Work-life balance for sustainable human development: Cultural intelligence as enabler

It is proposed that sustainable human development can occur only when there is a reasonable work-life balance for humans. Developmental work for humans is mostly achieved through high performing organizations, and the performance of organizations, in turn, depend on the commitment and engagement of their employees. While societies organize themselves though groups which come together to form an organization, the individual continues to play a key role in success of these organizations. This article explores the impact of an individual’s work-life balance on his/her role—related engagement, thereby contributing to the sustainable human development. Since culture drives behavior for all three, that is, the individual, the organizations, and the society, it is suggested that if we create a culture that supports work-life balance, it is likely to promote sustainable human development though higher role-related engagement of individuals. Further, it is suggested that cultural intelligence plays an important role in achieving both work-life balance and sustainable human development.     

Asian multiculturalism in communication: Impact of culture in the practice of public relations in Singapore

This study aims to understand the role of cultural values in influencing public relations practice in Singapore. Given that Singapore exhibits a hybrid of cultures, it purposes to comprehend how multiculturalism is operationalized and to uncover if the values that have a greater influence on organizational communication resemble those in individualistic or collectivistic societies. Using Gudykunst’s (1998) seven dimensions that influence individualism-collectivism on communication as a guide, this study interviewed 20 public relations practitioners in Singapore. Our findings showed that although the patterns expressed is slightly more consistent with those found in collectivistic cultures, it does not resemble collectivism in entirety. Multiculturalism in Singapore displays a blend of certain cultural hybridity, which is aligned with it being a multicultural cosmopolitan city that embodies Western modernity while retaining its Asian values. Our findings further reinforced the idea that public relations professionals need to be multicultural themselves to effectively communicate with culturally diverse stakeholders in today’s globalizing era of multiculturalism.     

Problematization and de-problematization – 30 years of cultural studies and cultural criticism in mainland China

ABSTRACT

In the past 30 years, cultural studies in mainland China has developed its own history, theoretical characteristics and problem framework with the introduction of Western theory, discussion of Chinese issues and active dialogue with international cultural studies scholars. The studies of sociology, philosophy and politics have overlapped with cultural studies in problems such as rural governance, class research, the bottom society research, gender politics and consumer society theory. Chinese cultural studies started with a critical consciousness, then activated the drives of anti-authoritarianism and generated an illusion of emergency. Today, it has outgrown the paradigm of the 1950s, and must establish new theories and thoughts on the basis of a new sense of criticism at this moment.     

Reconstructing Missionary History in China Today: Cultural Heritage,Local Politics and Christianity in Xiamen

This article examines a memorial service held in Xiamen in 2010 for an American missionary who died and was buried there in 1910. The missionary, accused of association with imperialism under Mao, had been largely forgotten by the locals until this event. During the ceremony, all charges against the missionary were unofficially dropped and his service was highly commended. By attempting to explain what sociocultural mechanisms enabled Xiamen citizens to counter official amnesia and demolish the state’s domination of discourse on missionaries, I argue that the official manipulation of missionary discourse is not always effective; the reconstruction of missionary history in today’s China is an ongoing, dynamic process of negotiation in which all parties involved remake the past to suit their own interests.     

Older Hispanic Women and Breast Cancer Screening: Do Cultural Factors Matter?

High morbidity and mortality cancer rates among older minority adults underscores the importance of identifying and addressing health disparities related to age and cultural factors that may influence participation in cancer screening and early detection of disease. Disparities for Hispanic women exist in part due to behavior, including lower participation in cancer screenings. Using data from the 2008 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, this study investigated the relationships among cultural factors, time orientation, and uncertainty avoidance among Hispanic women. Results indicate that time orientation and uncertainty avoidance predicted older Hispanic women’s participation in breast cancer screening services.     

One narrative or several? Politics,cultural elites,and citizens in constructing a ‘New Narrative for Europe’

ABSTRACT

European Union (EU) institutions have cultivated narratives of European integration for a long time. For its 2013–2014 ‘A New Narrative for Europe’ project, however, the European Commission for the first time explicitly used the ‘narrative’ label. Drawing on non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and qualitative discourse analysis, this article contrasts the drafting process and the resulting declaration’s narrative structure and content with its discussion by citizens in a web-based consultation. The analysis shows that participating citizens forcefully demanded a bottom-up debate and advocated pluralistic perspectives. In these circumstances, elite-driven attempts at strengthening European identity and EU legitimacy are likely to be ineffective.     

“We are people,not transactions”: Trust as a precursor to dialogue with LGBTQ publics

This research focuses on trust as a precursor to dialogic communication with diverse publics. Through a grounded theory approach, this research explicates the concept of trust in dialogue within organization-public relations to refine and advance research about enhancing dialogue and trust in diverse societies. Based on in-depth interviews with 33 LGBTQ communication professionals, findings suggest that trust is a precursor to dialogue and is impacted by cultural competency, organizational congruency, authenticity, and stakeholder empowerment.     

Understanding cultural omnivores: social and political attitudes

In this paper, I use data from the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society to investigate the social and political attitudes of cultural omnivores. I report a threefold typology of cultural consumption in the domains of music and visual arts that is consistent with previous research. Then by linking data across the two panel surveys, I show that cultural omnivores have quite a distinctive profile of social attitudes. Specifically, omnivores are more trusting and risk‐taking. They hold more favourable views about the European Union, and they tend to eschew subnational identities. Omnivores are politically more engaged. But they are not more ‘class conscious’, nor are they particularly left‐wing or right‐wing on distributional issues. When asked what is important to the sense of who they are, the two most important status‐conferring attributes, that is, profession and education, are not more salient to omnivores than to others. But omnivores are more extravert and open to new experiences. Taken together, these results suggest that omnivorousness is an expression of cosmopolitan postmaterialism rather than a new form of distinction.     

Carers of People with Mental Illness from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities

Australia is a multicultural country and it is common for families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities to care for their relatives with mental illness. However, there are limited Australian studies examining the experiences of informal carers of people with mental illness from CALD communities. A scoping review was conducted to search for peer-reviewed articles reporting the perception of carers regarding their caregiving experiences, wellbeing, and needs. Using cultural responsiveness as a conceptual framework, this study analysed the findings of the identified studies to generate themes. Findings show that carers experience severe caregiving challenges and face considerably poor culturally oriented services in mental health. Social work implications concerning the need to provide culturally responsive practice in mental health services are discussed.     

The public relations paradox of erasure: Damnatio memoriae as public relations strategy and tactic

Public relations scholars study how organizations co-create meaning with engaged stakeholders. Not well understood is how and why such co-creation modifies shared meaning, amplifies change, and even “erases” some piece of memory from the public record with the purpose of redirecting and redefining societal narratives. To help establish erasure as a concept for studying public relations, we draw from Freud’s theory of memory to establish a foundation upon which to critique strategic erasure. We adapt Freud’s theory of memory into the intersecting critique of visual rhetoric as public relations by analyzing, via narrative inquiry, remnants of Imperial Rome that have been modified, amplified, but even erased to present Rome’s modern identity. For centuries, even during Imperial Rome, leaders practiced damnatio memoriae —a modern Latin phrase that means “condemnation of memory.” We use this concept to interrogate the public relations identity process Rome’s leaders have used to modify for emphasis and even obliterate Roman elites’ names and images from the texts of public records by destroying, mutilating and modifying statues and monuments as a means for co-creating new public memory. Such analysis reveals how damnatio memoriae helps elites to redefine the “memory” of the Eternal City.