Cultural Consequences Research Articles

Incident analysis of the “Pajaritos” petrochemical complex

On April 20th, 2016, an explosion occurred in the “Pajaritos” petrochemical plant, in Coatzacoalcos, México. The accident caused 32 deaths and almost 100 workers were seriously injured. At present, there is no official information about the cause of the accident and the existent reports are confidential. This paper proposes an explanation of what happened at the petrochemical plant facilities by considering the testimony of several witnesses and the process simulation. The strategy includes three steps: 1) the process simulation via Aspen Plus® software; 2) The hazardous process streams identification through the process stream index (PSI); and 3) The consequences description using the TNT method, ALOHA® and ANSYS FLUENT. The results agreed with the testimony of witnesses and indicated the level of environmental damage and the unavailable prioritization of process safety over the production and management systems. This indicates that these accidents are recurrent as a consequence of a low safety culture in developing countries.

The Best Public Education in Brazil: Considerations From Behavior Analysis of Culture in the Educational System of Sobral

Level of education is understood as one of the relevant factors that indicate the development of a society. In Brazil, recent results have pointed out the success of the public education system of the city of Sobral in the state of Ceara, which, in 2017, had the best performance in the country. Given that, it seems relevant to investigate such educational strategies. I analyzed the public education system of Sobral using metacontingency and cultural design as units of analysis. I consulted the city’s educational legislation that was created between January 2001 and May 2020, totaling 12 laws. As a result, I found two metacontingencies, one related to the reformulation of the educational reality of the city and the other regarding the current public education system. In this respect, the actions of several individuals and entities (interlocking contingencies) resulted in the functioning of the public network and the consequent performance of the students (aggregate products), as shown by periodical teaching evaluations (cultural consequence). Additionally, I identified the rearrangement of environmental conditions (both antecedent and subsequent) for the promotion of the cultural practices responsible for the city’s public education system and the consequent long-term results obtained in the educational field. Such deliberate interventions consisted of adequate cultural design. I hope that the conducted analysis and discussions may encourage professionals in public policy to investigate and design effective educational strategies, which in turn may impact the quality of life and the development of society.

Analysing Non-Existent and Existing Tourisms in Eastern Siberia among the Evenki, Even, Koryak and Itelmen

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Siberian indigenous villagers and nomads have often struggled to find enough income to sustain themselves. Some natives think that ethno-tourism can be a source of income, but there is currently little tourism in Siberia. In the circumpolar Arctic, tourism is presented as a source of economic development. The Russian Federation’s Official Plan for Economic Development to 2030 also includes the growth of tourism; to this end, Russia has mobilised specialised taskforces. What will be the economic, social and cultural consequences for native communities? What forms of tourism will be beneficial for them? What perceptions do Siberian natives have of tourism? This transdisciplinary paper compares non-existent tourism, as it is imagined, desired, or deplored by native townspeople, villagers, and nomadic herders of the Sakha-Yakutia Republic and Amur region, with existing ethno-tourism experiences in Kamchatka. Based on ethnographic material collected from 1994 to 2016, the paper used participatory fieldwork, hypothesising performed by indigenous co-researchers and an anthropologist, and classical anthropology. It analyses existing and non-existent tourisms on the economic, social, cultural, and administrative levels.

Governing ‘the disabled assessee’: a critical reframing of assessment accommodations as sociocultural practices

Assessment accommodations, such as extra time or personal space during examinations, have been traditionally studied through psychological perspectives. In this study, a critical approach is used instead to reframe assessment accommodations as sociocultural practices in the context of higher education. Drawing on discursive-deconstructive reading, this study addresses student positioning in documents and texts concerning assessment accommodations in the context of Finnish higher education. Deconstructed from these documents are the positions of ‘assessee’ and ‘impaired’. It is shown that both positions limit students’ agency by drawing on the medical model of disability. The study underlines the specific role assessment has in constructing disabilities in higher education. Further, the study calls for critical research to address – and challenge – the ableist agenda of rendering the structural issues of assessment into disabled students’ medical and psychological states. Points of interest Assessment accommodations, such as extra time or personal space in testing situations, are commonly used in higher education to allow everyone to participate in assessment. This study takes a critical approach towards assessment accommodations by analysing their social and cultural consequences. Documents concerning assessment of disabled students were analysed in the context of Finnish higher education. In the documents, the students were positioned as ‘assessees’ because they were seen as the targets of assessment – which, according to the documents, mostly consisted of examinations. The students were largely positioned as ‘impaired’ through the medical language used across the documents. The students were also seen as ‘special’ and ‘different’ compared to ‘other’ students. The documents largely saw disabled students as the problem to be fixed, rather than the examination-driven assessment system itself. I argue that this is an ableist agenda.

Gendering immigration: media framings of the economic and cultural consequences of immigration

ABSTRACT The media are found to be racialized in framing immigration. Yet, little is known about how the media across regions are gendered in their framings of immigration as economic and cultural issues. Drawing from a representative sample of newspapers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the U.K., and the U.S., this paper conducts a framing analysis of over 1,700 news articles to examine the media’s gendering of the economic and cultural consequences of immigration. This paper shows that the media identify migrant men at a higher rate than women when framing immigration as an economic issue and that the media identify migrant women at a higher rate when framing immigration as a cultural issue. However, the findings also suggest that the media do so subtly—the gender of immigrants is rarely revealed but implicitly suggested via stereotypes and cues. This paper provides empirical evidence supporting feminist theory and fills a gap in current literature by adding the intersectional dimensions taking gender and migrant status into account. It offers insight into how the media discursively construct migrant men and women are to illustrate the gendered division of their impact on the economy and culture.

SWEDISH SUBURBS AS HETEROTOPIAS: TOWARDS A MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE OF PLACES

Urban literary studies have become an important issue in contemporary multicultural Sweden, especially after the 70s, when the public housing project Miljonprogram (“Million Programme”) was completed (1974). Nowadays, these areas are partly regarded as a political failure since they have become places of social and even racial segregation. A central cultural consequence of multiculturalism in Sweden is the so-called Invandrarlitteratur (“immigrants’ literature”), mainly represented by second-generation authors. In this article, I will try to provide a concise but exhaustive understanding of how this kind of literature can reshape the Miljonprogram areas and define what Sweden is today. The aim is to show how these suburban spaces, through a chosen collection of three works, are narrated by immigrant authors not as sites, i.e. spaces as such, but rather as places, i.e. spaces whose meaning is provided by the (literary) subjectivities who live and act therein (Prieto 2013). Using the concept of heterotopia (Foucault 1986) and its defining criteria, I will investigate how these works perform a total reassertion of space, emphasizing the space described as rhizomatic (Deleuze & Guattari 2011) peripheries, i.e. the result of a sensitive relationship between self and space. This investigation is designed to reflect on how the perception of suburbs has changed from first to second-generation immigrant writers and it hopes to open a new research line in which stigmatizing dystopias can be replaced by heterotopias.

Efeitos de um Análogo de Reforçamento Negativo sobre a Seleção de Culturantes

Resumo O presente estudo investigou os efeitos de um análogo de reforçamento negativo sobre a seleção de culturantes e, diferentemente de estudos anteriores, buscou eliminar a interferência da punição negativa de outros culturantes. Três microculturas de laboratório, com três participantes cada, foram expostas a um delineamento ABAB. Os participantes escolhiam entre linhas coloridas e numeradas de 1 a 10. Na condição de Reforçamento Positivo (A), os culturantes-alvo produziam consequências culturais. Na condição de Reforçamento Negativo (B), as consequências culturais eram subtraídas a cada 30s, mas os culturantes-alvo podiam adiar a perda dessas consequências. O análogo de reforçamento negativo, assim como o de reforçamento positivo, selecionou os culturantes-alvo sem a interferência de contingências punitivas acidentais.

Is Reverence for Life Reverence for Rule? Abortion Rate and Corporate Tax Avoidance in China

Despite the momentum of research on the impact of informal institutions on corporate behavior in recent years, few studies probe the effect of an “awe culture” on corporate behavior. Thus, this study explores the economic consequences of the awe culture. It proxies awe culture with regionally induced abortion rates and examines its influence on corporate tax avoidance in China. We document that higher induced abortion rates associate with a higher degree of corporate tax avoidance, confirming that “reverence for life is reverence for rules.” Further, awe culture influences corporate tax avoidance via management opportunism and risk-appetite channels. The conclusions remained intact after an array of robustness tests. Further analysis suggests that the awe culture effect on corporate tax avoidance is insignificant when senior executives or directors have overseas backgrounds or the proportion of female board members is high. However, the effect is more pronounced when firms have high financial constraints, poor internal governance, or weak taxation enforcement. Notably, given that awe culture shapes corporate behavior, listed firms should fully consider and use awe culture in their economic practices.

ПРОБЛЕМЫ МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ГЕРМАНИИ. (ОБЗОРНАЯ СТАТЬЯ ПО ПУБЛИКАЦИЯМ ОЛЬГИ РЁШ)

The article deals with the current social and cultural problems in modern Germany that are related to the wide wave of immigration and the need for changes in official communication caused by immigration. The article analyzes the language situation in the field of German higher education and science, due to the strengthening of the position of the English language, which has negative consequences for the German national culture.

Impact of Internet Dependence on the Life Meaning System of Personality

The article discusses theoretical approaches to the characteristics of an addicted person, investigates the factors of dependence on the internet, the causes of addiction and psychological characteristics of an addicted person. Based on the study and analysis of scientific literature, the designation of dependence on the internet as a behavioral disorder that has a destructive effect on many aspects of human life is substantiated. The new formation of student age is the problem of the meaning of life. In recent years, the relevance of studying the transformation of the value system of students has increased, which makes it possible to predict the social and cultural consequences of the objective process of informatization, covering all spheres of human life. The idea of the models for the implementation of the pathological use of the internet, the issues of the defense mechanisms of the personality, the system of values and worldviews that determine the meanings of a person, significantly expanded the framework of the description and definition of the studied phenomenon. The aim of the current work is to study the relationship between internet addiction and the system of life meanings among students. Materials and methods: analysis of scientific literature, questionnaires, testing, including author’s questionnaire supplemented by mat. statistical methods. In our study of the influence of internet technologies on internet addiction, on the value system of a student’s personality, we identified differences in groups and correlations between internet addiction, defense mechanisms, personal characteristics and value orientations of the personality.

Tourism Attraction, Facilities, Flow and Assessment of Tourism Product of Manaslu Conservation Area

This study aimed to understand the tourist attractions, major tourism products and their assessment in Manaslu Conservation Area of Nepal MCA). MCA is a place well known both, nationally and internationally, for its scenic beauty, unique ecology, and rich cultural heritage, given by its geographic position and unique topography. The number of tourists visiting this area has been increasing every year. In 2001 the tourist flow was only 798 whereas in 2019 it was 7655. Such tourism growth has several socio-economic and cultural consequences. Along with the increased number of tourists, tourism focused facilities and infrastructures like hotels and tea shops are also increasing in the area. There are 127 hotels with 1328 rooms and 2827 beds (as of 2019) providing food and accommodation services for the visitors. However, even though there are many potential areas for tourism development in the Manaslu Conservation Area, because of less promotional practices, there is very little tourism activity in the region. With the area's diverse physiography, unique landscape, biodiversity and the social-cultural dimension of the villages, the area could provide plenty of attractions for tourism.

The extracellular reactive oxygen species levels in primary in vitro culture of human ovarian granulosa and cumulus cells

Abstract In the female reproductive tract, reactive oxygen species (ROS) may exert physiological and pathophysio-logical effects. Although ROS play an essential role as the signaling molecules, their excessive accumulation contributes to the pathogenesis of many reproductive processes. In the ovarian follicle, ROS affect multiple physiological processes, including oocyte maturation and fertilization. However, a lack of studies showing to which extend ovarian granulosa and cumulus cells can contribute to the development of oxidative stress within the ovarian follicle. In the presented research, the extracellular ROS accumulation level was investigated using GCs and CCs primary in vitro cultures. The obtained results demonstrated a steady decrease in extracellular ROS level during GCs primary culture. By contrast, ROS concentration in CCs conditioned medium increased gradually between the first and the seventh days of culture. The observed changes may reflect the proliferation status and metabolic activity of GCs and CCs during in vitro culture. Additionally, the elevated ROS level at respective points of time could occur as a consequence of culture in atmospheric oxygen. The distinct function and localization within the ovarian follicle may explain the differences between GCs and CCs oxygen metabolism. Running title: Reactive oxygen species in primary culture of human follicular cells

O INSTITUTO-GARANTIA DA CAUÇÃO AMBIENTAL E A COMPETÊNCIA LEGISLATIVA CONCORRENTE NA RELAÇÃO FEDERATIVO-CONSTITUCIONAL ENTRE O ESTADO DE MINAS GERAIS E A UNIÃO

O objetivo do artigo foi o de analisar a caução ambiental exigida nos processos de licenciamento das atividades socioeconômicas de mineração e uso de barragens. O estudo classificou juridicamente a caução ambiental como instituto-garantia de direitos difusos. Tal garantia se aplica ao dever de assistência e reparação por eventuais desastres ambientais e suas respectivas consequências humanitárias e culturais. O trabalho concluiu que, no âmbito da federação brasileira, há que prevalecer, em concreto, a norma específica estadual ou a norma-quadro federal que melhor atender aos princípios constitucionais da proteção mais efetiva e da subsidiariedade federativa. A metodologia utilizada na pesquisa foi dedutiva, analítica, dogmática e comparativa; e foram consultadas legislação nacional, estadual e estrangeira e textos bibliográficos específicos.

INTERINDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN METACONTINGENCIES

The primary unit of analysis in metacontingencies are interlocking- behavioral contingencies (IBCs) measured by their aggregate product (AP). The experimental literature has demonstrated selection APs by factors external to the group (also known as “cultural consequences”). By contrast, social interactions occurring inside of IBCs have received little examination, although they constitute a key element to understand different types of social dynamics. In this study interindividual performance and verbal interactions of individuals inside of IBCs were examined. Communication between participants in dyads was experimentally manipulated such that some dyads wore noise-cancelling headphones while working together and other group of dyads used headsets to talk to each other during the experimental session. Verbal interactions were measured using video/audio digital recordings. Three type of rules were presented to dyads to assess their effects on dyads performance under ambiguous circumstances throughout the task. Rules varied in their degree of ambiguity in each condition: high- (A), medium- (B), and low-explicit instructions (C). The order of rule presentation was alternated between groups. Our finding demonstrated significant differences in interpersonal performance between groups (verbal dyads vs nonverbal dyads). Overall, dyads spent more time engaging in cooperative verbal interactions than in any other type of verbal interaction, and similar acquisition patterns of these interactions were observed across dyads.

VERBAL INTERACTION PROMOTES COOPERATION IN AN ITERATED PRISONER’S DILEMMA GAME: A MULTIPLE BASELINE METACONTINGENCY EXPERIMENT

Some metacontingency experiments were based on cooperation procedures such as the iterated prisoner’s dilemma game (IPDG), but dismissed earlier results on cooperation as pertaining only to operant (not cultural) selection and did not control verbal interactions among participants. The present study evaluated the effects of verbal interactions on participants’ choices in an IPDG. Three sets of four university students played in four networked computers (screened by panels) and were exposed to conditions with or without permission to use a virtual chat room in a multiple baseline design. Without verbal interaction, choices varied, but tended to be all-defect. Once verbal interaction was allowed, choices quickly shifted and stabilized in all-cooperate on almost all trials. An IPDG can be interpreted as programming a metacontingency in which the higher payoff for the group (a cultural consequence) selects participants’ choices of the cooperative alternative (a culturant). As the cooperation literature had similarly found, verbal interactions among participants even through virtual chat room promotes the selection by the higher payoff. Metacontingency and cooperation procedures such as the IPDG are indistinguishable and their results must be evaluated together.

The Day I Was Taken by Pirates and Made to Dance a Jig

Employing sensory, visual, and poetic modes of inquiry, this piece explores relationships between pirate lore of Newfoundland, settler colonialism, and embodied experience. Situated in coastal communities known in history and folklore for harboring pirates, I use memory, fieldwork, and autoethnography to articulate fluid and unsettled aspects of the colonial project. Geographer and sociologist James Overton writing about the invention and commodification of Newfoundland culture two decades ago noted Memorial University of Newfoundland’s role in the region’s “cultural revival” while researchers engaged in community development initiatives. Such revived circuits of tangible or intangible heritage were often the product of (displaced or deterritorialized) intelligentsia. Portrayed as oppositional to dominant political forces, these contemporary pirates, plundered local culture through academic theories, and reconnected local identity with settler history and knowledge. The subsequent revived constructions of place in the work of tourist-oriented theater initiatives, literature, music, or restorations of the built environment reproduce the origins of settler culture for tourist consumption. While offering class-based critiques of the economic experience of settler life, they do not often interrogate the premises, mechanisms, and consequences of settler culture. The creative research underlying this poetic inquiry allows for critical associations to be made between settler tropes, their continued performance and re-performance, and the displacement and erasure of the region’s original peoples.

Audit Firm Culture: Recent Developments and Trends in the Literature

ABSTRACT This paper synthesizes research on audit firm culture (AFC) over the past decade, reviewing recent developments in research on factors instilling culture in audit firms, and how culture influences audit quality and auditors’ work attitudes. We develop and apply a three-phase model based on prior research and professional guidance (IAASB, 2014), which maps cultural embedding mechanisms (EMs, visible manifestations and organizational conditions to establish culture), perceptions of existing culture, and consequences of culture. Our synthesis shows that the culture of an audit firm is most oriented toward quality if leadership emphasizes professionalism over commercialism, promotes ethical judgments, and facilitates learning through systems, integration of specialists, and interpersonal interactions among auditors. The research cited shows strong influence on AFC of tone at the top set by leadership, as well as incentives in performance/reward systems. Studies we review generally imply continued concern for the influence of commercialism on AFC, but future research should investigate whether recent forces (i.e. pressure from regulators and efforts by the firms) have caused a cultural shift toward professionalism. We close by suggesting opportunities for future research that can strengthen understanding how AFC can be better managed by firms.

On the current problems of education for democracy

Abstract The aim of the text is to formulate certain problems and dangers in relation to education for democratic citizenship. The core of these considerations points to the problem of neglecting the fundamental motive of the problem of democracy, which is the relation to truth. The text defines four problem areas that cause reductive understanding of education for democracy, namely: 1. Our understanding of democracy has been reduced to securing the distribution of power in a state and defence of freedom of speech which eliminates the contradictions in the concept of democracy and leaves only its legal-political aspects. 2. The key condition of democracy, which is respect for human rights, has become complicated by the constant proliferation of human rights, oftentimes with individual needs being confused with human rights. 3. We have resigned upon addressing the important issue of balance between equality and outstandingness resulting in consequences for culture as well as education, i. e. loss of identity and absence of footing to base it on. 4. Democracy is closely linked to the ability to think and make decisions according to truth and not on the basis of immediate interests as democracy primarily has to do with an ideal that we look up to. The text also tries to show that education for democracy cannot be satisfactorily ensured by development of partial competences for co-operation and diversity acknowledgement since democracy does not only consist in system and rules but ideas and relation to Truth in the first place.

Law and Gospel Order: resolving commercial disputes in colonial Philadelphia

AbstractTrade in the early modern Atlantic grew a great deal. While acknowledging that this growth had important economic, social and cultural consequences, scholars have yet to fully explain its causes. This paper argues that formal religious institutions were key. Based on records from colonial Philadelphia, it shows how the Quaker meeting created a legal forum to resolve commercial disputes. The meeting enforced its verdicts by gathering and disseminating information about disputes locally and across the Atlantic world through the Society of Friends’ formal organisation of meetings. Thereby, it re-enforced reputation mechanisms, facilitating the expansion of Philadelphia's trade.

Fused blastocysts as a consequence of group embryo culture: observations, complications, and potential solutions

How embryos are cultured, in groups or individually, can influence their development and have other unforeseen impacts on subsequent assisted reproductive technologies. Although a group culture of embryos improves the blastocyst formation rates, this can create conditions wherein separate blastocysts may fuse. This fusion of 2 blastocysts can create unique logistic issues for embryo biopsy and genetic analysis. New culture approaches have emerged to facilitate individual embryo culture without losing the benefit of the group culture approach. Unique culture dishes and adjustments of laboratory culture/embryo handling protocols offer possible solutions to minimize or avoid blastocyst fusion.