Cultural Hierarchies Research Articles

Discrimination, Health, and Resistance for Thai Transgender Women.

There are clear linkages between discrimination and health for people across intersections of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, citizenship, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and other social identities. Yet, less research has examined discrimination and health for transgender people outside of the USA, who can face different cultural ideals, access to resources, and social structures. How might research on discrimination and health account for the interplay of diverse social identities, micro-level experiences, meso-level settings, and macro-level structural/cultural contexts? Based on 14months of fieldwork in Thailand and interviews with 62 participants, this article bridges the minority stress model with an ecosocial framework to analyze how Thai transgender women navigate and resist structural and everyday discrimination across a variety of settings and encounters. Incorporating minority stress theory's attention to discrimination, stigma, and stereotypes, the article demonstrates how Thai transgender women face indignity, disrespect, and dehumanization based on gender. Incorporating the ecosocial framework, the article analyzes how discriminatory structural laws, policies, and rules-as well cultural hierarchies of femininity, interpersonal relations, internalized beliefs, and commodified health/medical technologies-are pathways to Thai transgender women's health and health decision-making. By merging these theoretical frameworks, the article goes beyond an "event-focused" approach to minority stress and discriminatory encounters, instead illuminating the interconnected micro, meso, and macro levels impacting Thai transgender women's health outcomes, decision-making, and everyday life.

An examination of human resources management practices on employee performance, the moderating role of hierarchy culture: proposal of a model

An examination of human resources management practices on employee performance, the moderating role of hierarchy culture: proposal of a model

School culture as predictors of primary schools’ performance

This purpose of this study is to explore the level of school culture and its prediction towards school performance as perceived by teachers. The data was collected using survey questionnaire. Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) developed by Cameron and Quinn (2006) was used to measure school culture. A total of 324 questionnaires were distributed to 36 primary schools in the state of Selangor, Perak, Johor and Pahang in Peninsular Malaysia. Subsequently, the data was analysed using descriptive analysis and multiple regression. The result shows that teachers in National schools and National Type Tamil schools perceive that the level of school culture in their schools is significantly higher than National Type Chinese schools. In addition, clan culture is perceived as most practiced culture in National and National Type Tamil schools. While, hierarchy culture is perceived as the most practiced culture in National Type Chinese schools. There is a similarity between these schools in terms of culture practice where the adhocracy culture become the least culture practiced in these schools. Apart from that, the result also showed that teachers perceived school culture significantly predict the school performance. Hence, it is noted that emphasis in school culture is vital to have an environment, which supports the school performance in the long run. This study would be very helpful for all the relevant stakeholders to identify primary school culture as well as its contribution towards school performance to take any action for school improvement.

A post‐imperial, pluralist nationalism? From the Five Nation Republic of China to multicultural Taiwan

AbstractAlthough many nations emerged during the collapse of the empire, the case of China is curious in its failure to divide into separate nation‐states. Resisting disunion, the Republic of China (ROC) adopted a rhetoric of national pluralism and laid claim to the fallen Qing Empire's vast territory. This divergence from other post‐imperial nationalisms engenders questions about the legacy of imperialism in the ROC's approaches to nation‐building. Such questions remain salient after the ROC retreat to Taiwan (1949), as since the end of martial law (1987), the ROC has championed itself as a model of multiculturalism. This paper examines the extent to which today's ‘Multicultural Taiwan’ paradigm differs from 20th‐century official conceptualisations of pluralism, through discourse analysis of publications from the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC). Investigation finds that despite centring Taiwan in national ideology, certain Chinese imperialist attitudes towards cultural hierarchy remained influential in MTAC representations of pluralism within Asia.

A Study on Consumers’ Perceptions of Museum Cultural and Creative Products through Online Textual Reviews: An Example from Palace Museum’s Cultural and Creative Flagship Store

The digital transformation and innovative development of museums have led consumers to increasingly prefer purchasing museum cultural and creative products through e-commerce platforms. Although this trend shows potential for market growth, the lack of distinct cultural identity and insufficient product differentiation hinder its stable development. Therefore, this study aims to explore consumers' perceptions on Palace Museum's cultural and creative products using cultural hierarchy theory. Taking the Palace Museum's Cultural and Creative Flagship Store on Tmall.com as a case study, the employed evaluation method involves constructing a lexicon of cultural features using Word2vec model and then analyzing online textual reviews to identify these features. Results reveal that among the various cultural features of the products, consumers placed the greatest emphasis on "Materials used" and the least on "Specialty craft". With regards to the cultural features of inner "intangible" level, consumers tend to have a limited comprehension and familiarity with the cultural heritage and histories behind the products. This study provides suggestions to museum professionals to optimize the use of traditional cultural resources and develop a product development plan.

The Art of Appreciation: Music and Middlebrow Culture in Modern Britain. By Kate Guthrie

The middlebrow is still a term very much defined by its unfashionable and denigrated status. When talking recently to a former TV critic about bringing together postmodern media theory and football coverage in an issue of Time Out magazine in the 1970s, I asked him whether it could be described as a ‘middlebrow’ initiative. ‘Yes’, was the answer, ‘if you exclude all the negative connotations of that term’! Kate Guthrie’s The Art of Appreciation is a book that, through careful scholarship and archival research, sets aside these tired connotations to examine with fresh eyes certain educational middlebrow initiatives to foster appreciation of classical music. A close focus is maintained throughout on their aims and the extent to which these were achieved in the context of the rapidly changing, class-bound and highly fractious cultural climate that existed in Britain between the 1920s and the early 1960s. According to Guthrie, recent scholarship on the middlebrow has tended to focus predominantly on social questions—this book tries to instead look at how the debates around cultural hierarchies shaped the aesthetic and stylistic forms and cadences of middlebrow cultural products, as well as the contexts of their reception. Guthrie builds upon the kind of work undertaken by Christopher Chowrimootoo on Benjamin Britten (in Middlebrow Modernism, 2018) but adopts a longer historical view and puts musical works ‘into dialogue with the institutions that played an increasingly powerful role in mediating cultural access throughout this period’ (p. 11). In doing so we witness the ‘elective affinity’ that emerged between musical appreciation and various forms of public service media, including interwar BBC radio (Chapter 3) and the documentary film movement (Chapter 4), given their intersecting aims and concerns to educate and widen access to culture.

FEMALE SUBALTERNITY IN HANNA RAMBE'S NOVEL MIRAH DARI BANDA

Subaltern reading begins with an author's view of the conditions that characterize subaltern groups. Subaltern falls within the realm of postcolonial feminism which is a form of alliance between postcolonial theory and feminism, seeks to beat back existing gender, cultural, or racial hierarchies, and rejects binary opposition to patriarchalism or colonialism's constructs of authority. This research tries to reveal the subalternity of women during colonialism in the novel Mirah dari Banda. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative, namely by examining texts that contain subaltern elements. The data in this study are in the form of text sentences or dialogues that reflect subaltern women due to the domination of colonialism. The findings of this study that there are several forms of subaltern experienced by indigenous women (Mirah), including degrading dignity, sexual harassment, physical/verbal violence, obedience to the invaders, and control over others. From some of the research findings, subaltern women do not have a conceptual language to fight against colonial groups or indigenous men, and also women do not have the power to carry out resistance to the hegemonic power of groups in power.

The role of the "third place" in the practices of youth leisure: house party (home party) as a social event

The problem of youth leisure is a frequent object of study in modern sociology. However, Russian scientists are increasingly paying attention to club culture and various youth subcultures, often overlooking the social phenomenon of house parties. The article analyses the results of individual studies of house parties in the USA, Holland, Denmark, the UK (skins party), the former USSR (“kvartirnik”/home gig) and modern Russia (“vpiska” (inclusion)/ shubz and its various formats). For the methodological basis of the study two approaches are used. The approach of E. Hoffmann, that allows us to study a house party as a social event of an entertaining nature, and the theory by R. Oldenburg of the “third place”, that a house becomes during a party. The article touches upon the historical aspect of house parties, their golden age dating back to the 19th century in the UK. In the context of the sacredness of the event and institutional freedom, a house party is compared to a “crash pad” commune of the hippie subculture. The researchers note the possibility of forming a hangout (“tusovka”) as a series of house parties opp osing disciplinary culture and social hierarchy. Special attention is paid to the issue of alcohol consumption as a ritual of collective intoxication during house parties and drinking games. The concept of a home quasi-party is introduced, which main purpose is not entertainment, but education, political agitation or direct sales. The main idea of the article is to reflect not only the negative, but also the positive socio-cultural functions of a house party, that is considered by some researchers as an exclusively deviant and/or criminogenic form of leisure of the modern youth.

The Speech of the Subaltern Transcribed: Quoting Practices and Language ‘Errors’ in Colonial Travel Writing

Abstract This article analyzes the use of quoted speech in nineteenth-century European travel writing from around the Indian Ocean. A careful analysis of when speech was quoted directly, and how its phonetic characteristics were transcribed into printed form, elucidates the power dynamics embedded in the spoken word in colonial contexts while also opening up new perspectives on the rhetorical strategies of imperialism. Of particular interest here is the notion of erroneous speech: colonial travelogues regularly employed direct quotes to highlight what were construed as ‘mispronunciations’ or ‘grammar mistakes’ by indigenous and/or non-European-coded speakers of the language of the colonizer. Such a framing of differing language habits served to inscribe a cultural hierarchy and power differential into moments of interpersonal encounter. Moreover, in the firmly middle-class genre of travel writing, the speech of working-class Europeans was subjected to similar treatment, pointing to the diversity of different ‘subaltern’ positions within the colonial hierarchy.

Culture and green tastes. A sociological analysis of the relationship between cultural engagement and environmental practices

In this study, we approach environmental practices from a cultural point of view, focusing on the role of cultural capital. While previous studies have looked at educational attainment, we focus on another dimension of cultural capital i.e., cultural engagement. Against this background, we use data from the Flemish Survey on Socio-cultural Shift to (i) examine cultural engagement and distinction in Flanders though multiple correspondence analysis and (ii) investigate the relationship between people's cultural activities and their environmental practices through structural equation modelling. Firstly, we found three modes of cultural engagement. The primary distinction resides between the culturally engaged and disengaged. The second and third respectively distinguish a traditional and folksy musical orientation from more contemporary and eclectic tastes, and highbrow culture from emerging forms of cultural capital. Secondly, our study confirms that education relates positively to environmental practices, and more importantly shows that educational differences in cultural engagement can explain educational differences in environmental practices. General cultural engagement was the best predictor of environmental practices. Highbrow cultural capital was positively associated with conspicuous forms of environmental practices (e.g., shopping). In contrast, a traditional and folksy musical orientation seemed negatively related to environmental practices. In conclusion, our findings present strong evidence for a (re)conceptualization of environmental practices as a cultural taste and a potential form of cultural capital. Our study suggests that future research on social differentiation and cultural hierarchies should pay more attention to environmental practices.

What cultural hierarchy? Cultural tastes, status and inequality.

Research on cultural stratification often draws on Bourdieu's misrecognition model to interpret socioeconomic gradients in cultural tastes and participation. In this model, an assumed cultural hierarchy leads individuals to adopt cultural tastes and behaviours whose status is congruent with that of their socioeconomic position (SEP). Yet, this assumed cultural hierarchy remains opaque. In this paper, we derive and test three empirical implications of the cultural hierarchy: (1) cultural activities have different status (recognition); (2) individuals in high and low SEPs have similar perceptions of the status of cultural activities (necessary condition for misrecognition); and (3) individuals prefer and engage in cultural activities whose status matches that of their SEP (status congruence). We collected survey data in Denmark and find that cultural activities differ in terms of perceived status (e.g., opera has higher perceived status than flea market), status perceptions are similar in high- and low-SEP groups and individuals prefer activities whose status matches that of their SEP. These results are consistent with the idea that a cultural hierarchy exists that sustains SEP gradients in cultural tastes and participation.

Impossible Stillness

In exploring displays in European and North-American museums with regards to Chinese arts, this article discusses how cultural hierarchies from Western hegemonies structure the concept of global art. Here the main focus is on the Meat-Shaped-Stone, carved in Beijing during the late Qing dynasty, and on its travelling trajectory through the international stage. By considering how Western cultural institutions shape practices and languages of incorporation of the other, this article looks at the appearance and disappearance of objects, in the context of the creation of narratives of virtuous national identities, and imaginaries of political salvation through art.

The impact of Covid-19 on organization: A case study from the IT area on changing culture perceptions in organization

Article provides in-depth research on perceptions of organizational culture in the context of COVID-19 pandemic from IT area. Empirical research presents a preliminary study with qualitative approach within which the OCAI questionnaire was distributed. MAXQDA software explores the statistical relationship between the variables of interest. The reliability and validity test was performed using the Cronbach’s Alpha. The index is statistically significant compared to normal reliability standards in both periods. The survey revealed a difference in culture types between the observed periods. Dominant culture during COVID-19 is the Hierarchy culture type and before the outbreak of COVID-19 was Clan culture type. Both cultures are focused internally, emphasizing integration, cooperation, and efficiency. The shift between different types of culture responds to the changing environment conditioned by the ‘survival’ of organizations. Transition causes the focus on structure, and top-down management and decision are made up high and passed down to managers and employees.

Review: Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang, by Nicholas de Villiers

Review: <i>Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang</i>, by Nicholas de Villiers

Migrants are the city: commentary on “London: diversity and renewal over two millennia” by Anthony Heath and Yaojun Li

ABSTRACT By querying the social connections that underlie Heath’s and Li’s overview of the peopling of London over the millennia, it becomes clear that London was made as people from elsewhere settled, maintained multiple networks of connection and created local forms of sociability. Generations of migrants built London, as those in power extracted wealth from colonies around the world through the African slave trade, theft of land from native peoples, indentured labour from South Asia, and the dispossession and cultural subordination of Irish, Scottish, Welch and English rural classes. To trace the history of London must be to explicate the intertwined processes of racialization, women’s subordination, Orientalism and the cultural hierarchies of difference. As all comprehensive urban histories can do, if they address the relationships between migrants and city making, Heath and Li’s account of London teaches us that underneath politically constructed migrant non-migrant divides, over time migrants become the city.

The effect of organizational culture on employees’ performance in research institutes

Goal: This paper presents a case study, which examined the effect of organizational culture (clan culture, adhocracy culture, market culture, and hierarchy culture) on employees’ performance in a developing country context taking the case of Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR). Design / Methodology / Approach: Using survey questionnaire and convenience sampling techniques, 302 complete questionnaires were returned after being filled by respondents (employees) and considered for descriptive and inferential analysis. Based on their willingness to participate in the study, four research centers within Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) were included in the study. Results: This study found out that all organizational culture types (clan culture, adhocracy culture, market culture, and hierarchy culture) have statistically significant results and have positive relationship with employees’ performance. And, of all, the regression analysis result showed that the clan culture is the most dominant culture type. Limitations of the investigation: The findings of the study depended on a single case study, and this limitation could be taken as an avenue for future researchers to examine other research institutes in similar contexts. Practical implications: The presented result sheds light regarding the effect of organizational culture on employees’ performance in agricultural research institutes; the research’s outcome provides a useful input for agricultural research institutes and policy makers in the study setting concerning the effect of organizational culture on employees’ performance. Originality/Value: this study adds to the current body of knowledge in the area of organizational culture and its effect on employees’ performance. Besides, not much earlier studies have been done on the subject of the study in the context of agricultural institutes in the developing world.

Exploring a faith-based approach to puberty education in Tanzania.

Many adolescents in Tanzania do not receive timely and comprehensive puberty education. This study explored faith-based organizations a site for puberty education. Two puberty books, each developed through participatory research with Tanzanian adolescents and stakeholders, were promoted to 177 Christian denomination churches in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to understand the factors that faith leaders considered in their decision to purchase puberty books, or share information about the intervention to their peers and congregants. Data collection included routine monitoring via weekly reports and ethnographic observation. Data were analyzed using the Ecological Framework for Health Promotion to capture how individual, interpersonal, and institutional factors influenced leaders' decisions to purchase or promote puberty books. At the individual level, leaders cited their personal experiences in their support for the intervention, but leaders' time and confidence in their ability to effectively promote books to others were barriers to participation. Interpersonally, the diffusion of information between church leaders, particularly when information came from well-known or respected leaders, emerged as an important factor in leaders' willingness to promote books. At the institutional level, leaders' decisions were impacted by resources, institutional culture, and institutional hierarchy. Importantly, twelve churches in the sample purchased books. Limited financial resources and the need to receive approval from denominational leaders were discussed by leaders as barriers to purchasing books. Despite research showing high religiosity in Tanzania, the role of religious institutions in providing puberty education has remained unexplored. Our results inform future research and practice by providing an articulation of the socioecological factors that played a role in faith leaders' decisions related to puberty education interventions in Tanzania.

Cultural Capital in China? Television Tastes and Cultural and Cosmopolitan Distinctions Among Beijing Youth

How does television taste function as cultural capital in contemporary China? This study shows how Chinese youth engage with global television fiction to mark their positions in China’s changing social and cultural hierarchies. Using multiple correspondence analysis (N = 422) and interviews (N = 48) with college students in Beijing, we identify three taste dimensions: (1) disengaged versus discerning viewers; (2) TV lovers versus TV dislikers; and (3) ‘Western’ versus ‘Eastern’ TV taste. Dimensions 1 and 3 are cultural capital dimensions; they differ in criteria and type of cultural knowledge used to make distinctions and in connection with economic capital. Highlighting cosmopolitan capital as a distinct form of cultural capital, we analyse shifting global systems of cultural distinction, from a Chinese vantage point. Our analysis expands theories of culture and inequality by showing that (and how) tastes reflect and reinforce social stratification in the previously unexplored Chinese context, but with distinctive Chinese characteristics.

Measuring Organizational Culture in Hotels, Restaurants and Travel Agencies in Montenegro

Organizational culture has a strong influence on the management of the organization because cultural patterns are at the core of all human behavior and actions. The aim of this paper is to determine the character of the dominant models of organizational culture in the tourism and hospitality sector of Montenegro. In this study, a field survey questionnaire was used, among employees of hotels, restaurants and travel agencies in Montenegro. In this study, we examined specifically how the characteristics of the company affect the perception of its organizational culture. Furthermore, in this study we also examined how the characteristics of respondents affect the perception of organizational culture. Research hypotheses were tested with CHAID analysis, using IBM SPSS Statistics 26. Results show that the largest number of hotel and catering companies in Montenegro have an organizational culture of the clan and the second most represented culture is the culture of hierarchy. The main finding from the conducted research is the fact that the perception of the dominant type of organizational structure is significantly influenced by the type of tourist company and geographic distribution. The obtained results show that in hotels in the southern part of Montenegro, hierarchy culture is predominant, while in restaurants and travel agencies in central and northern regions it is the clan culture that dominates. The practical contribution implication of the study is in creating knowledge that can be used by managers of tourism companies in Montenegro to create a corporate strategy, recognizing that organizational culture has become an important aspect for senior management, i.e., managing the company and its development.

Evaluation of organisational culture dimensions and their change due to the pandemic

The purpose of this research is to determine whether the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on the change of organisational culture in public high schools. Additionally, if there has been a change in organisational culture, to what extent does this change differ from the preferred type? Cameron and Quinn's OCAI questionnaire was used to determine the types of organisational culture. 453 valid responses were obtained from teachers of randomly selected public secondary schools in all regions of the Czech Republic. Pre-Covid-19, the present and preferred status were assessed. It was found that initially hierarchy culture was predominant, while currently preferences for adhocracy and market culture have increased significantly, although the hierarchy type still prevails. In the type of future, respondents will see the clan of organisational culture. The shift in each type, but also in each of its dimensions in the three periods studied, provides the researcher with a theme for deeper research into the context, and for school institutions and principals to develop strategies to support the creation of a healthy organisational culture.