Mainstream Ideology Research Articles

Sinafricology: A Paradigm Shift from African Studies to Chinese Africology/Africanology in Chinese Academia

Study Focus: The present article advocates an “Afrocentric study of Africa” in Chinese academia, examines the concepts of “ Afrocentricity”, “Africology”, “Africanology” and finally proposes “Sinafricology” as a new the terminology expressing a Paradigm shift from the existing traditional African Studies to a sort of Chinese Africology/Africanology that should be promoted in Chinese Academia. Methodology: The content of this paper relies primarily on written documents (including books, scientific journals, articles, and official reports) most of which are available online as well as on the author’s teaching experience in Chinese and African Universities. Findings: 1) The hundred years’ narrow and inert framework of “Sino-Western duality thinking” instilled into the Chinese scholarship circles by the Western ideological imperialism of the 19 th and 20 th centuries have somehow overshadowed African Studies in the today’s Chinese Academia. 2) With “ Afrocentricity” as a theoretical foundation, “Africology” & “Africanology” reflect the historical specificities and cultural responses of Africans from Mainland and Diasporas with regards to the universal cultural imperialism that Africa throughout history has been confronted with. 3) An “Afrocentric study of Africa” in Chinese academia is a must. For, they will be no deep understanding of the “Africana phenomena” by the Chinese scholarship without the thorough exploration of the central concepts of “ Afrocentricity”, “Africology”, and “Africanology”. 4) “Sinafricology” as a sort of Chinese “Africology”/“Africanology”, reflects a new horizon of African Studies in Chinese Academia with Africans as subjects rather than objects, while embracing the Chinese characteristics of modern academia. “Sinafricology” can achieve its goals through a 5-layers’ approach, namely the Theoretical, Methodological, Content Knowledge, Institutional and Governmental layers. Conclusion & Suggestions: Based on the aforementioned findings, this article holds that an “Afrocentric study of Africa” is of an urgent need for the domestic development of contemporary Chinese social sciences. The mainstream ideologies of Africanists of African origin should be the core lenses through which any in-depth study of Africa should be undertaken. Therefore, a Paradigm Shift from African Studies to Chinese Africology/Africanology or “Sinafricology” in Chinese Academia is strongly suggested, “Sinafricology” will aim at providing its learners with an Afrocentric approach of the African reality while embracing the Chinese characteristics of modern academia. Keywords: Afrocentricity, Africology, “Africanology”, “Sinafricology”, Chinese Academia DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-9-02 Publication date: March 31 st 2020

Marxism and Political Economy in Education: An Interpretation of Jean Anyon's Critical Pedagogy

Jean Anyon (1941-2013) is a critical pedagogical researcher and social activist in the United States. All her life, she devoted herself to taking education as a breakthrough, exposing the ugliness of capitalist countries and promoting the equality of society and education. She uses Marxist theory to analyze the relationship between social class and school knowledge, hidden curriculum; education and mainstream ideology; and conflicts and resistances in education, emphasizing the theoretical and practical significance of Marxism in today's education. In order to find the deepest problem of education, Jean Anyon demonstrates the relationship between school education and macroeconomic policy from the perspective of political economics; the dialectical relationship between education reform and economic reform; and explains the reasons for education failure by quoting David Harvey's concept of "deprivation accumulation". Facing the cruel situation, Jean Anyon did not lose confidence, but found the "radical possibility" and put forward the concept of social change centered on education reform.

Islamist Communities on VKontakte: Identification Mechanisms and Network Structure

This article examines the presence of extremist online communities on the Russian social network VKontakte following the tightening by Russian federal аuthorities of internet counter-extremism policies and censorship. Extremist communities were detected using linguistic markers for extremist attitudes and radical violence. The study of socio-demographic data and network metrics of Islamist extremist communities reveals some general tendencies in the Russian context: a majority of female participants, a highly decentralised community network structure, radical Salafism as the mainstream ideology and covert proselytisation through the discussion of Islamic theology and lifestyle issues that are not in themselves extremist.

Family Transformation in the Colonial Context of German Togo

This article concerns administrative and cultural mechanisms that the colonial government and the Catholic Steyler missionaries (SVD) in German Togo were using in the process of transforming the traditional social fabric of local ethnic groups ‒ the process that had also a significant impact on the institution of family by altering community-based African conceptions about the human being. Those administrative and cultural tools of social disciplining were supported by the contemporary ideological framework composed of Christian, positivist and nationalist components. The example of the family of Martin Aku ‒ Togolese intellectual and political activist ‒ illustrates the effectiveness of that system. The phenomenon that contradicted the then mainstream ideology of white superiority was the growing number of individuals of mixed ancestry - the “unwanted fruit” of liaisons between European colonial agents and indigenous women.

Research on the Path Innovation of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture into the Mainstream Ideology Education of College Students

Research on the Path Innovation of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture into the Mainstream Ideology Education of College Students

21세기 BL(Boy’s Love)문화의 "오타쿠"적 양상에 관한 연구

여성향 BL작품이 발전하는 과정에서 사회적인 인식으로부터 받았던 곡해와 멸시로 인해 주류문화에게 배척을 당한다. 하지만 오타쿠(OTAKU) 문화와 BL(Boy"s Love)문화는 지배문화를 영합하기 위해서 자신의 개성을 숨지지 않으면서, 개성을 다양한 방식으로 발전시켜왔다. 현재 두 문화의 확산으로 하나의 서브 컬처로 되었다. 따라서 지배문화에서 나타난 배척되어 온 태도가 본 연구의 관점에서 좋은 점도 있다고 본다. 그 이유는 BL문화는 서브컬처로서 지배문화와 명확히 거리를 두어야 하며, 서브컬처의 개성과 성격이 지배문화에게 덮이면 안 된다는 것이다. 지배문화는 정치적과 사회적인 뉘앙스가 부여되기 때문에 지배 계층이 대다수의 사람을 위해, 혹은 자신의 지배권을 위해 향한 문화이자 지배 권력의 통치 수단으로 이용된다. 서브컬처는 주류 이데올로기의 영향을 받더라도 자신의 개성을 견고히 한다. 어느 시대이든 주류 이데올로기와 어긋나는 문화는 문화적인 억압을 받는다. 서브컬처는 문화적인 다양성을 유지하는 뿐만 아니라 주류문화와 서로간의 갖고 있는 계층의 갈등을 조화되는 의미도 가지고 있다. BL문화가 기존의 단일한 이성애자를 중심으로 묘사하는 스토리 구성을 변화시킨다. 사회적 이데올로기에서 고정된 이성애자의 애정 묘사하는 형식을 전복하며 남성사회의 규정된 가치규범을 전복적인 역할을 하고 있다. 의식과 무의식 사이에서 억압되는 여성의 사회적 인식이 BL문화의 수용자로서 억압된 것을 해소한다. 오타쿠 문화와 통일하게 새로운 창작 구조에게 다양한 가능성을 제공한다. 동시에 사회적인 측면에서 성소주자에 대한 편견을 파괴하면서 섹슈얼리티를 단지 여성과 남성의 생리적인 성별로 구분하는 것에 대한 이원대립적인 인식을 타파한다. 이러한 반 중심화적인 특징을 가진 특징에서 오타쿠적인 양상을 띠고 있는 부분과 획일성이 가진다. 이러한 서브컬처에 대한 본 연구의 관점은 현재 디지털정보시대에서 정보와 지식이 분산화 되는 환경에 권력의 변화 구조도 변화시킨다. 따라서 다원화된 문화 환경에서 오타쿠적인 양상이 띠는 BL문화에게 지배층의 문화적인 통제는 현재의 시대환경에 실행하기 어려울 것이며 이러한 여성을 중심으로 형성된 문화적 다양성과 경직화된 가치규범을 활성화시킨다. The BL-works for female are rejected by the mainstream culture due to the perversion and contempt received from social recognition in the process of development. However, OTAKU culture and BL cultural have developed their personality in various ways without hiding their own personality in order to cultivate mainstream culture. Nowadays, it has become a cultural phenomenon with the spread of two cultures. Therefore, we can see that the rejected attitude in mainstream culture is good from the point of view of this study .The reason is that BL cultural should be clearly separated from mainstream culture as a subculture and that the personality and personality of the subculture should not be covered by mainstream culture. Because mainstream culture is given political and social nuances, the ruling class is used as a means of ruling the culture and ruling forces for the majority of people or for their own dominance. Subculture strengthens one"s personality even if it is influenced by mainstream ideology. Cultures contrary to mainstream ideology in any age are subject to cultural oppression. Subculture has the meaning not only to maintain cultural diversity but also to coordinate the struggle between mainstream culture and each other. BL cultural change the composition of story depicting a single heterosexual. It attempts to overthrow the pyramid structure of male society by overturning the form of affection of fixed heterosexual in social ideology. The social awareness of women who are oppressed between consciousness and unconsciousness is resolved as creators and viewers of BL cultural. It provides various possibilities to the new creation structure in unity with the otaku culture phenomenon. At the same time, it destroys the dualistic perception of divorcing gender identity into female and male physiological gender by destroying prejudice against the sanctuary in the social aspect. This anticentric characteristic has an otaku aspect and uniformity. The viewpoint of this study on this cultural phenomenon is that the structure of change of power is also decentralized in an environment where information and knowledge are decentralized in the digital purification society. Therefore, the cultural control of the ruling class will be difficult to carry out in the present age environment in the otaku - like culture in the pluralized culture environment, and the formation of this subculture activates the cultural diversity and the rigid social norm.

Duffs and Puffs: Queer Fashion in Iranian Cyberspace

In Iran, the politically sanctioned discourses of embodiment and body management are based on binary notions of gender and sexuality. These discourses are contested by social trends that reflect political dissent. This article uses a combination of content and visual analysis of three Instagram profiles dedicated to fashion to answer the question: ‘Is queer fashion present in Iranian cyberspace’ and if so, ‘How does it persist against the existing queer-phobic political forces?’ The article explores aesthetic and fashion categories called ‘duffs’ and ‘puffs’ that offer queer embodied extravaganza in Iranian cyberspace, which is a more relaxed geography of morality and leisure in comparison with offline public spaces. The analysis includes duffs and puffs’ life style and performance that entails excessive deployments of femininity and masculinity, and exploration of their political significance and potential to undo gender norms in Iran. While they do not explicitly reject heteronormativity and/or capitalism, their non-participation in the conventional modes of money-making, and their erotic and sexual performance contributes to transformative politics. They offer antagonism to the normative power of mainstream gender and sexual ideologies by staining their heterogeneity through performances of fun, shock and failure.

Credit, social mentality and technical innovation efficiency

Existing literature has confirmed the importance of science and technology innovation on its promoting sustainable, healthy and rapid growth of economy from the perspective of innovation forms, regional environment, and time phases, but the influence of social factor is neglected in the research of the efficiency of technology. Using provincial panel data during the period of 2000 to 2013, we probe into a path that improves the effects of science and technology innovation on economic growth from the perspective of social environment rather than of pure technology. This study introduces social factor into research model and takes account of credit construction and social mentality to explore the impact mechanism of science and technology innovation on economic growth. The results indicate that the regional innovation activities remarkably improve the growth of economy. The establishment of regional credit websites and the publication of honest and dishonest behavior dramatically improve the promoting effects of innovation on the economy. Positive social mentality can spread the “positive energy” through shared reality, inter-subjectivity consensus and social representation in the social interaction to promote the technical innovation efficiency. The higher attentions of regional netizens to stress, anxiety, indifference, anger, rich second generation, wealth showoff have negative impacts on the innovative activities and weaken the innovations’ support to economic growth. This study suggests that regional governments strengthen the process of credit construction in the aspect of formulating credit policies and regulations, standardizing the credit information platform and credit service market, and finally establishing a sound social credit system. Besides, governments need to guide positive social mentality into the mainstream ideology of the society and pay attention to online public opinions to properly channel the negative emotions that hinder the healthy development of social mentality.

The Actively Present and Dutiful Individual: An Empirical Study of the Familial Cultural Capital of Rural Students

Existing studies have found that the starting point for class divisions is the family: while schools play a interrupting role, it is passive compared to the roles of the family and children themselves. It is therefore taken for granted when rural students are screened out by school education or fail to test into good universities. If the unexpected occurs, it merely represents a fluke, or the result of individual striving. This paper draws on qualitative research in finding that familial cultural capital plays a unique and positive role in the process of rural children testing into key universities, and that their success is not entirely the result of individual striving. It is particularly worth noting that the concept of “dutifulness” emphasized in rural families is consistent with the mainstream ideology of school education. These individuals therefore exhibit an “actively present” state in education, ultimately achieving academic success.

Institutionalized Religion and Ambivalence in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

In Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre, the protagonist, Jane Eyre, cannot avoid the trap of empire, which represents the British colonial domination in the 19 the century. Through close reading of the text and using Postcolonial and Marxist theory, I claim that Jane Eyre develops an ambivalent attitude towards oppression. That is to say, she, at one point, is very critical of using religion to oppress her own people. On the other hand, she keeps silent when the same discourse of institutionalized religion is used to justify colonizing and oppressing other people and nations. This ambivalent attitude shows that the unquestioned ideology of British colonial domination contaminates and even handcuffs Jane Eyre. Thus, the mainstream ideology of the British empire shapes Jane Eyre and informs the novel, which seems to celebrate the prevailing Eurocentric attitudes in Britain back in the 19 the century when people believed that Europe in general and Britain in particular had an obligation to “civilize” and “enlighten” the “less civilized” people and nations. Keywords: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, institutionalized religion, ambivalence, empire, colonialism

Enacting Motherhood Online: How Facebook and Mommy Blogs Reinforce White Ideologies of the New Momism

Mommy blogs and social media platform Facebook are two ways that 21st century mothers today share their experiences digitally via the ‘momosphere’. However, this is often another form in which white femininity is reproduced in popular culture. (Socially privileged white women have the most monetary resources, leisure time, education, and jobs encouraging or requiring the use of technology, resulting in their being the most technology fluent.) In many ways, such writings continue the trend of ‘intensive mothering’, which is Sharon Hays’ widely adopted term for a woman whose identity revolves around her children. It is also similar to what Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels call the ‘new momism’. White notions of mother-guilt and fear of mother-blame are countered by attempts to perform the good mother role online and seek validation. Especially mothers lacking in a meaningful community of friends or family gravitate toward this artificial online community. While progress has begun in mothers feeling validated to share their private maternal lives in public realms, there is still work to be done regarding how women feel they can and cannot represent their maternal selves. Unless mothers learn to deconstruct mainstream ideologies of motherhood, they will continue to uphold them in their online personas.

Logical Thinking of Socialist Core Values into the Internet Legal Construction

<p>In the construction of Internet legal system, the rule of virtue and the rule of law are indispensable. The combination of socialist core values and the construction of Internet rule of law will help consolidate the mainstream ideology of the Internet, lead the trend of correct values with socialist core values, and clarify the socialist direction of the construction of Internet rule of law. In order to promote the better integration of the two, we should push forward the network legislation as soon as possible. And it is important to make sure there are laws to follow, and implement the 16-character policy of "scientific legislation, strict law enforcement, fair justice and law abiding by the whole people". In addition, we need to rely on the Internet to establish effective channels of communication between the government and the people, strengthen the Internet supervision and management right of the people, strengthen international cooperation, build a perfect order of cyber security, and promote harmonious social development.</p>

The Rebellious Journey: Archizoom Associati and Andrea Branzi

Archizoom Associati design studio is one of the founding groups of the Radical Movement in Florence dating back to the 1960s. Their design activity is extremely significant in understanding the philosophy of the movement and their design works challenged functionalist design aesthetics and the mainstream ideology at the time with sarcasm, subversion, irony, and a playful design language. Andrea Branzi, which was the leader of Archizoom Associati, together with his 50-year reflection on Italian architecture and design, has witnessed this rebellious design philosophy. Based on the historical background, practical activities of Archizoom Associati and the design teachings of Andrea Branzi, this article aims to review the theoretical consciousness into architecture sphere and the empirical research into contemporary design practice.

Trial from Hostages? Scar Art and the Break of History

This paper analyzes how the artistic images and sexualized artistic subjects in Chinese scar art works represented by Father, The Maples and Youth, etc., changed with state ideology in the early 1980s. This paper points out that art works always “exist” in the society, so they are not only text waiting for interpretation, but also the carrier and object of social practice. In the process of subjectification, narration and representation of the gender differences consolidates the existing symbolic order unconsciously. On this basis, the paper further explores the close relationship between the artist subject and the mainstream ideology of the country in shaping and referring each other. Frederick Jameson vividly called the 1960s as the “Long 60’s”. The Cultural Revolution in China was undoubtedly an important component and representative event of the great “Global 60’s”. As a reflection and rebellion against the collective experience of the Cultural Revolution, a series of avant-garde art movements emerged in the early 1980s in Chinese Mainland, which are regarded as the origin of Chinese contemporary art by the academic circle. The cultural and political nature behind this trend is just as Li Xianting, an art critic, puts “The revival of art is not a revolution of art itself, that is, language paradigm, but a movement of mind emancipation [1].” From the perspective of historical witnesses, Li points out the main axis of artistic ideology that runs through the post-cultural revolution era. “All of these are driven by a rebellious mentality, and the core of the change is social consciousness and politics [1].” Li’s point of view reminds us that the beginning of Chinese avant-garde art is closely related to the change of state ideology. The vicissitudes of national destiny and the turning point of national history have become part of the artist’s personal life and memory, which not only possesses individuality, but also possesses collectivity and constructs the cultural and political subject of the 1980s dialectically and interactively.

Assessing the essential pre-conditions of an authentic sustainability curriculum

PurposeThis study has two aims. It aims to analyse three essential pre-conditions of an authentic sustainability curriculum (ASC). The theoretical analysis involves the definition of authenticity through the learning outcomes (LOs) framework called authentic minimum (AM). This paper also aims to gauge students’ views on economic growth, sustainability and mindfulness.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical aim was accomplished by extensive study of and critical reflections on the relevant literature. The empirical research was qualitative using an online questionnaire as survey instrument consisting of predominantly open-ended questions involving students of two economic faculties. Directed content analysis and nonparametric quantitative methods were used to assess the answers.FindingsViable sustainability goals are in stark contrast with the promotion of sustainable economic growth in sustainable development goals 8 and the reigning neoliberal agenda. The empirical findings provide valuable insights into how undergraduate students view mindfulness, economic growth and aspects of sustainability.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical research has some obvious limitations that warrant caution in generalizing the results. The authors used a sample of convenience and the base population of the survey consisted only in students of economics in two economic faculties of two Hungarian universities.Practical implicationsPractical implications of the present paper are many all sharing; however, the need for existential courage on the part of teachers, students and leaders of higher education institutions. Existential courage is required for profound personal transformation, for going against mainstream ideology and the possible confrontations with colleagues, leaders of institutions, students, friends or family members.Originality/valueOn the theoretical side, the concept of ASC was introduced with AM as its LOs framework. For the first time, an attempt was made to interpret authenticity in sustainability education as an integration of mindfulness, human and environmental ethics and a firm opposition to economic growth and neoliberal ideals. The analysis of qualitative data supported earlier research and also provided unique findings in the examined areas.

Attitudinal meaning and social struggle in heavy metal song lyrics: a corpus-based analysis

ABSTRACT Heavy metal as a music culture has immense social influence across the world. In recent years scholars have started to scrutinise metal music from a sociocultural perspective; yet many studies lack quantifiable supporting evidence. For a thorough understanding of band members’ self-constructed identity, this paper analyses a corpus of lyrics from 1,152 heavy metal songs. It identifies 11 lexical words which have a significantly higher frequency in metal lyrics than in popular lyrics, and a total of 1,386 concordances of the 11 words are analysed using the attitude system (Martin and White, 2005. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.). Analysis shows that heavy metal lyrics are characterised by insecurity, loneliness, sadness and desire in terms of affect, by fearlessness, freedom, and condemnation of social injustice in terms of judgement, and by the representation of unpleasant or even disgusting objects, and the valuation of death as solutions in terms of appreciation. We further argue that these attitudes are reactions to various types of social oppression, such as marginalisation by mainstream ideologies and religions, and are discursive strategies to resist and counter the oppression. At the same time, the attitudes build a distinctive heavy metal identity to reinforce in-group solidarity and to promote the music culture through catharsis.

반공주의와 ‘개발’의 정치학 -제주의 사례를 중심으로-

This paper looks at how the violence of modern states creates memories of regional-subjects. From Jeju 4.3 onwards, how the Anti-communism that became the mainstream ideology of South korean society expanded its influence to the region, it analyzes it using the media issued in the region at that time. Anti-communism became a new ideology in 1961 when the coup d''etat government was take power. These changes inevitably led to the inside of silence and its synchronization. At this time, the memory of the local-subject has been refracted and disguised. From this point of view, this paper concentrates on anticommunism and development issues. In particular, I analyzed the “monthly Jeju”, media published in the Jeju and examined how the anti -communism was internalized in the area. After the Jeju 4.3 conflict, anti-communism in Jeju effectively combined with development discourse. This followed another aspect of modern violence, it was quickly the internalization of the region-based silence.

The a-theoretical core of political realism

This paper aims to advocate a Williamsian approach to political realism and contends that contemporary realist political theory is built on an ‘a-theoretical core’ that the paper will call ‘political realism’ in the broader sense (for a very different approach to Williams, see Hall, 2013). The central tenet of this thesis is that contemporary realist political theory fundamentally differs from mainstream political theory not only in its political outlook, but also in its views about the tasks and prospects of theorizing. In other words, ‘political realism’ imposes severe constraints on theorizing in a realist key and makes contemporary realist political theory especially vulnerable to criticisms coming from mainstream political theory. This paper contends, however, that the inherent limitedness of contemporary realist political theory is a fair price that is worth paying for a more realistic understanding of politics.The argument of the paper is built on the Williamsian assumption that mainstream political theory is ultimately a sort of ‘applied morality’ and that the fundamental problem with mainstream political theory as ‘applied morality’ is not so much its strong commitment to pre-political moral principles as its being fundamentally shaped by an ethical theory.

Identities as an Everyday Life Strategy: A Case Study of Vietnamese Marriage Immigrant Women in Taiwan

This paper discusses the identity complex of Vietnamese marriage immigrants in Taiwan through aspects of everyday life such as food preference and cooking, vehicle ownership and access, leisure, and religious belief. These are in parallel with acculturation, cultural hegemony, spatial and social mobility, social network-building, social capital accumulation, and the strategy of resistance to the stigmatisation of prearranged remittances. This article also analyses identities as pragmatic strategies for Vietnamese wives to demonstrate their agency, and negotiate and bargain their social places within the Chinese-dominated cultural sphere through conforming to mainstream ideologies and acquiring social capital in the local community. The relationship between happiness and identities construction is examined, too. The methodology is based upon in-depth interviews and participant observations undertaken during ethnographic fieldwork in Taiwan.

A Motherwork Challenge to Dominant Discourse: A Review of Immigration, Motherhood, and Parental Involvement: Narratives of Communal Agency in the Face of Power Asymmetry

In Lilian Cibils dissertation-turned-book, Immigration, Motherhood and Parental Involvement: Narratives of Communal Agency in the Face of Power Asymmetry (2017), the stories of seven Mexican immigrant mothers provide insight into what motherhood looks like outside the mainstream ideology of parental involvement. Using a critical feminist lens, Cibils employs the concept of motherwork as an alternative to a cultural deficit approach for understanding Mexican immigrant motherhood.