Cultural Tensions Research Articles

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

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.

Cooperation across social borders in bonobos.

Cooperation beyond familial and group boundaries is core to the functioning of human societies, yet its evolution remains unclear. To address this, we examined grooming, coalition, and food-sharing patterns in bonobos (Pan paniscus), one of our closest living relatives whose rare out-group tolerance facilitates interaction opportunities between groups. We show that, as in humans, positive assortment supports bonobo cooperation across borders. Bonobo cooperative attitudes toward in-group members informed their cooperative relationships with out-groups, in particular, forming connections with out-group individuals who also exhibited high cooperation tendencies. Our findings show that cooperation between unrelated individuals across groups without immediate payoff is not exclusive to humans and suggest that such cooperation can emerge in the absence of social norms or strong cultural dispositions.

Mediating Unresolved Conflict Through Dominant News Discourse

Particularly in coverage of unresolved conflicts, mass media news of both the one-to-many broadcast era and the new networked era are not guaranteed to sufficiently provide the historical and analytical depth required for publics to understand these infinitely complex tensions in their respective cultural and temporal context. Mass media news coverage of the day, however, does perpetuate mediated images that seek to affect how publics contextualize and collectively remember simmering cultural conflicts into the future, afar and close to home. This article conducts a small-scale theoretical review of the theories of collective memory and agenda-setting, complemented by an analysis of mass media news coverage and literature on unresolved conflicts concerning the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) and “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. This interrogation, in light of theoretical conceptions of dominant news discourses, offers an explanation as to how publics may come to understand ongoing conflicts in the external world. In shaping understandings of unresolved conflicts by publics, mass media news can play a biased role in making certain political tensions affectively salient for the preservation of a nation’s collective past by attempting to influence how compassion is evoked from publics in the present and even into the future. While certainly historically and geopolitically situated, a commonality exists between the unresolved conflicts of the FLQ terrorist attacks in Québec, Canada and the Troubles in Northern Ireland: nationalist cultural tensions, ones that simmer cyclically until discontent erupts between players on opposing sides. Although apparent collectives can seek out countless contemporary alternative sources of information in the digital era of abundance, this paper argues that collective memory remains significant in the context of scrutinizing how mass media news problematically sets biased agendas, which then promotes quite different historical worldviews of deeply complex conflicts.

From “prototype” to “model”: Architectural and spatial development of Block A (1924–1945) of Istanbul's Heybeliada Sanatorium

This article examines Block A, the first block-style building in Heybeliada Sanatorium in Istanbul. The purpose of this research is to understand its architectural and spatial development and discuss how in fact it was a “prototype” of Turkish sanatoria. Approached with a three-step methodology (documentation/evaluation/results) this research conducts architectural and spatial analysis on Block A. Primary sources like architectural documentation and restitution drawings, the writings of the institution's head doctor Tevfik İsmail Gökçe, periodicals on tuberculosis (TB), as well as pertinent literature are utilized. The findings demonstrate that Block A's development (1924–1945) was the result of knowledge transfer that introduced the universal sanatorium design principles, spatial experiments, adaptation to sociocultural norms, and trial-and-error processes. Not only it had a major impact on shaping of the second block-type building in the complex, the “model” Block B, but it also became exemplary of the subsequent Turkish sanatoria. The originality of this article is its exploration of the changing and evolving Block A in its resonation with the cultural tensions of Turkey's modernization process. This was established via the assessment of budgetary issues, medical developments and climatic experiments, the social issue of scarcity of TB beds in the country, spatial practices to separate the sexes as reflections of local traditions and culture in the shaping of spaces.

Activity Theory Approach and Geographic Information Systems Affordance for Effective Land Management and Administration Actualization

This research explores the challenges and drivers of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) affordance actualization within the Ministry of Land and Survey, Yola, Nigeria. The problem at hand is the underutilization of GIS technology in many public organizations, often resulting in failed projects and misfit due to cultural inclinations. To address this issue, Activity Theory was employed as a theoretical framework, innovatively applying it to the interpretation of human-technology interactions within a public sector setting. An in-depth interpretive research study at the Ministry of Land and Survey (MLS) was conducted, focusing on the sub-unit triangular and subject-cascaded models guided by integrated nested Activity Theory. The research reveals novel insights into the application of GIS in public organizations. The findings underscore the critical role of factors such as funding, legitimization, technology (tools), user cognition, geo-visualization, spatial infrastructure, and outcomes in facilitating GIS affordance actualization. These elements have been redefined within the context of land administration in public organizations. The research introduces two new theoretical constructs, "Spatial Data Infrastructure" and "Geo-visualization," further extending the integrated Activity Theory constructs. The importance of this study lies in its potential to inform GIS professionals, developers, and policymakers. The newly developed mid-level theoretical model, Spatial Information Affording Approach (SISAA) offers a comprehensive framework for designing effective GIS systems that streamline land transactions, enhance revenue generation, reduce land disputes, and bolster the overall integrity of land administration in public sectors. This research contributes not only to the Nigerian context but also holds relevance for public organizations worldwide that use GIS in land management. In conclusion, this study bridges a significant gap in the current body of knowledge by providing a spatially enabled theoretical framework for GIS applications in culturally organized public organizations. It has the potential to drive improvements in land administration and promote the successful implementation of GIS in the public sector, aligning with global agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Collaborative Transnational Education in China: A Scoping Review of Emerging Research Trajectories (2016–2023)

The paper presents a scoping review of research on transnational education in China published from 2016, the last year that a comprehensive literature review on the subject was published in Chinese Education & Society. The authors delimited a corpus of 88 articles focusing on collaborative transnational education in China and published on Scopus-listed international journals. The analysis of this corpus was supplemented by sampling the top cited articles on the same subject published in Chinese language academic journals. The quantitative analysis showed how research production pivoted during the period with an increased focus on teaching and learning and the lived experiences of students, academics and managers, while the same literature was previously dominated by research on wider managerial and institutional matters. A qualitative analysis of the production revealed a number of emerging research trajectories: the experience of academics and managers; the impact on host-country higher education; student motivations; transnational vocational higher education; first year transition; teaching challenges; the lived experiences of the students; Covid impact. Finally, the analysis outlined some trajectories that are only broadly sketched: cultural tensions; students’ employability prospects; comparative studies among Sino-foreign cooperative universities; language and power; identity formation of students and academics. The article concludes with remarks on the value of studying transnational education within the context of China to further understand multicultural phenomena.

The first epidemiology of urolithiasis in Northern Vietnam: Urinary stone composition, age, gender, season, and clinical features study.

The aim of this study is to analyze the compositions of urinary stones and investigate their distributions in different ages, genders, seasons, and clinical features of Northern Vietnamese patients. A total of 231 patients with urinary stones from Northern Vietnam were collected and analyzed composition from 1/2021-12/2022. For all patients, age, sex, stone location, stone side, urine pH, and hospitalized date (month) were collected. Kidney stones are more frequently found in men than women with the male: female urinary stones ratio in this study being 1.96:1. The highest stone prevalence appeared between 60 and 69 years old. The most common stone composition was calcium oxalate, followed by calcium phosphate, uric acid, struvite, and cysteine. Mix stones of CaOx and CaP were more prevalent than pure stones. Males submitted more CaOx, CaP, and UA stones, whereas females were susceptible to infectious stones. Stones were more frequently found on the left side of the upper urinary tract (51.9%) than on the right side (27.3%) and lower urinary tract (7.8%). Cultural tendency leads to a smaller number of stones during the Lunar new year (February), and Ghost month (August).