Culture Wars Research Articles

Cultural Aid and the Cultural Cold War: The Origins of the Ford Foundation's entry into Burma

After the beginning of the Cold War, an unprecedented consensus on the Cold War was formed in the United States. Civil organizations represented by the Ford Foundation deeply participated in the cultural Cold War led by the U.S. government through the way of identity reconstruction. In consideration of the Cold War, the Ford Foundation from the very beginning directed a large amount of funds and cultural projects to Asia, rather than to Europe and Latin America, which were traditionally close to the United States. Burma received early attention from the Ford Foundation because of its unique location. At the same time, the government of Burma was trying to maintain national unity and stability by reviving Buddhism, but was struggling with a lack of funds. So the government invited the Ford Foundation to help fund its Pali Project. While the latter agreed to provide cultural assistance to Burma, the ultimate goal was to enhance the understanding and identity of the Burmese people with Western culture, so as to better serve the US Cold War project.

Staying the Course in the Balkans

In the midst of culture shock, war, and difficult ministry situations, God's call and faithfulness kept the Bells serving him in missions for over 30 years.

A cultural theory of the culture wars

AbstractWe provide the first account of the culture wars in the political psychology and public opinion literature based on a theory of culture. Using innovative measures of grid‐group cultural theory (CT), we identify the cultures associated with ideological and partisan identifications in annual U.S. national surveys from 2011 to 2022, a unique data set of 24,870 respondents. As hypothesized, we find that the culture wars occur not just between ideologues and partisans but among them as they draw support from distinct, relatively stable yet shifting cultural coalitions. Egalitarian and, less often, fatalistic liberals and Democrats battle against individualistic and, less often, hierarchical, conservatives and Republicans. As hypothesized, fatalists are the least reliable coalition partners, and, as expected, they gravitate Republican and conservative in 2017, after Trump's election. However, fatalists who are strong partisan identifiers never defect. Moreover, our hypothesis that fatalist attraction to Trump would drive defections in their political identification is largely invalidated. Instead, fatalists mostly flee Trump in our aggregate analysis as well as in subanalyses of strong and weak ideological and partisan identifiers. In 2016 and 2018–2022, it appears that independent fatalists cause fatalists to gravitate liberal and Democrat. Unexpectedly, hierarchists also go liberal and Democrat in 2022, in apparent reaction to Trump's multifront attacks on the 2020 election that he lost. We identify the basis for cultural coalitions that can end particular culture wars, including the most significant one now occurring between egalitarians and individualists, and conclude with suggestions for further research.

Cultural wars and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in Southeast Asia: ‘Asian values’, human rights, and the ‘homosexual turn’

Some have argued that we are seeing a ‘homosexual turn’ in Southeast Asia. Decriminalization of sodomy, legal recognition of same-sex marriage, and discussions regarding trans rights have all taken place in the last decade. However, a backlash has emerged as well. Governmental censure of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender issues has escalated, with politicians espousing anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender rhetoric and warning against importing ‘cultural wars’ from the West into Asia. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender rights debate is becoming the new cultural battleground in Asia, with ‘Asian’ and ‘family’ centered values being pitted against ‘Western hegemony’ and ‘moral corruption’. As lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender activists advocate for more recognition, the ‘traditional’ heteronormative family is further institutionalized and valorized. This article aims to interrogate the ‘cultural wars’ in Asia as reflected in the tension between burgeoning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender activism and the enduring privilege of heteronormative families. It will explore this cultural clash through the following three dimensions: (1) rights framing, (2) competition over resources, and (3) political backlash. Ultimately, though, the article argues that as opposed to seeing this tension as a ‘cultural war’, instead we should see this conflict as developmental growing pains, as the region continues to evolve, and nation-states begin to grapple with the burgeoning rights and an irrepressible recognition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender identities that had been buried under layers of ideologies, from political to moral.

Positive liberty in the drama <i>The Serfs</i> by Ivan Cankar

Cankar’s drama The Serfs (Hlapci) was written during the cultural struggle waged at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and contains otherwise rarely stated political theses that have had a profound influence on the formation of Slovenian collective memory. The key world of Slovenian culture, as conveyed through the Cankar's drama, serves to express the dynamic processes of modernization and points to the unformed liberal and socialist discourse at the time. This is why the work functions in Slovenian culture as a call to action, even to active resistance.

Owning the Libs: The Contemporary Politics of Envy

Abstract: This essay defines Owning the Libs (OTL), a logic of envy, characterized by a subject's need to both deny another enjoyment and to frustrate the capacity of these political opponents to live. My case studies focus on reactions to progressive protests in the post-Ferguson environment. OTL is not downstream of some cultural war nor an exotic right-wing, illiberal phenomenon. Situating personhood in the tradition of violent dispossession, I illuminate the practice's liberal roots, before concluding OTL will be (if it is not already) US conservatism's policy agenda, and an existential threat to progressive agitation.

From the Three Rs to the “Culture Wars”? How Australians Perceive Local Government Action on Climate Change, Indigenous Reconciliation, and LGBTQIA + Advocacy

Australian local government has rarely been the domain where entrenched and polarising cultural disputes play out, and is instead most often associated with the “3Rs”: roads, rates, and rubbish. However, in recent years, a growing number of local councils from across Australia have taken exceptional and unprecedented steps, sometimes in defiance of state and federal governments, to address some of the country's most ideologically contentious issues. Drawing on long-established American urban politics literature on local politics and culture war conflicts, this research note offers an empirical account of the public understandings and perceptions of local government roles in the realm of contentious politics, an area that has not yet been addressed in the emerging Australian literature. Our findings from a representative nation-wide survey (n = 1,350) indicate that a majority of Australians believe that local governments should be involved in matters relating to climate change, Indigenous reconciliation, and LGBTQIA + advocacy.

The inordinate unpopularity of changing all eponymous bird and other organismal names

A proposal by Foley & Rutter (2020) to eliminate all eponymous English bird names was published in the Washington Post, a Washington D.C. newspaper. Fears (2021) reported in this same newspaper that a racist and colonialist history is perpetuated in some English bird names, especially eponyms, and that a social movement is working to change those names. These articles generated hundreds of online comments. I used sentiment analysis on these comments to quantify public reaction to this proposal and topic. Among the 340 scored comments to Foley & Rutter (2020), negative opinions outnumbered positive ones by 3.36:1. Scoring comments by relative magnitude of their sentiment (-3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3) yielded an average score of -1.18. These results indicate this proposed action is very unpopular among these readers and causes pronounced divisiveness. The 570 scored comments to the Fears (2021) article were also negatively skewed (2.3:1), though less so (average score -0.58). Politicization and the left-right nature of the issue were rampant in the comments on both articles, indicating that the subject was immediately brought into the culture wars (i.e., conflict between liberal and conservative groups over cultural issues). The divisive nature of the topic was also evident within self-identified left-leaning respondents. These results likely underestimate public negativity to this proposal, because the Washington Post is a left-leaning newspaper. Similarly, Guedes et al. (2023) called for eliminating all eponymous organismal names, and a sentiment analysis of comments about that article was even more starkly negative, showing 90 % of commenters opposed. More data like these are needed. There is considerable risk that broadly de-commemorating eponymous organismal names will create more negative than positive outcomes (e.g., through asymmetric polarization and the culture wars). We must also ask: does excluding people who do not share our views achieve our objective of inclusiveness? When is it acceptable to take away someone’s hard-won knowledge by changing key terms in our shared biodiversity linguistic infrastructure? There are more constructive ways to address diversity, equity and inclusion.

Courageous Conversations: Preparing Students to Lead in a Politically Polarized Business Environment

We describe an experimental curriculum innovation that creates a safe space for students to engage in courageous conversations —to openly share diverse thoughts and opinions as well as vigorously debate politically charged issues of critical business importance. Course evaluations and online surveys of student experiences and reactions strongly suggest that the courageous conversation model is an excellent way to prepare the next generation of successful business leaders. In a world where politically polarizing issues embedded in America’s culture wars increasingly impact business viability, profitability, and competitiveness, such leaders are both highly coveted and key to organizational success.

“Divisive Issues” and Collateral Damage: The Evolving Needs of Teachers Entrenched in the Culture War

Forty-four states have recently taken formal policy steps to limit how teachers can teach about so-called “divisive issues.” This paper examines teachers’ perceptions of what they need to be prepared to teach in states where “divisive issues” legislation exists. Teacher interview data where restrictive legislation exists were used to explore what inservice teachers need to teach within the constraints of states’ divisive issues legislation, and what teacher preparation programs should focus on when preparing new teachers to do the same. Analysis revealed, among other things, that all feel they need clear guidance from their district, and better training.

Feminism, boomers and Baphomet: Satanic satire and the Trump era culture wars in Satanic Panic (2019)

Focusing on the Gothic comedy Satanic Panic, this article examines how the film uses satire as a liberal reaction to the patriarchal, theocratic agenda of Trumpism, following a notable tradition of Satan adopted as a symbol of countercultural, individualist revolution. I argue that the text’s youth-focus, as well as its representation of gender, national identity and economic class, negotiates feminism and competing ideologies of satanism to suitably reflect the opposing strands of the contemporary culture wars. Indeed, the post-truth, paranoiac United States under Trump has seen apocalyptic rhetoric and occult conspiracy-thinking flourish alongside left-wing satanic activism. A sociopolitical climate that draws distinct parallels with the 1980s and 1990s ‘Satanic Panic’ era and Y2K premillennialism. This work conceptualizes, through close analysis, how the film effectively articulates such postmodern retroactivity – at both a thematic and narrative level – to reflect the gendered, generational divide and troubling legacy of Reaganite neo-liberalism at the heart of the Trump era.

“May There Always Be Sunshine!”: A Symbol of Childhood in Soviet and American Cold War Songs

Introduction. The article is the first to study the use of the symbol of childhood by the USSR and the USA songs for the representation of Cold War issues. Methods and materials. Based on the methodology of constructivism, the author analyzes the reasons for the politicization of the image of childhood and the role of popular music as an instrument of symbolic politics. Qualitative content analysis is used to examine more than 400 songs of the USSR and the USA related to Cold War issues; about 70 of them use the symbol of childhood. The symbol of childhood in the Soviet song. A study of USSR songs demonstrates that images of children were an important component of the “cultural Cold War” on the musical front. The symbol of childhood in the American song. U.S. musical pieces contributed significantly to the legitimation of the Cold War and the construction of images of “us” and “them,” including with the help of images of children. Results. The comparative analysis shows that in both the USSR and the USA, it was used to represent such issues as peace, war, security, nuclear weapons, freedom, justice, and the future of humanity. Not only did it create the image of the enemy, but it also deconstructed it by showing the similarity of the two nations in basic values, including attitudes toward children. In addition to the common features, songs in the USA and the USSR also reveal different characteristics. In the former, children are primarily the object of defense; in the latter, they are also subjects of politics and active fighters for peace. In the former, one can find negative images of childhood in the USSR; in the latter, young Americans are first and foremost children, just like everyone else. In the Soviet song, these images remain practically unchanged; in the American protest song, the symbol under study is used to delegitimize the policy of the authorities.

The Enemy with Human Face? Rehumanization of the Images of Americans in the Soviet Thaw Cinema

Introduction. The article focuses on the changes that happened in the portrayal of U.S. characters in Soviet Thaw cinema. The contribution of the article in the field of cultural Cold War is threefold: for the first time, it studies the American characters’ images through the prism of the concept of rehumanization; establishes common and particular traits of deconstruction of the image of the enemy in Soviet and American cinema; and introduces new materials into scientific circulation. The materials consist of the movies on which Soviet cinematography worked in the early 1960s; reviews in film magazines; and archival data of discussions on movies and their scenarios that took place in film studios. Analysis. Specifics of the dehumanization of ‘enemy number one’ in Soviet cinema. The Soviet anti-Americanism was based on the idea of ‘two Americas’: dehumanization has been subjected only to class and politically alien Americans. Deconstructing the image of the enemy in Thaw cinema. Humanizing U.S. characters was achieved with the help of endowing them with kindness, empathy, creativity, emotionality, moral behavior, ability for love, friendship, and comradeship, emphasizing the similarity of the basic values of ‘us’ and ‘them’, and demonstrating the possibility of peaceful coexistence through cases of mutual aid, cooperation, and the occurrence of friendly and romantic relations. The humanness of U.S. characters becomes less dependent on political factors. The cinema expressed the idea that man by nature was good, and this original human goodness was noticeable most of all in children, including American ones. The limits of rehumanization. The conservative part of the Soviet elite accused ‘abstract humanism’ of forgetting the class principle and juxtaposed it to ‘revolutionary humanism’. Criticism of ‘abstract humanism’ in ideology was accompanied by a tightening of demands for representing America that representatives of the Soviet controlling bodies made. Results. In the 1960s, Soviet cinema (just like U.S. cinema) had the tendency of deconstructing the image of ‘enemy number one’, which took the form of rehumanization. The rehumanization had its limitations.

Creationism and climate skepticism: power and public understandings of science in America

This FORUM article is written in response to ‘Evolutionary Stasis: creationism, evolution and climate change in the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum’ by Jenna Scaramanga and Michael J. Reiss published in CSSE in 2023. Starting from a sociological rather than pedagogical standpoint, the article aims to situate Accelerated Christian Education’s curriculum in relation to evolution and climate change in its broader context. This broader context comprises a national situation of Culture Wars where views on science and religion are politically polarized and morally inflected. Creationism and climate change denial/skepticism occur together and connect to right-wing politics. Climate change denial also clearly connects to corporate interests. Struggles for political, economic, ideological, and epistemic power all pertain. Reference is then made to recently collected focus group data to illustrate how non-creationist publics may also define science narrowly and inaccurately and yet still support it. The influence of evolution and climate change denialists must not be overstated. However, the harm of inaccurate, pseudoscientific education also requires examination. Nothing less than the Earth’s future is at stake, and education is a key battlefield. Science educators have an important role to play, working with patience, empathy, and awareness.

The 2023 Judicial Reform That Wasn't

Abstract This article offers two interpretations of the constitutional confrontation that ensued over the proposed 2023 judicial overhaul legislation. It places the debate in the context of a broader culture war over Israel's conditions of legitimacy and as a continuum. At one end of the spectrum, the judicial overhaul legislation can be seen as pursuing a ‘decision to decide’ tactic, countered by the opposition using the same constitutional tactic in the opposite direction. On the other end of the spectrum, the judicial overhaul program could be viewed as an opening position in constitutional negotiations, with reform advocates seeking only the nomination of a few committed conservative justices and the maintenance of the constitutional status quo of deciding not decide. To this end, the nationalists’ move was again countered by the opposition using the same constitutional tactic but in the opposite direction to prevent this outcome.

Who is responsible for fixing the food system? A framing analysis of media reactions to the UK's National Food Strategy

PurposeHigh levels of child obesity alongside rising stunting and the absence of a coherent food policy have deemed UK’s food system to be broken. The National Food Strategy (NFS) was debated intensely in media, with discussions on how and who should fix the food system.Design/methodology/approachUsing a mixed methods approach, the authors conduct framing analysis on traditional media and sentiment analysis of twitter reactions to the NFS to identify frames used to shape food system policy interventions.FindingsThe study finds evidence that the media coverage of the NFS often utilised the tropes of “culture wars” shaping the debate of who is responsible to fix the food system – the government, the public or the industry. NFS recommendations were portrayed as issues of free choice to shift the debate away from government action correcting for market failure. In contrast, the industry was showcased as equipped to intervene on its own accord. Dietary recommendations made by the NFS were depicted as hurting the poor, painting a picture of helplessness and loss of control, while their voices were omitted and not represented in traditional media.Social implicationsBritish media’s alignment with free market economic thinking has implications for food systems reform, as it deters the government from acting and relies on the invisible hand of the market to fix the system. Media firms should move beyond tropes of culture wars to discuss interventions that reform the structural causes of the UK’s broken food systems.Originality/valueAs traditional media coverage struggles to capture the diversity of public perception; the authors supplement framing analysis with sentiment analysis of Twitter data. To the best of our knowledge, no such media (and social media) analysis of the NFS has been conducted. The paper is also original as it extends our understanding of how media alignment with free market economic thinking has implications for food systems reform, as it deters the government from acting and relies on the invisible hand of the market to fix the system.

The 'Courant Hilton': building the mathematical sciences at New York University.

This essay explores how mid-twentieth-century mathematicians at New York University envisioned their discipline, cultural identities and social roles, and how these self-constructed identities materialized in the planning of their new academic building, Warren Weaver Hall. These mathematicians considered their research to be a 'living part of the stream of science', requiring a mathematics research library which they equated to a scientific laboratory and a complex of computing rooms which served as an interdisciplinary research centre. Identifying as 'scientists', they understood their societal value to be that of researchers, outputting mathematics research valuable to the natural sciences, the emerging field of computer science and the United States government and military, as well as educators. When the building opened in 1965, it was touted by the university administration as an 'example of excellence'; it later, in 1970, became the site of heated negotiations when university student and faculty protestors staged a sit-in rebuking the Atomic Energy Commission's Computing Center housed on the second floor. A close study of the correspondence between the mathematicians and their peers in the university's administration, private foundations, government agencies and an architectural firm not only illuminates the day-to-day work practices of this eminent group of mathematicians, but also sheds light on their own self-constructed academic and social identities within their contemporaneous Cold War culture.

Extended commentary—Keeping the republic: A vision for America

AbstractThe United States is enduring an identity crisis characterized by a polarized political climate precipitating an American culture war. In this battle the Republican Party has been overtaken by “Anti‐wokeism” allied with antidemocratic “states' rights” beliefs claiming an exclusive, antipluralist definition of republic. The extremist right in America insists that America is not a democracy, but a “republic” built to respect the status of a minority characterized as white, nationalist and Christian. “Anti‐wokeism” is an extension of Trumpism and MAGA (Make America Great Again), gathering together antidemocratic forces, fueled by resentment and theories of racial displacement known as the Great Replacement Theory. These forces are overwhelming the modern Republican Party, inspiring homophobia, misogyny, racism, book bans, and violence. This essay addresses the following four elements of this crisis with an eye to a renewed vision of America: (1) the difference between an 18th Century and 21st Century definition of a republic; (2) the antidemocratic states' rights movement; (3) the nature of strongman populism in American politics; and (4) a vision of diversity as the core principle of the American Republic.

Public Health in the Crosshairs of Culture Wars

This JAMA Forum discusses the topics of reproductive rights, transgender care, firearm safety, and COVID-19 vaccines in the context of public health and the political climate in the US.

The Cultural Erosion: Post-Colonial Discourse in Achebe's Things Fall Apart

The purpose of this research is to examine the erosion of cultural identity of Igbo society as a result of British colonization. It also looks at the colonial hegemony enforced by institutions of the church, judiciary, medical system, and education in Igbo society. The peaceful Igbo village descends into chaos as the protagonist's son disobeys his father and mocks the idea of brotherhood by converting himself into Christianity. The impact of colonialism and the supremacy of European culture destroys the social harmony of Igbo society. As a result, despite the struggle and sacrifice of true lover of original culture, the rich cultural legacy continues to collapse. A post-colonial social narrative raises questions to the aboriginal Igbo culture that was originally shaped by a variety of cultural ethos. The community experiences a significant transformation while the true followers original culture struggle with the shifting dynamics of relationships. The traditional lifestyle of the Igbo people is disrupted and challenged by European civilization. As they resist the changes imposed by the colonizers, the indigenous people's identity changes.