Cultural Tensions Research Articles

Tribalism and Cultural Discontent in the Middle East

The Middle East has long been characterized by political instability, violent conflicts, and cultural tensions. In recent years, the re-emergence of tribalism has further contributed to the deterioration of peace in the region. This essay investigates the influence of tribalism on cultural discontent and violence in the Middle East, arguing that it reinforces identity politics, exacerbates sectarianism, and undermines democratic values. These factors, in turn, fuel conflicts and hinder peace-building endeavors. The essay explores specific instances where tribalism has escalated violence, emphasizing the challenges of addressing its root causes. For a comprehensive understanding, there is a need to examine historical and contemporary factors that contribute to tribalism's growth and persistence. The complex interplay between tribalism and other socio-political dynamics highlights how these interactions exacerbate regional instability. The essay concludes by advocating for increased attention to cultural aspects of conflict and the necessity for more effective strategies to foster intercultural dialogue and understanding in the region.

Cultural Tensions in Feminism: Balancing Tradition and Liberation in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North

Cultural Tensions in Feminism: Balancing Tradition and Liberation in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North

The Fading of Cultural Dispositions in a Globalized Environment

The Fading of Cultural Dispositions in a Globalized Environment

The Shifting Terrains of Disability and Gender: Investigating the Delineation of Women with Disabilities in Hindi Films

The paper engages with the portrayal of women with disabilities in Hindi cinema, considering the diverse facets of representational strategies and structures of power. Addressed in the narratives as objects of derision, pity, and care, women with disabilities are drawn to the able-bodied gaze and patriarchal chauvinism. Films such as Black (2005), Barfi (2012), and Margarita with a Straw (2014) are incorporated into the study to foreground the interactions among the ableists and non-ableists orbs. Efforts are underway to reposition the counter-discourse on disability narratives in 21st-century films, addressing the misrepresentation of individuals with disabilities in the hegemonic portrayal. Manifestations of the social model of disability would culminate in exposing the cultural tensions and reductionist ableism reinforced by normativity. To address, assess, and critique disability spectrum in films, the article moves forward to the intersectionality of disability, gender, and social reality to accentuate the lived realities of women with disabilities. By building on critical disability studies along with feminist disability studies as the theoretical base, the endeavour serves to permeate the arcs of representation, identity, and cultural synergy. Hence, the article seeks to unearth the dominant ideologies of normalcy and ableism in Hindi films while quantifying the amount of discrimination, stereotypical dissimulation interpolated and thus, counting insights into actualities in filmic narratives.

Epistemic Transmission and Originality in Greek-Karamanlidika Publications Related to Makam Music in 19th-Century Istanbul

Ottoman Istanbul retained its position as the cultural center of the Greek community for centuries. During this period, Greeks interacted with multicultural societies in the city. Their musical culture and interests were also influenced by social interactions. As a result, they recorded some Ottoman musical pieces in various manuscripts from the 16th to the 20th centuries. In the 19th century Greek musicians, mainly cantors, started to publish a series of works on Ottoman repertoire and theory. First, Euterpi (1830) was published in Istanbul. Then a number of publications emerged prior to 1909, at which point O Rithmographos, the last theoretical work of the time, was published. At that time, both the reform of the Orthodox Church (1814) under the influence of modernism and the spread of the printing press facilitated the distribution of such books. In order to write makam music with an efficient technique, they drew upon some theoretical principles from European, Ottoman and church music alike. Since these theoretical adaptations were the result of both technical needs and cultural tendencies, the Greeks cultivated an epistemic originality in terms of makam theory and its history. Moreover, this was the reason that a symbiotic knowledge emerged, drawing upon the aforementioned sources. This study aims to demonstrate both the symbiosis and the originality by examining the musical knowledge embedded in Greek-Karamanlidika publications. The sources will be evaluated in terms of notation, terminology, theory (makam and usûl), repertoire and historical understanding of the makam tradition. The aim of the study is to carry out musicological research on those publications in light of the multicultural character of 19th-century Istanbul.

Determinants of Risk Tolerance of Investors in Nepal

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to determine the different factors that affect the investors risk tolerance in Nepal.
 Design/Methodology/Approach: In this study, descriptive and causal comparative research design has been used. The present study issued 100 questionnaires to the investors in the NEPSE within Kathmandu Valley, out of which 70 are usable and taken further in this study.
 Findings: The findings show that demographic factors (age, gender, education and monthly income) and cultural factors (uncertainty avoidance, power distance) are statistically significant with the investor’s risk tolerance.
 Policy Implications: Young investors are found to be more risk tolerant in this study, and with proper guidance and training to them on stock market, it helps for the stability of the stock market mechanism. Moreover, power distance and uncertainty avoidance are high in Nepal, where investors tend to be under the guidance of their seniors, and invest if they find it worthy enough for them, even if it's risky. Now, taking this as an opportunity, various relevant training sessions to investors can be done by the board itself in the aspect of ESG Investment, Valuable Investment.
 Originality/Value: This research adds value by examining factors affecting risk tolerance among Nepali investors, blending demographics and cultural influences. It suggests the potential benefits of guiding young investors and leveraging cultural tendencies toward senior guidance for market stability

Intersectional Grassroot Reception: The Use of the Bible in Discourses of Gender Equality

This article explores how religious Latvian women draw on the Bible to discuss gender equality, examining the construction of their theologically based arguments and the conceptualization of gender equality within these discussions. The study investigates factors such as age, denomination, and education level that may influence their opinions. The findings reveal a "biblical reception at the grassroots," diverging from official religious community settings. Women, despite general assumptions or stereotypes, independently navigate gender roles through both religious texts and personal interpretations. The analysis applies gender theory, intersectionality, and reception history, emphasizing the role of biblical sources in shaping gender equality discourses. In the unique Latvian context, marked by a recent reversal of women's ordination and cultural tensions with the Western world, these women's perspectives on the Bible and gender equality offer distinctive and compelling insights.

Scorsese'nin Silence Filmi Üzerinden Sessizliğe Yaklaşımlar: Batı ve Doğu Perspektifleri Arasında Bir Karşılaştırma

Silence, the film, revolves around Christian missionaries who traveled to Japan in the 17th century to propagate Christianity and explores their interactions with the local population. The film portrays silence by strongly associating it with martyrdom and alludes to the suffering of Jesus Christ. This glorification of silence reveals findings related to Western perspectives and an Orientalist attitude. These findings will be analyzed according to Orientalist theory, a theory that investigates Western culture's tendency to exoticize and dominate Eastern cultures, in order to examine how the Western missionaries in the film observed and represented Japanese culture. The analysis will employ content analysis methodology to delve into the themes, symbols, and representations in the film. Additionally, it will draw upon Edward Said's theory of Orientalism and the concept of self-Orientalism. The film identifies instances where the Western representation associates silence with martyrdom and belittles Eastern culture. Examples such as the claim that the Japanese people do not understand Christianity, the depiction of Japan as a barren land, the presentation of Japanese characters as stereotypical figures, and the relegation of Eastern spiritual traditions to a lower status all demonstrate the denigration and marginalization of Eastern culture by the Western perspective. Furthermore, the fact that the film is based on a novel written by a Japanese author necessitates an examination of self-Orientalism.

Re-reading John 3:26–27: A comparative analysis of the politics of intolerance in Zimbabwe

The Gospel of John seems to show different thematic emphases that reveal socio-historical cultural tensions and a stressed community. The tensions between Jesus, the Pharisees and Jewish authorities, John and religious authorities, and John’s and Jesus’ disciples stressed the unsettled community. A disagreement existed on the divinity, identity and legitimacy of Jesus. The tensions bore character assassinations, name calling, denigration, crucifixion and tensions among followers. John 3:26–27 is an archetype of the friction. In the same vein, the independent and post-independent Zimbabwe exhibited political tensions, hate speech, denigration and violence since 1980. The tensions eroded confidence, unity and decision-making of the electorate. The violence and human rights abuses left visible trails of suffering and humiliations. The societal and political tension triggered unbecoming behaviours causing economic and ethical meltdown. This research seeks to unravel the mindset that aggravates violence to provide a reprieve theologically. The socio-historical reading juxtaposed with comparative analysis points to averting hate speech and songs that fuelled intolerance. According to this research, parochialism originates from citizens uniting behind promised futures and peace, a product of leaders participating in promoting peace. This unity helps propel tolerance, accountability and responsibility.Contribution: The study observes that citizens rally behind the promised future where leaders and ordinary citizens exhibit tolerance, accountability and responsibility. The leaders and the ordinary citizens can participate in amplifying intolerance, hate speech or character assassination. Vice versa, they can participate in controlling tensions and fights.

Mentalizing and Binge Eating Disorder

AbstractBinge eating disorder (BED) is presumed to be the most common kind of eating disorder. However, the knowledge of BED in general society is low, and treatment options have been lacking or not been of sufficient quality. This article applies mentalizing as a theoretical framework to analyze descriptions of BED. The study suggests that descriptions of social, emotional, and cognitive characteristics of BED can be interpreted as impaired mentalizing. However, several of these impaired mentalizing traits can also be seen as a result of cultural and social tendencies, more so than a pathological component solely linked to BED. This article aims to gain deeper insights into the social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of BED. We refer to interviews with three adult females who earlier struggled with BED. Our theoretical and empirical exploration indicates that BED touches upon a wide array of areas related to mentalizing, such as inner confusion, psychological reality, and (social) self-concept.

“We’ve Forgotten Our Roots”: Bioweapons and Forms of Life inMass Effect’sSpeculative Future

AbstractMany cultural artefacts explore the relationship between populations and politics, includingMass Effect, a role-playing videogame that both critiques and affirms liberal and conservative biopolitical tendencies. Of particular interest is the biopolitical dynamics of the Krogan lifeform. Due to population difficulties deriving from both naturalistic and cultural tendencies, they were targeted by a bioweapon – the genophage. The genophage drastically transformed how they comprehend their own form of life, as the bioweapon infected the Krogan with a plague-like genetic modification targeting their reproductive organs. The player in theMass Effecttrilogy can cure the genophage or not, and reasons are provided to contextualize both options. In this article, I argue that the genophage problematic can be interpreted as a reflection on the attempt to affect a form of life from the outside. I emphasize what Tristan Garica describes as we-expansion: thatMass Effectleaves open the question of the possibility of expanding our sense of we. ButMass Effectalso leaves open the question of we-contraction, in so doing it neither offers a utopian or dystopian political vision, but an agnostic one.

“Honor” killings and customary laws: A case study of Khap Panchayats in Haryana, India

This paper examines the resilience of feudal customary councils and their links with modern local state agencies in perpetuating crimes of “honor” in the State of Haryana, India. This peculiar dynamic has been approached by tapping the experiences and direct involvement of women activists and third sector organizations. The paper asks questions that help move beyond popular polarizations constructed between the Indian State and customary caste councils by revealing their complex interface. These women’s organizations interviewed, engage in an “anthropology of state,” dissociating the state as a formal technical entity from its actual functioning. Their feminist paradigms encourage new conceptualizations of a “weak patriarchal” state. This notion draws attention to the subversion of state rules by patriarchal cultural inclinations of state agents who together join forces in complex ways with community/caste councils or Khap Panchayats in exacerbating violence against women.

PLA cultural psychology: Historical factors shaping the worldview, attitudes, and behavior of the Chinese armed forces

This article begins with a brief survey of the literature on Chinese strategic and military culture; introduces an array of historical and cultural factors that this author believes have affected the worldview and organizational practice of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in general and the Navy in particular; and examines the implications of these cultural tendencies for PLA behavior past and present.

Returnees, Institutions, and Networks

Abstract This article explores the development of Beirut's innovation ecosystem in the context of its social composition, complementing popular narratives of informal power in Lebanon. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article explores the extensions of existing institutions and practices—how universities, banks, and diaspora returnees collaboratively developed a context for venture development. By focusing on diaspora returnee expertise as a key driver for innovation ecosystem founding, the article also qualifies a key element of Lebanese economic development—the loops of emigration and return immigration of Lebanese people and the resulting economic and managerial cosmopolitanism inherent in their involvement in their country's commercial and financial settings. The emergent innovation ecosystem is a function of existing Lebanese cultural and organisational tendencies.

The influence of social class on internship participation and outcomes in higher education: the case of Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Internships have been widely recognized as an effective channel for enhancing the employability of higher education (HE) students. Accordingly, any inequality in internship opportunities may lead to inequality in students’ employability and future social positioning. Using Bourdieu’s three forms of capital, this study explores how students’ understanding and engagement in internship is affected by the differential resources available in their respective social class position and thus, the implications for the persistence of social reproduction in the future. Through in-depth interviews with eight HE students and three alumni from HE institutions in HK, we found that middle-class respondents engage in HE with cultural and social capital that motivate and facilitate their disposition and capacity to involve in internship. For working-class respondents, while a mismatched cultural disposition curtails their sense of utility, a lack of social capital limits their capacity to participate in internship. This study contributes to ongoing discussion on the relationship between social classes and education via the lens of internship involvement by providing evidence for the unequal playing field of internship for students of different social class positions.

The importance of family relationships for the health of underserved Appalachians: An application and extension of the biobehavioral family model.

Appalachia is characterized by many contextual stressors, including geographic, economic, and cultural barriers to healthcare. Guided by the biobehavioral family model (BBFM), an understanding of the influence of interpersonal relationships (i.e., marital and nonmarital relationships) on health outcomes could be critical to mitigating the region's contextual stressors. Data were collected from 2018 to 2019 among 243 participants across seven pop-up medical clinics in central and southern Appalachia 59% from rural Appalachian counties (rural Mage = 41, 66% women, 90% White; urban Mage = 36, 74% women, 82% White). A series of multivariate regression models were conducted for outcome measures (i.e., depression, pain, physical symptoms, number of conditions, and perceived health). The results suggest that family quality was significantly related to all outcome measures except for perceived health, whereas marital satisfaction was only significantly linked to physical symptoms. Rurality was not significantly associated with any outcome measures and only moderated the association between family quality and a number of conditions. These findings demonstrate the importance of nonmarital family relationships on health outcomes for people in Appalachia. Given the limited direct impact rurality in this sample, close relationships may be important for the health and well-being of all economically marginalized Appalachians regarding where they live. Given the cultural tendency for Appalachians to rely on family and kinship networks for healthcare support and the findings in this study, medical professionals should develop innovative programs to incorporate family into healthcare visits, and disease management interventions for people living in Appalachia. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Problem piękna jako pryzmatu dobra i jego implikacje pedagogiczne

Introduction: The research issues undertaken in this article concern beauty from perspective of the role in which it becomes a prism of good. The presented theoretical analyzes of the discussed concepts and phenomena reference was made to the need to use beauty as a prism of good in education and upbringing, indicating that the fulfillment of this need is an important reponse to contemporary educational challenges. Research Aim: The aim of the undertaken analysis is to draw attention to the possibilities of using this aspect of the impact of beauty in education, wherein experiencing it becomes an experience sensitizing to good, triggering a longing for good and beauty, and inspiring to search for these values in one’s own life. Evidence-based Facts: The presented analyses, based on references to source literature, refer to the ancient interpretation of beauty as a category with ethical, spiritual and aestetic dimensions. References were made to the views in which attention is paid to contemporary cultural tendencies that are an expression of references to beauty, references far from its understanding as a value combined with good. Reference was also made to the views of these representatives of pedagogical thought who attention to the neglect of the value of beauty in modern upbringing. Summary: The presented analyzes are concluded with the conclusion that the educational dimensions of the impact of beauty as a prism of good should be associated with shaping sensitivity to beauty and awakening the need to implement this value in activities that are an expression of affirmation of the inseparable triad – truth, good and beauty.

The Kyiv “Incident”: A War of Statutes

The paper focuses on the reconstruction and analysis of the so-called Kyiv “incident” (1908) that marked a new type of conflict in the theatre life and developed a new disposition in the theatrical community. What constituted the incident was a collective refusal of the actors to proceed with the play until the theatre reporter and critic Petr Yartsev (1870–1930) would not leave the premises of the Solovtsov theatre. This “incident” roused the theatrical community, becoming the subject of intense discussions in the All-Russia press during the 1908–1910. It was covered in dozens of short notices and disputes; however, it was never analyzed from the standpoint of the change in statuses and dispositions: the researchers mainly pointed out at the “progressive” aesthetic ideas of the Moscow critic and backward province. This, probably unintentionally, again trapped the discussion within the limitations of the “Russian world.” Sometimes, though, Petr Yartsev, the theatre journalist who provoked the conflict, was even considered conservative in his artistic taste (while, in reality, someone’s aesthetic taste is not relevant until it becomes a factor of a proven impact or a marked of a covert collision). Nevertheless, the witnesses and participants of the “incident” left enough testimonies to analyze it as a marker of new tendencies in the theatre culture, in particular, as a marker of development of new relations between theatre and theatre journalism, especially taking into account that during the period, similar incidents occurred not only in Kyiv. Hence, this phenomenon became widespread and revealed the new type of conflict. A. Kugel, an editor of the Saint Petersburg journal Theatre and Art (Teatr i iskusstvo), played a significant role in development of this new disposition. Having turned from the local event into the All-Russia war of statuses, the Kyiv “incident” announced the era of the new type of conflicts (metropolis vs province, art vs the press). The court judgement in favor of the press became a precedent that defined the new rules and boundaries in the relations between theatre and the press.

Beyond the linear standard: What circular models can teach us about teachers’ continuing professional learning needs in Australia, England, Japan and The Netherlands

Accurate identification of teachers' continuing professional learning (CPL) needs is paramount to create relevant professional development opportunities. How teachers' CPL needs can best be identified is, however, a question often unaddressed. This study introduces different classes of identification methods: linear-dominance, linear-unfolding, and circular-unfolding. The TALIS 2018 data collected from primary education teachers in Australia, England, Japan, and the Netherlands were used to assess exemplar psychometric models for each methodological class. The circular-unfolding method was found to identify teachers’ CPL needs best. Outcomes are related to prior research and linked to cultural dispositions and educational policy contexts of the studied countries.

Reputation or court: Individualism, collectivism, and the choice of enforcement mechanism in exchange

Courts and reputation-based enforcement mechanisms are often employed to mitigate the problem of cheating in trade relationships. The choice between these two enforcement mechanisms is closely associated with individualistic/collectivistic cultural dispositions. Nevertheless, the selection of enforcement mechanism and how it relates to the reliability of third-party enforcement remains understudied. I designed a laboratory experiment in which the options for a safe local trade and a risky yet more profitable long-distance trade are available. When conducting Long-distance trade, subjects could employ a formal or an informal enforcement mechanism to oversee the trade relationships. I examined the subjects' choice of enforcement mechanism while controlling for their cultural disposition. Results suggest that those subjects with an individualistic disposition employ the court system (i.e., formal enforcement) more often than their collectivist counterparts when the court system is reliable. A belief elicitation task revealed that those with individualistic cultural orientation perceive new trade partners as more cooperative than their collectivist counterparts when trades are registered in a strong court.