The crisis of westernization in Turkey: Islamism versus nationalism

This article investigates the rise of the Islamist political movement in Turkey which it argues is a product of the frustration of the promises of Westernist modernization and, thus, represents a crisis of the Kemalist ideology and a critique of modernism. The Kemalist revolution transformed the Ottoman empire from an Islamic empire to a national state, and its legimitizing ideology from Islam to nationalism. Soon after the creation of the Republic the Kemalist project came to be identified with nationalist‐statist developmentalism. But when this development model exhausted its initial rapid‐growth capability, a radical restructuring was imposed. With the help of a military regime installed in 1980, the Turkish development trajectory turned from a nationalist‐statist strategy to a transnational and market‐oriented one. The decline of nationalist and statist policy also brought about a crisis in the popular ideology which supported nationalist‐statist developmentalism. The state could no longer claim the loyalty of its people. Secularist legitimation was undermined together with the collapse of the conviction that the state would deliver and that the common national interest of development would be protected. The Islamist movement came as a response to the crisis of dependent modernization in Turkey. In the eighties, a large marginalized and dispossessed segment in the metropolitan centres joined the petite bourgeoisie of provincial towns in support of Islamist politics. In addition to these social classes, there is also a new social segment in the leadership position of the current religious radicalism: university students and upwardly mobile young professionals. In this connection, it has to be emphasized that the Islamist critique coincides with the post‐modernist critique of Western culture, but, unlike the latter, offers a concrete political project.     

Organizational resilience and employee work-role performance after a crisis situation: exploring the effects of organizational resilience on internal crisis communication

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to explore the positive outcomes of organizational resilience to see how resilient employees can support an organization by adapting to and initiating changes during the recovery process following a crisis. This study focuses on organizational resilience generated by employees, as a resilient system, through their psychological ability and positive communication behaviors. Resilient employees can help their organization bounce back to normal functioning following a crisis. A nationwide survey (N = 830) was conducted among full-time employees in the U.S. to examine the positive effect of organizational resilience on employee work-role performance. The results indicate that organizational resilience was positively and significantly associated with: employees’ intentions for proficiency, adaptivity and proactivity of organizational members, thus contributing to organizational effectiveness after a crisis situation.     

Young people's resilience and post-financial crisis television: allegories of economic and social survival

ABSTRACT

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007–2008 added significant stress and anxieties to the already precarious lives of many young people. Despite this, there is emerging evidence that young people are able to demonstrate remarkable resilience in the midst of economic uncertainties that render the trajectories of their futures uncertain. The pressure to be resilient, to find effective ways to manage the uncertainties inherent to the liberal democracies of the twenty-first century, can be significant. The consequences of failure include deteriorating health and well-being, losses in motivation and hope, economic marginalisation, and ambivalence about the markers of what is means to be an adult. In this paper we spotlight moments in post-GFC television that have drawn on these social narratives, depicting young people's experiences of resilience and uncertainties. We view these moments as more than just television or popular culture. The stories we tell are allegorical, but they are not mere fictions. We focus on the popular television comedy Broad City (2014-) that focusses on the marginalised lifeworlds of trendy, college-educated, young hipsters Ilana and Abbi who are barely getting by in New York City.     

Teaching for transformation: converting the intercultural experience of preservice teachers into intercultural learning

Fostering intercultural learning among preservice teachers has become increasingly important. This article describes the results of a three-year study of semester-long projects in which cohorts of undergraduate education majors (N = 41) engaged with first-semester international students and were asked to reflect on becoming involved participants in a linguistically and culturally diverse learning community. The findings reveal the transformative effect of intercultural encounters on future teachers.     

The making of European society: contesting methodological nationalism

The paper is concerned with the problem of “society” and in particular with the notion of “European society”. Rather than reject the possibility of society, it draws on theories of the social as networks. The thesis proposed is that the concept of society should rather be understood as a relational field of interconnections. It is argued that this is highly relevant to the analysis of Europe conceived of in terms of a society. This approach can be seen as an alternative to methodological nationalism. The paper applies a network conception of society to Europe with the emphasis on the nineteenth century. In this account, European society is not something that was produced by European integration. Rather than see European society as a recent development, it is argued that the field of tensions between capitalism and democracy constituted the major elements that shaped a European model of society.     

Developing the critical intercultural class-space: theoretical implications and pragmatic applications of critical intercultural communication pedagogy

Teaching intercultural communication presents pedagogical challenges due to the breadth and depth of the discipline and its recent critical turn. Teaching it with a social justice mission, and guiding students to understand critical and postcolonial approaches to its practice, requires complex and multifaceted approaches so as not to oppress or misrepresent marginalised populations. This essay addresses critical intercultural communication pedagogy as a shared system of knowledge among teachers and students, all participants in the cyclical process of learning. Critical intercultural communication pedagogy is presented from a Freirean perspective, as shared ownership of knowledge, including didactic, experiential and reflexive approaches to learning, with educational outcomes that include empathy, connection and ethical responsibilities towards social justice globally and locally. First, several definitions and theoretical perspectives are traced. Next, three short case studies of critical intercultural communication pedagogy (CICP) present varying approaches to teaching critical intercultural issues across diverse populations. Each of the studies is analysed for how the application of different CICP and cosmopolitan pedagogical activities impacts educational outcomes and processes for intercultural students. Finally, several recommendations are given for future scholarship, along with a concluding remark that describes the work’s contribution to critical intercultural communication pedagogy and to the discipline as a whole.     

The role of reflexive thought in the achievement of intercultural competence

ABSTRACT

Reflexivity refers to the capacity for individuals to understand the cultural system and manage their own position within it. Reflexivity is a key concept in the understanding of intercultural communication, particularly in recognising the ability for individuals to understand and adapt to new cultural contexts. However, the prevailing methods used in intercultural communication (namely that of intercultural competencies) do not place a great emphasis on the role of reflexivity in achieving cultural adaptation. In this paper, I argue for the central positioning of the concept of reflexivity in intercultural education as a mechanism which mediates between intercultural experiences and individual behaviour. I present evidence of the reflexive sequence (subject-object-subject) from the reflections of a cohort of students (n = 19). Finally, I suggest a pedagogical instrument (a heuristic) for empirically exploring reflexivity in intercultural communication.     

Minding the gap: places of possibility in intercultural classrooms

Drawing on performative public pedagogies, Sudanese young women have co-created ethno-cinematic films in order to reflect on their prior schooling, ongoing resettlement in the West, representations in the media, and offer advice to newly arriving African young women and the education system itself.     

In/visible dimensions: framing the intercultural communication course through a critical intercultural communication framework

This article highlights how course material on ‘culture’ and ‘intercultural communication’ faces a distinctive challenge in crafting an engaged power‐focused positionality for students. I discuss the importance of incorporating a ‘critical intercultural communication perspective and practice’ into an upper‐division diversity/intercultural communication course in the US academic context.     

In search of the intercultural

Books reviewed in this article:
Fred E. Jandt, Intercultural Communication: An Introduction
Young Yun Kim, Becoming Intercultural: An Integrative Theory of Communication and Cross-Cultural Adaptation
Tony Schirato and Susan Yell, Communication and Culture: An Introduction
Ron Scollon and Suzanne Wong Scollon, Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach     

The contradictory political economy of minority nationalism

Times have arguably never been better for minority nationalism. The hollowing out of the nation-state has provided spaces for minority nations to assert their identities and seek wider forms of self-rule. Their position is strengthened by the increased salience of development strategies at the regional scale that draw on the cooperation and coordination of economic actors. In this context, minority nationalism can help foster regional economic success by providing increased cohesion and cross-class collaboration. In return, regional economic success promises to strengthen the nation by providing resources to smooth over class divisions. This article lays out this argument, but raises a number of political and economic contradictions that threaten to interfere both with the construction of regional strategies, and with their ability to paper over class divisions within the nation. It concludes with a brief discussion of the Québec case to show how the promise of a mutually reinforcing relationship between minority nationalism and regional strategies runs up against a series of contradictions in practice.     

Fostering benign Tibetan nationalism: Tibetan schooling passions in the Diaspora

ABSTRACT

Scholarship on the ‘manufacturing of citizenship’ has focused primarily on European and American nationalism. Scholars have noted the scarcity of research on identity construction among children in the Diaspora. This study explores the role of the altruistic principle and the Middle Way approach (a political strategy for the resolution of Sino-Tibetan issues) on the construction of nationalism amongst Tibetan children in Diaspora. The 2004 Basic Education Policy for Tibetans stresses the principle of ‘altruism’ in the identity construction of Tibetan children. Inclusive nationalism is germane in the schooling process. The study presents an interview analysis of four Tibetan Education Ministers about the intersection of altruistic principle, the Middle Way approach, and Tibetan nationalism. Additionally, 34 school children (14 boys and 20 girls) from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades participated in a drawing activity. The analysis of children’s ‘cultural artifacts of nationalism’ is also included. The study found that neither the Tibetan children nor the Ministers expressed any feeling of hatred or animosity towards Chinese nationals. The willingness and desire to co-exist in harmony with their counterparts were evident. The principle of altruism is deeply entrenched in the Middle Way approach and Tibetan nationalism.     

The Catalonia survey: Personality and intelligence structure in a sample of compulsive gamblers

A sample of fifty-seven pathological gamblers and one hundred and fifteen controls (two per pathological gambler, matched as regards age and sex) was investigated. This sample received a complex battery of psychometric tests designed to evaluate two different axes: psychopathology and intelligence. The results obtained show that pathological gamblers have an unstable family and work background, that pathological gambling correlates with other addictions (alcohol, illness prone behavior, absenteeism, risk working, living alone and bereavement), that all the general and specific psychopathology vectors were significant in the addicts, and that the pathological gamblers' intelligence has characteristic factors.We thank Ricardo Cayuela (Line Staff, Barcelona) for his help in collecting the sample; Jordi Daura for data processing work; Mercedes Lemonier, psychologist, for her help in administering and correcting the tests; Consol Marina and Teresa Ruiz for their secretarial assistance and contact with the 172 study subjects.