings Moreover, tourism was portrayed as a sinister carrier of Westernization, thus as a menace to the subaltern societies that had to endure it Nowadays, anthropological studies on tourism have established their own legitimacy due to the considerable socioeconomic significance of tourism in this age of hectic global mobility This book points to new and important research perspectives showing the impact of tourism on the rural world The articles presented in this collection are a major and groundbreaking contribution to the analysis of the new rurality in global society (Series: Freiburger Sozialanthropologische Studien/Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology - Vol 35)