Cultural Forces Research Articles

Addressing Child Maltreatment by Infusing Multicultural, Feminist Tenets to Standard Clinical Approaches: The Cases of “Bashiir” and “Jaquann”

Multicultural psychology emphasizes the role of social, cultural, and gender forces in creating an individual’s identity; the social and cultural world in which they live; and the psychological strengths that different cultures have to offer. In a complementary way, feminist psychology highlights the importance of collectivist alternatives to mainstream, individualistic thinking in the U.S.; and the identification and dismantling of patriarchal power structures that oppress women. Combining these two in a multicultural, feminist approach to psychotherapy highlights the importance of relating to clients with an understanding of, sensitivity to, respect for, and responsiveness to their cultural identities and life situations. This also involves the therapist building on strengths that come from some cultures bringing a collectivist rather than an individualist orientation to life’s challenges, such as combating child maltreatment. To illustrate the potential of a multicultural, feminist approach to psychotherapy in cases of child maltreatment among minority individuals, the present article offers two highly successful case studies. The first involves “Bashiir,” a 16-year-old African, first-generation immigrant young man from Somalia; and the second involves “Jaquaan,” a 15-year-old African American young man. Both clients were referred to therapy because of poor school attendance and academic difficulties, and associated symptoms consistent with a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. These symptoms derived from the clients having lived in poor, dangerous, high crime communities. A crucial component in both cases was the process by which the therapist employed the multicultural feminist approach to cross age, racial, gender, and socioeconomic-class lines to establish a very strong, trusting relationship between the therapist and the client; and between the therapist and the clients’ families.

Second-home Tourism in Tropical China: residents’ perception of socio-economic impacts

ABSTRACT Despite the significant growth of second-home tourism research, its geographical focus remains limited to a few countries. China has become a global economic powerhouse, with a rapidly growing middle class with disposable income. A combination of the latter with a range of favourable socialist housing policies and unique cultural forces have encouraged, and in some cases demanded, multiple-home ownership among Chinese families. At the forefront of this phenomenon are vast numbers of senior snowbirds who have chosen the tropical island of Hainan as the location of their second home. While there has been some investigation around this topic in select locations in China, the academic understanding of this phenomenon remains in its infancy. This paper investigates residents’ perceptions of Haikou, the capital of Hainan Province, regarding the socio-economic impact of second-home ownership on their lives, communities and the city. The results of this study will inform policy recommendations for local government while shedding new light on global narratives on second-home tourism phenomena.

«Кристаллизация» культурной идентичности как основной механизм формирования современного поликультурного мира

The modern global landscape is characterized by a complex interplay of cultural forces, necessitating a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying the formation and negotiation of cultural identities. This article explores the concept of “crystallization” as a fundamental mechanism for shaping cultural identity in the context of the modern polycultural world. Drawing on insights from social philosophy and cultural studies, the article examines the dynamics of cultural interactions and the emergence of non-complementarity in modern society. The notion of “eternal return” is introduced as a main tool through which cultural identities are perpetuated and reinforced over time. The crisis of polyculturalism is analyzed in light of increasing national conflicts and challenges to the principle of cultural equivalence. This crisis underscores the need for new approaches to fostering dialogic relations and mitigating the proliferation of conflict and non-complementarity. Convergent technologies are identified as pivotal in the “crystallization” of cultural identities, transcending traditional boundaries and facilitating the convergence of diverse cultural expressions. This phenomenon has profound implications for the negotiation of identity in modern society. The study highlights the importance of understanding the mechanisms of cultural identity formation in addressing the challenges of the modern polycultural world. By elucidating the concept of “crystallization” and its implications for social philosophy, the article contributes to ongoing discussions on polyculturalism and identity politics.

Intimate partner violence and Bowen family systems theory: promoting safety and expanding capacity of families

AbstractFamily violence is becoming increasingly visible in Australia, with many state and federal governments taking on more responsibility to address family violence and its impacts on those affected. Current efforts are focused on practice frameworks, identifying and responding to risk factors, and social justice frameworks including legislating against family violence in a range of jurisdictions and addressing more broadly the structural and cultural forces that perpetuate violence and further oppress those victimised. Family violence is not unique to Australia, with prevalence rates internationally suggesting family violence occurs irrespective of country, race, age, culture, effectiveness of social policies or socioeconomic status. This paper explores relevant foundational concepts of Bowen family systems theory (BFST) as it relates to family violence and explores opportunities to evolve practice in this area. BFST offers a unique contribution towards addressing family violence, particularly in relation to the public health challenge of addressing family polyvictimisation. The paper also explores how BFST conceptualises family violence and the role of the professional in working with the family as a single emotional unit. The unique focus of BFST on observing and defining self within the emotional family unit through observation of the underlying multigenerational emotional patterns of functioning provides unique opportunities to evolve and develop both the capacity of clinicians and responses to families who are navigating the serious and challenging impacts of family violence.

Fibres on the Field: Jean Shrimpton, Christine Borge and the Promotion of Orlon and Wool at the 1965 Melbourne Cup

For the 1965 Melbourne Cup Carnival, chemical giant DuPont de Nemours Inc. brought English model Jean Shrimpton to Australia to model youth fashion in Orlon, a synthetic fibre marketed as a wool substitute. By contrast, fibre rival, the Australian Wool Board, sponsored French model Christine Borge’s appearance in traditional racewear in wool. Utilising a ‘new materialist’ lens, this article revisits the well-known story of Shrimpton’s Melbourne appearances while highlighting a lesser-known aspect – the performative clash between the models and the fibres that serves as a case study into marketing fibres and styles in 1960s Australia. I argue that cultural and economic forces powerfully melded through novel cross-promotions and sponsorship arrangements between Victoria Racing Club and fibre producers in the service of capitalism. This article also examines marketing’s co-optation of youth culture to promote synthetic fibres and new fashion and to encourage the pursuit of individuality in dress and comportment.

Stigma and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (and additional identities) (LGBTQ+) parent socialization self-efficacy: Mediating roles of identity and community.

In the United States, cultural forces have led to the stigmatization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (and additional identities) (LGBTQ+) parenthood. However, pushing back against this stigmatization, developing a positive LGBTQ+ identity, and investing in one's LGBTQ+ community may inform empowering narratives of future parenthood and related constructs, such as LGBTQ+ parent socialization. Perceived self-efficacy related to preparation for bias (i.e., discussions of discrimination, prejudice, or bias-based bullying) socialization is likely associated with an individual's own perceptions or experiences of stigmatization given the conceptual overlap of bias and stigma. However, other constructs related to stigmatization and socialization self-efficacy, such as positive LGBTQ+ identity or community connectedness, have yet to be simultaneously considered (to our knowledge). Further, previous research has rarely included different assessments of stigma (i.e., perceived and enacted) and/or dimensions of positive LGBTQ+ identity (i.e., authenticity and self-awareness). Thus, this study aimed to rectify these gaps and provide a greater understanding of sexual stigma and LGBTQ+ parent socialization self-efficacy. Using data from a survey-based, online, cross-sectional study of LGBTQ+ childfree adults (N = 433; Mage = 29.85 years old) in the United States, we found that experiences of enacted or perceived sexual stigma were differentially associated with LGBTQ+ parent socialization preparation for bias self-efficacy. Further, positive LGBTQ+ identity authenticity and self-awareness, as well as LGBTQ+ community connectedness played distinct roles as mediators of the relationships between sexual stigma and LGBTQ+ parent socialization self-efficacy. These findings have implications for how we might understand the role of stigma, identity, community, and socialization among future LGBTQ+ parents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Zombies in Unexpected Places: Rebellion, Subversion, and the Undead in Romantic Depictions of Obeah

Abstract: The lineage of the zombie myth is complex, reaching far beyond Haiti and Haitian folklore. To expand the zombie's literary history and further complicate our understanding of its cultural heritage, this paper will read four Romantic texts through Sarah Juliet Lauro's framework of the "protozombie": Maria Edgeworth's "The Grateful Negro" (1804), "Song of an Obeah Priestess" (Anonymous, 1821), Cynric R. William's Hamel, the Obeah Man (1827), and William Earle's Obi; or, The History of Three-Fingered Jack (1800). Although these texts do not depict a Haitian zombie-drone, their depictions of Obeah complicate the boundaries between life and death, raising questions about rebellion, subversion, and freedom in response to the transatlantic slave trade. Reading these texts through the lens of the protozombie expands our understanding of the cultural and historical forces that shaped the zombie, moving the conversation beyond Vodou to consider Obeah's connection to the zombie myth.

Colonial Mindset in Society

The knowledge of colonialism and its psychological effects on the Puerto Rican populace is imperative to comprehend the island’s attitudes, mentalities, and behaviors towards its colonial system. The development of a Puerto Rican colonial mentality has origins rooted in the island’s colonial history and political structures, which have resulted in its manifestation through attitudes of assimilation as well as resistance towards external cultural factors. The previously mentioned Puerto Rican attitudes are becoming increasingly significant as the island’s political tension increments alongside the need to conceptualize the predominant political ideologies within their origins as expressions of the Puerto Rican mentality and psyche. Puerto Rico’s colonial past and interactions with external cultural forces have impacted Puerto Ricans’ relationships and associations with cultural and national identity, their construction of self-concept, and their perspectives on the Puerto Rican collective. Mentalities of internalized inferiority have been found in circles of the Puerto Rican population as being connected to the island’s colonial status. Puerto Rican identity has nevertheless developed independently and distinctly from its colonial forces.

‘Critically disruptive’ museum interpretation as a methodology for challenging popular perceptions of Roman Britain

ABSTRACT Scholarly perceptions of Roman Britain and the wider Roman world have changed significantly in recent years, increasingly exploring more nuanced understandings of lived experiences and cultural interactions. Yet, despite the influence the ancient world continues to exert on modern identities and political discourse, it is debatable to what extent these academic shifts have influenced public perceptions. Museums have a central role to play in challenging outdated presumptions of Rome as a homogenised and civilising cultural force, and this article argues for the application of ‘critically disruptive’ interpretative methodologies to achieve this ambition. Case studies of creative prose, poetry and interactivity are explored for the opportunities they offer to reinvigorate museum narratives of Roman Britain.

Nomadic Roots and Contemporary Realities: An Exploration of the Waghri Community in Punjab

Nomadism persists as a relevant phenomenon in contemporary society. This study delves into the Waghri community, a nomadic community that originally hails from Gujarat but settled in Punjab for the past three or four generations. Having encountered stigmatisation during the British rule, the community was labelled a criminal tribe in the Bombay Presidency. This study aimed to understand the culture, belief and practice dynamics of the Waghri community, shaped by their nomadic history and current circumstances. Furthermore, it seeks to delve into their experiences with historical stigmatisation, contemporary adaptation strategies and the cultural forces moulding their identity and means of sustenance. This study was carried out in the urban areas of Punjab under the national project of the Anthropological Survey of India entitled Ethnographic Study of 226 De-Notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities. The data were collected using snowball and random sampling methods. The tools used for data collection included a structured schedule, focus group discussions and individual interviews. The findings of the study reveal that the migration of the Waghri community, driven by the pursuit of enhanced livelihoods, has resulted in a widespread presence across India, featuring various sub-castes distinguished by traditional occupations and territorial affiliations. Remarkably, these sub-castes lack social hierarchies, uniting around their common clan deity rather than fostering internal divisions. Devotees of the goddess Durga, the community now identifies as Devipujak. Engaged in the trade of recycling second-hand clothes, they have established harmonious ties with the neighbouring communities, predominantly residing in urban areas, as their livelihood depends on middle and upper-middle-class families. Despite facing stigma in their native Gujarat, the Waghri community finds acceptance in Punjab, where they are recognised more as Gujarati than Waghri. Economically disadvantaged and educationally marginalised, the community leads a precarious existence unaccounted for by the government. This study illuminates their resilience in preserving cultural traditions amidst uncertainties about their future. Their adaptation strategies, including social cohesion and niche economic activity, offer insights into social mobility, identity negotiation, and the complex realities of marginalised communities in India.

Interpellation and group polarization: Aspects of group hatred

AbstractGroup hate, a phenomenon increasingly prevalent in recent world history, manifests in ethnic hatred, mass killings, terrorism, and war. In this context, psychoanalysis offers a unique perspective, modestly contributing to the understanding of group hate through the analysis of human aggression and defenses against such aggression. Human beings, while requiring a group life to maintain basic security, often fear being immersed and judged by other individuals in the group. This paper delves into three mechanisms, interpellation, group polarization, and projective identification, that individuals employ to defend against such fears. Interpellation, for instance, sheds light on how cultural forces, referred to as ideology, influence personal identity. The latter two mechanisms, group polarization, and projective identification, foster in‐group solidarity and hatred of the out‐group, thereby perpetuating widening splits and cycles of hatred and vengeance between groups. The paper concludes by advocating for the humanization of the hated others, setting aside fantasies of vengeance, and finding areas of compromise as the way forward. A secondary goal of the paper is to address the split within psychoanalysis between intrapsychic and interpersonal concepts.

‘Obliged in self-defence to retaliate’. Violent sailors in nineteenth-century Bristol

This article is a study of merchant sailors in Bristol between 1850–1914. There is a stereotypical perception of the sailor as being a drunken, promiscuous, violent nuisance on the streets of a port town. This perception has been fashioned through popular imagery and imagination but also through an historiography that has largely investigated sailors in maritime and nautical contexts. Here I take a different approach and investigate one aspect of working-class culture, namely a man’s propensity for violence, in the context of Bristol’s urban, working-class culture. It will be argued that in their use of violence sailors were not the perceived breed apart but were an integrated presence in Bristol’s wider working-class culture. The reasons for violence, the methods used and the chosen victims of it were not the product of any maritime identity but were constructed from an urban one. Naturally, many sailors continued to display the stereotypical behavioural traits of sailors but there were also those who were aligned to a more respectable way of living. Cultural forces towards masculine respectability tempered some of sailors’ violent behaviours, as did the space available for violence, and consequently places sailors firmly within working-class culture.

How new rural elites facilitate community-based homestead system reform in rural China: A perspective of village transformation

In line with China's rural transformation, the homestead system reform (HSR) pilots have been launched to rectify adverse land-related issues by formalising and capitalising land property rights. In contrast with a government-led model prevalent among most national HSR pilots, a community-based approach has been experimented with and proven efficient in Yujiang County, southern China. It highlights a pivotal role of the endogenous and public-spirited activists who are locally called ‘new rural elites’ (NREs). From the perspective of village transformation processes, this paper establishes a theoretical framework and employs a case study in Yujiang to interpret the underlying rationale for NREs' involvement in HSR. The findings indicate that HSR, aiming at multi-level space reshaping and ‘three rights separation’ reform, is in alignment with the triple processes of village transformation (i.e., systemic, communal, and living). The NREs represent a cultural force for facilitating village transformation, which is underpinned by the capacity, channel and carrier endowed by urban-rural linkages, interpersonal value transmission and community social solidarity, respectively. The benevolent dominance of the NREs is jointly shaped by governmental empowerment and accountability, egalitarian property rights design and strong social solidarity. To expand NREs' benevolent roles, this study recommends aligning community empowerment with the improvements of community-based action capacity.

Demand

Abstract This article traces how social reformers, state actors, physicians, feminists, and people who sell sex have described the demand for prostitution, a term that has provided ideological support for policy approaches both supporting and opposing commercial sex over the last two centuries. In Europe, the United States, and more globally, critics have employed demand in an ostensibly neutral sense to suggest that sex functions like a commodity. For some it is the inevitable result of an inherent male sexual drive, while for others it is the mutable product of social, economic, and cultural forces. The article shows how the market abstraction of “supply and demand” obscures the complex web of causal factors that shape the sex industry in particular contexts. It begins with late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century debates on the regulation of prostitution, along with calls for its abolition, and then turns to transnational discussions of prostitution demand in multistate organizations like the League of Nations and the United Nations. The article closes with an analysis of postwar feminists debates on the purported links between demand and violence against women, and the recent ascendance of the “End Demand” model, which criminalizes the sex buyer.

The heterogeneous impact of psychological discourse on (our view of) recognition

Over the last century, psychological discourse ranks among the main cultural forces in Western societies. As such, it undoubtedly exerts considerable influence on how we express, demand, struggle for, and conceive of recognition. However, since psychology is far from being a monolithic discipline, said influence is exerted in non-univocal, sometimes contradictory ways. In this paper, I explore this heterogeneous impact by contrasting the idea of recognition underlying two popular psychological schools. On the one hand, psychoanalysis’ emphasis on trauma stresses our dependence on being recognized by others, vindicates the importance of communication, and contributes to redefining the status of victim. On the other hand, positive psychology’s advocacy for autonomous self-fulfillment seems to downsize the importance of recognition, and of the struggle for it, based on a statistical, morally-neutral approach.

The failure-speed ethos: notes from a glocal startup scene

ABSTRACT Technology startups are integral to local and global economies, with distinctive cultural logics that shape the nature of work in this sector and the technological developments generated therein. As an emergent market, Australian technology startups offer a window into global-local dynamics and a lens on the cultural forces at play. Based on three years of ethnographic research (2019–2022), I identify prevailing values that drive and animate both culture and practice in Australia’s startup domain. Findings show the sector suffused by a paired value set: failure and speed, converged into a failure-speed ethos. Through interviews, observations, and document analysis, I delineate and illustrate the failure-speed ethos, trace its path through migration and institutional enculturation, and examine how the demands and costs of failure and speed distribute unevenly between positions within the startup ecosystem. Findings have implications for the nature of innovation work in a globalized society, the context of technological development, and the sociological processes by which culture spreads, embeds, and endures.

Chinese media production and fandom between queerbaiting and “survival instincts”

Using the term “queerbaiting,” I describe a set of media industry tactics that suggest queer relationships between fictional characters (or real-life celebrities) by intentional hints and jokes to attract audiences. Such tactics are used to encourage online participation by fans of female danmei (literary writings describing homoerotic relationships among male characters, generally written by female authors for a female-dominated audience) in China. By analyzing this strategy, I examine the intersection between three different cultural forces in the Chinese mediascape: the censorship of queer themes, the media industry’s attempts to profit from popular danmei stories, and fans who participate in online data labor. The heteronormative cultural environment in China turned so-called “queerbaiting” practices into a socially accepted and commercially profitable mental game denied of a physical outlet. The de-homoeroticized danmei media adaptations and the fandoms surrounding them show how the media industry and fans interact, negotiate and cooperate for their own interests.

Beyond Words

Beyond Words

“To mask, or not to mask, that is the question”: COVID (Anti)Masking and Comics

ABSTRACT While masks have functioned as important cultural artifacts, religious symbols, costume pieces, and components of social identity throughout history, in the current biopsychosocial context (of the COVID-19 pandemic), they predominantly refer to medical masks. This article, after reviewing the comprehensive and complex history (and evolution) of masks, seeks to investigate the symbolism and attitudes toward masking in the wake of COVID-19 through a detailed analysis of single-paneled images and sequential comics by artists such as Michael Green, Clare McCarthy, and illustrator Isabel Seliger (for NPR), who delineates the experiences of Agnes Boisvert, an ICU nurse. The article relates the issue of masking with the semiotics of identity, anonymity, responses of healthcare professionals, collective responsibility, and anti-masking attitudes, among others. This research further draws attention to the potential of the comics medium in visualizing and expressing sentiments around (anti)masking and concludes by showing how biological, cultural, political, and social forces inform and influence discourses around masking.

Theme‐Driven Social Analysis: Three Approaches

In this article, I present three strategies for building cultural and historical analyses that are driven by broadly relevant social themes rather than particular cases. Each of these strategies represents a different way to approach “concept‐driven sociology,” focusing the researcher on robust and deep‐seated social and cultural forces that underly and shape various actions, events, and experiences occurring at different times and places. Such a thematic analysis requires bringing together multiple cases that illustrate a common social phenomenon despite their substantive differences, while also highlighting those differences and interpreting each case to reinforce the analysis of the general theme at hand. After discussing the relevance of form, process, and culture to thematic analysis, I draw on previous and ongoing research to outline three strategies: (1) formal analytic abstraction, (2) the configuration of analytic subtypes from a master theme, and (3) transcendent historical analysis. While thematic analysis involves illustrating how several otherwise different cases cohere around a common theme, and thus highlighting important similarities among them, I conclude by discussing why we must also take deep analytic dives into the cases we study in order to enhance our understanding of the theme that ties them together.