Cultural Attachments Research Articles

Not just any old place: people, places and sustainability

Civil engineering solutions are routinely responsive to the places where those solutions are going to be built and the physical aspects of places are integral to good design. Other characteristics of a place, in particular its social or economic geography, will affect the design, implementation and impact of many civil engineering projects. This paper attempts to summarise, from an early examination of limited literature and by linking to ‘types’ of civil engineering projects, how people who live in a particular location respond to such projects, and what is driving their response. The focus remains on what this means for the engineer rather than how the engineer might participate in or improve upon those processes themselves. The location of a project influences whether the impact of a project will be as intended by the designers, and whether it will bring social benefits to the communities affected. The paper explores the research questions that could be answered to improve sustainability performance, suggesting that engineers might consider the need for participative processes in design and implementation more systematically, and suggests that there is a need to acknowledge cultural attachments to landscapes and place in project design and implementation.

Europe through Arab Eyes, 1578–1727 (review)

Reviewed by: Europe through Arab Eyes, 1578–1727 Ellen R. Welch Europe through Arab Eyes, 1578–1727. By Nabil Matar. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. 344 pp. $45.00 (cloth). In Europe through Arab Eyes, Nabil Matar continues the project he began with his previous book, In the Lands of the Christians: Arabic [End Page 326] Travel Writing in the Seventeenth Century (New York: Routledge, 2003), making early modern Arab perspectives on Europe available to scholars whose work pertains chiefly to countries north of the Mediterranean. Spanning the Moroccan defeat of Portuguese invaders in 1578 through the death of Moroccan Muley Isma'il in 1727, Matar's latest study carves out a 150-year period of history characterized by frequent contact and significant cultural exchange between the Arab-Islamic West (defined as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and, to a lesser extent, the Levant) and Christian Europe. This "familiarity" between the two cultures, Matar argues, resulted in "less of a monolithic construction of otherness and more of a diversity of perspectives," at least among Arab writers describing Europe (p. 5). It is possible to dispute the argument that this period represents an exception in the variety and nuance of views of the "other" it records. (Medieval Andalusia immediately leaps to mind.) Matar's book, however, brilliantly illustrates the diversity of Arab perspectives on Europe and Europeans in the early modern period. In the first half of the book, Matar offers a presentation and analysis of the primary sources that appear in translated excerpts in the second part. Matar adopts a microhistorical approach to his sources, emphasizing the anecdote and the individual perspective over grand narratives to portray the diversity of experiences. The most important distinction among the sources is that between "popular" and "elite" accounts of the European other. The popular sources consist chiefly of the accounts of male and female Muslim captives in Europe or on European galley ships, including both letters written by the captives themselves and oral testimony that belatedly entered the archive via secondhand transcription. Elite sources include the official accounts of ambassadors and royal scribes as well as vivid taqayid (reports on recent historical events) and even a medical treatise (on quinine). In his analysis of these varied sources, Matar emphasizes the ambivalence of Arab perspectives on Europe, highlighting expressions of cooperation, solidarity, friendship, love, and admiration across religious and cultural borders even in the context of captivity, war, and political humiliation. This diversity and complexity of viewpoints becomes vividly evident in the second half of the book, in which Matar presents original translations of excerpts of twenty different Arabic-language texts that describe Europe or Europeans. Many of these documents clearly illustrate the slippery, changeable nature of religious and national affiliation in the early modern Mediterranean world. The selection includes testimonies by two Europeans who converted to Islam (the Genoan Radwan al-Janawy al-Fasi and the Frenchman Thomas "Osman" d'Arcos), [End Page 327] as well as Muhammad al-Andalusi's touching remembrance of his boyhood in late sixteenth-century Spain, where he secretly learned Arabic writing and Muslim prayers at his father's knee while publicly attending Catholic services and schools. In Abu Faris 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Fishtali's dramatic account of the defeat of the Armada, Queen Elizabeth appears as a proxy for Moroccan ruler al-Mansur, and England's victory is interpreted as a harbinger of future Islamic conquest. Simple distinctions between Christian and Muslim, European and African or Arab, fail to hold up against the intricate dance of cultural attachments and national alliances described in these accounts. In this sense, Matar's work is an exemplary contribution to early modern Mediterranean studies, delimiting a field of study that inherently problematizes traditional divisions between East and West. The book includes helpful appendices, including a chronology of major events in the history of early modern Mediterranean relations and charts of the rulers of each country mentioned in the book, which facilitate comparative and transnational study. Clearly intended primarily for scholars of early modern Europe, Matar makes his material readily accessible to those with limited knowledge of North African and Middle Eastern history and the Arabic language. Matar's translations are...

Multiculturalism and International Law: Discussing Universal Standards

This article aims to assess the contribution of current international human rights law to the multicultural debate. The article argues that although international law has not engaged in a sustained way with the concept, the basic elements of multiculturalism are in fact promoted by current standards. Among these discussed are the recognition of cultural attachments in the public sphere, the need for interaction among cultures, and the understanding of sub-national groups as equal partners in the evolution of the society. A closer look at the standards and their dynamic interpretation by UN bodies also reveals helpful answers to difficult challenges currently posed by multiculturalism, including extremism and clashes between cultural practices and other human rights.

Gender, culture and the politics of identity in the public realm

Although recent debates surrounding the relationship between commitments to gender equality and cultural justice have given a renewed impetus to feminist critiques of liberal conceptions of the public realm, prominent interventions by Martha Nussbaum and Monique Deveaux have continued to affirm one of two long‐standing, yet controversial, feminist strategies for reconceptualising the public realm. While Nussbaum’s expansive notion of the public realm ultimately rests on a substantive conception of the good that cannot be readily reconciled with the aims of non‐liberal feminist movements, Deveaux’s democracy approach struggles to define conditions for democratic participation that are substantive enough to safeguard the central goals of her feminist project and yet respect the diversity of women’s actual values and cultural attachments. These difficulties point towards the need for a more sophisticated understanding of the interaction between the capacity for agency in the wider social and personal sphere and effective citizenship in the public realm. Although a purely procedural account of democratic deliberation avoids the dangers of false universalism, it can only secure effective citizenship for women if some of the most serious structural inequalities that confront women are addressed. While such an approach falls well short of the demands associated with models such as Nussbaum’s expanded public realm, it none the less places significant limits on the scope of democratic deliberation.

Narratives of Translocation, Dislocation and Location: Armenian Youth Cultural Identities in Southern Russia

The findings presented here are based on ethnographic research and are concerned with subjective definitions of ethnic belonging of young Armenians in Krasnodar krai. It is demonstrated that Armenian ethnic identifications are not ‘fixed’ but rather entwined within a complex web of diverse cultural attachments, involving many ‘routes’ of translocation, dislocation and location. It was found that most of the research participants saw themselves as Armenian while drawing occasionally on cosmopolitanism as an identity resource. This enabled them to construct a sense of belonging both in terms of ethnicity and of multicultural location.

Home: The Importance of Place to the Dispossessed

The concept of “home” is multifaceted and complex. This is especially so for Aboriginal people who are forcibly removed from their land, retain deep spiritual and cultural attachments to their traditional homes, but have been forced to create new communities. This essay looks at the concepts of home and place from a contemporary Aboriginal perspective. It looks at the way in which Aboriginal families have navigated assimilation policies such as the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and shows the impact on and legacy of such policies on Aboriginal people today. It includes personal reflections and analysis of some of the future implications for government policy relating to Aboriginal people in Australia.

The Priority of Democracy: A Pragmatist Approach to Political-Economic Institutions and the Burden of Justification

Politics reflects a seemingly incontrovertible condition—any imaginable human population is diverse across multiple, overlapping dimensions including material interests, moral and ethical commitments, and cultural attachments. Such diversity means, in turn, that disagreement and conflict are unavoidable. Under these circumstances politics largely consists in contests over the contours of shared institutional arrangements. Given that there almost always are a number of ways to institutionalize social interaction, any population occupying the circumstances of politics must determine which institutional form or arrangement to rely on in any particular domain. The “priority” of democracy, on our account, derives from its usefulness in approaching this crucial task. This priority derives from features that are, in our view, unique to democracy, namely a level of reflexivity that distinguishes it from other ways of coordinating ongoing social interaction. As we demonstrate, much of the literature on social institutions tacitly and improperly privileges a quite different component of our institutional arrangements, namely markets. We show that once one clarifies the premises and argumentative strategies common to this literature, it simply is not possible to sustain the privilege it accords to markets. In fact, we argue that the analytical models and explanatory strategies that institutionalists deploy actually sustain our case for the priority of democracy.

Encouraging Communities in Taiwan to Define Historic Preservation

In Taiwan, particularly in rural settlements, the temple serves as the religious and social centre. In the past 30 years, as Taiwan experienced rapid economic growth, modernizing temple architecture was something worshipers viewed as the newest and best offering. Many old temples were demolished entirely or in parts to build larger temples using modern materials and construction methods. In the early 1990s, finding the old temple too small to fulfil the large number of worshipers from outside the community, the Chen-An Temple Association proposed to raise funds for a new temple. It commissioned a Japanese architecture firm, well known for several public projects in I-Lan, to design the new temple. The design partially preserved the old temple building, integrating it into the landscape design of the new temple. At the time, the central government cultural bureau was promoting the preservation of community historic spaces, and at first had agreed to give funding. However, after reviewing, funding was refused because the jurors had failed to see community involvement in the design. It was under these circumstances that the Er-Jie community invited our organization to work with them, in hope that by bringing in a new perspective, the original scheme could be altered to satisfy government funding. Through a nine month participation process, the community realized that what meant the most to them about the old temple was the public square defined by the temple building, the large canopy of the Banyan trees, and the social activities that took place there. After much deliberation and numerous design workshops with the architects of the new temple, the resulting design preserved the entire old temple building by moving it to an unused space across from its current location; and to recreate the character of the temple square through attention to design elements. Our work in Er-Jie demonstrated that although language is a vital part of preservation efforts, most community members do not have a grasp of the planning and design language, including words, drawings, body language, and actions. Not having adequate language ability leads to misunderstanding, prevents one’s voice from being heard, and creates obstacles in dialogue. In retrospect, the lack of a common language was the cause of many of the difficulties and issues we confronted during the project. There were five key players in the project -the government, the Chen-An Temple Association, the community, the architects, and us. The participation process was about encouraging a common language. Through the process, we observed a rise in the community’s confidence, as they were increasingly able to share their thoughts with and define their values to the others involved. Accordingly, we were able to draw from the community that the temple square was what they valued most. The end product of the preservation effort is more than a conserved temple building. The revitalization effort also preserved the meaning the public square holds for the community. For the community, temple preservation is about public space because of the cultural and historical attachments the local residents have to that space. Revitalization is about providing the opportunity for the community to redefine the role of the building given the community’s current needs. The success of the conservation effort can be measured by the effect the process has on the community. Following the preservation of the Chen-An Temple, the community led the restoration of a waterway that runs through their community. As the community became more comfortable with the language of participation, preservation, space, and design, there emerges a preservation and environmental design consciousness in the community.

Reading the production of suburbia in post-war Australia

Suburbia is one of the dominant descriptive motifs in Australian cultural analysis. The cultural attachments of suburbia have occupied an important place in Australian cultural studies throughout the 20th century and continue to be the subject of enthusiastic parody and reappropriation within popular culture.

Conservation through Conversation: Collaborative Planning for Reuse of a Former Military Property in Sauk County, Wisconsin, USA

This article is concerned with collaborative planning processes for the future use and management of a former military property in Wisconsin, USA. The article locates this story within both an historical account of conservation in the US and the theoretical and operational literature on collaborative planning. It argues that the effectiveness of the planning processes described is a direct result of its collaborative nature; that is, its focus on integrating conservation with community in a process of civic engagement. In particular, the article argues that three factors are crucial in explaining the effectiveness of the process. First, the inclusion of other types of knowledge, including local cultural attachments and stories as part of the information base; second, a focus on understanding the different values of all those who have something at stake in the issue rather than a steadfast focus on competing interests and the political calculus among them; and third, the commitment to a broadly democratic and deliberative process.

The Regionalization of Chinese Business Networks: A Study of Singaporean Firms in Hainan, China

This paper examines the central role of social and political institutions behind motivations and strategies of ethnic Chinese Singaporean investment in Hainan, China. Drawing upon 22 case studies of Singaporean firms in Hainan, we show that Singaporean investment in Hainan is embedded in Chinese business networks and their associated institutions. At the personal level, direct investments are largely motivated by the cultural attachments of Singaporean Hainanese to Hainan. Their small- and medium-sized joint ventures largely reflect the characteristics of ethnically-based Chinese business networks that stress connections, or guanxi. Similarly, the influence of social organizations (e.g., clan associations) and government institutions (e.g., public and quasi-public agencies) on Singaporean investment strategies in Hainan reveals the significance of ongoing social relations institutionalized at the broader societal level.

The Regionalization of Chinese Business Networks: A Study of Singaporean Firms in Hainan, China

This paper examines the central role of social and political institutions behind motivations and strategies of ethnic Chinese Singaporean investment in Hainan, China. Drawing upon 22 case studies of Singaporean firms in Hainan, we show that Singaporean investment in Hainan is embedded in Chinese business networks and their associated institutions. At the personal level, direct investments are largely motivated by the cultural attachments of Singaporean Hainanese to Hainan. Their small- and medium-sized joint ventures largely reflect the characteristics of ethnically-based Chinese business networks that stress connections, or guanxi. Similarly, the influence of social organizations (e.g., clan associations) and government institutions (e.g., public and quasi-public agencies) on Singaporean investment strategies in Hainan reveals the significance of ongoing social relations institutionalized at the broader societal level.

Ethnic Inventions: Constructing and Deconstructing Miami's Culture Clash

Captured within the political, geographical, and metaphorical space of metropolitan Miami are many of the paradoxes that characterize the postmodern world. While politicians and foreign dignitaries met to discuss the future of the Americas at Miami's 1994 summit, Haitian immigrants engaged in the ritual sacrifice of chickens or goats outside the Dade County Courthouse in hopes of swaying key immigration cases. While some Cuban Americans have so completely assimilated to their adopted homeland as to be indistinguishable from native-born citizens, others remain focused intently on Cuba, holding mock elections to replace Fidel Castro, preparing militarily for his defeat, speaking only Spanish, and living in what one Cuban American described as the Cuba de ayer.1 And while metropolitan Miami works hard to fine tune its image as a world-class city, racial tensions and periodic episodes of civil unrest in its ghettos remind the world that not all is well in the Magic City. Perhaps as well as any city in the world, Miami illustrates the simultaneity of two seemingly contradictory trends in the contemporary world system: global integration and innovation that contrast with the persistence of seemingly primordial cultural attachments and animosities that frequently translate into civic fragmentation or disintegration. Increasingly recognized

Problems in Coping with the Holocaust: Experiences with Students in a Multinational Program

Ever since the end of the Holocaust we have been forced to confront the penetrating question, Does peda gogy have a special and unique task in the education of man in the world after Auschwitz? The program "Teaching the Holocaust as Education Toward Values" has been developed over the past three years in various educational settings in three different countries: the United States, Germany, and Israel. In order to overcome the problems in coping with this unique theme in the classroom, we have used as a guiding principle the placing of adolescents at the focal point of the educational process. Beyond the differences in the cultural backgrounds and emotional attachments, students in all three countries underwent a similar process: giving up precon ceived judgments and stereotypes and replacing them with an effort toward critical thinking. As one of the students ex pressed : "Auschwitz is the furthest end of a human con tinuum. I am obliged to do everything I can to prevent the human degeneration toward it."