Cultural Tensions Research Articles

The complexity of religious land use: Mosques, titling and informality in China (1949–2023)

In considering complex human-land systems, the land use and planning for places of worship is perhaps not an issue that may first come to mind. Simultaneously, however, it has become an increasingly critical and researched topic due to rising ethnic and cultural tensions in the West. Contrarily, the topic is virtually terra incognita for the Chinese context. This article aims to make up for that shortfall, and examines the way how the space for religious sites in China is acquired, planned and governed. It focuses on one of the more prominent places of worships often contested in the West: the mosque, and particularly those belonging to the Hui minority. The study relies on surveys, in-depth interviews, participant observation and rare documents hitherto unavailable in English, such as (informal) contracts, ownership titles, and historical court rulings. A dual finding is reported: 1) over time, the Chinese state’s envisioned ownership for religious property in general, and Islamic property in particular, has evolved into common property slightly comparable to condominium; 2) despite stated intentions to formalize religious planning, mosques’ land use has remained largely informal. Markedly, local planning authorities continue upholding a grey zone in which Hui Muslim sites of worship are tacitly condoned. Although there are caveats, this “tolerance of informality” offers leeway for religious praxis while providing space to a revolutionary past of complex, contested and convoluted property rights.

Controlling Pericellular Oxygen Tension in Cell Culture Reveals Distinct Breast Cancer Responses to Low Oxygen Tensions.

In oxygen (O2)-controlled cell culture, an indispensable tool in biological research, it is presumed that the incubator setpoint equals the O2 tension experienced by cells (i.e., pericellular O2). However, it is discovered that physioxic (5% O2) and hypoxic (1% O2) setpoints regularly induce anoxic (0% O2) pericellular tensions in both adherent and suspension cell cultures. Electron transport chain inhibition ablates this effect, indicating that cellular O2 consumption is the driving factor. RNA-seq analysis revealed that primary human hepatocytes cultured in physioxia experience ischemia-reperfusion injury due to cellular O2 consumption. A reaction-diffusion model is developed to predict pericellular O2 tension a priori, demonstrating that the effect of cellular O2 consumption has the greatest impact in smaller volume culture vessels. By controlling pericellular O2 tension in cell culture, it is found that hypoxia vs. anoxia induce distinct breast cancer transcriptomic and translational responses, including modulation of the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) pathway and metabolic reprogramming. Collectively, these findings indicate that breast cancer cells respond non-monotonically to low O2, suggesting that anoxic cell culture is not suitable for modeling hypoxia. Furthermore, it is shown that controlling atmospheric O2 tension in cell culture incubators is insufficient to regulate O2 in cell culture, thus introducing the concept of pericellular O2-controlled cell culture.

Understanding cultural dynamics shaping clinical reasoning skills: A dialogical exploration.

Our study examined the influence of national cultural predispositions on training medical professionals and doctor-patient dynamics using a dialogical approach, guided by Hofstede's framework. This framework provided valuable insights into how cultural tendencies shape the learning and application of clinical reasoning skills in different cultural contexts. We found that dimensions such as power distance and individualism versus collectivism significantly influenced clinical reasoning, while other dimensions had more nuanced effects. Junior doctors in Southern nations, despite initially lagging behind, developed advanced clinical reasoning skills with experience, eventually matching their Northern counterparts. The study highlighted the link between cultural norms and educational practices, variations in family involvement during reasoning, adherence to clinical guidelines and doctors' emotional engagement in clinical care between Southern and Northern contexts. Additionally, we recognised that effective clinical reasoning extends beyond technical knowledge, involving an understanding and integration of cultural dynamics into patient care. This highlights the pressing need to prioritise this topic.

Etyczny behawioryzm i zwrot relacyjny jako dwa przejawy antyantropocentryzmu

This text discusses three positions within the debate on the moral status of robots. The first, referred to as the “orthodox” position, expresses the still-dominant anthropocentric view in contemporary Western culture, which assigns humans a privileged, central status due to their unique qualities such as consciousness, emotions, free will, etc. The two alternative positions to the orthodox view, ethical behaviorism and relational turn, propose different criteria for attributing moral status than the aforementioned qualities and are interpreted as manifestations of a tendency to deny the unique ontological and axiological status of humans. In the case of ethical behaviorism, humans are “trivialized” to the level of other entities in a reductionist-naturalistic manner, whereas the relational turn involves “extraordinarizing” the non-human by re-legitimizing magical thinking in a posthumanist spirit. Thus, the article illustrates how contemporary cultural tendencies towards dual elimination of human uniqueness, based on reductionist naturalism and magical posthumanism, are revealed in the discussion on the moral status of robots.

IMPACT OF POLITICAL CULTURE ON THE POLICY-MAKING PROCESS: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND TÜRKIYE

Questioning the codes, sociological tendencies, fields of social conflict/ harmony of a country’s political culture is essential in identifying the problems of that country’s political, social, and human life. All these parameters, such as determining values, symbols, and tendencies in political culture, directly or indirectly affect the policy-making process of countries. This study focuses on the effects of political culture on policy making in the United Kingdom (UK) and Türkiye, trying to understand the differences and similarities in this area and includes extensive comparative analysis. The main problem of this research is whether phenomena can be transferred from the UK to Türkiye in terms of political culture to solve political and social issues in Türkiye. The hypothesis derived from this research question is that Türkiye’s political culture and institutions have been politicized as a historical tradition, especially in recent years. In this context, the study aims to contribute to an under-researched area of comparative political science and literature by providing insights into the political dynamics of Türkiye and the UK. The study’s methodology and explanations of the literature on political culture, integrated with analyses of selected cases, provide a framework for understanding and comparing Türkiye’s political culture with that of the UK. These efforts can be seen as an insufficient but essential step towards solving the problems of Türkiye’s political culture.

Learn bamboo from bamboo: a kinaesthetic communication approach to curating cultures, crafts, and construction for higher education

PurposeBeyond symptomatic communication barriers between designers and communities, glocal resiliency building (GRB) by intercultural groups often challenges traditional service-learning trajectories. Without ambitious performance hurdles, two higher education institutions from Australia and Thailand built rapport via their shared love for Bamboo to level hierarchies between groups: architects, both social and professional.Design/methodology/approachThe author used Basho’s “self” – object nexus, as depicted in “Learn Bamboo from Bamboo” Haiku, as a methodology to structure our observations of stakeholders (Haas, 1994). This reflective account, narrated through a tabulated account of iterative engagements among various stakeholders, narrates the metacognitive process of GRB.FindingsAmidst intercultural communication tensions that could have alienated efforts, Bamboo’s resourcefulness prompted positive stakeholder interactions. Interculturally relatable Bamboo culture could become an effective mode of communication via a synthesis of craft and construction to cultivate culturally intelligent behaviours.Research limitations/implicationsBamboo was a technology of community that overcame cultural tensions by completing an architectural product.Originality/valueDespite different languages, work ethics and uneasiness, this activism project sensitised differentiating perspectives to transform traditional knowledge hierarchies to negotiate local know-how. Hence, it highlights activism as a methodology for figuring out the unknown layered in spatial and aspatial attributes of material cultures.

An analysis on the factors of teachers' influence on the musical creativity of college students in Zhejiang University Music Association

In the wave of new educational curriculum reform, exploring how to stimulate and cultivate college students' musical creativity has become an important topic that cannot be ignored. In order to achieve this goal, we must focus on enhancing the innovative ability and consciousness of college students, which is the key to cultivate their musical creativity. This study takes the students in the music clubs of colleges and universities in Zhejiang as the object, and discusses the influencing factors of the creativity of music creation from the perspective of teachers. Through the establishment and analysis of the structural model, it is found that teachers' intelligence, personality, motivation, knowledge and skills, diversity of music preferences, social and cultural tendencies and other factors have significant effects on students' musical creativity. Among them, long-term memory and retrieval ability, openness to experience, internal motivation, diversity of music preferences and sociocultural tendency have positive effects on music creativity. Based on the research results, this paper puts forward specific educational countermeasures and suggestions, aiming to stimulate students' musical creativity comprehensively and improve the quality of music education through innovative teaching methods, changing the role of teachers, weakening the sense of competition in learning, integrating collective culture and other measures. This study not only enriches the theoretical system of musical creativity, but also points out the direction of college music community education practice, and provides valuable inspiration and practical reference

Social Participation and Loneliness in Older Adults in a Rural Australian Context: Individual and Organizational Perspectives.

A rise in aging populations globally calls attention to factors that influence the well-being and health of older adults, including social participation. In Australia, rural older adults face cultural, social, and physical challenges that place them at risk for isolation. Thus, research surrounding social participation and healthy aging is increasingly relevant, especially in rural areas. This qualitative study in a remote town in Western Australia explores barriers and facilitators to older adults' social participation. To investigate multiple perspectives, 23 adults aged 50+ and 19 organizations from a rural town were interviewed. A stakeholder reference group was engaged to refine the research design and validate the findings. Feedback from early interviews was used to refine the data collection process, thus enhancing the validity of the findings. Thematic analysis showed that health and mobility issues, inadequate infrastructure, poor sustainability, and cultural tensions commonly impacted social participation. Themes of rural town culture, cultural power dynamics, and rural stoicism were identified as cultural aspects that inhibited participation. Based on results of this study and the supporting literature, recommendations for inclusive activities include supporting community-designed programs, utilizing culturally sensitive language and personnel, expanding services using existing community resources, and diversifying older adults' roles in existing groups.

EXTENTION OF THE SEMANTIC FIELD OF MYTHONIM “ODYSSEY” IN THE ADVERTISING DISCOURSE OF ITALY 2000-2021

The object of this article is mythonyms that move into another class of proper names - pragmatonyms or verbal trademarks. The subject of the article was chosen mythonyms from the ancient Greek poem “The Odyssey” by Homer, which are widely used in modern advertising and commercial practice in Italy to name various products: furniture, interior items, clothing, jewelry, food, technical and medical equipment. The purpose of the article is to refute the generally accepted idea that the meaning of an onym (in our case, a mythonym) is impoverished during transonymization into a verbal trademark. The article identified mythonyms from the Odyssey that most often become pragmatonyms - Odysseus, Penelope, Polyphemus. As a result of their analysis, it was demonstrated that peripheral semes of meaning that are not relevant in the mythonym are actualized in the Italian advertising discourse of 2000-2021. Thus, the semantic field of the mythonym, functioning as a trade name, expands and enriches, and not vice versa. The article highlighted the following updated components of meaning: Odysseus - masculinity and freedom, Penelope - thriftiness and beauty, Polyphemus - creative force in the service of man. In the last mythonym, the core meaning of “the destructive power of the savage” completely changed the meaning to “civilizational power of creation”, and the vector of assessment changed. In this case, advertising discourse reflects the linguistic and cultural tendency that exists in Southern Italy to master and appropriate the symbolic space of Mediterranean culture not so much through the figure of Odysseus, but through the Sicilian Polyphemus. The study used a two-stage corpus analysis method: a continuous sample of product names to identify mythonyms from the Odyssey (68 product names) and a representative sample of products with the names Odysseus, Penelope, Polyphemus.

Labouring on a journey in conceptualising a needs-based induction (NBI) programme: An Autoethnographic reflections and experiences

This autoethnographic (AE) paper draws directly from a national collaborative project called the New Academics Transitioning into Higher Education Project (NATHEP), which is funded by the University Capacity Development Grant (UCDG). We adopted evocative and narrative AE methodology to confront, interrogate, and uncover our own biases, assumptions, and preconceptions of induction before NATHEP, how it is now, and how it should be understood and conducted after being part of the NATHEP project. Our AE showcases our critical and reflective thoughts on the learning acquired throughout the journey, consciously and intentionally asking ourselves whether the NATHEP journey was worth it and how it benefitted the induction programme we conceptualised and implemented. Through a combined autoethnography study design and technique, we were able to gather qualitative data from the two of us and present it as written reflective narratives. Together, we developed an open-ended questionnaire in which we asked questions that sought to elicit our experiences throughout the journey as a way of reflecting on the overall learning acquired by being part of the NATHEP project. Our responses and narratives are reflectively and thematically analysed to make sense of how we interpret our eventful NATHEP journey thus far. We conclude and submit that this paper has implications for academic development practice and academic developers who aspire to be reflective practitioners, constantly reflecting on their practices to dismantle and disrupt cultural tendencies in their quest to transform their context of work and induction practices.

Fulfillment of Women's Rights After Divorce: Dynamics and Transformation in the Legal Journey

The Supreme Court has ruled that in contested divorce cases, women are entitled to receive nafkah iddah, mut'ah, and nafkah madhiyah, provided they do not act nusyuz. However, this provision is not being effectively implemented. This study examines the fulfilment of women's rights post-contested divorce in the Malang Regency Religious Court. The goal is to identify shortcomings in implementing these regulations and propose solutions for more effective enforcement. The research employs an empirical-juridical method, using secondary data from interviews and documentation with key personnel at the Malang District Religious Court. The qualitative analysis refers to Soekanto's theory. The Findings indicate that the fulfilment of women's rights in contested divorces at the Malang Regency Religious Court is ineffective. The law is clear and understandable, and officers, judges, and staff are accountable. Furthermore, the Malang District Religious Court provides sufficient infrastructure and support. However, the unmet factors—community awareness and cultural attitudes—pose significant barriers. Low legal awareness and compliance, coupled with cultural tendencies in Malang District to avoid legal processes and seek quick resolutions, hinder effective implementation. Addressing these issues is crucial for the regulations to achieve their intended impact on women's rights post-divorce.

The Interplay of Cultural Value Dimensions and Preferred Leadership Behaviors: Intersecting Pathways in the Case of Croatia

This paper examines Croatian national culture value dimensions, employee leadership behavior preferences, and their relationships. The analysis confirms Croatia’s cultural homogeneity revealing no statistically notable cultural difference between its two main regions (Adriatic and Continental Croatia). The research highlights cultural inclination towards Individualism, indicating a value for personal autonomy, individual aspirations, and a family-centric orientation. Croatia demonstrated a weak tendency to Uncertainty Avoidance, pointing to a cultural openness towards risks, changes, and new challenges. Some significant relationships between cultural value dimensions and preferences for leadership behaviors are found. Through its significant results, this study contributes to the understanding of Croatian societal values and leadership preferences.

Protocols versus practice: unravelling clinical checking variations in community pharmacies in England—a multi-method study

BackgroundStandardisation, a widely accepted concept for risk management, entails designing and implementing task-specific operating procedures. In community pharmacies, Standardised Operating Procedures (SOPs) are a mandatory requirement and are recognised as essential for upholding safety and quality.AimThis study aimed to investigate community pharmacists’ (CPs) compliance with SOPs when checking prescriptions, and the reasons for variations between standardised protocols and practice.MethodEight sets of SOPs underwent hierarchical task analysis (HTA) to generate a normative description of clinical checking execution as per protocols. Subsequently, twelve CPs were engaged in a simulated clinical checking exercise, verbalising their thoughts while checking virtual prescriptions. Transcribed data underwent content analysis, aligned with a descriptive model to uncover engagement patterns, and disparities between SOPs and CPs’ practices. Finally, a focus group discussion took place to contextualise the observed variations.ResultsHTA aided in constructing a clinical checking model with six primary subtasks and 28 lower subtasks. CPs often omitted subtasks during checks, diverging from prescribed protocols. These deviations, observed in controlled environment, reveal an ingrained aspect within the professional culture of pharmacists, where there may be a tendency not to strictly adhere to protocols, despite variations in work conditions. Contributing factors to this culture include the exercise of professional judgment, reliance on others, and prioritisation of patient preferences.ConclusionThis study highlights ongoing deviations from SOPs during clinical prescription checks in community pharmacies, suggesting a cultural tendency. Future research should delve into risk management strategies for these deviations and address the delicate balance between flexibility and stringent compliance.

Lukman Batik: Experiencing Batik Making in Cultural Heritage Site

The research discussed Lukman Batik’s artwork, which served as a poignant reminder of the value of maintaining these traditions and ensuring that traditional techniques and patterns used in batik art were practical and could be carried on by future generations. The research aimed to conduct thorough research on Lukman Batik Yogyakarta and its significance as a cultural heritage site, to investigate the correlation between prior knowledge and cultural tendency in relation to the tourist experience of making batik at Lukman Batik Yogyakarta, to analyze the data collected and interpret the nature of the correlation between prior knowledge, cultural tendency, and tourist involvement in experiencing batik making at Lukman Batik Yogyakarta. The research was analyzed using Pearson correlation. The target audience of the survey was tourists who came to Lukman Batik, and the sample was 732 tourists aged 17-50 years old. The sample’s statistical analysis showed that the respondents’ sex ratio was generally balanced, with a majority of young and middle-aged (age 17-45 years old) tourists. The majority of participants had bachelor’s degrees or above, and the majority of respondents were professionals or employees. The research reveals that 0.949, which means that prior knowledge has a “very strong” relationship with cultural tendency and involvement. The result shows a significant positive relationship between prior knowledge and the cultural tendency of tourist involvement. Interaction with cultural attractions, such as batik making and tourist participation throughout the visit, play a major role in forming enduring memories.

”Min tröst var att författa en egen artikel om svamparna”

“My Consolation was to Write my Own Article on Fungi”: Fictional Representations of the Relationship Between Fungi and Humans This article explores fictional representations of fungi, understanding them as a materialization of theoretical ideas about the entangled relationships between humans and the more-than-human, central to humanistic and philosophical thinkers within the nonhuman turn. The point of departure is the growing interest in fungi over the last decades, scientifically and, more recently, also in arts and culture. To frame the discussion historically, concepts from ethnomycology is used as a background, describing cultural tendencies and attitudes towards fungi in terms of mycophobia and mycophilia. The American HBO-series The Last of Us (2023) is discussed as an example of the contemporary boom, using Anna Tsing’s ideas on fungi as a representation of multi-species collaboration in the era of capitalist destruction. The story raises questions about individuality, represented by the human, as opposed to the collective fungus. The main focus of the article is, however, a Swedish context and two prose narratives in which fungi play a significant role, Agneta Pleijel’s historical novel Fungi. En roman om kärleken (Fungi. A Novel on Love, 1993) and Lars Jakobson’s fantastic story “Nians nät över trapetsen” (“The Nine Net over the Trapezius”, 2004). In the postapocalyptic world of The Last of Us, the fungus is a dangerous parasite portrayed with horror and ambivalence. In Pleijel’s and Jakobsons’s stories the lives of fungi are associated with harmony, even joy. In different ways, their human characters relate to fungi with love and reverence, and strive to fully understand their nature. Nevertheless, all three stories raise questions about interspecies entanglements. The wonders and horrors of symbiosis that they portray point towards the complex condition of the anthropocene and the limits of a mechanistic worldview.

Greenberg, The Cold War, and French Existentialism

This paper investigates the development of Abstract Expressionism in 1940-1950s America, focusing on ways it has been constructed as a masculine form of expression. Emerging after the end of WW2 when the American national identity was being re-defined, the art movement became a site for the interplay of multiple socio-political and cultural tensions. The imposition of qualities traditionally associated with masculinity became a key aspect in the reception of the movement, reflecting the interests of multiple institutions. This paper deconstructs the amalgamation of factors that formed the masculine image of Abstract Expressionism. These factors range from the masculinising language of art critics such as Clement Greenberg to America’s Cold War agenda to male artists’ own internalisation of philosophical ideas that projected the movement’s masculine aura. In the last section of my investigation, I will expose the gendered imbalance within Abstract Expressionism by analysing the contrast in the occupation of space by male and female artists in period photographs.

When We Are Happy, We Are the Same—Emotions as a Boundary Condition for the Impact of Cultural Differences on Strategic Decisions

Strategic decision-making research has mainly relied on the values-based approach to culture. However, the dynamic constructivist approach to culture has shown that cultural tendencies may also be altered by contingency factors in the decision-making process itself. We theorize based on the appraisal tendency framework as well as the concept of cultural affordances that emotions, such as happiness, can alter the cultural dispositions of managers from Western and East Asian contexts. To test our hypotheses, we conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment with 187 executives from China and Germany, and measure emotions based on participants’ psychophysiological skin conductance responses. Our results show that happiness moderates and can even reverse initial cultural dispositions in executives’ strategic decision-making behavior. These findings suggest that emotions may be important contingency factors that can alter the initial cultural dispositions of decision makers in the strategy process.

Classroom Experiences of International Students in Canadian Postsecondary Education

The aim of this paper is to examine the classroom experiences of 12 international students in a Canadian postsecondary institution. The literature related to this purpose shows that many international students are challenged by the English language proficiency needed for analytical classroom discussion, and they are often confused by Westernize student-centric learning tactics such as oral presentations and open-ended assignments. Grounded within qualitative phenomenological research, our study documents the lived classroom experiences of international students and how they interpret social learning exchanges. Based on semi-structured individual interviews, the findings reflected three main themes. First, international students faced challenges with deciphering the English language of local students and teachers. Also, they struggled with the quick response time needed for classroom discussions. Second, many international students were frustrated with mandated group work. Many students felt discriminated against by their group members; other students experienced unbalanced workloads when completing collaborative assignments. Finally, students experienced a steep learning curve regarding the Westernize student-centric approach to learning. For example, many students were intimidated by creative assignments and the associated lack of direction provided by the instructor. The findings of this research are analyzed via Bandura’s social cognitive theory, which dictates that effective learning is dependent upon personal agency (one’s actions), proxy agency (the environmental resources), and collective agency (group dynamics). Currently worldwide, burgeoning numbers of international students are streaming into Western postsecondary institutions accentuating the need for this research. These institutions have an ethical and financial obligation to supply high quality education to international students. However, to provide a supportive learning environment, instructors, administrators, and educational policymakers need to be knowledgeable of the learning experiences of international students and adjust their institutional culture and pedagogical tendencies to best suit the needs of these students.

Classroom Experiences of International Students in Canadian Postsecondary Education

The aim of this paper is to examine the classroom experiences of 12 international students in a Canadian postsecondary institution. The literature related to this purpose shows that many international students are challenged by the English language proficiency needed for analytical classroom discussion, and they are often confused by Westernize student-centric learning tactics such as oral presentations and open-ended assignments. Grounded within qualitative phenomenological research, our study documents the lived classroom experiences of international students and how they interpret social learning exchanges. Based on semi-structured individual interviews, the findings reflected three main themes. First, international students faced challenges with deciphering the English language of local students and teachers. Also, they struggled with the quick response time needed for classroom discussions. Second, many international students were frustrated with mandated group work. Many students felt discriminated against by their group members; other students experienced unbalanced workloads when completing collaborative assignments. Finally, students experienced a steep learning curve regarding the Westernize student-centric approach to learning. For example, many students were intimidated by creative assignments and the associated lack of direction provided by the instructor. The findings of this research are analyzed via Bandura’s social cognitive theory, which dictates that effective learning is dependent upon personal agency (one’s actions), proxy agency (the environmental resources), and collective agency (group dynamics). Currently worldwide, burgeoning numbers of international students are streaming into Western postsecondary institutions accentuating the need for this research. These institutions have an ethical and financial obligation to supply high quality education to international students. However, to provide a supportive learning environment, instructors, administrators, and educational policymakers need to be knowledgeable of the learning experiences of international students and adjust their institutional culture and pedagogical tendencies to best suit the needs of these students.

The Differentiation of Residents’ Cultural Consumption Tendency and Consumption Recommendation System Based on Network Inference Algorithm

Abstract To address the issue of insufficient accuracy in consumer recommendation systems, a new biased network inference algorithm is proposed based on traditional network inference algorithms. This new network inference algorithm can significantly improve the resource allocation ability of the original one, thereby improving recommendation performance. Then, the performance of this algorithm is verified through comparative experiments with network-based inference algorithms, network inference algorithms with initial resource optimization, and heterogeneous network inference algorithms. The results showed that the accuracy of the new network inference algorithm was 24.5%, which was superior to traditional one. In terms of system performance testing, the recommendation hit rate of the new network inference algorithm increased by 13.97%, which was superior to the other three comparative algorithms. The experimental results indicated that a novel network inference algorithm with bias can improve the performance of consumer recommendation systems, providing new ideas for improving the performance of consumer recommendation systems.