READING HALL READING MARX

This essay introduces and highlights the significance of Stuart Hall' essay, ‘Marx' Notes on Method: A “Reading” of the “1857 Introduction’’ which follows. Hall' essay is a key text in understanding the theoretical work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the mid-1970s, specifically the Centre' engagement with Althusser. Hall' text sets the theoretical groundwork for the concept of articulation and raises important questions of method within cultural studies. It also represents an exemplary reading of Marx.     

The making of ‘real men’

This article considers the legacy of Enlightenment and Empire in settler society as a conflict of cultural values,at once a problem of justice and identity. Aotearoa/New Zealand is an exemplary case: the failure of the court system to fully acknowledge that settlement was founded on negotiation with indigenous people threatens to return this society, in constitutional and social terms, to a state of nature. I consider the problem raised by the claims to justice of indigenous Maori through the viewpoint of a major historian, and white New Zealander or Pakeha, J. G. A. Pocock. The progressivism of enlightenment history still evident in his thinking undergirds a view of Maori history as a primitive dreamtime. This misconception belies the refusal of Pakeha to acknowledge the extent to which their own view of history is a product of enlightenment myth-making. The negative British view of Maori in the nineteenth century shows the continuity of racial stereotypes since Captain Cook's encounter. Today, the judicial failure to countenance different cultural values reorients questions of justice. The state of nature returns as the absence of a constitutional framework for negotiating specifically cultural differences. The abstract universalism of liberal justice – Pakeha think justice cannot be culturally inflected – is part of the problem, and fuels Maori grievances. Yet Pakeha are increasingly turning to Maori insignia to establish a sense of national identity. Historical justice and questions of national identity remain inseparable in settler societies. The failure to consider settlement in terms of competing cultural values, evident in the problem of history, creates the conditions for an uncivil society. In this context I question the grounds for regarding acts of indigenous violence as unjustified.     

再论利玛窦的易服与范礼安的"文化适应政策"

耶稣会士利玛窦改换儒服被视为东西方文化交流史中极具象征意义的标志性事件,但事实上,利氏的形象改变并非只有一次,首次易服是其入华之初采用中国僧服,而12年后改穿儒服,亦是为融合于中国文人官僚而做的社交努力。有证据表明,利玛窦多次易服不仅是仿效日本同行的类似举动,其过程还受制于修会内部传教策略之争及复杂矛盾。形象改变的本质意义在于获得生存与发展的通行证和护身符,是范礼安 “文化适应政策”的具体表现。所谓“合儒、补儒”既非利玛窦的初衷,也是从未实现的文化神话。     

解读现代中国少数民族文化模式

不同的国家、不同的民族、在不同的时期拥有代表自身特色和价值取向的文化模式。中国少数民族文化在特定的生态环境中,经过长期的创造、积累和发展等生活实践,形成了独具特色的文化模式。然而,现代中国少数民族的文化模式在全球化背景下面临着新的考验,因此,非常有必重新解读、重新定位,以此适应文化全球化趋势。     

大学精神的培育与大学文化育人

文章诠释了大学精神,阐述了大学文化与大学精神的关系,认为大学精神是大学文化的内核和灵魂;要从校园物态文化、制度文化、行为文化方面贯彻大学精神;要通过建立机制,美化校园环境,重视行为养成,举办校园文化活动的途径来发挥校园文化的育人功能。     

英语学习者的隐喻跨文化理解调查研究

二语隐喻理解的过程受制于学习者的文化背蓄及认知心理。本研究对英语学习者隐喻理解过程中使用的认知手段及母语文化背景影响实施调查。研究发现：学习者理解隐喻的主要方式包括依据喻体特征展开联想;以喻体的文化意象进行推理;利用视觉刺激信息等。母语文化则推进了理解过程中的语言迁移及文化经验图式的迁移,     

湖南园林文化发展的背景分析与路径选择

湖南园林文化是一种历史形成的地域性文化,既有中国园林文化的共同属性,又有湖湘文化的地方特质.面对人民群众对园林文化的新期待、新要求,湖南园林文化发展要遵循园林文化发展规律,注重园林文化建设与湖南经济社会发展及绿色湖南建设的总体规划和部署,充分发挥园林文化在城乡景观设计中的作用,加强园林文化与相关产业的深度融合.     

Culture,Development, and Social Theory: On Cultural Studies and the Place of Culture in Development

Debates in development theory have recently swung back to taking seriously the relationship of culture to development, especially in the face of manifest failures of conventional approaches to economic growth and social transformation. This has happened at a moment when, especially within anthropology, the concept of culture itself is undergoing critical examination, and when cultural studies has emerged as a major challenge to anthropology's self-defined specialisation in the social-scientific analysis of culture. Few attempts have been made, however, to relate cultural studies and development studies, despite the fact that the relatively recent ‘cultural turn’ in the social sciences has derived largely from the currently fashionable status of cultural studies and its multidisciplinary nature. This paper explores this relationship and suggests that a cultural studies approach, despite its weaknesses, potentially revitalises the significance of culture in relationship to development.     

Communicating Cultural Dimensions of Gender-related Identity in Female Austrian and Finnish Business Students' Responses to Joanna Kramer (and to each other)

This paper discusses aspects of Austrian and Finnish female business students' responses to the acts and speech of Joanna Kramer in the Oscar winning American film Kramer vs. Kramer. Of special interest are their distinctive conceptions of "equality", "responsibility", "independence" and "choice" in response to the gender-related identity crisis that is the main plot of the film. The cultural meanings of these conceptions were revealed as the following conceptions were played with, or against, each other: "equally divided" and "equally shared" responsibility, "mother" and "father" roles, "family" and "society/day-care centers" in socializing children, and "social partnership" (Austrian) and " sisu " (Finnish) in societal as well as wife-husband relationships. At one level, these conceptions are analyzed as revealing cultural conceptions of personhood and sociation, each of which positions social identities of gender differently. At another level, introduction to a discovery process suggests how perplexity among interlocutors, students and teachers alike, can lead towards pedagogical development, improvement in intercultural communication competence and awareness of ways of talking and living in different cultural landscapes. Reflection on the ways identities are constituted also opens the door to challenging those identities.     

Women from refugee backgrounds and their experiences of attending a specialist antenatal clinic. Narratives from an Australian setting

ProblemIn response to an identified need, a specialist antenatal clinic for women from refugee backgrounds was introduced in 2008, with an evaluation planned and completed in 2010.QuestionCan maternity care experiences for women from refugee backgrounds, attending a specialist antenatal clinic in a tertiary Australian public hospital, be improved?MethodsThe evaluation employed mixed methods, generating qualitative and quantitative data from two hospital databases, a chart audit, surveys and interviews with service users, providers and stakeholders. Contributions were received from 202 participants.FindingsThe clinic was highly regarded by all participants. Continuity of care throughout the antenatal period was particularly valued by newly arrived women as it afforded them security and support to negotiate an unfamiliar Western maternity system. Positive experiences decreased however; as women transitioned from the clinic to labour and postnatal wards where they reported that their traditional birthing and recuperative practices were often interrupted by the imposition of Western biomedical notions of appropriate care. The centrally located clinic was problematic, frequently requiring complex travel arrangements. Appointment schedules often impacted negatively on traditional spousal and family obligations.ConclusionsProviding comprehensive and culturally responsive maternity care for women from refugee backgrounds is achievable, however it is also resource intensive. The production of translated information which is high quality in terms of production and content, whilst also taking account of languages which are only rarely encountered, is problematic. Cultural competency programmes for staff, ideally online, require regular updating in light of new knowledge and changing political sensitivities.