Comparative Cultural Studies Research Articles

Spirituality, Administration, and Normativity in Current Church Organization

Abstract The paper addresses issues regarding the current balance between spirituality and administration in different church denominations using an interdisciplinary approach which combines management science and theology. It presents a comparative study of organizational culture of the Roman Catholic Church, a Lutheran church, and a Reformed church with the use of the questionnaire based on the Competing Values Framework (Cameron/Quinn) and qualitative interviews with leading persons in church. The authors discuss the findings from two different but complementary perspectives: in relation to the four types of organizational cultures in the Cameron/Quinn framework, and as a result of the specific denominational semantics represented in the questionnaire used for the study. The results show how the question of modernity is reflected in organizational culture of churches, and how deeply the respondents’ perception of church is influenced by inherent normativity. One of the central conclusions is that religiously rooted normativity serves as an instrument of balancing the administrative and the spiritual in church.

Comparing Modern Literatures Worldwide: The Transamerican View

Comparing Modern Literatures Worldwide: The Transamerican View

The Continuous Model of Culture: Modernity Decline—a Eurocentric Bias? An Attempt to Introduce an Absolute Value into a Model of Culture

This paper means to demonstrate the theoretical-and-methodological potential of a particular pattern of thought about culture. Employing an end-means and absolute value plus concept of reality approach, the continuous model of culture aims to embrace from one holistic standpoint various concepts and debates of the modern human, social, and political sciences. The paper revisits the debates of fact versus value, nature versus culture, culture versus structure, agency versus structure, and economics versus politics and offers the concepts of the rule of law, state capitalism, a dialectical model of progress, and interpretative qualitative research, as well as of cultural diffusion, autonomy, alienation, and individuality. This model distinguishes between the ideal-symbolical and the instrumental functions of culture, sees culture as being sewn from universal binaries, and provides a certain understanding of the cognitive function of a value judgment, with positivism so far vague about the topic. It, too, suggests an extra method for investigating culture(s): the comparative literature study of culture(s) enables social science to view literature as its potential in-depth interviewee — a case for arguing for a certain conception of interdisciplinarity as well. In addition, it predicts that cultural particularism or individuality remains an essential factor of human existence. Analyzing the issue of Eurocentrism in social science, the model finds modernity‘s concept of reality to be involved in ‖methodological‖ intellectualistic reductionism, characterizing it since the empiricism/rationalism origination. Systematically confusing the universal oppositions in a Eurocentric manner, intellectualism becomes a contributing factor in unfolding post-modernity.

The Effect of National Culture, Acculturation, and Education on Accounting Judgments: A Comparative Study of Australian and Chinese Culture

ABSTRACT We examine the influence of national culture on the judgments of Australian and Chinese tertiary accounting students when they are interpreting selected International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) that contain uncertainty expressions. To extend prior cross-cultural research, we also examine whether cultural values of individuals can change because of acculturation and accounting education, and measure their potential impact on accounting judgment. The results provide strong support for the notion that Chinese accounting students are more conservative than Australian accounting students in assigning probabilities to in-context uncertainty expressions contained in IFRSs. A unique finding of this study is that the cultural values of individuals can change because of acculturation and accounting education, and this could potentially improve the comparability of financial reports by moderating differences in the interpretation of accounting standards caused by cultural differences between accountants. Data Availability: The complete version of the research instrument is available from the second author.

Comparative study of blood cultures and catheter for the Candida yeasts of origin nosocomial

The incidence of nosocomial infections by fungi have increased in recent decades, and 80% are caused by Candida species. The aim of this study was to characterize Candida yeasts isolated from central venous catheter (CVC) and blood cultures of hospitalised patients. Approximately 65% of the infections result from the migration of microorganisms the microflora of the skin, from the insertion site of the catheter and are due to biofilm formation. The methodology employed was to identify CVC and blood culture samples using CHROMagar®, CANDIFAST® and the automated VITEK® 2 Compact. To assess biofilm formation, we used a Scanning Electron Microscopy EVO MA 10 (SEM). The yeasts were the second microorganism most prevalent (17%) on catheter tip and blood culture along with Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus epidermidis. We investigated 10 samples and 73% were identified through automated methodology, being 26% of strains of Candida albicans, 13% C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis, 6% de C. glabrata, C. pelliculosa and C. guilliermondii. When analyzing the percentage of agreement between the results obtained in the three methodologies used, 80% of the strains had 67% agreement. Using SEM technique all samples were positive for catheter biofilm formation, concluding that their presence may influence the catheter‐related candidemia and that there is no single ideal method for identifying these emerging fungi.

Polarisation of the society: a possible outcome of the economic crisis?

PurposeThis paper aims to evaluate the results of an empirical research whose objective was the analysis of the impact of the actual economic crisis on the expectations, preferences and attitudes of the Hungarian people towards the purchase of food and household items in retail stores.Design/methodology/approachA review of literature is followed by the description and evaluation of an empirical research. A sample of 1,000 people was randomly selected and data were collected by a pre‐tested questionnaire. By main component analyses 12 main components were identified and a k‐component cluster analysis was performed.FindingsThe findings of the empirical research show that people of the same country react entirely differently to the crisis from a behavioural point of view and that in Hungary the economic crisis resulted in the social polarisation of the citizens.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper provides evidence for the social polarisation of the Hungarian people which has a serious impact on their purchases in retail stores and which makes the retail store managers rethink their actual strategy and positioning. As the crisis continues there is room for a longitudinal study in the country and for a comparative cross cultural study in the region.Originality/valueThe paper shows an original approach of analysing how the Hungarian people's purchases of food and household items changed after the break‐out of the economic crises by using behavioural and psychographic variables as the basis of evaluations.

Impacts of Tsunami on the Nicobarese: Some Reflections of Pre-Tsunami and Post-Tsunami Phases in Car Nicobar

The island of Car Nicobar was home to about 21,000 Nicobarese who were spread on the whole island and were well-adjusted in 15 villages, viz., Mus, Tamaloo, Perka, Malacca, Sawai, Kenyuka, Big Lapathi, Chukchucha, Small Lapathi, Kakana, Tee-Top, Kinmai, Tapoiming, Arong and Kimios (pre-tsunami phase fieldwork). The life line of the Nicobarese was sailing smoothly until on Black Sunday (so-called day of Dec. 26 of 2004), a tsunami, which was triggered by an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 in Sumatra, left the Nicobarese with no options. It appeared that the tsunami fully devastated the economic and social life of the Car Nicobarese. In this backdrop, this study was conducted in the post-tsunami phase to bring forward the ground realities of the socio-cultural sphere of the Nicobarese in the post-tsunami phase on Car Nicobar and to compare it with the pre-tsunami life of the Nicobarese of the island. Moreover, this paper deals with a comparative study of Nicobari culture in pre- and post-tsunami phases and reveals the psychosocial frustrations and problems faced by the Nicobarese due to the after-effects of the tsunami.

The Origin of Lentivirus Research: Maedi-Visna Virus

Maedi and visna are contagious sheep diseases which were introduced into Iceland in 1933 by imported sheep of Karakul breed. Maedi, a slowly progressing pneumonia, and the central nervous system disease visna were shown to be transmissible in sheep and most likely caused by a virus. In 1957, visna virus was isolated in tissue culture from sheep brain and maedi virus was isolated the following year from sheep lungs. Both viruses showed similar cytopathic effect in tissue culture. Electron microscope studies of ultrathin sections from visna virus infected cells demonstrated spherical particles, 70-100 nm in diameter, which were formed by budding from the cell membrane. Later studies showed identical particles in maedi virus infected cultures. These, and several other comparative studies, strongly indicated that maedi and visna were caused by strains of the same virus, later named maedi-visna virus (MVV). Comparative studies in tissue culture suggested that MVV was related to RNA tumor viruses of animals, the oncornaviruses. This was later supported by the finding that MVV is an RNA virus. A few months after reverse transcriptase was demonstrated in oncornaviruses, the enzyme was also found in MVV virions. Thus, MVV was classified as a retrovirus together with the oncornaviruses. However, MVV is not oncogenic in vivo or in vitro and was in 1975 placed in a subgroup of retroviruses named lentiviruses, which cause cytopathic effect in vitro and slowly progressing inflammatory disease in animals, but are nononcogenic. In the early 1980s, the causative agent of AIDS was found to be a non-oncogenic retrovirus and was classified as a lentivirus. Thus, HIV became the first human lentivirus.

The Origin of Lentivirus Research: Maedi-Visna Virus

Maedi and visna are contagious sheep diseases which were introduced into Iceland in 1933 by imported sheep of Karakul breed. Maedi, a slowly progressing pneumonia, and the central nervous system disease visna were shown to be transmissible in sheep and most likely caused by a virus. In 1957, visna virus was isolated in tissue culture from sheep brain and maedi virus was isolated the following year from sheep lungs. Both viruses showed similar cytopathic effect in tissue culture. Electron microscope studies of ultrathin sections from visna virus infected cells demonstrated spherical particles, 70-100 nm in diameter, which were formed by budding from the cell membrane. Later studies showed identical particles in maedi virus infected cultures. These, and several other comparative studies, strongly indicated that maedi and visna were caused by strains of the same virus, later named maedi-visna virus (MVV). Comparative studies in tissue culture suggested that MVV was related to RNA tumor viruses of animals, the oncornaviruses. This was later supported by the finding that MVV is an RNA virus. A few months after reverse transcriptase was demonstrated in oncornaviruses, the enzyme was also found in MVV virions. Thus, MVV was classified as a retrovirus together with the oncornaviruses. However, MVV is not oncogenic in vivo or in vitro and was in 1975 placed in a subgroup of retroviruses named lentiviruses, which cause cytopathic effect in vitro and slowly progressing inflammatory disease in animals, but are nononcogenic. In the early 1980s, the causative agent of AIDS was found to be a non-oncogenic retrovirus and was classified as a lentivirus. Thus, HIV became the first human lentivirus.

Exploration of the Intercultural

This review examines Ming Xie’s Conditions of Comparison , a theoretical work dealing with the current state of comparative intercultural inquiry. Referring to notable scholars and theorists, and bringing to bear a range of critical texts, Ming Xie leads us through the epistemological conditions of comparative intercultural inquiry, shedding light on disciplines like comparative literature, cultural studies, translation studies, and philosophical studies. In the process, he attempts to establish a general philosophy of comparative intercultural inquiry.

Metaphor Translation as a Tool of Intercultural Understanding

In her article "Metaphor Translation as a Tool of Intercultural Understanding" Ipshita Chanda takes up specific cases of metaphor translation as a methodological exercise towards understanding intercultural exchange. Chanda's study is based on a semiotic and linguistic understanding of metaphor as a signifying and cognitive device. When a metaphor is translated from one linguistic-literary field into another, the process of translation itself yields some specific operational steps for studying inter- and cross-cultural relations. Here, translation is not proposed as a framework but as practical method: the translation of metaphor becomes an exercise in strategy for the pedagogy of the comparative approach. Grounding the literary fields of source and target languages in the comparative study of cultures in which metaphors originate and are made to mean, Chanda argues that the methods used for the study of relations between literary fields may be extended to the study of cultural contact and exchange.

Wound dressing composed of hyaluronic acid and collagen containing EGF or bFGF: comparative culture study

We developed a novel wound dressing composed of a hyaluronic acid (HA) and collagen (Col) spongy sheet containing epidermal growth factor (EGF) or basic fibrolast growth factor (bFGF) by freeze-drying method (EGF-wound dressing or bFGF-wound dressing, respectively). A wound dressing without any growth factor was prepared as a control in a similar manner as above (C-wound dressing). Intermolecular cross-linkage between Col molecules was induced by UV irradiation. The release behavior of free HA from the wound dressing was investigated using a C-wound dressing. The weight of C-wound dressing after 1 day, 3, 5, and 7 days of incubation on top of a Col gel sheet at the air–water interface (wound surface model) was 55, 36, 30, and 19% of the original weight, respectively. Most free HA and a part of Col was released from the cross-linked Col network in the wound dressing during incubation, as the original Col content in the wound dressing was 33%. Next, fibroblast proliferation was assessed in conventional culture medium preconditioned by immersion of a piece of C-, EGF-, or bFGF-wound dressing, i.e. C-conditioned medium, EGF-conditioned medium, or bFGF-conditioned medium. Cell proliferation in C-conditioned medium increased to approximately the same level as that in conventional medium. Cell proliferation in EGF- and bFGF-conditioned medium was 1.9 times and 2.6 times greater than that in conventional medium after 7 days of cultivation, respectively. Finally, cytokine production of fibroblasts was assessed in a wound surface model using a fibroblast-incorporating Col gel sheet (cultured dermal substitute [CDS]). CDS was elevated to the air–medium interface, on which each wound dressing was placed and cultured for 7 days. Fibroblasts in CDS covered with EGF-wound dressing released 3.6 times more vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and 4.6 times more hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) when compared with the C-wound dressing. Fibroblasts in CDS covered with bFGF-wound dressing released 10.2 times more VEGF and 6.3 times more HGF when compared with the C-wound dressing. This finding indicates that bFGF-wound dressing can facilitate more effectively the VEGF and FGF production compared with EGF-wound dressing.

Translation and Culture: Translating Idioms between English and Chinese from a Cultural Perspective

Translation is not only an interlingual communication, but a cross-cultural transfer, which involves a comparative study of the SL culture and TL culture. In translating cultural specificities, especially idioms, two criteria are proposed, informativeness and effectiveness, by which three translation methods are thus suggested: 1) literal translation; 2) literal translation with footnotes or explanatory phrases; 3) equivalent or corresponding TL idioms. A skillful use of those methods, subject to different contexts and purposes, serves to promote cultural exchange between English and Chinese. This contribution, in turn, aims to usher in further in-depth study of relations between culture and translation.

Comparative Study of Culture in Kurdish and Farsi Proverbs

Proverbs are considered as part of folklore or public literature and one of important cultural treasures. Hence, discussing and studying proverbs can make us familiar with cultural aspects, value and norms of the owners of those proverbs. In this study Kurdish and Farsi proverbs are investigated based on cultural components and its species are presented and classified based on the same components. The present study shows that Kurdish and Farsi proverbs have spoken of two categories of values and norms, and anti-values and abnormalities, first, positive values and norms such as encouraging to truthfulness, effort, patience and tolerance, pragmatic, wise, etc; and second, negative values and in other words anti-values and abnormal action that they have been blame such as lying, avarice, cruelty, etc; also based on Malinowski’s theory, the three individual, social and combined functions are conceivable Keywords: Culture, Value, Norm, Anti-Value, Kurdish proverbs, Farsi proverbs, etc.

Heinrich von Kleist: writing after Kant

The question of Heinrich von Kleist's reading and reception of Kant's philosophy has never been satisfactorily answered. The present study aims to reassess this question, particularly in the light of Kant's rising importance for the humanities today. It argues not only that Kleist was influenced by Kant, but also that he may be understood as a Kantian, albeit an unorthodox one. The volume integrates material previously published by the author in the form of articles and essays, now updated, with new chapters to form a greater whole. What results is a coherent set of approaches that illuminates the question of Kleist's Kantianism from different points of view. Kleist is thereby understood not only as a writer but also as a thinker -- one whose seriousness of purpose and clarity of design compares with that of other early expositors of Kant's thought such as Reinhold and Fichte. Through the locutions and idioms of fiction and the essay, Kleist becomes visible for the first time as an original contributor to the tradition of post-Kantian ideas. ~~~~~ TIM MEHIGAN is Professorial Chair of German in the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and Honorary Professor in the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia.

Historia Literatury, Komparatystyka, Przekład / History of Literature, Comparative Studies, Translation

Summary This article analyzes the problem of constructing historical and literary narratives in the context of latest developments in comparative cultural studies, which have been subjected to the influence of the so-called ‘translation turn’. This perspective requires that one acknowledges the return and reinterpretation of Goethe’s notion of Weltliteratur, and the appearance of analyses of the philosophical, ethical, and political dimensions of the category of “comparison” (undertaken especially by anthropologists and scholars of postcolonialism). The revival of interest in the history of literature among comparative literature scholars (e.g., Frederic Jameson, David Damrosch, Walter F. Veit, Frances Ferguson, Jonathan Arac, Hans Ulrich Gumbricht, or Rebecca Walkowitz) is discussed in relation to the publication of Pascale Casanova’s La République mondiale des lettres (Paris, Seuil, 1999), which turned out to be one of the most important and most interesting works devoted to the problem of constructing transnational historical and literary narratives to appear in the last two decades.

Komparatystyka i (inna) Historia Literatury / Comparative Literature Studies and (an Alternative ) History of Literature

Summary This article examines the relationship between comparative studies and history of literature. While paying special attention to the present-day condition of these two disciplines, the author surveys various approaches, formulated since the early 19th century, which sought to break with the traditional, national model of the history of literature and the ethnocentric model of traditional comparative studies, driven by an impatience with both nationalism and crypto-nationalism. In this context he focuses on the most recent projects of literary history like ‘comparative history of literature’, ‘international history of literature’, ‘transcultural history of literature’, or ‘world literature’ - all of which are oriented towards the international dimension of literary history. The article explores the possible reasons for the late 20th and early 21st- century revival of Goethe’s idea of Weltliteratur (in the critical thought of Pascal Casanova, David Damrosch, and Franco Moretti) and the recent vogue for ‘alternative’ histories of literature produced under the auspices of comparative cultural studies. At the same time it voices some skepticism about the radical reinvention of comparative studies (along the lines of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s Death of a Discipline).

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

World Literature and the Case of Joyce, Rao, and Borges

In her article "World Literature and the Case of Joyce, Rao, and Borges" Bhavya Tiwari discusses the work of James Joyce and poses the question why Joyce is considered an important figure in Latin America and South Asia. Have Indian languages (e.g., Bengali and Hindi) responded differently to Joycean aesthetics? If yes, can there be political reasons behind this difference? Joyce's own position in Europe as a modernist aesthetician complicates his reception in the "periphery," India and Latin America. Hence, Tiwari queries as to what happens when Joyce's texts are received on two different continents. In this context, Tiwari discusses Joyce's Ulysses (1922), Raja Rao's Kanthapura (1938), and Jorge Luis Borges's texts with regard to their linguistic innovations and word play. Tiwari's comparative and contextual analysis is meant to illustrate the relevance of comparative cultural study.

Introduction to New Work in Comparative Indian Literatures and Cultures

For the thematic issue New Work in Comparative Indian Literatures and Cultures 14.2 (2012) of CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture — following a widely distributed call for papers — we selected new work about literatures in Indian languages by scholars in India, as well as worldwide. We paid close attention to work in the comparative and contextual perspective within the widest definition of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of comparative cultural studies as stated in the aims and objectives of the journal. articles in the journal's thematic issue at hand contain a range of work with regard to genre and period. New Work in Comparative Indian Literatures and Cultures contains the following articles: Africa and India in the Novels of Dai and by Debarshi Prasad Nath and Juri Dutta. They discuss the work of two writers belonging to different continents, India and Nigeria. Interestingly, the novels of the two writers Dutta is analyzing — Lummer Dai and Buchi Emecheta —never heard of each other. Both novels are based on the custom of bride price, both writers speak out against the stifling rigidity of traditional customs, and uphold aspects of modernity in languages other than their native tongues. At the same time, both writers affirm the sanctity of the traditional institutions and customs. Emecheta relates her novel through the woman's voice and describes the limited choices available for her protagonist against the overarching presence of the traditional institutions. Dai's novel, on the other hand, presents a more optimistic picture regarding the possibility of change through his protagonist who successfully overcomes the immediate obstacles on her way to self-fulfillment. The Idea of England in Eighteenth-century Indian Travel Writing by Amrita Satapathy who discusses how Dean Mahomed's 1794 Travels of Dean Mahomed maps out territories of the mind of the colonizer and the colonized, how the narrative redefines contours of two diverse communities and cultures, and determines forms of cultural representations. Mahomed's Travels presented for the first time the idea of England from an Indian immigrant's point of view and altered the prejudiced outlook of early Western travel writings about the East. Mahomed's narrative opened an alternative vista for the wideeyed Easterner of the world of the West and exposed a life less ordinary lived by inhabitants of Cork,