The State,the Market and Cultural Diversity

This essay compares the logic of states and the logic of markets in the management of cultural diversity. On the one hand, the economic logic of markets leads to an encouragement of a ‘soft’ cultural diversity associated with the marketing of exoticism in music, the arts and cuisine, for example. On the other hand, the liberal states are trapped between their willingness to recognize some form of diversity and their fear of seeing social cohesion harmed by this recognition. In other words, the essay applies Hollified's hypothesis about the liberal paradox in immigration policy to the sphere of cultural diversity in post-immigration situations.     

WHAT ABOUT THE OLD CULTURAL INTERMEDIARIES? AN HISTORICAL REVIEW OF ADVERTISING PRODUCERS

Critical work on advertising is underscored by a teleological conception of its object. This often emerges in the form of an emphasis on advertising as an evolving, hybrid institutions that increasingly mixes the ‘economic’ with the ‘cultural’. It is in this vein that advertising practitioners have been characterized as ‘new cultural intermediaries’ deploying distinctive aesthetic sensibilities. Similar patterns of knowledge and behaviour, however, can be traced amongst early producers of advertising suggesting a generation of ‘old’ cultural intermediaries. This unexpected phenomenon, it is argued, arises for two reasons. The first is that much critical work addressing the nature of contemporary advertising lacks historical context. The second is that culture and economy are normatively conceptualized as separate spheres. This separation underplays the multiple interconnections between the cultural and the economic in instances of material practice. Accordingly it is proposed that advertising be reformulated as a constituent practice that has historically relied upon the juxtaposition of ‘cultural’ and ‘economic’ knowledges.     

Being Tough and Belonging: Technologies of Masculinity among Martial Arts Students in China

Literary masculinity has dominated Chinese society for thousands of years. Even in today's academic schools, boys with good academic performance have a higher status than those who are seen as ‘aggressive’ or ‘tough’. In this article I examine how students reconstruct the hierarchy of literary/martial masculinity in Shaolin martial arts schools, an alternative form of education in China. Rather than being disciplined into socially useful subjects, as expected by parents and school authorities, I show how martial arts students have reconstructed the symbolic meanings of masculinity and shaped a new space of belonging. Through displays of violence and cultivating toughness, students deploy technologies of martial masculinity to fit in with their peers and reproduce the masculine ethos of martial arts schools.     

Performance measurement in child protection

Abstract

The increasing use of performance measurement by government means that child protection services are under pressure to demonstrate effectiveness in protecting children from harm and efficiency in the use of public funds to help children and families. From a policy perspective, the way performance measurement is conceptualised and implemented can have major consequences for service delivery. This paper examines key issues raised in the literature about performance measurement, the context for its introduction in child protection, how the concepts of effectiveness and efficiency are dealt with, how client outcomes are defined, and assumptions about ‘good performance’. An overview of performance measurement in child protection in Australia is provided. The paper argues that a critical approach to performance measurement in child protection can contribute to improved service delivery to clients.     

Projections internationales ou détours vers le local? Les diplomaties identitaires des sikhs (Inde) et des Mohajirs (Pakistan)

Ethnic diplomacy can be characterised as a ‘popular mode of diplomatic action’. As such, it is an illustration of the privatisation of diplomacy, which may involve private actions sponsored by state actors or, on the contrary, private actions with a public outcome in the realm of foreign policy. By attempting to reach out to state actors, international organisations and global NGOs, ethnic diplomats articulate a cultural mode of transnational mobilisation. But these two dimensions of ethnic diplomacy, its ‘culturality’ and its ‘transnationality’, cannot be taken for granted and should be questioned thoroughly. Through this analysis, it appears that long-distance nationalists do not always succeed in transnationalising their activities and that they often end up re-locating themselves in exile. And more than ethnicity or cultural repertoires, it is the political culture of ethnodiplomatic organisations and their relations with the diasporic environments in which they evolve which helps to explain the outcome of these popular modes of diplomatic action.     

‘It’s like exercise for your soul’: how participation in youth arts activities contributes to young people’s wellbeing

Active participation in organised youth arts activities is generally considered ‘good’ for young peoples’ social and emotional wellbeing. There is, however, less known about how youth arts participation helps to create wellbeing benefits. This paper details a retrospective narrative study that sought to understand not only what wellbeing benefits 17 participants attributed to youth arts activity, but more specifically, how these outcomes occurred. The concept of liminality, within a spaces of wellbeing approach, is used as a framework to explore and understand participant’s stories of their time at Corrugated Iron Youth Arts, in Darwin, Australia. A pattern of transformation involving three phases emerged through an analysis of participant stories. This involved (1) joining in, (2) developing skills and gaining experience, and (3) becoming a ‘real’ performer. These stages have strong resonance with contemporary conceptualisations of liminal experiences, and provide further evidence for the value of youth arts activity as a space for the development of social and emotional wellbeing.     

Arts policy and practice for disabled children and young people: towards a ‘practice spectrum’ approach

This article argues for an approach to the evaluation of arts policy and practice for disabled children and young people that goes beyond the dialogic antagonism between Disability Arts and community arts, and towards a ‘practice spectrum’. Little is known about the extent to which a Disability Arts perspective has extended into arts policy and practice for disabled children and young people. The article aims to redress this knowledge gap. It is based upon two sets of data collected in relation to the East Midlands region of England during 2014. First, a critical evaluation was conducted of official and institutional attitudes to arts practice with disabled children and young people. Second, interviews exploring contemporary practice were conducted with 24 arts organisations. Their practice represents a diverse range of art forms and programmes undertaken in the region, and a range of attitudes and positions taken towards disabled children and young people. We argue that the best way to conceive of current practice is as a spectrum, as opposed to an antagonism between community arts and Disability Arts perspectives. There is, however, little evidence of the penetration of a Disability Arts perspective into policy and practice for children and young people.     

‘The Sunshine of Manly Sports and Pastimes’: Sport and the Integration of Jewish Refugees in Britain, 1895–1914

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Jewish refugees arriving in Great Britain were exposed to an ‘anglicisation’ campaign designed to aid their integration into British society and their assimilation of British character traits and cultural values. Within this campaign, especially the element focusing on the children of the migrants, interest and participation in sport was consciously ‘transferred’ through the medium of youth and sporting organisations in order to help in their ‘anglicisation’. This essaywill show how physical recreation was promoted by the English Jewish establishment and how participation in sport amongst young Jews grew.     

Diaspora and Development? London‐based Nigerian Organisations and the Transnational Politics of Socio‐economic Status and Gender

Diaspora organisations are increasingly being lauded as important actors in the development of their communities and countries of origin. Focusing on London‐based Nigerian organisations and their interventions in Nigeria, this article assesses the particular claims that diaspora organisations reach, benefit and ‘empower’ women and ‘the poor’ at ‘home’. It argues that, while many London‐based Nigerian organisations do connect with and support these groups, they often do so in ways that reinforce rather than transform established gender relations and socio‐economic inequalities. If international agencies are to support the progressive potential of the organised diaspora, it will be necessary to acknowledge the alternative and socially mediated ways in which development might be imagined and enacted both in diaspora and at ‘home’.     

Class and family

This paper seeks to make a contribution to debates on ‘class analysis’, as well as exploring the role of the family in class reproduction. A broad distinction is drawn between primarily ‘economic’ and primarily ‘culturalist’ accounts of class reproduction. It is argued that despite their differences, these accounts also share many similarities. In particular, both approaches identify the role of the family as central to the reproduction of class. However, economic and cultural accounts cannot be integrated into a single ‘theory’, one reason being that the mechanisms whereby economic and cultural capital are transmitted are different. Nevertheless, economic and cultural approaches may be (and should be) used in combination with each other in order to develop a full account of the reproduction of class inequalities. In developing these arguments, a critique is offered of current theories of ‘individualisation’ in relation to class and the family. The argument is illustrated by two ‘worked examples’; teenage motherhood, and the patterning of mothers’ employment.     

Who are we? Prohlematising national identity1

While the concem with ‘identity politics’ has grown in recent years, there are few studies of the ways in which people order and negotiate their national identities. The study reported here focuses on the identities used by members of the arts and landed elites in Scotland in the assertion of perceived cultural differences between Scots and non-Scots. These two groups have good reason to be sensitive to the problematic and negotiated nature of national identity in a changing cultural and political context in Scotland. The raw materials of national identity, in particular, birth, residence and ancestry, are used by individuals in these groups to make claims which are sustained by and through social interaction in the course of which various ‘identity claims’ are made and received in various ways.     

Becoming working mothers: Reconciling work and family at three particular workplaces in Norway,the UK,and Portugal

This paper investigates how differences in national and organisational welfare policies and in cultural norms on national, organisational, and familial levels influence work–family reconciliation for mothers. Drawing on case study and interview data gathered through a large European study of parenthood and organisations, we compare experiences of transition to motherhood in three organisations in Norway, the UK, and Portugal. The specific question which is considered in this paper is how mothers manage the reconciliation of work and family in the period of time following parental leave. Our case analyses highlight the differences in organisational, national policy, and family support in the three contexts, and show that having a child is still conceptualised as a predominantly ‘private problem’ in the UK and Portugal, while it has come closer to having the status of a ‘public issue’ in Norway.     

Girls being Rey: ethical cultural consumption,families and popular feminism

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that consumers of popular culture engage in practices of ‘ethical cultural consumption’, whereby the consumption of cultural texts is imagined as having the potential to ‘do good’ both individually and socio-politically. The paper explores data from an online questionnaire and drawing activity with girls aged 5–10 and their parents on the experience of costume playing as Rey from the contemporary Star Wars trilogy. Imagined as a ‘girl who can do anything’, Rey represents a new kind of popular feminist hero and role model for girls, enabling a degree of critique of normative gendered role models for children. ‘Being Rey’ also represents a deterministic project through which parents aim to cultivate the ‘right’ kind of girls, seeking to instil the resilience to ‘cope’ with unknown futures. More than a purely individual project, we argue that parents invest in an individualized idea of doing ‘good’ through consumption, drawing on a notion of the consumer as a political actor with the power to affect social change. Investigating the project of participating in and consuming culture ‘ethically’ allows for an exploration of what it means to ‘be political’ and ‘do good’ as a consumer in neoliberalism.     

The new economy: a cultural history

Abstract In this article I look at some cultural aspects of the economic frenzy of the 1990s, a period often labelled ‘the new economy’. The focus is on the ways in which processes of culturalization became an important part of production, in such fields as e‐commerce and ‘the experience economy’. How was culture packaged and marketed in new ways, for example in the production of symbols, images, auras, experiences and events? I explore how the technologies of imagineering, performance, styling and design came to play important roles in this process. Other important traits of this development are discussed in a comparison with earlier examples of the emergence of ‘new economies’: the aesthetics and practices of speed, the cult of creativity, ‘the catwalk economy’ and the importance of public display and performance, as well as the importance of ‘newness’.     

Microstructures of economic action: talk,interaction and the bottom line

This paper contributes to an expanding body of research that has analysed the interactional foundations of economic activity, and price determination, by quantifying the financial implications of different micro‐interactional practices. Drawing on video recordings of naturalistic interaction the paper analyses a simple consumer choice, whether to pay one of two prices, the lower ‘standard’ price (£8.00) or the higher ‘gift aid’ (£8.80) price, to enter an arts institution. Utilizing resources from conversation analysis, the paper analyses different ways of posing this choice. It describes how, as interactional constraints tighten, standard prices become less socially desirable and customers increasingly ‘volunteer’ to pay the higher price. The paper contributes to sociological understandings of economic activity, demonstrating how simple one‐off choices, and prices, are accountably responsive to micro‐interactional structures.     

Family is NOT an institution: distinguishing institutions from organisations in social science and social theory

This paper addresses the use, and potential misuse, of the ‘institution’ as a key concept in sociology. The concept of the ‘institution’ is interrogated using ‘family’ as an example and new institutional economics (NIE) as a crucible. The sociological understanding of family as an ‘institution’ is challenged by the distinction between ‘institutions’ and ‘organisations’ in NIE. The blurring of generic non-sociological terms with critical sociological concepts causes confusion between institutions and organisations. This is highly problematic for understanding social change in increasingly complex systems. I conclude that the contextual embedding of sociological concepts remains important to the appropriate use of the term ‘institution’ in the social sciences.     

NGOs, ‘Straddler’ Organisations and the Possibilities of ‘Channelling’ in Indonesia: New Possibilities for State–NGO Collaboration?

The Badan Keswadayaan Masyarakat (BKM—Board for Community Self-reliance) are organisations established by the state as implementing agents of a community-driven development programme in Medan, Indonesia. Members are elected from the local population, but they continue to be supported by, and associated with the state. They are therefore ‘straddler’ organisations: organisations that span the state–civil society divide. This paper seeks to answer two questions. First, can BKMs’ positioning between the state and civil society facilitate new forms of state/non-government organisations (NGO) collaboration, and if so, what is the nature of partnerships established through such collaborations? We find that straddle organisations offer a way for NGOs to collaborate with the state in the achievement of development objectives. Second what is the possibility and desirability of arrangements in which NGOs ‘channel’ funds to BKMs as a means to ensure the sustainability of the latter? We argue that while there is considerable promise in such arrangements, these should be designed around a model of ‘working together’ rather than merely ‘channelling’.     

Culturally appropriate pedagogy: is it always necessary? The case of East Asians learning math and science

‘Culturally appropriate pedagogy’ has become an important practice since 1990 to address the increasingly diverse student population in every part of the world. For all the good intentions, however, there is an inherent danger in identifying and accommodating students’ cultural differences: we may fall into the trap of reifying superficially or even ethnocentrically understood cultural differences and pigeonholing students simply because of their assumed ‘cultural differences’. How should we decide when a ‘culturally appropriate pedagogy’ is necessary and how should a truly culturally appropriate pedagogy be designed? This study investigates a group of Chinese mathematicians/scientists/engineers’ perspectives in order to shed light on these questions.     

The treatment needs of victims/survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) from ethnic minority communities: A literature review and suggestions for practice

One significant finding from an exhaustive literature review on child sexual abuse (CSA) and ethnic minority communities is that victims appear to be at higher risk for suicidality. This may be due to the many barriers to professional help-seeking in this group, most commonly associated with protecting the family's name. This makes their treatment needs particularly critical, after the barriers have finally been crossed. Of all their treatment needs, cultural competency is identified as essential. It asks for non-racist attitudes and practice, self-reflection and awareness, a ‘multicultural framework’ which recognises differences in power between mainstream and minority groups and respects the right to cultural differences, the provision of an interpreter trained in matters to do with sexual assault, choice about having an ethnically matched or non-matched service provider (and thus employment of workers from diverse backgrounds), the routine provision of training in cultural competency by management in service organisations, and mandatory data collection on variables related to ethnicity. A ‘multicultural framework’ is seen to be the most important of these elements, else it could lead to the vilification of collectivist and patriarchal cultures (which ethnic minority communities tend to be), threatening cultural safety. This adds trauma to the victim who has already suffered an abuse of power, and further alienates clients in critical need of clinical intervention.