Cultural Explanations Research Articles

When ‘struggling with English’ becomes ‘passivity’: how language asymmetries in higher education get masked as ‘cultural differences’

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the study of power imbalances in intercultural encounters by investigating the role of language differences in the construction and deconstruction of ‘cultural differences’. Adopting a Critical Discursive Psychological approach, it demonstrates how self- and other-perceived language proficiency differences can lead to the (re)production of cultural stereotypes. At the same time, evaluations of language proficiency differences might also be used to resist cultural explanations. Taking the example of international management higher education, the study shows how students with self-evaluated stronger English proficiency regularly draw on culture as explanatory factor when describing their perceptions of ‘weaker’ English speakers’ engagement in teaching and learning activities. The study, which is based on 46 student reflexivity papers, thus demonstrates that overlooking the role of language differences in intercultural encounters might lead to stereotyping processes. Language-related power asymmetries get therefore masked as ‘cultural differences’.

The Clan Imprint Within Gender Wage Gap: Evidence from China

Clan culture plays a pivotal role in shaping gender disparities in individual choices. This paper, utilizing data from Chinese General Social Survey 2013, employs genealogy density as a proxy variable for clan culture. The results suggest that clan culture significantly promotes an increase in male wage, while no significant impact on female wage, consequently widening the gender wage gap. Notably, patrilineal clan exacerbates gender differences in human capital investment, reinforces gender identity, and intensifies social trust disparities, thereby perpetuating the escalation of gender wage inequality. Conversely, the internet, serving as a primary vehicle for modern gender equality ideas, mitigates the positive effect of clan on gender wage disparity. Further investigation reveals that the positive impact of clan culture on gender wage gap diminishes with an upward shift in wage distribution and narrows with generational transitions. These findings extend the cultural explanation pathway for gender wage gap.

Gender Differences in Coolness Dynamics Among Early and Middle Adolescents

The paper investigates gender differences in coolness dynamics among early and middle adolescents in a Hungarian panel dataset, which followed students from grade 5 (age 11–12) to grade 8 (age 14–15). Drawing on Gender Prototypicality Theory, we expected significantly different gendered patterns in the association between coolness and various forms of aggression, academic performance, physical attractiveness, BMI, and two forms of risk behavior (smoking, drinking). However, our multilevel models showed that behaviors traditionally considered masculine tended to be associated with coolness for both sexes, but in particular for girls. Some traditionally masculine behaviors (such as verbal aggression, smoking, or lower GPA) tended to be more strongly or only associated with status among girls. On the other hand, while physical attractiveness was associated with status for both sexes, this association was stronger among boys. Cultural and contextual explanations, as well as policy implications, are also discussed.

The Toll of Exclusion on Immigrants’ Health across the Life Course: Research Advances and Future Directions

Health is an integral feature of immigration, providing not only insight into population health but also a critical lens into immigrant integration and the power structure in receiving countries. The goal of this article is to chart the trajectory of scholarship on immigrants’ health, focusing on the formative shift away from dominant individualistic perspectives focused on cultural and behavioral explanations toward a profoundly structural understanding of immigrants’ health. Focusing primarily on the US context, we synthesize theoretical and empirical advances in structural perspectives of immigrants’ health. We anchor these advances in the concept of exclusion, detailing how it undergirds structuralist perspectives of immigrants’ health. We review common ways in which exclusion has been measured in the empirical literature on immigrants’ health and highlight recent evidence linking exposure to exclusion to immigrants’ health outcomes across the life course. We conclude by discussing key directions and challenges for future research.

Changes in women’s labor force participation in urban China between 1990 and 2019: an age-period-cohort analysis

This article examines the trends and the factors that led to the historical transformation of women’s labor force participation (WLFP) in urban China over the past three decades between 1990 and 2019. Employing the age-period-cohort-interaction model (APC-I model), we find strong age effects, period effects, and cohort effects upon WLFP over the period under study. The age effects are largely due to life course factors such as schooling, marital status, and parenthood. The period effects may be due to market transition, changes in economic structure, and the expansion of education. As for the cohort effects, we posit a cultural explanation, suggesting that the cohort differences in WLFP can be attributed primarily to intergenerational differences in the values placed on work, due to changes in the social context in which early socialization processes are rooted.

Immigrant Culture and Neighborhood Perceived Violent Crime and Violent Victimization: A Multi-Level Test of Enculturation to México, Acculturation to the US, and Support for the Code of the Street

Research on neighborhood immigration and crime rarely tests cultural explanations for the null or inverse associations typically found. We examine if support for the code of the street and measures of immigrant culture (acculturation and enculturation) mediate this relationship. We employ multilevel path modeling and survey data from neighborhoods in El Paso County, Texas, merged with census data. Supporting predictions, enculturation is inversely associated with support for the code of the street and enculturation mediates an indirect relationship between neighborhood immigration and neighborhood violent victimization. However, this relationship does not appear when perceived neighborhood violent crime is used as the dependent variable or the acculturation measure. While the code of the street is positively associated with both perceived neighborhood violent crime and violent victimization, it is not associated with neighborhood immigration and does not serve as a mediator. Implications for cultural explanations of the neighborhood immigration-crime association are discussed.

Toward a Generalizable Understanding of Rightist Movements: Utilizing the Revolutionary Right’s Value Wars in Iran (1995–2009) as a Case Study

Bringing rightist movement studies into the Iranian context, this study advances a generalizable understanding of the ideological, moral, and cultural activism of Islamist movements and their rightist counterparts. While numerous studies have discussed the economic explanation of rightist movements, I integrate Islamist movements in the Muslim world and rightist movements in the West to develop a generalizable cultural and moral explanation of rightist movements. Value and ideological conflicts, as well as moral outrage, drive this integrated understanding of rightist movements. The rise of innovative and contentious forms of millennialism in Iran—especially the increasing salience of the Jamkaran mosque, the rise of new media outlets and millennial discourses, and pertinent policies—provide evidence for proposing this generalizable understanding. I argue that the rise of performative contentions surrounding millennialism, known as Mahdaviat, within the pro-regime revolutionary rightist movement in Iran was Islamists’ ideological response to liberal threat perceptions. These threat perceptions were activated before the liberal Reform era (1997–2005). After the ascent of Ahmadinejad to power in 2005, ideological millennialism became the dominant discursive field in Iran’s state politics. Drawing on narratives of prominent Islamist figures and media personalities in Iran and events surrounding Mahdaviat, this paper advances a generalizable argument of the moral and cultural explanation of rightist movements.

Совершенствование профессиональной подготовки будущих переводчиков посредством изучения культурно-специфических терминов

Culture-specific terms refer to words or phrases that hold unique meanings within a particular cultural context. These expressions represent the essence of a culture’s beliefs and values, often lacking direct equivalents in other languages. The presence of such words and word clusters poses challenges in communication and translation, hindering accurate understanding of ideas across linguistic and cultural boundaries. This discrepancy can lead to frustration, misreadings, and involuntary cultural insensitivity among translators-in-training. To address this problem, it is essential to adopt a multifaceted approach capable of exploring the potential of culture-specific terms from different perspectives, aimed at understanding the usage and importance of culture-specific terms, the problems they pose when translation pedagogy is concerned, and their correct assimilation in a classroom environment. The aim of this study is to bring awareness to culture-specific terms as unique, distinctive entities within a language. Future translators should recognize and respect culture-specific terms as integral components of language, reflective of diverse cultural contexts; they must be shown how to acquire a deep understanding of both the source and target cultures, enabling them to accurately interpret the nuances of culture-specific terms. Having teachers who are also professional translators actively involved in the training process can significantly enhance the learning experience of novice translators. Their first-hand practical experience with culture-specific terms equips them with invaluable insights that they can impart to students. The scientific novelty of this study lies in its potential to establish a robust and universally applicable outline for comprehending the significance of culture-specific terms. Such a framework is particularly vital, given the inherent subjectivity within the discipline of translation, juxtaposed with the imperative in pedagogy for clear and universally comprehensible practices. Employing techniques such as cultural adaptation, explanation, or contextualization can aid in bridging the gap between cultures and facilitating effective communication. Our results indicate that a general theory of pedagogy capable of encompassing every facet of translation studies is an unlikely scenario to this day; however, it is feasible to develop a tailored theory by anchoring it in culture-specific terminology and frameworks. Through this process, educators and experts will be able to attribute the proper relevance to cultural nuances throughout the training of novice translators. Culture profoundly influences language, as evidenced by the presence of terms specific to particular cultures, which reflect unique worldviews and perspectives. Considering these elements early on in the career of new translators will enable them to produce more accurate and relevant translations, lowering the likelihood of mistranslation and promoting intercultural understanding.

Cultural persistence and the 'herbal medicine paradox': Evidence from European data.

The use of herbal or traditional medicines has survived the proliferation of modern medicine. The phenomenon has been labeled as the 'herbal medicines paradox' (HMP). We study whether such HMP hypothesis can be explained by the persistence of attitudes across cultural boundaries. We undertake a secondary analysis of individual-level migration data to test the persistence of the use of herbal medicines in relation to norms in the person's country of birth (or home country). We study the association between attitudes towards herbal medicine treatments of both first (N = 3630) and second-generation (N = 1618) immigrants in 30 European countries, and the average attitudes of their sending country origins. We find robust evidence of an association that is stronger for the second-generation migrants. We document a stronger effect among maternal than paternal lineages, as well as significant heterogeneity based on migrants' country of origin. Our estimates are robust to different sample analysis. Our estimates are consistent with a cultural explanation for the HMP.

SOCIOLOGICAL NEXUS BETWEEN CULTURE AND TERRORISM IN TERMS OF HOFSTEDE’S DIMENSIONS

This study aims to indicate the cultural factors nexus terrorism in terms of Bourdieusian terminology’s conceptual framework, which synthesizes social, economic, and cultural explanations and thus proves useful for studying political and religious radicalization, extremism, and recruitment to terrorism. This analysis can be used to comparatively assess the countries’ cultural tendencies relevant to terrorism. In this study, Hofstede's culture scale, which is regarded as a paradigm and towering figure by most scholars was used. The research endeavors to illustrate the effects of Hofstede's cultural dimensions (widely known model of national culture) on Global Terrorism Index scores via a multiple linear regression model. Terrorists marginalized others and created their discourse to commit rhetoric narrated by fairy tales and protagonists. The findings expressed that whereas the power distance has an increasing effect on terrorism (while increasing terrorism), the long-term orientation has a mitigating effect (reduces terrorism). On the other hand, no significant results were obtained from the dimension of individualism versus collectivism, femininity versus masculinity, avoidance of uncertainty, and indulgence versus restraint. However; we evaluate that social media usage has a centralizing and affiliating effect between collectivism and individualism.

The Islamic Cultural Heritage as a “Problem”: Is Arab Political Science Culturalist?

The study of political culture in the Arab world presents us with a paradox: albeit cultural explanations of Arab politics by Western scholars (e.g., Huntington 1993) have been widely criticized from within the region as latter-day Orientalist views, the cultural approach remains one of the leading analytical approaches employed in Arab social sciences. Central to this tradition is the idea that Arab societies have specific cultural characteristics that contribute to, or are the cause of, the region’s general “backwardness,” especially politically. Collectively known as critics of al-turāth (cultural heritage), this school of thought sparked important scholarly debates in Arab academic circles. This paper reflects on these debates, mainly focusing on how Arab political science, broadly defined, has considered the role of culture as a potential explanatory variable for the endurance of authoritarianism in the Arab world and the failure of democratic transitions. Several influential Arab intellectuals adopt the cultural approach, but they do not necessarily define culture in static, primordial, or fixed terms. If Arab political culture is deemed problematic, it can still be changed. For this academic tradition, the “critical intellectual” is a central agent for any sociocultural and political change.

Autocrats and peaceful resignation in the post-Soviet space: is there a political culture explanation?

ABSTRACT When faced with large-scale dissent, autocracies often use repression. However, in some cases, autocrats resign peacefully, raising the question of why they do not prioritise the survival of their regime. I investigate a culture-related explanation I term “moderating” theory – that high levels of a country's support for democracy have a “moderating” cognitive effect on autocrats' decision-making – in two case studies: Georgia and Armenia. In 2003, President Eduard Shevardnadze (1995-2003) of Georgia peacefully stepped down following a large-scale electoral protest. In Armenia 2018, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan (2008-2018) abandoned his position without using military force when faced with mass dissent.

“I Couldn’t Say My Own Name:” Identity Narratives of Dominican American Women

<i>The purpose of this article is to speak directly to the paucity of research regarding Dominican American women and identity narratives. To do so, this article uses the Listening Guide Method of Qualitative Inquiry (Gilligan, et al., 2006) to explore how 1.5 and second-generation Dominican American women narrated their experiences of individual identity within American cultural contexts and constructs. The results draw from the emergence of themes across six participant interviews and showed two distinct voices: The Voice of Cultural Explanation and the Tides of Dominican American Female Identity. Narrative examples from five participants are offered to illustrate where 1.5 and second-generation Dominican American women negotiate their identity narratives at the intersection of their Dominican and American selves. The article offers two conclusions. One, that participant women use the Voice of Cultural Explanation in order to discuss their identity as reflected within the broad cultural tensions of their daily lives. Two, that the Tides of Dominican American Female Identity are used to express strong emotions that manifest within their personal narratives as the unwanted distance from either the Dominican or American parts of their person.</i>

Ecology, culture and leadership: Theoretical integration and review

Cultural and evolutionary explanations are often seen as rivals in the social sciences. It is therefore not surprising that these perspectives have also communicated little in leadership research so far. Yet, these two fields have many overlooked complementarities, which can be appreciated when examining the role of ecological factors in shaping variations in cultural leadership prototypes (CLPs) – that is, societally shared ideal attributes and behaviors that followers expect from their leaders. In this paper, we integrate and review multidisciplinary research that clarifies these complementarities. First, we discuss how different CLPs might emerge as responses to the specific threats and opportunities provided by the ecology where human groups live. Second, we review research on the link between CLPs, related cultural patterns, and specific ecological factors, ranging from more physical (e.g., climate, diseases) to more social factors (e.g., population density, warfare). Third, we highlight how CLPs might not only be evoked by current ecological conditions but are also culturally transmitted, resulting in potential mismatches between CLPs and present ecologies. Our review shows that a deeper integration of cultural and evolutionary approaches to leadership is needed to understand why variations in CLPs can emerge, and why they persist or change over time.

Approaching "highly sensitive person" as a cultural concept of distress: a case-study using the cultural formulation interview in patients with bipolar disorder.

Psychiatric patients may refer to concepts neither medically accepted nor easily understood to describe their experiences when seeking medical care. These concepts may lie outside the clinician's cultural references and consequently hinder the diagnostic consultation. In the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the clinical instrument Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) was included. The CFI aims to facilitate the gathering and synthesis of culturally relevant clinical information. The notion of Cultural Concepts of Distress (CCD) was also introduced in DSM-5. The CCD include the subterms of the cultural syndrome, cultural explanation, and cultural idiom of distress. No previous study has used CFI for conceptualizing a cultural notion as a CCD. This study aimed to approach the cultural notion of being a highly sensitive person (HSP) in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) by applying the CFI. The cultural notion of HSP has garnered great interest globally, although scientific evidence is limited. No direct correlation between BD and HSP was hypothesized before or during the study process. In this case study, three patients with BD who reported being HSP were interviewed using the CFI. Furthermore, the applicability of the CCD was examined based on the outcomes of the CFI using an interpretive approach. All three patients reported that the CFI facilitated the clinical consultation, and in one of the cases, it may also have increased the treatment engagement. Based on the synthesis of the CFI outcomes in these illustrative cases, HSP could be understood as a cultural syndrome, a cultural explanation, and a cultural idiom of distress. By applying a person-centered perspective, CFI was used for the conceptualization of a cultural notion as a CCD (i.e., HSP in our study). Moreover, the cases highlight the complexity of illness insight in BD as a medical phenomenon when patients' illness perspectives are taken into consideration. Future studies need to further examine the clinical relevance of the CFI in the management of BD.

Searching for a democratic equalizer: Citizenship education's moderating effect on the relationship between a political home and internal political efficacy

Internal political efficacy (IPE) is an important yet unequally distributed driver of political action. Following cultural sociological explanations for political disengagement, we study how students' political home environment reproduces inequalities in IPE and how citizenship education moderates this. We test whether citizenship education compensates, reproduces, or accelerates inequalities in IPE due to differences in one's political home environment. These moderating effects are tested for three components of citizenship education; the number of civic learning experiences, open classroom climate for discussion, and active student participation at school. We consider the school a potential equalizer and a segregated breeding ground for democracy. Based on multilevel analyses employing cross-sectional data (3838 students across 147 schools) gathered to test the attainment targets in citizenship education among Flemish senior high school students (Belgium), we show that privileged students receive more citizenship education. However, each citizenship education component increases IPE and has a small yet significant compensation effect. This paper makes theoretical and empirical contributions to the literature on inequalities in political socialization processes while critically investigating the school's functioning as a democratic equalizer.

Understanding Poison: Study of a Word Du from the Perspective of Comparative History

This article investigates the word Du (毒) in premodern Chinese medicine and culture. It highlights the paradoxical meaning of the word that served as a foundation for the therapeutic use of poisons in traditional Chinese medicine. The article then situates the study in a comparative framework. By comparing the Chinese notion of Du with the Greek concept of pharmakon, it demonstrates significant similarities on the medical use of poisons in the two cultures. It further identifies a striking difference: While the European pharmacy started to separate poisons from medicines in the medieval era, poisons remained an integral part of healing repertoire throughout imperial China. The article ends with offering some cultural explanations for this divergence, and more broadly, a distinct worldview as revealed by the intimate relationship between poisons and medicines in traditional Chinese pharmacy.

Cultural Explanation of Space Geometry in Architecture with Critical Realism Approach

Cultural Explanation of Space Geometry in Architecture with Critical Realism Approach

제주도의 토착지식을 활용한 장소 기반 시민성교육

This paper examines the need and possibility of the convergence between school geography education and traditional geographical knowledge. To this end, it empirically analyzes that indigenous knowledge is a knowledge inherent in liberal community citizenship in Jeju Island’s haenyeo community and traditional residential cultural landscape, and that indigenous knowledge of Jeju Island is highly valuable to pass on to future generations as well as the current generation. Ultimately, this emphasizes that the scope of geography education should include not only objective and scientific geographical knowledge that is empirically verified and universally accepted by students, but also traditional geographical knowledge for cultural appropriateness that provides a distinct cultural identity and explanations that are suitable for local emotions and views.

Poverty, not the poor.

This review explains how and why the United States has systemically high poverty. Descriptive evidence shows that U.S. poverty is (i) a huge share of the population, (ii) a perennial outlier among rich democracies, (iii) staggeringly high for certain groups, (iv) unexpectedly high for those who "play by the rules," and (v) pervasive across various groups and places. This review then discusses and critiques three prevailing approaches focused on the individual poor rather than the systemically high poverty: (i) behavioral explanations "fixing the poor," (ii) emotive compassion "dramatizing the poor," and (iii) cultural explanations both dramatizing and fixing the poor. The essay then reviews political explanations that emphasize the essential role of social policy generosity, political choices to penalize risks, power resources of collective political actors, and institutions. This review demonstrates a long emerging but ascending and warranted shift away from individualistic explanations of the poor toward political explanations of poverty.