Under the invisibility cloak? Teacher understanding of cultural difference

While research does exist on how teachers feel about multicultural education or bilingual education, very little data exists on how teachers cognitively construct a core concept of these educational approaches—cultural difference. This article describes the investigation of this understanding among 155 teachers in midwestern USA from rural, urban and suburban schools across grade levels. Utilizing data from the Intercultural Development Inventory, one important finding reveals the degree to which teachers minimize cultural differences. Implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Of cracked lenses: cultural translation,opacity and the African novel

This article investigates the function of different languages in African fictional texts by focusing on the kinds of social relationships expressed by narratives that tell their stories bilingually, or even multilingually. I argue that the layers of different languages within a text invite translation, both literally and figuratively. Alongside the postcolonial reading, which interprets the juxtapositions of different languages by stressing the contestatory function of re‐placing language, the reading advanced by this article explores such devices as forms of cultural translation. Cultural translation, it is argued, can account for the counter‐discursive reading that analyses relations of power; it can also account for a reading that foregrounds less hierarchical forms of address and thus expresses the quest for alternative subjectivities and relationships. The latter, the article suggests by adapting Judith Butler’s theory of an ethics of opacity, is gestured towards in narratives whenever the limits of intelligibility or translatability are exposed.     

Complexities of cultural difference in social care work in England

The ageing of the ethnic minority population in Britain has led to a more ethnically diverse older client group for social care services than has ever been the case. This article focuses on the issue of how social care staff in England experience working across differences of culture, ethnicity, religion, and language. First, the article critically discusses the concept of cultural competence. Then, it reports on the perspectives of social care staff on their attempts to work in a culturally competent way. Individual in-depth qualitative interviews were carried out with 39 social care practitioners, and thematically analysed. Themes related to professional competence, appropriate behaviour, and training needs. Some practitioners felt unable to perform to their accustomed skill level when working across diversity, which has implications for the quality of care provided and job satisfaction. Other practitioners were confident in working across diversity. The key difference between these practitioners was a degree of cultural reflexivity. Recommendations for training are provided.     

Cultural workers,pedagogy and the politics of difference: Beyond cultural conservatism

‘Odor di Femina: Though you may not see her, you can certainly smell her’, articulates the primacy of visualism in the history of psychoanalysis. In the first half of the study Mavor reveals how both the photographs of mentally ill women made under the direction of Freud's teacher Jean-Martin Charcot and the use of the visualist rhetoric in the writings of Charcot and Freud were regarded as proof of an always already diagnosed and conceptualized vision of sexual difference. Charcot's and most emphatically Freud's conception of the senses conventionally marked vision as masculine and the others (touch, hearing and especially smell) as feminine. Mavor then turns to Lacan to undo this historically gendered, power-hungry split between sight and the othered senses through his theory of the gaze as objet petit a, which reticulates the gaze and its conventional singular authority. Taking a cue from Lacan's provocative claim that ‘a wild odour emanates’ from the‘function of seeingness’, Mavor pushes Lacan's theory of the gaze (which, she argues, has often been sorely misrepresented in feminist film theory and art history) towards an expanded constellation of the senses. Her excavation of Lacan loosens the gaze's hold on the site of seer/seen, subject/object and, especially, sight/smell. As a result, sight loses its historical pride of place among the senses.     

An analysis of the subtitling translation of extralinguistic cultural references in Forrest Gump from Adaptation theory

Because of its adapatability and fiexibility, Adaptation theory has been used in many different fields, such as translation, second language acquisition, code swithching and so on. This paper took the extralinguistic cultural references in an American film Forrest Gump as research object and analyzed its subtitling translation from communicative and linguistic context in Adaptation theory. In the hope that achieve a more general and objective understanding for the subtitling translation of Forrest Gump.     

Colonisation and images of cultural difference in health: Some ideas from the south pacific

Words are often forgotten but images remain. (Smith, 1992)     

Limitations of existing cultural globalization perspectives: A case study of the influence of technology on sexualities

Literature on market participation via location‐based mobile dating apps (LBMDAs) typically engages two different perspectives: global and local. While global perspectives anticipate similarities resulting from cultural homogenization (i.e., LBMDA profiles should exhibit uniformity in otherwise diverse locations), local perspectives anticipate differences resulting from cultural heterogenization (i.e., LBMDA profiles should exhibit variability by location). Although existing research recognizes how technology amplifies both homogenization and heterogenization, the direction of its effects remains unclear. Scholars also treat these processes as diametrically opposed, despite the theoretical and empirical limitations of doing so. This review addresses these limitations through an alternative conceptual framework that triangulates existing literature on globalization, technology, and sexualities. Specifically, I use this framework to explore the mix of global/local influences on exchanges on LBMDAs for gay men/men who have sex with men in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. In doing so, I demonstrate one way to more accurately map the extent to which globalization affects sexual culture across countries while accounting for the unique situational conditions of local sexual cultures.     

上海市民文化需求状况调查

调查显示,越来越多的新兴信息渠道和文化载体的出现,为市民文化生活提供了更多样的选择,上海市民文化需求呈现个性化、多样化特征。由于文化信息获取渠道不畅、文化消费时间不足、文化产品价格较高、优质文化产品缺乏等因素的制约,当前市民实现文化需求存在一定的障碍。上海应积极创新文化建设的思路与体制,切实保障市民基本的文化权利,以进一步提高市民精神文化生活质量。     

Study on the cultural identity of the Chinese-Indians in Kolkata,Sihui and Toronto

Although the Chinese in Kolkata have preserved their Chinese identity, they have been acculturated by various cultural elements from India. It is this mixture of Chinese and Indian practices that gives them a unique cultural identity. When members of this Chinese community in Kolkata and its vicinity emigrated to Toronto or were forcibly deported to China in the aftermath of the 1962 conflict, they carried with them, both knowingly and unknowingly, some of these Chinese-Indian cultural traits. By focusing on the Chinese-Indians living in different geographical and cultural settings, this essay examines the formation of a Chinese-Indian identity in Kolkata and its preservation by some of those who are now residing in Sihui in China and in Toronto, Canada. It also explains some of the main similarities and differences among the three groups of Chinese-Indians. It concludes with an analysis of cultural identity as it manifests among the Chinese-Indian communities.     

The cultural foundations of happiness

The paper provides a framework for how culture affects happiness. According to self-determination theory, well-being is driven by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, relatedness and competence. We assess if, and to what extent, trust and the values of obedience and respect influence Europeans’ satisfaction of these needs, controlling for income and education. We find a positive and significant impact for generalized morality (high trust and respect, low obedience), which is robust to different checks for endogeneity, including instrumental variable regressions at country, regional and individual level. Results suggest that lack of trust, high obedience and low respect not only reduce the wealth of nations, but also constrain the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, thereby hindering the individuals’ fulfilment of happiness.     

The importance of cultural and economic influences behind the decision to attend higher education

This paper examines the relationship between economic and cultural variables and the decision to attend university. We find that a student is more likely to aspire to attend university if: they have the Internet at home; are encouraged by their teachers; or attend a Catholic or independent school rather than a public school. Our analysis also suggests that the level of parent support is important (with a marginal effect larger than that for teacher encouragement) and this level of support may be linked to the parent's level of educational attainment. Importantly, we find that including cultural and economic variables in a model of students’ aspirations significantly increases the power to predict when a student does not aspire to attend university.     

The cultural swirl: anthropological perspectives on innovation

Abstract As the emergence of a globalized economy transforms the conditions under which economic performance and productivity growth occur, the ability to innovate has come to the fore as the key factor determining the competitive advantage of national economies, entire industries and individual firms alike. Linking the economic concern with the new products and services to more general questions of the social organization of culture, this essay sets out to explore the contribution of anthropology to an understanding of how innovation occurs. Against the backdrop of theories of cultural change and the identification of parameters that define innovative environments, anthropology enquires into how historical contingency and social agency make innovation possible. In‐depth ethnographic studies emphasize that innovation is much less dependent on the creative individual than on the interaction within social milieux that create what anthropologist Ulf Hannerz calls a ‘cultural swirl’. Such milieux appear to function best when they incorporate heterogeneous actors and are not closed systems but exposed to serendipitous encounters and exchanges with others actors and milieux.     

The influence of the organization on clinical practice

Almost all, if not all clinical decisions represent agency policy and organizational imperatives in action. The organization influences and shapes services, problem definition, assessment and intervention, and careers of clients. This paper explores ideas about the organizational context of practice, organizational problems and related issues, and offers suggestions for increasing the clinician's influence and effectiveness.     

天津市文化创意产业竞争力评价与提升对策

随着创意经济时代的到来以及城市创意阶层的迅速崛起,创意化逐渐成为现代都市发展的重要特点之一。现代城市作为创新的枢纽,是知识经济的产物与文化经济的重要形式,创意经济已渗入城市发展的方方面面。