social anthropology, ethnology, culture and cultural processes, social change, Anthropology, GN1-890, Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, and GN301-674
301, GN357 Culture and cultural processes Including social change, structuralism, diffusion, and etc.
Abstract
Focusing on migration from Guinea-Bissau to Portugal, this thesis examines the role played by food and plants that grow in Guinean land in connecting life-worlds in both places. Using a phenomenological approach to transnationalism and multi-sited ethnography, I explore different ways in which local experiences related to food production, consumption and exchange in the two countries, as well as local meanings of foods and plants, are connected at a transnational level. One of my key objectives is to deconstruct some of the binaries commonly addressed in the literature, such as global processes and local lives, modernity and tradition or competition and solidarity, and to demonstrate how they are all contextually and relationally entwined in people's life-worlds. In order to do so I trace Guinean foodstuffs and plants from their origin sites in Guinea-Bissau to their final destination in Portugal. I examine, first, the significance of the Guinean land where they grow. Second, I look at the adaptations that take place in Guineans' relationship with that land when it ‘travels' – through its food and plants – to Portugal. Third, I explore food-related ways in which the past, present and future of a Guinean life-world that is ‘disrupted' by migration are brought together through memory practices and future projects of migration and return. Finally, I examine practices of food exchange as gifts and trade across borders. By starting with production and ending with exchange practices, this thesis emphasises that both are not necessarily alienated from each other, even when they are physically distanced by migration. The unique relationships they generate and the role played by Guinean land's special properties, as well as the fact that these are able to travel, through the food and plants that share its substance, to Portugal, enable Guineans' local life-worlds to be connected in a transnational context.
306, DS393 Bangladesh. East Pakistan, DS401 India (Bharat), GN357 Culture and cultural processes Including social change, structuralism, diffusion, etc., and HT0601 Classes
Abstract
This thesis investigates the way that second generation British Indian Bengali middle class, predominantly Hindu respondents, have attempted to communicate their “modern” middle class respectability through their social practices, work and lifestyles. In their reproduction of this respectability, they attempt to distance negative British South Asian stereotypes prevalent in the media, work institutions and in day-to-day life; sometimes to the extent of ‘othering' other South Asians generally or British Bangladeshi Muslim Sylhetis specifically. Second generation's adaptive responses to racism and stigmatised stereotypes prevalent in British society also reaffirms the British Indian Bengali's presumptions of their ethnic distinctiveness and justifying homogenising racist stereotyping of these ‘other' South Asian groups. This thesis examines several aspects of their lives that are affected by these distinguishing tactics, through: presentation of their ethnicity; middle class identity; position of women within “the community”; ideas of love and romance and “type” of marriage. Additionally, there is an examination of how the second generation are increasingly challenging the assertion that all South Asians are primarily driven by ethnicity, religion and regional-language markers in their search for a marriage partner. Marriage trends amongst British Indian Bengalis are showing distinct moves away from finding a partner through ascribed statuses. Likewise, the second generation in their social interaction also exhibit a weaker sense of identification with their regional-language groups.
CULTURE, HEALTH services accessibility, LANGUAGE & languages, SCHOLARLY method, MASS media, SYMBOLISM (Psychology), MEDICAL policy, PREJUDICES, RACE, RACE relations, RACISM, SOCIAL classes, SOCIAL justice, SOCIAL norms, STEREOTYPES, SOCIAL stigma, PSYCHOLOGICAL stress, CULTURAL awareness, CULTURAL values, SOCIAL attitudes, POPULATION health, CULTURAL prejudices, and HEALTH & social status
Abstract
Policy PointsRacism is a fundamental cause of health inequities and disease, which requires policy solutions that address this cause directly rather than only targeting mechanisms.Cultural systems, such as cultural racism, undergird the social conditions that shape racial inequities in health, including social and health policy decision making, governance, practice, and public reception.Policies targeting racial health equity benefit from integrating social theory and meaningful assessments of the social context concerning race, racism, and health. Context: Improving the health of the total population may be insufficient in eliminating racial disparities in population health. An expanding commitment to understanding social determinants of health aims to address the social conditions that produce racialized patterns in health inequity. There is also a resurging and evolving interest in the influence of cultural barriers and assets in shaping racial inequities in health. The meaning and function of culture, however, remains underspecified. Methods: This paper synthesizes analogous but fragmented concepts of cultural threat related to social and racial inequity as examined in public and population health, psychology, sociology, communications, media studies, and law. It draws on an existing typology of culture and social inequity to organize concepts related to cultural racism. Employing a transdisciplinary approach, the paper integrates multiple scholarly perspectives on cultural threat to frame cultural racism as cultural systems that promote false presumptions of white superiority relative to non‐whites. Findings: The lack of shared conceptual grounding and language regarding cultural threats to health hinders a more precise identification and measurement of cultural processes as well as comparisons of relative prevalence and influence of pathways linking cultural processes and social inequity. Evaluating intersections among culture, structures, and racism is a valuable analytical tool for understanding the production of social and racial inequities in health. To adequately address health inequities rooted in systemic racism, it is imperative to discuss the function of cultural racism in shaping population health in the United States. Conclusions: Building a culture of health and achieving health equity requires that we assess cultural racism in a more meaningful way. Cultural processes are commonly referenced in health inequity scholarship, but the empirical literature generally lags behind the conceptual emphasis. A rich literature across disciplines has substantively engaged conceptualizations of culture and cultural processes, the importance of these processes as part of a system of racism, and mechanisms that may link cultural threats to health. When integrated, this literature offers essential insights for ways population health may address the complex issue of eradicating racial disparities in health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
WILDFIRES -- Australia, ENVIRONMENTAL disasters, CROSS-cultural differences, CLIMATE change, AUSTRALIA -- Politics & government -- 1945-, FIRE fighters, and ANTHROPOLOGISTS
Abstract
In late 2019 and early 2020, bushfires consumed vast swathes of land across southern parts of Australia. The scale and intensity of the fires was unprecedented and the extent of destruction was without parallel. This article asks to what extent anthropology's focus on culture and cultural processes can inform our understanding of the complex politics generated by a situation such as this. It is argued that local people, who were directly affected by the fires, and the political elite, who commented on them from a distance, had different understandings of – and attached different meanings to – these extraordinary events. These cultural differences were especially evident on the question of the extent to which climate change was responsible for generating this environmental disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Area Studies, Business Administration Education, Cultural Awareness, Cultural Context, Cultural Influences, Curriculum Development, General Education, Global Approach, Higher Education, Interdisciplinary Approach, International Studies, Liberal Arts, Majors (Students), and Skill Development
Abstract
American business education results in practitioners with high-level business skills but lacking the broader knowledge and habits of thought that enable them to use these skills in the complex global marketplace. This knowledge should include familiarity with the economic, political, social, and cultural diversity that is part of the human heritage, and an understanding of how these factors structure the contexts in which business is done. With these considerations in mind, Illinois Benedictine College constructed a multidisciplinary program combining traditional functional instruction with discipline-based instruction in international history, comparative economics, and other relevant international social sciences and humanities, including an 18-hour foreign language requirement. Many special courses were developed by the history, political science, economics, and language departments; some were team-developed and/or team-taught. The major builds an understanding of the nature of culture and cultural processes that can be applied to specific social and cultural systems. Some area-specific culture and business courses are also offered. Two additional programs developed include weekend minicourses outlining social and cultural contexts of business in specific countries, and a 5-year program that allows students in some majors to earn a master's degree in business with 1 year of additional enrollment past the bachelor's degree. (JDD)
Rossman, Gretchen B., And Others, and Research for Better Schools, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.
71 pp.
Subjects
Beliefs, Cultural Context, Educational Environment, High Schools, Improvement Programs, Research Methodology, School Effectiveness, Secondary Education, Teacher Student Relationship, and Values
Abstract
Focusing upon the importance of the overall school climate, and viewing school improvement from a cultural perspective, this document presents a report on the first year of a study of culture and cultural processes involved in improving the effectiveness of high schools. The first section discusses the year's three major activities undertaken to design and plan for the study. The second section, on the conceptual framework, presents a rationale for the study that emphasizes the significance of cultural elements in effective schools, and the significance of the interplay between culture and change. It defines and elaborates the concept of culture and identifies some of the study's key assumptions. Processes of cultural change and transformation are described to clarify theoretical constructs that are applicable to educational settings. The section concludes by describing five cultural domains or themes that will guide field research. The third section, on research methods, presents the approach that will be used for field work, including a plan for data collection, site selection activities, and a proposed approach to data analysis. (JD)
Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings; 2016, Vol. 2016 Issue 1, p1-1, 1p
Abstract
Culture and cultural processes figure prominently in international management. However, research has rarely considered the role of cultural capital in the construction and reproduction of social hierarchies and symbolic boundaries between individuals and groups within the multinational company (MNC). In this article, we develop a theoretical framework that conceptualizes the role of cultural resources and cultural processes in structuring the social hierarchy in the MNC. We argue that the cultural resources of actors within the MNC are not equally legitimized: Some are recognized as valuable and therefore become cultural capital while others are undervalued and delegitimized. Furthermore, the recognition (or lack of) of cultural resources is a central mechanism underlying the social hierarchy in the MNC. Specifically, we suggest that the recognition processes of cultural resources are governed by three interrelated principles: (1) the dominance of the corporate headquarters; (2) the centrality of home country; and (3) core-periphery dynamics. Employees who are associated with all three principles accumulate more cultural capital within the MNC than those who are removed from the center of power of the MNC. They therefore occupy a higher position in the social hierarchy and enjoy preferential access to valuable resources such as jobs, power, influence, and connections. Finally, we argue that the effect of cultural capital on the social hierarchy is further heightened through influencing the actor's network position within the MNC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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