Psychoanalysis in social and cultural settings. Upheavals and resilience

In this research in progress we present the initial stage of a large ethnographic study at a healthcare network in the US. Our goal is to understand how healthcare organizations in the US use algorithms to improve efficiency (cost saving) and effectiveness (quality) of healthcare. Our preliminary findings illustrate that at the national level, algorithms might be detrimental to healthcare quality because they do not consider (and differentiate) contextual issues such as social and cultural (local) settings. At the practice (hospital/physician) level, they help managing the tradeoff between following national “best practices” and accommodating needs of special patients or particular situations, because hospital-based algorithms can be over-ridden by clinicians. We conclude that, while more data needs to be collected, a responsible use of algorithms requires their constant supervision and their application with respect to specific social and cultural settings.

This chapter sets the social and cultural context in which the folk-linguistic analysis of the following chapters is embedded. Here, the author critically examines, at first, aspects of oral history of the Irish Travellers’ origin, history, and past relationships with the non-Traveller community, and how these accounts relate to dominant and institutional historical narratives. The second part explores the participants’ narratives of cultural strongholds and experiences of the present-day situation as well as their relationship with non-Travellers today. Both of these themes uncover underlying patterns of domination and oppression which influence Travellers’ self-understanding within wider Irish society and which the author sees as responsible for a range of social challenges. The chapter gives the readers a feel for the cultural and social setting and background that allows them to anticipate the role and purpose that Cant fulfils in that cultural setting.

Growing academic interest in Game Sense and other game-based approaches (GBA) does not seem to have translated into significant uptake by practitioners. There have been explanations suggested to explain this, but it may also be an issue of identifying to what extent these approaches may influence practice without converting teachers to ‘authentic’ GBA practice. Identifying subtle influences that reflect aspects of GBA such as Game Sense requires sensitivity to the cultural and social setting that teachers pass through on their career journeys and how they influence their teaching and coaching, with teachers adapting the approaches they use to the context they find themselves in. This chapter draws on a study that inquired into the development of teachers and coaches’ beliefs and practice in New Zealand over their lives to suggest how cultural setting can deeply influence teachers’ and coaches’ ideas about, and perceptions of, Game Sense and other GBAs to identify the influence of GBA on their practice.

In April 1997 a group of social scientists in Germany came together to form a task force on institutional dimensions of global environmental change. At the time they were all engaged in research projects funded by the German Research Council (DFG) within its Priority Programme “Global Environmental Change — Social and Behavioural Dimensions”. Coming initially from the fields of political science and sociology they were motivated by a common interest in advancing knowledge on processes of institutional change relevant to major environmental problems. By exploring the capacity of diverse disciplinary approaches to explain institutional change and by exchanging knowledge on environmental institutions in various social, cultural and political settings they aimed to shed fresh light on the complex dynamics of institutions. By 1999 the task force had grown in numbers and scope to include geographers, cultural anthropologists and cultural psychologists, reflecting a unique and broad spectrum of social science research into institutions and the environment. The new members brought not only new disciplinary perspectives to the group, but also an interest in a wider range of institutions functioning at different societal levels and in new cultural settings, including developing countries.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the influence of culture on the adoption and use of social media platforms for corporate disclosures by firms in a cross-country setting.Design/methodology/approachIt is contended that social media corporate disclosure (SMCD) is culturally influenced because the primary purpose of social media is to connect people in social settings, and social settings are distinguished by their cultures. Using a sample of 1,420 firms from 36 countries and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, this study examines the direct effects of culture on SMCD and its moderating effects on the relationship between SMCD and the agency determinants of corporate disclosure.FindingsIt is found that cultural dimensions directly affect the adoption and use of SMCD. Additionally, the agency determinants of disclosure, size, leverage and growth are positively associated with the adoption, and use of SMCD, and these associations are moderated by the cultural dimensions.Research limitations/implicationsThe Hofstede cultural dimensions are broad country-level variables based on the culture of the majority in the population. However, larger countries have many cultures. This study does not cover within-country cultural effects on SMCD. It also does not cover firm-level culture and accounting culture because these factors are derived from national culture. This study adds culture as a country-level determinant of why companies adopt and use social media.Practical implicationsThe study provides investors and policymakers with an understanding of the nature of SMCD adoption and use in different cultural settings. It also makes managers aware of which cultural settings are more amenable to SMCD.Social implicationsSocial media, by design, have social implications. Examining the role of culture in the use of social media provides societal reasons for the use of SMCD by companies.Originality/valueSince social media are interactive in form rather than simply one-way disclosure devices, this study goes beyond the realm of corporate disclosure into the less researched area of corporate communication via social media.

This article summarises and comments on the book Studies in Matthew’s Gospel: Literary design, intertextuality, and social setting, by Wim Weren, published during 2014. The essence of this book is all about meaning: the meaning of a structure, texts, and consequently the understanding of the Gospel of Matthew. For Weren, ‘Meaning is the result of the interplay between a textual unit and such other factors as language, literary context, and cultural setting’. This relates to the three parts of the content of this monograph. His approach in studying Matthew comes from three perspectives: firstly intratextuality, then intertextuality, and finally extratextuality. He has deliberately chosen this order of successive steps so that they complement each other.

Diversity and inclusion are two terms that provide an umbrella for efforts to tackle discrimination, exclusion, and inequality by valuing diversity and promoting inclusion for historically disadvantaged groups across social, organizational, and individual levels. Diversity and inclusion are now academic, political, and professional fields of study and practice. Diversity and inclusion efforts gain meaning and shape depending highly on the spatial, temporal, sociocultural, and symbolic context in which they manifest. There is a spatial dimension to diversity and inclusion, which means different things across different international, regional, national, and organizational contexts. While in some national and organizational contexts, there is support for diversity and inclusion in terms of recognizing, protecting, valuing, and promoting a more comprehensive range of diversity categories and tackling inequalities across these categories, other contexts remain hostile, unsupportive, and adversarial across some sorts of diversity. While eight types of discrimination are unlawful in the UK, class inequalities are not part of equality laws. In India caste caste-related inequalities are targeted by laws. In South Africa, the legal framework promotes reconciliation to address the detrimental consequences of Apartheid. In terms of temporal context, there is a time dimension to equality and diversity efforts. While earlier diversity and inclusion efforts primarily included generic (-etic) categories such as gender, ethnicity, and disability, recently legitimated diversity categories such as sexual orientation, belief, appearance, and age are considered in some countries. Further, there has been a posthumanist turn, which problematizes the domination of human diversity concerns above and beyond those of nature and technology. In recognition of this, diversity and inclusion research now includes new categories such as biodiversity, technological diversity, and interspecies diversity in the posthumanist landscape of diversity and inclusion. The sociocultural context of diversity and inclusion refers to the specific values, beliefs, and practices that shape and underpin how inclusion and exclusion, privilege and disadvantage, and equality and discrimination manifest in different cultural settings. Sociocultural context is highly varied across national and regional settings, making adopting a standardized, one-size-fits-all approach to diversity and inclusion ineffective. The legal context explains what aspects of diversity and inclusion are considered priority categories for protection against discrimination and inequality. Legal regulation and compliance-based work can set the floor and the baseline for diversity and equality interventions in organizations and nation states. Due to variations in regulatory systems, diversity and inclusion efforts at work emerge as idiosyncratic.

Studies on development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) across the world have revealed a range of negative outcomes for resettlers’ livelihoods. DIDR studies have faced conceptual challenges and limited understanding of the post resettlement and livelihood reconstruction process. Previous studies have tended to overlook the full range of impacts that resettlement projects have on the ability of displaced persons to maintain their livelihoods and have tended to focus on short-term livelihood strategies rather than improve future livelihoods. In addition, the key DIDR frameworks fail to understand the complexities inherent in the resettlement process which is often contextualised in different economic, political, social and cultural settings (De Wet, 2006). This research seeks to understand the livelihood reconstruction processes for four ethnic groups including Kinh group (ethnic Vietnamese) and three other minority groups (Bahnar, Jarai and Ro Ngao groups) who were directly affected by the construction of the Yali Falls Dam in the Central Highlands of Vietnam from the late 1990s. In doing so, this research proposes an adapted framework for understanding, monitoring and enhancing livelihood resilience of resettled people in Vietnam. This research is addressed through three major research questions: 1. How has the Yali Falls Dam resettlement project affected the resettled ethnic groups’ livelihoods? 2. How and why do the subsequent livelihood strategies and outcomes differ among the ethnic groups? and 3. What key modifications to the existing DIDR frameworks could be made to improve resettlement program planning and implementation? This research employed both quantitative and qualitative methods to answer these research questions and gain insights into the resettlement complex. Methods included structured household interviews with 397 resettled households from the four ethnic groups, and in-depth interviews with 19 key informants from the local authorities in the district and communes, as well as with resettled people. In addition, participant observations and photos were also taken to complement the data and analysis. The research reveals the following key findings. First, impacts of the Yali Falls resettlement project were unevenly distributed among the four resettled ethnic groups. The three ethnic minority groups, who had traditionally led predominantly subsistence lifestyles have suffered high rates of poverty, food insecurity and debt. However, the Kinh group have been able to recover and develop their livelihoods after the resettlement. Second, a range of formal and informal coping livelihood strategies have emerged and been applied by the different ethnic groups. The ethnic minority groups (Bahnar, Jarai and Ro Ngao) have tended to apply more informal and unsustainable coping strategies, while the Kinh group have improved their livelihoods with the majority of households employing development strategies. The differentiation in livelihood strategies is driven by several key factors including land rights and land holding changes, social differentiation and social networks involved in the resettlement process. Third, examination of the resettlement process and its outcomes through the lenses of the DIDR frameworks and the sustainable livelihoods framework reveals several strengths and weaknesses of the existing frameworks which are explored. This study found that the four stage framework (Scudder and Colson, 1982) does not hold true for Vietnam’s resettlement projects. The risk and livelihoods reconstruction framework (IRR) (Cernea, 1997) showed its strengths in predicting impoverishment risk outcomes of the Yali resettlement project and other projects in Vietnam. However, it has limitations in terms of providing an understanding of the process for and driving factors behind livelihood strategies. The case of Yali also provided additional risks such as power inequities among the resettled people, financial risk and education disruption which are missing in the IRR framework. This research also found the routine and dissonant culture framework (Downing and Garcia-Downing, 2009) is illustrative in explaining the religious conversion of the Jarai group from an animist group into Catholic, Buddhist, and Protestant religions. This research makes several key contributions to the DIDR and livelihoods research fields. It has shown how to apply an adapted livelihood framework with a focus on livelihood capitals to understand the impacts of a resettlement project. It has revealed several driving factors involved in the complexities of the resettlement process which are embedded in historical and social settings. This research has also proposed an adapted framework for understanding, monitoring and enhancing livelihood resilience of the resettled people in Vietnam based on the data and an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the key DIDR frameworks. The adapted framework with a focus on livelihood capitals, consideration of social differentiation and usage of a process-based approach not only provides a comprehensive understanding of the resettlement process but also suggests interventions to improve the resettled people’s livelihood resilience in the long-term.

Improving school physical education (PE) practices in the future mainly depends on supporting the professional capital of practitioners’ and early career scholars’. In this paper, I aim to present effective strategies to support the human, social and decisional capital of those PE and sports professionals in Turkey. To this end, first, the complex social-ecology of the country-specific PE setting was discussed by using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) social-ecological model. Then, six strategies’ that were effective in supporting the professional development of teachers, coaches and early career scholars in this specific context, including identifying the learner subsets, understanding the local social, physical, and policy setting, connecting PE stakeholders toward the same aims, creating learning communities, being future-oriented, and being data-driven in practice were presented with the evidence to support them. Social-ecological examination of the setting indicated the poor outcome of PE for the learning of K12 students in developing movement and lifelong physical activity skills and knowledge. There were weaknesses identified in PE teachers’, coaches’, and scholars’ professional knowledge and skills. The social setting was not supportive especially for girls’ physical activity participation in rural areas. Physical Education-related community, organizational and the physical setting had inequalities for the population living in different regions of the country due to fast urbanization, family income level, geography, and climate variations, rapidly growing school-age population and migration. At the macro level, the influence of a centralized education system and the policies of institutions with interest in youth education, health, and sport over the PE practices was critical. Application of the six strategies by considering the social-ecological characteristics of the Turkish PE setting was successful in general. Based on the evidence, I strongly recommend a comprehensive examination of the social-ecology in each cultural setting during structuring the professional development programmes for teachers, coaches, and early career scholars.

Review question/objective The objective of this review is to identify the best available evidence on the experience of urinary incontinence by women. Inclusion criteria Types of participants This review will consider studies that include all adult women (18 years of age or more) from any cultural background. Women who have suffered brain disorders, spine injury or mental deficiency will be excluded from the review. Types of intervention(s)/phenomena of interest This review will consider studies that describe women’s experiences of Urinary Incontinence. Context The context of this review considers different social and cultural settings. All experiences of Urinary Incontinence lived by women will be considered independent of the location of the primary study’s participants, including the home, clinic, hospitals, the community and other social settings.

Methodological Aspects of Comparative Research in the Epidemiology of Alzheimer Disease

The contents of the Qur'an are loaded with social and cultural settings in the implementation of da'wah. This article explains the existence of the Qur'an loaded with social and cultural settings as a guide to preaching. The purpose of this discussion is to see how the Qur'an describes the effort in da'wah in terms of socio-cultural aspects. This research is a descriptive-qualitative type library research, which describes the situation of the socio-cultural reality of the community as a setting of the Qur'an in the implementation of da'wah. Furthermore, it draws reality as a feature, situation or phenomenon in the implementation of da'wah which must be understood historically and philosophically from the culture that developed in society, then internalized with Islamic values.

Book Review: Stigma, Discrimination, and Living with HIV/AIDS: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Deconstructing culture-bound syndromes

Ethnopsychiatry comprises a large field of literature written from diverse perspectives, disciplines and orientations. Its status as an interdiscipinary activity presents formidable obstacles to researchers interested in comparative problems and the development of generalizations. These difficulties can be demonstrated by even a cursory examination of the material written on what has come to be called 'culture-bound syndromes'. In spite of the considerable body of specific studies written about these 'ethnic psychoses', as Devereux termed them. debates continue to swirl over how to define them, whether they are manifestations of psychopathology. and. by implication, the degree to which the categories of Western psychiatric nosology are readily transferable to other cultural and historical settings. This paper does not attempt to play the role of broker between universalists and particularists. If anything I favor the particularist position with respect to the impossibility of directly applying diagnostic categories across cultural boundaries. On the other hand I would not deny that there are universal processes which take their form through complex interaction with particular cultural, historical and social settings. The goal of showing how general forms can only be realized in particular settings is a vital one for anthropology, and the literature on culture- bound syndromes illustrates the problems involved. The problems can be severe. but no more so than those facing any observer of an exotic cultural setting. Because I perceive parallels between problems of translation in social and anthropology in general and the issues that have emerged in discussions of culture-bound syndromes, I seek to return to basic issues in this essay to examine some aspects of culture-bound syndromes that should be examined before assertions about pathology are made. While it can be shown that the very idea of culture- bound syndromes is controversial it cannot be argued that the literature discussing them has been significant for modern psychiatric practice. The DSM. the Burke's peerage of psychiatric disorders, does not include either the concept of the culture- bound syndrome or any of its specific instances in the compendium (l)*. The reasons for this omission are not difficult to discern. The vantage point of Western scientific medicine defines culture bound syndromes as forms found in other societies and at other times. The descriptions of Anorexia and Bulemia found in DSM III, for example. do not note either that the incidence or popularity of diagnosis of these syn- dromes is recent. Yet Raymond Prince has been able to show that the historical specificity of these syn- dromes could easily qualify them for status as culture-bound (see his paper in this issue). Thus we can say that while academic ethnopsychiatry debates the culture-bound/universal distinction, it has made little impact on psychiatric practice. This is un- fortunate. The concept of culture-bound syndromes raises questions of cultural and historical variation that are generally not addressed in clinical psychiatry, a positivistically oriented field which aims to explain all behavior in terms derived deductively from its