Culture Wars Research Articles

Durability in Inequality Discourse in the UK Public Sphere, 2008–2023

In this paper, we reflect on how the development and mutations of debates on economic inequality since 2008 reveal striking features regarding the nature and dynamics of the UK public sphere in a time of intersecting crises. We show how economic inequality is an important case study. We draw attention to the dynamic qualities of public debate in the period 2008–2015, in which there was major cross over between academic research, intellectual debate and public engagement. Even though this debate has become less vibrant since 2015 and has been substantially disrupted by “culture war” discourse, it has not been completely closed down. We argue that economic inequality issues have endured through the stabilisation by which key institutional agents have made it a central part of their field positioning. Our contribution is to offer a counterpart to pessimistic conceptions of the public sphere by drawing attention to the durability of economic inequality discussions even after the initiating crises which inspired these discussions have faded.

Introduction: about democratic discourse

ABSTRACT This essay introduces a twentieth anniversary forum reviewing the state of scholarship on communication as a critical/cultural study. It features democratic discourse as a main line of inquiry for pursuing a more just public culture, references relevant critical/cultural scholarship, and notes that forum contributors focus on matters of identity addressed in queer scholarship, including a current shift in the culture wars, and on constructions of race, articulations of whiteness, and issues of racism. Values of inclusion, rights, equality, and political agency engaged by these forum contributors are critical to the challenge of renewing democracy in a time of cultural turbulence.

Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the US Culture Wars by Charlie Jeffries (review)

Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the US Culture Wars by Charlie Jeffries (review)

Religious pressures on women's rights in Southeast Asia: Examining the right to an abortion in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam

This article aims to interrogate the “cultural wars” in Asia brought upon by rapid changes in gender roles in the world and the reactionary “return” to heteronormative families in Asia. For this article, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam were chosen for their diverse religious, cultural, and political definitions of the family and openness to global human rights discourses. As the article will show, despite the diversity of these three countries, one prevalent theme in access to abortions is the influence of religion. As one of the fastest growing regions in the world, Southeast Asia experienced a resurgence in religiosity in response to a change in economic and social relations over the past two decades. This growth took place thanks to active efforts by the state to manage population growth, often times through family planning efforts—including through providing access to abortions in some countries. But in a region where deeply entrenched stigmas are attached to abortions, nations treated abortions as a health imperative on the personal level, or a population control tool at the national level, but never as a personal right. Thus, as the role of religion in the region changes, becomes deeper and more personal, this article argues that pressures on safe abortion access becomes threatened. Through a socio-legal lens, this article will examine the legal right to an abortion in three Southeast Asian countries and argues that because abortions were primarily used as a tool for population control, and was not treated as fundamental right, the rise of religiosity in the region threatens precarious access to abortions in Southeast Asia.

Сербское православие как сторона, фактор и предмет культурных войн

The article defines Orthodoxy as an essential component of Serbian spirituality and national identity. Nowadays, Orthodoxy and the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) have become simultaneously a party, factor and subject of cultural wars waged on a global level between traditionalists/patriots, on the one hand, and globalists/universalists/ultra-liberals, on the other (A. C. Webb). A cultural war is understood as an irreconcilable conflict between parties that transmit opposing values that affect the spirituality, mentality and identity of individuals, as well as entire peoples and civilizations. It demonstrates both the unacceptability of Orthodoxy for globalism and the globalist desire to subjugate it, deform it and use it in its own interests. The SOC is an active party in this conflict, being both the guardian and defender of Serbian spirituality. Its position is complicated by the course of the “third way between East and West” of the Serbian authorities, oriented towards European integration, and the extremely aggravated situation with the ancestral home of Serbian spirituality – Kosovo and Metohija. Negative trends are associated with the policy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which seeks to limit the influence of the SOC with the Republic of Serbia and establish its control over the remaining territories. Representatives of the “other Serbia” present Orthodoxy as outdated, irrelevant for modern people, and even covering up “Serbian chauvinism.” Patriots see in it the basis of Serbian identity and a spiritual bond with the Russian people.

“Now, What’s One Story I Wanted to Tell You?”: Oral History Exhibition Archives at the Chicago History Museum at the Turn of the 21st Century

Starting in the 1970s, American history museums have undergone a shift away from seeing themselves collections-focused historical societies acting as “temples to the past.” In the face of broader political challenges—civil rights, increasingly multicultural urban audiences, and the “culture wars” of the 1980s, public historians have sought to reclaim their institutions’ relevance by seeking to share their authority and mission with those “publics” they serve. While secondary literature on public history has generally agreed that museums pulled off this shift—and museums themselves have touted successful exhibits and outreach—this essay uses a specific case study to complicate the narrative. The Chicago History Museum, a metropolitan history museum founded in 1856 as the Chicago Historical Society, turned to oral history as both a collecting and a community engagement practice in the 1990s and early 2000s. At a moment of museological transition, the museum sought to match its city’s transition towards multiculturalism. This essay reads oral history archives created by the museum in a new light: within their material history as collections. I argue that the oral history archives of CHS’s exhibition projects are valuable sources not just of the urban history the museum intended to capture but also the institutional history of public museums themselves. This method suggests new paths forward for understanding public history strategies and community history.

Рене Жирар, нигилизм постправды и эскалация насильственной неразличимости

Today’s cluster of geopolitical threats are helpfully addressed by the mimetic theory of René Girard. He accounts for human order and stability in light of cathartic violence preserved in socio-religious form, enabling the peaceful management of desire and the restraint of violent disorder. The challenge to this mechanism represented by Judeo-Christian revelation offers a nonviolent alternative vision but also brings the threat of instability, which has returned in modern times — an insight that Girard identifies in Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Carl von Clausewitz. In phenomena such as fake news and political populism, the culture wars in which Western self-aggrandisement is matched by its cultural self-laceration, the climate crisis, and the potential escalation to extremes of modern military conflict, the pathologies of mimetic desire threaten humanity with apocalyptic consequences.

The Culture Wars Come to Pennsylvania: The Elizabethtown Area School Board and the “Pro-Family” Resolution, 1996–1997

The Culture Wars Come to Pennsylvania: The Elizabethtown Area School Board and the “Pro-Family” Resolution, 1996–1997

ЗЛАМ МЕНТАЛЬНОСТІ УКРАЇНЦІВ У ХХ – НА ПОЧАТКУ ХХІ СТОЛІТЬ: ІСТОРИЧНИЙ ТА АСИМІЛЯЦІЙНИЙ КОНТЕКСТ

The evolution of the nation’s mentality is a complex interplay of historical events, societal transformations, and cultural assimilation. The 20th century brought about a series of changes that left an indelible mark on the collective psyche of its people. Navigating through the tumultuous historical landscape of the 20th and early 21st centuries becomes exceptionally important in studying the nuances of fractures in the mentality of Ukrainians. This scientific article aims to delve into the aspects of mental transformations that took place among Ukrainians during this period, shedding light on both historical and assimilation factors that contributed to the evolution and distortion of the Ukrainian worldview. The historical context encompasses a list of events, from the tumultuous first decades of the 20th century, marked by wars and revolutions, to the complex socio-political landscape of the post-Soviet era. Simultaneously, assimilation processes, whether globalization, external cultural influences, internal transformations, wars, or genocide, add impetus to the formation of the Ukrainian mentality. By carefully studying these two components, the goal is to uncover the nuances of changes, challenges, and resilience embedded in the mental profile of Ukrainians, offering a comprehensive understanding of the factors shaping their worldview. In the quest to unravel the complexities associated with the mental transformation of Ukrainians, this article seeks to provide a scientific investigation rooted in historical analysis and assimilation frameworks. Through a detailed examination of key events and cultural dynamics, it is important to contribute to a broader discourse on the evolution of national mentalities, fostering a deeper understanding of the Ukrainian experience in the 20th and early 21st centuries. In this context, it is crucial to consider individual stories and testimonies preserved in personal archives, such as the archive of O. S. Pohribniak. These sources provide an opportunity to trace significant sociocultural changes in the young generation of the 21st century.

Beyond Tribalism: Renewing the American Ideal

Not since the U.S. Civil War has American society been more divided regarding social, economic, political, religious, and especially cultural issues. It is as if America's very self-identity has become problematic. How does the cultural morass and the promotion of “cancel culture” and unlimited individual subjectivity relate to the original American Founders’ vision articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution? By the twenty-first century, the U.S. reflects the moral corrosion of a popular culture with its secular leftist bent and antiChristian bias. U.S. society is undergoing re-tribalization due to “affirmative action” and the un-American emphasis on race, ethnicity, and gender. It is causing rampant gender and identity confusion, especially among the nation’s youth already stressed by online shaming rituals via social media. Official government and educational bureaucracies promote toxic cultural mandates, invoking “anti-discrimination” laws and the mantra, “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” intensifying the culture wars and divisive identity politics. The essay concludes with a vision to renew the American ideal of “One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The Global Resistance to LGBTIQ Rights

Abstract: This essay explores the troubling global pattern of illiberal governments weaponizing the issue of LGBTIQ rights. We argue that the fluidity of sexual orientation and gender identity makes LGBTIQ people susceptible targets for antidemocratic forces, allowing autocratic and illiberal regimes to contrast these identities with the perceived stability of tradition, national sovereignty, and conventional notions of "nature." Political homo- and transphobia are used by illiberal governments as tools to mobilize constituencies by framing LGBTIQ rights as incompatible with traditional values. Based on interviews and observations of participants at international forums, we also chart the global movement opposing LGBTIQ rights and explain how it undermines liberal democracy and threatens human-rights egalitarianism, weakens international institutions, and weaponizes democratic pluralism in divisive culture wars. The essay calls for a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between illiberalism, homo- and transphobia, and the challenge posed to the foundational values of liberal democracies. We also offer ideas for how actors in liberal democracies can respond to and defend LGBTIQ rights effectively.

The Ascent of the Internet and the Ascent of the Culture War in American Political Life: A Note

The Ascent of the Internet and the Ascent of the Culture War in American Political Life: A Note

LA GUERRA CULTURAL EN REDES SOCIALES: ENTRE CONSENSOS Y HEGEMONÍAS.

Social networks are configured, every day more, as a field of dispute, where power runs in a way never seen before in the development of humanity. Algorithms and bots constitute the new soldiers of a cultural war that maneuvers in the senses of users through the activation of emotions in messages aimed at audiences that have been nano-segmented. Understanding how the construction of virtual reality operates and how they want it to become a reality in physical space represents an urgency for the sociological sciences. Faced with such a complex and palpable phenomenon, the challenge remains to encourage a different type of participation from these platforms so that emancipating communities are erected, spaces of resistance to hegemonic oppression.

UNIVERSALIST CLAIMS VS. LOCAL PERSPECTIVES: DECOLONISING “ACADEMIC WRITING IN ENGLISH”

Many scholars and university students whose first language is not English need to write in English to publish in international journals and to attend international conferences. Gatekeepers — editors and conference organizers — screen submissions for linguistic competence but also for adherence to certain internationally accepted norms, such as writing that is argument-driven rather than descriptive or data-driven. Courses and training sessions I have taught under the general rubric “Academic Writing in English” (AWE) sought to improve students’ chances with international publications and conferences by encouraging them to strengthen their central arguments. While confident of the benefits of AWE instruction, I had an uneasy conscience about its not so hidden universalist claim that forms of AngloAmerican academic inquiry are superior to others. Such claims, coupled with the presumption of their universal applicability, are today being challenged by decolonising critiques. Bluntly put, is Academic Writing in English guilty of neo-colonialism because it recommends hewing to norms developed in the global (north)west? There is more to academic writing in English, of course, than attention to an argument-driven structure. However, it is the promotion of such standards that makes AWE instruction vulnerable to the decolonising critique. To apply the critique to AWE pedagogy, this article reviews the impact of the decoloniality literature on education and research in Belarus and Ukraine, and highlights resistance in those countries against Russian cultural hegemony. After framing the topic and reviewing the cultural struggle in Belarus and Ukraine, I argue that for Academic Writing in English to be truly beneficial, instruction must be self-critical, allowing and encouraging participants to engage in collective self-reflection to enable informed decisions regarding cultural norms. The focus on Academic Writing in English as taught in Eastern Europe suggests broader comparisons regarding the clash between universalist claims and local perspectives in other regions of the world.

Innovation management and impact on social economy: A perspective of community enterprise in a developing country

Today’s economic, social, political, technological, and environmental changes pose numerous challenges. Organisations that fail to adapt and reflect their organisational culture struggle to meet objectives and survive. Successful organisations must embrace innovation (Dah et al., 2022). Community enterprises (CEs), also referred to as social enterprises, possess a distinct advantage when it comes to tackling socio-economic problems in marginalised communities. The significance of CEs in addressing social challenges and delivering inventive, long-lasting, and impactful social solutions is steadily increasing (Ngatse-Ipangui & Dassah, 2019). This study explains innovation management and the effect of CEs on the social economy in Nan, Thailand. Through qualitative research, eight key informants were interviewed to assess the influence of CEs in Nan, Thailand. Data analysis involved content analysis and NVivo software. The findings revealed that innovation management allows CEs to develop new ideas and procedures efficiently, enhancing productivity, profitability, and flexibility. CEs contribute to economic growth, inclusion, and societal well-being, particularly in the digital age. They generate jobs, offer innovative services and products, promote sustainability, and inspire hope for the future. Governments, administrations, and organisations should support CEs striving to improve the social economy, as these initiatives benefit both the community and society as a whole.

문화공보부의 출범과 문화냉전의 내전(內戰)화 - 제1차 문예중흥 5개년 계획 이전 《월간문학》의 민족문화론과 국위선양론을 중심으로 -"

문화공보부의 출범과 문화냉전의 내전(內戰)화 - 제1차 문예중흥 5개년 계획 이전 《월간문학》의 민족문화론과 국위선양론을 중심으로 -"

Unending War: Combat Trauma in Joss Whedon’s "Firefly"

The article discusses the long-term effects of combat trauma as portrayed in Joss Whedon’s Firefly series, focusing on the issues of trust, identity, and belonging. In doing so, it highlights the image of warrior and war in popular culture.

A HISTORICAL AND RHIZOMATIC APPROACH TO FREE SPEECH AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Free speech is a highly debated topic, it became a topic of cultural wars, lawsuits and dishonest propaganda. This is doubled up by the finicky nature of free speech as it is. There is no sole ideal definition that can satisfy all needs. There are many barriers in regards to creating a solid foundation of thought even in an attempt to explain free speech. In this article we will attempt to look at the right to free speech as a historical ideal in American and European history and from the perspective of Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of the rhizome as presented in their seminal work A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. We may have anything to add to such a debated topic only through the dissolution of the apparently opposed. Only by dissolving the arborescent and the rhizomatic structures we may achieve any semblance of a solution to the digitalised zeitgeist of our day to day lives.

School Administrators’ Priorities for Legal Literacy Training

Legally astute educational leaders are essential to carry out any school's mission. This article relays their priorities and preferences concerning legal literacy training approaches. Their collective input offers clear support for real-life focused, contextually grounded legal preparation. Remarkably, only ten percent of the participants reported receiving the training approach the group so strongly recommended. Administrator-recommended instructional priorities consistent with problem-based learning (PBL) would emphasize contexts leaders are engaged in, inspire confidence in candidates, and complement the development of their professional sensemaking responsibilities.

The Polarization of Popular Culture: Tracing the Size, Shape, and Depth of the “Oil Spill”

Abstract Recent research suggests that political polarization has spilled over into otherwise mundane areas of social life. And yet, the size, shape, and depth of that spillage into popular culture are generally unknown. Relying on a sample of 135 widely known movies, TV shows, musicians, sports, and leisure activities, we investigate these issues. We find the “oil spill” of polarization into popular culture is large but loosely organized into multiple fairly shallow pools. Cultural polarization is also asymmetric. Liberals like a wide variety of popular culture, do not dislike conservative popular culture, and their tastes are more rooted in their sociodemographics. Conservatives, on the other hand, like a much narrower range of popular culture, dislike the culture created and liked by Black and urban liberals, and their tastes seem to be more directly rooted in their political ideology. Potential implications of an asymmetric culture war, and ideas for future research, are discussed.