Cultural Brokers Research Articles

Addressing Conflicts and Role Responsibilities in the Special Education Service Delivery Process: Adult Sibling Involvement and Facilitation as Cultural and Linguistic Brokers

This case study explores the role of adult siblings in bridging and brokering cultural and linguistic gaps in special education on behalf of their sibling with a disability. Focusing on the Le family, the study explores how Eunice Le, an adult sibling, is navigating communication between their Vietnamese-speaking family and the school, and advocating for their brother Kai, a culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) student with autism. The case is premised on two key provisions within the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that center on the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team configuration and parent participation. This case reveals the difficulties that arise when schools and families have divergent approaches to supporting students with disabilities and their extended families from racialized and minoritized communities.

Story Circles of Black Doulas, Cultural Brokers for Birthing People in Healthcare.

Doula care services (in-person, hybrid, and virtual) during the COVID-19 pandemic may vary. The purpose of this study was to explore doulas' experiences as birthing professionals and epistemological resources assisting Black birthing families during the pandemic. Virtual qualitative story circles were conducted with 11 Black doulas who attended births as doulas from January 2020 to December 2021. Participants were recruited in California. The story circles were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analyzed using content analysis, with attention to the influence of epistemic injustice (types of injustices inflicted on marginalized groups) on service provision. Additionally, we employed Patricia Hill Collins' Black Feminist Theory which describes "Black women's ways of knowing" that disrupts and challenges existing epistemologies. Narrative data revealed (1) doulas are positioned as possessors of epistemic influence in birthing spaces with intersecting social identities, (2) a pervasive oppression of doulas' knowledge, (3) epistemological resilience and disruption, and (4) a commitment to Black indigenous practices. Despite these epistemic unfair structures, systems, and experiences, Black doulas reimagine and establish pathways for birthing families to navigate the healthcare system during intrapartum care.

Blue Sunglasses and New Habits: Female Correspondence Networks and the Irish Religious Diaspora

Abstract During the nineteenth century female Irish religious orders established missions across the Irish diaspora which were designed with flexibility and adaptation in mind. The Sisters of Mercy's personal letter networks allowed these women, who were often very young, to continue their religious and technical “apprenticeship” while abroad. These letters enabled women in the diaspora to maintain a sense of consistency and belonging across the oceans: with their sisters in Ireland and elsewhere in the world on an ethnic and institutional level. Engaging with these letters as both intimate conversations and professional reflections presents opportunities for investigating how long-distance institutional memory was developed and a continuing connection to Ireland and Irishness maintained. This article moves the focus of ethnic culture brokers from the priest and bishop to the formal and informal networks of women religious who worked within a system designed for men. In doing so, it demonstrates that these letters provided an important extra layer to public global Irish networks, a layer which acted as both a whisper network and an opportunity for reflection on efficient methods for varied work in large, fluctuating, and cross-class ethnic communities.

Global influencers’ content creation strategies: Negotiating with platform affordances to practice vernacular creativity

We examine how globally oriented-influencers from India utilize specific strategies of content creation to negotiate with the dominant logic of platform affordances to engage with global audiences. It involves individual negotiations by the influencers with the platform affordances in creating content that foregrounds their cultural realities and aspirations while remaining relevant to global audiences. We do so by deploying the critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) framework to understand influencers’ strategic choices and discursive practices as they interact and negotiate with the platform affordances. Our analysis shows two processes that help the influencers communicate their content to the global audience and sustain their local connections and followership: (1) Templatization: a process through which influencers from the global South attune themselves to the technological possibilities of the platform and utilize its features to produce content with a set of replicable patterns, formats, and practices; and (2) Cultural brokering: a negotiation strategy which allows the influencers to foreground and express their quotidian lived realities and cultural experiences in an increasingly globalized digital environment.

Equity in practice: Integrating cross cultural health brokers for culturally safe primary care for immigrants and refugees in British Columbia.

Umbrella Multicultural Health Co-op is a community health centre serving cultural communities of immigrants/refugees in British Columbia. It uses Cross Cultural Health Brokers (CCHBs), multicultural workers bridging patients and the healthcare system, to better meet the primary care needs of immigrant/refugee populations. Through the Team Primary Care initiative, Umbrella Co-op: (1) added new CCHBs alongside allied health practitioners; and (2) implemented team workshops and evaluation for quality improvement. The learning health system framework guided project activities. Comprehensive, culturally responsive primary care for immigrants and refugees benefits from a team-based approach that includes the integration of CCHBs. Team development activities improved team function. Co-developing evaluation with the interprofessional team enabled meaningful participation. Health system design for equity-oriented team-based primary care for immigrants and refugees should include resources for CCHBs and team development infrastructure.

Leveraging community-based mental health services to reduce inequities for children and families living in United States who have experienced migration-related trauma.

Trauma systems therapy for refugees (TST-R) is a trauma-focused, culturally responsive mental health prevention and intervention model designed to meet the needs of children and families who are fleeing their home countries and seeking humanitarian refuge. TST-R provides trauma-focused mental health treatment and addresses problems in part exacerbated by harsh U.S. immigration policies (e.g., poor mental health, stigma, fear) that have implications for the psychosocial well-being of immigrant children and families, especially those who have experienced migration-related trauma. Informed by a community-based participatory research approach, TST-R was developed as an adaptation of trauma systems therapy to address common barriers to care experienced by those of refugee and immigrant backgrounds, including mental health stigma, distrust of service systems, and cultural and linguistic barriers. TST-R is a multitiered and phase-based intervention that strategically addresses stressors and needs across levels of the social ecology. Most TST-R services are delivered in easily accessible, nonstigmatizing settings (e.g., school) by a cultural broker and a clinician who work in partnership. TST-R has been disseminated and implemented with multiple cultural groups (e.g., Somali, Bhutanese) across the United States and Canada. Given the unique stressors, strengths, and needs of immigrant children and their families, mental health services must be equitable, community based, and sustainable. TST-R demonstrates promise as a prevention and intervention model especially for those experiencing immigration policy-related stressors and may serve as a guide for developing child mental health policies and immigration policies that promote mental well-being for immigrant families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

More than just non-professional translators: The public perception of Chinese fansubbers in an English as a Lingua Franca world

This study explores the public perception of Chinese fansubbers in an English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) world. The analysis draws from a survey gathering both quantitative and qualitative data from 327 respondents. In an ELF world, Chinese audiences have demonstrated increasing linguistic competence in their appreciation of fansubbing, which has in turn enhanced their language acquisition. While fansubbers are often seen as amateur translators when compared with their professional counterparts, this study suggests that this distinction, already somewhat blurred within academic discourse, is of little concern to the public. In addition to their role as translators, fansubbers are perceived as cultural brokers and language educators who not only teach but also inspire a new generation of viewers to engage with foreign languages, cultures and translation. The public perception of Chinese fansubbers extends beyond translation quality to include broader and more positive attributes. The findings lead to a new understanding of the social impact of fansubbers.

Religion and Politics in Indonesia: The Role of Kyai in the 2024 Election, Case Study on Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB)

This qualitative case study investigates the impact of religious leaders' authority on Indonesian society. In this case, religious leaders possess exceptional and reliable religious expertise and a significant impact on society. The Indonesian populace formerly referred to them as Kyai. This study primarily examines the impact of the Kyai on the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) party following the Ijtima' Ulama Nusantara gathering. This gathering serves as a strategic maneuver by PKB to secure victory in the upcoming 2024 general election. This study examines the impact of the religious leaders' authority within the PKB party leading up to the 2024 general election. The author contends that religious leaders in Indonesia wield authority that extends beyond religious matters and encompasses all aspects of Indonesian culture, including politics. The author also aims to assert that the party utilizes the influence of the kyai to enhance its electability and garner support from the community. It has been demonstrated, among other ways, through the Ijtima 'Ulama Nusantara event hosted by the PKB party to secure victory in the 2024 general election. This study utilized a descriptive-analytic methodology. This study gathered written data from multiple literary works and crucial information or news from the media. This study employed Clifford Geertz's theory on religious experts as cultural brokers.

“Transience, Disruption, and Unfamiliarity in Refugee Journeys”: How Are Newly Arrived Refugee Families Supported in Their Children’s Transition to School in a Host Country?

ABSTRACT Newly arrived refugee families face cultural and linguistic difficulties when navigating their children’s transition to school in a host country. However, little is known about how families are supported in their child’s transition to school. Therefore, this article aimed to investigate how leaders and facilitators in community hubs and centers support refugee families in their child’s transition to school in Australia. Data gathered from interviews with 32 community hub leaders and center facilitators from three Australian states were analyzed thematically. The support provided to families fell into six themes: promoting children’s early learning; building families’ or mothers’ capital about starting school; promoting connections between school, families, and children; offering cultural and linguistic brokerage; providing soft entry support; and easing children’s and families’ transition to school via school-based transition activities and programs. The implications of this holistic model of support for educators that is built on place and strength-based approaches in facilitating newly arrived refugee children’s and families’ smooth start to school in their new communities are outlined.

Situating the English-Foreign-Language Press

The introduction to this special issue on “the English-language press abroad” builds on the different case studies to theoretically reflect on this rather neglected press category. The label applies to titles published in English in a country that did/does not have English as (one of) its de jure or de facto language(s) and that was not part of the British (formal) Empire. By situating those titles in a broader historical canvas that stretches back to the first-ever English-language serial abroad (1620, in the Netherlands), the introduction proposes three categories of (potentially overlapping) functions: titles that act as cultural brokers (including for an expat community), titles that act as agents of cultural diplomacy and/or informal imperialism and titles that use English as a lingua franca to conjure up cosmopolitan and supranational realities. The introduction argues that any discussion of such titles needs to connect scales, but can barely do away with the national. This also applies to issues of heritage and preservation, while the digital age creates manifold possibilities for rediscovering these titles in a critical manner.

Local Journalists as Brokers: Conceptualizing Information Relationships in Rural Communities

ABSTRACT This paper introduces the concept of brokerage to the scholarship of local news. Drawing on anthropological conceptions of actors that bridge gaps in social structure and help information flow across such gaps, we propose that local journalists act as cultural brokers in rural towns. Building upon Gould and Fernandez (1989, “Structures of Mediation: A Formal Approach to Brokerage in Transaction Networks.” Sociological Methodology 19:89. https://doi.org/10.2307/270949), we employ a typology of five brokerage functions to classify relationships between local journalists, their sources, and their audiences. In addition to coordinating, itinerant, representative, liaison, and gatekeeping brokerage, our analysis reveals a novel type of brokerage: relay brokerage. We argue that this typology is useful to conceptualize information relationships in rural communities and to understand how information flows change when local journalism ebbs. Empirically, the paper presents a comprehensive study of staffing at rural newspapers in Alberta, Canada, revealing that local media are stretched so thin in many geographic areas, there is little left to cut. For scholars, this simplified media ecosystem is an environment where relationships between reporters, sources, and audiences may be more easily analyzed.

Building cross-sector recovery collaborations after Australian bushfires: the importance of embracing and linking diverse capitals and capacities

ABSTRACT The literature on disaster management highlights that communities that mobilise and integrate a range of local capacities, resources and knowledges tend to fare best. This demonstrates the critical, yet underappreciated, role these attributes play in disaster management. This paper contributes to scholarship by examining the conditions, values and practices for building effective cross-sector ties. Importantly, it highlights the need for decentralised, cross-sector supports for building community recovery (increasingly known as ‘polycentric’ disaster governance). It reports on the results of a local community engagement program after country-wide bushfires in Australia (2019–20). Participatory action planning is used in two regional communities and ethnographic methods are employed to glean the experience and learnings from local recovery workers (n = 5). Findings support calls for embracing and linking diverse capacities post-disaster to boost social capital and invest in local knowledges. Focus is given to bonding, bridging and linking capital, the importance of capacity ‘redundancy’, and the role of trust, serendipity, and ‘culture brokers’ in identifying, mobilising and integrating diverse capacities and resources to support community-centered disaster recovery. Findings are used to fine-tune understandings of cross-sector ties that enable communities to move beyond a passive stance.

Healthcare social network research and the ECHO model™: Exploring a community of practice to support cultural brokers and transfer cultural knowledge

BackgroundProject ECHO® networks at Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service (CHQHHS) are communities of practice designed to mitigate services and systems fragmentation by building collaborative partnerships addressing priority child and youth health needs. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience the negative impacts of fragmentation in addition to historical challenges of absent or culturally inappropriate health services. Access to culturally safe and responsive services can be improved by engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and similar roles in an online community of practice, supporting the integration of cultural and clinical knowledge and self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers in decisions affecting their health.Analysing professional support networks and knowledge sharing patterns helps identify enablers and barriers to partnerships. Using social network research, the multilevel network inclusive of ECHO network members and their colleagues was studied to identify interdisciplinary and cross-sector advice exchange patterns, explore the position of cultural brokers and identify common relational tendencies.MethodsSocial network theories and methods informed the collection of network data and analysis of advice-seeking relationships among ECHO network members and their nominees. Registered members from two ECHO networks were invited to complete the Qualtrics survey. Networks analysed comprised 398 professionals from mainstream health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Organisation, education, disability and child safety service settings.ResultsBrokers were well represented, both those who hold knowledge brokerage positions as well as cultural brokers who incorporate clinical and cultural knowledge enabling holistic care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients (38 individuals, 17% of network). Professionals who occupy brokerage positions outside the ECHO network tend to be more connected with co-members within the network.ConclusionsThis study is the first application of contemporary social network theories and methods to investigate an ECHO network. The findings highlight the connectivity afforded by brokers, enabling the coordination and collaboration necessary for effective care integration. Inclusion of cultural brokers in an ECHO network provides sustained peer group support while also cultivating relationships that facilitate the integration of cultural and clinical knowledge.

WALISONGO DAN VOICE OF BACEPROT: SYIAR ISLAM INKULTURATIF DI INDONESIA

Voice of Baceprot (VoB) is a heavy metal band consisting of three young Muslim sisters from Garut, Indonesia. The emergence of VoB is a catalyst in the Islamic world. In the context of the propagation of Islamic values, the presence of VoB with its heavy metal music can be compared to the propagation method applied by the Wali Songo to the Javanese community. Clifford Geertz gave the title to the Wali Songo as cultural brokers because of their role in synthesizing Javanese traditions with Islamic teachings. If Wali Songo used the macapat & gamelan art traditions to spread Islam to the Javanese people, VoB chose the heavy metal music genre to spread Islamic values to the world today. VoB's choice of music with the heavy metal genre itself has certainly raised many questions, how Islam views music, especially heavy metal. The composition of VoB band personnel consisting of 3 young women with complete hijab clothing and singing heavy metal music as their stage identity not only makes VoB a cultural broker but also a political actor for Islamic women in the world arena. When analyzed with the framework of Christian theological reflection from theologian Kosuke Koyama, what VoB has done is part of the concept of contextual participatory theology. Koyama expresses the importance of respecting local culture and context in the appreciation and meaning of faith. Thus, VoB emerges as a unique and innovative representation in preaching, providing a new understanding of the role of women, and heavy metal music in today's Islamic world.

Naskh (“Abrogation”) in Muslim Anti-Jewish Polemic: The Treatise of Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī (1247–1318)

A strong case can be made that the concept of naskh, “abrogation” or “annulment”, was the most potent weapon in the arsenal of Muslim polemicists seeking to convert Jews (Burton‘s Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān is highly informative but deals almost exclusively with naskh in its internal Islamic contexts, e.g., hermeneutics and legal theory). Naskh did not necessarily involve any rejection of Jewish scripture or tradition as fraudulent or corrupt. It rested on the simple premise, explicitly confirmed by the Qur’an, that the deity may alter or replace His legislation over the course of time. In the first part of this paper, I will briefly review the topic, adding some texts and observations that, to the best of my knowledge, have not appeared in the academic literature (comprehensively surveyed in Adang’s Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible: From Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm, 1996; also in Adang and Schmidtke’s Polemics (Muslim-Jewish) in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, 2010). The bulk of this paper will consist of a fairly detailed summary of an unpublished tract on naskh written by Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī (RD) (1247–1318), himself a Jewish convert to Islam and a monumental politician, cultural broker, historian, and author.

Educators’ perspectives on parental belonging in preschool communities

ABSTRACT While academic interest in belonging in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings has increased in recent years, the interplay between parental and educators’ notions of belonging is under-researched. This article explores preschool educators’ experiences of working with families of young children and their perspectives of parental belonging in the preschool community. Nineteen educators from five preschools in different neighborhoods in Reykjavík, Iceland, participated in focus group interviews in the spring of 2023. The findings suggest that preschool educators frame parental belonging in performative terms and base it on communication and interaction in the preschool community. A lack of parental interaction and ‘disinterest’ was identified as the main challenge with indications of it having negative effects on the educators’ own performativity of belonging. However, the educators reported reaching far beyond their job descriptions to provide cultural brokerage to parents of foreign backgrounds, to assist them in navigating the welfare system, and to facilitate wider social engagement. The findings have implications for preschool educators’ expectations towards their engagement with parents of young children.

Effects of acculturation stress and identity gaps on Mexican-heritage adolescent depressive symptoms and substance use behavior

ABSTRACT Children of immigrant families are placed at high risk of acculturation stress due to their role serving as a cultural broker for their family members. Communication theory of identity (CTI) explains that the discrepancies between one’s personal, enacted, relational, and communal layers of identity lead to negative health outcomes. Guided by CTI, the present study investigated indirect effects of acculturation stress on Mexican-heritage adolescents’ depressive symptoms and substance use behaviors via identity gaps. Using the cross-sectional survey data (N = 210), path analysis revealed direct effects of acculturation stress on the personal-enacted identity gap and on the personal-relational identity gap. Indirect effects of acculturation stress on depressive symptoms via the personal-relational identity gap were also detected.

Social Neuroscience Approach of Persuasion in Visual Communication(s): A Qualitative Content Analysis of Female Representations in Pakistani Advertisements

The present study discusses the social persuasion advertisers use to implicitly communicate society’s sociocultural norms through visual communication in advertisements, specifically in Pakistan. For instance, the research explores how advertisers, as cultural brokers, represent women by challenging established sociocultural norms by utilising persuasive strategies through visual communication in Pakistani ads. The research comes under the qualitative content analysis paradigm; the data were collected, identified, interpreted, and analysed, focusing on the cultural values/norms represented through women’s dressing and sexually devised postures in Pakistani society. Moreover, the research employed the constant comparison method for the data analysis. Findings indicate that Pakistani advertisers represent women mainly in a stereotypical manner. However, when they deviate from representing her in a non-stereotypical way, they go far beyond the set norms to persuade them quickly. For instance, they found representing women as a posture of sexual appeal to persuade ordinary people’s minds by employing social neuro-persuasion challenging the Pakistani established sociocultural beliefs, norms, or values. These advertisers seem to deviate from traditional ideologies because they minutely know the sensual, desirous nature of most Pakistani men. Henceforth, they represent women as an alluring tool of persuasion.

Cultural Brokerage: Japan as an Intermediary in the Journey of Russian Literature to China

AbstractThis article analyzes how Chinese writers in the early twentieth century translated and appropriated Russian literature through the intermediary of Japanese scholarly and creative writing. It traces how Japan began as the primary—and in some cases only—cultural broker in the Chinese reception of Russian literature during the late Qing dynasty and how its impact diminished as Western European sources became viable competitors. To illuminate Japan's unique mediating role in shaping Chinese understanding of both Russian literature and China's own literary and linguistic legacy, this article examines Wu Tao's 1907 relay translation of Chekhov's “The Black Monk” from Japanese. By probing the Sino-Japanese cultural connections that gave birth to this translation and comparing it with two later Chinese renderings from English and Russian versions, this article reflects on the factors that determine how intermediaries function in transcultural negotiations.

Emic and etic perspectives in transnational migration research: methodological reflections of a cross-national research team

PurposeThis article presents fieldwork perspectives and research reflexivity gained from the cross-national research team, with the aim of promoting better qualitative research practices in transnational research. It focuses on how the team incorporates diverse cultural perspectives and insider and outsider roles to enhance the research in the data collection process.Design/methodology/approachThis article is drawn from the authors' qualitative research with 25 Japanese retirees in Thailand, addressing cultural challenges encountered by researchers in the cross-national team when conducting field research.FindingsOur findings indicate that researchers with an emic view in the cross-national team who shared nationality and cultural background as the participants facilitated an effective recruitment process and productive collaboration in data gathering. They also served as cultural brokers, tailoring smooth communication during interviews on certain cultures, participant traits and sensitive issues. On the other hand, the outsiders helped the team uncover more transnational issues that the insiders had overlooked. Additionally, combining emic and etic perspectives helps to avoid ethnocentric narratives or purely etic and emic conclusions.Originality/valueThis article addresses a gap in the methodological reflections in transnational research that remains largely overlooked. Our reflection highlights the advantages of cross-national teams, which include researchers from emigration and immigration countries. Their status and roles as insiders and outsiders significantly facilitate a positive impact on the research process and increase the extent of investigating the complex cultural dynamics of transnational practices. The incorporation of emic and etic perspectives is suggested in the methodological approach for transnational migration research.