Socio-cultural Reality Research Articles

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Website Reporting: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa’s Top-Ranked Companies

This study aims to examine how Sub-Saharan Africa’s top ranked companies themselves convey their role as social-economic development partners and/or agents in their corporate communications, and to what extent country- and industry-specific characteristics influence their reporting, i.e., via CSR websites reporting. Using Forbes’ 2,000 world-largest-corporations ranking, based on 2017 ranking list, we select the largest corporations. We then filter our search to select Africa-largest-corporations. A content analysis of the CSR reports and/or Websites of the sample companies was conducted to identify the motives for CSR practices, CSR managerial processes and stakeholder issues addressed in CSR reporting. Several of the “motives underlying CSR practices”, “CSR managerial processes” and “stakeholder issues addressed” in CSR reporting appear to converge around similar themes (or issues), given that all three sample companies operate in the financial services industry within the specificities of South Africa’s context. The findings suggest that the specificities of South Africa’s historical development and/or socio-cultural realities, legislation and industry charters are important factors that influence CSR (or sustainability) practices in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. Although, studies that mainly focus on the contents of corporate website are uncommon, this study has limitations as we solely relied on publicly accessible CSR reporting, rather than, for example, interviewing employees, customers (or clients) and/or regulators to verify the claims by the sample companies. As this study examines CSR website reporting practices by organisations, it provides a useful insight for competitor benchmarking that can be used by organisations to imrpove their CSR website reporting practices. This study contributes to extant CSR research as its provides empirical evidence of the contextuality of CSR in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as explores how country- and industry-specific characteristics may influence CSR website reporting.

Sociocultural Reality of The Surandino in Times of Health Crisis

Sociocultural Reality of The Surandino in Times of Health Crisis

School-Family Partnerships to Support Attendance: Advancing an Equity-Centered Theoretical Framework.

Since returning to in-person instruction after the emergence of COVID-19 schools have seen a dramatic increase in the number of students chronically absent, with data indicating a greater increase for low-income, Black, and Hispanic students. Given the role of school attendance in both promoting positive educational outcomes as well as providing students with physical and mental health supports, it is critical to identify ways to re-engage families in a manner that is culturally responsive and equitable. Current attendance interventions focus primarily on school-based academic and behavioral supports for students while excluding the family. Additionally, traditional family engagement models do not address the sociocultural realities of low-income and/or minoritized families. We present a strengths-based model of family engagement to support attendance. Along with our model, we provide concrete supports that schools can provide, including example measurement items. In this way, schools and districts can self-assess as well as identify action steps to promote positive school-family partnerships for equitable family engagement. Without consistent attendance, schools cannot support positive educational outcomes nor provide important safety net services for students. Attendance is a family engagement challenge, which addressing holistically can reduce racial and socioeconomic educational and health disparities.

Integration of scientific cognition in Kazakh philology: the chronotopic approach

The article discusses the use of the chronotopic approach in Kazakh philology. This approach integrates scholarly knowledge and the works of researchers from the last century. The purpose of the publication is to show how linguistic judgments are cyclical and how they contribute to the multidimensional understanding of language. The article aims to transform the experiences of the humanities into linguistic synchronous-diachronic combinations. This involves predicting the mutual influence of individual scientific views and their categorical integrity. The works of Kazakh researchers from the first half of the twentieth century, who underwent general linguistic training, reveal judgments about the role of language in social, ethnic, and socio-cultural realities. These judgments define a progressive understanding of language as an element of literary-ethical, moral-axiological, and spiritual-cognitive interpretations. It is advisable to consider the formation of cognitive principles of linguistic analysis in the context of spatiotemporal categories. This emphasizes the importance of cyclicity as an element of ideological evolution and scientific attitudes. The connection between past and present, preserving the progression of origin and development, becomes a source of rethinking initial judgments. The cognitive paradigm in Kazakh linguistics is chronologically systematized and reasonably synchronized with modern trends in linguistics. The article characterizes chronotopic in Kazakh linguistics as a set of historical-philosophical, literarycultural, and psychological understandings of the nature of language. The starting point of this approach is the ontological, epistemological, and linguistic dichotomy of knowledge, which determines the mechanism for constructing periodicity and rhythm in the linguistic society. The article uses comparative and historical linguistics, narrative analysis, and chronotopic reading methods. It emphasizes the need to study the spiral characteristic of the linguistics categories by focusing on the dynamics of the development of anthropocentric language features.

Spanglish: From olla podrida to tasty menudo y más

ABSTRACT For many Spanish speakers, Spanglish is perceived as a bastardized form of Spanish that does not count as “real” Spanish. This view rests on the assumption that there is a “real” Spanish, which operates by a set of grammatical, lexical and morphological rules such that when bilingual speakers mix into these rules elements that belong to English, they produce “ill-formed” expressions like “Mamá, púshame en el columpio” and “Porque no me llamas pa’ tras,” and macaronic languaging like “Creo que she’s not wachando la movie.” In this paper, I argue that this portrayal of Spanglish is based on prescriptive, deficit models that ignore socio-cultural transborder realities of Spanish and English and bilingual language users in contact. Drawing on examples from bilingual children’s literature, bilingual (hybrid) discourse, and bilingual cultural models, I show that Spanglish is not only linguistically well-formed, but also a genuine reflection of bilingual transborder identity affiliations for many Spanglish users living along the US-Mexican regions of the United States. Based on the analyses of the examples, I present the case that serious study of Spanglish within bilingual communities needs to place it within the socio-cultural, transborder contexts that contribute to its development and use.

Technologies for Teaching Law Students a Professionally Oriented Foreign Language

The article considers the influence of traditional and innovative technologies on the process of learning a foreign language by law students, investigates their educational potential, identifies advantages and disadvantages. The author presents the prospects of integration of “Foreign Language in Law” and artistic means (literature, music, cinema) as a means of vocabulary expansion, introduction to the socio-cultural reality of the country of the studied language, development of students’ creative potential, removal of psychological barriers to communication in a foreign language. Examples of working out professional lexical units and grammatical structures with the help of song compositions are given. The positive influence of cinema on moral and ethical development of youth is also noted.

Inclusive culture in the real and virtual educational communication

In today's world of transformation and diversity, the concepts of inclusion and inclusive culture acquire special importance. It stems from the fact that an inclusive culture ensures not only equal opportunities but also allows each person to feel fully integrated and respected in society. At the same time, the pandemic's transformational nature requires a deeper understanding and analysis of the cultural dynamics that affect changing forms of education. Specified issues highlight the problem of defining the set of factors influencing the study of inclusive culture in the real and virtual world. Therefore, this article aimed to examine the concept of inclusive culture in the context of educational communication in both real and virtual environments. It determines the importance of inclusiveness and inclusive culture in the existing – transforming – socio-cultural reality while clarifying the content of the culture of inclusion and demonstrating the logic of its assimilation in the "mechanism" of the transition from stereotyping and awareness of stereotyping to the assertion of the value of (any) human. The mechanisms that prevent us from realizing stereotypes and expanding our understanding and acceptance of others, regardless of their differences, were analyzed and identified. The research also points out the importance of popularizing culture in both usual and educational communication and suggests strategies for improving attitudes towards inclusive culture.

A LOOK AT ELIZABETH GILBERT’S REPERTOIRE IN EAT, PRAY, LOVE: AN ANALYSIS OF WOLFGANG ISER’S AESTHETIC RESPONSE

This study aims to explore Elizabeth Gilbert's repertoire on the island of Bali in the novel Eat, Pray, Love and to reveal what Elizabeth Gilbert wants to convey through the novel. Eat, Pray, Love tells the story of Gilbert's journey in seeking inner peace in three countries, namely Italy, India, and Indonesia where each country gives her a different aspect of life. This research focuses on Elizabeth Gilbert's repertoire on her trip to the island of Bali in terms of Wolfgang Iser's Aesthetic Response theory. The data source of this research is a novel by Elizabeth Gilbert which was published in 2006 by Viking Penguin, USA. This research was conducted by tracing the reality of terrorism that had occurred in America in 2001 and in Bali in 2002 as the background. The data collection technique was carried out by reading notes accompanied by a careful and thorough recording of the entire novel related to Elizabeth Gilbert's repertoire. This research technique is carried out through the following steps: reading, identification, classification, interpretation, and inference. The results of this study are not directed at static and absolute meanings, but meanings that continue to move according to the expectations of each reader. Thus, science will continue to roll as the process of reading each at different times and socio-cultural realities.

Interethnic Contacts in Yugra and Christmas Stories of the Turn of the 19th – 20th Centuries

Ethnic stereotypes largely determine the actions of an individual during his contacts with strangers – representatives of a different culture. At the same time, these actions, like stereotypes, are not permanent. The objective of the paper is to study the evolution of the attitude to the Yugra aborigines at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries. To achieve it, it is necessary to address the local sociocultural realities. Information about them is reflected in various historical and ethnographic sources, which, in particular, can include some works of fiction. A special place belongs to the genre of Christmas (Yuletide) stories, which specifics are usually studied by literary scholars. At the same time, provincial literature often contains information about the perception of aborigines by the Russian population. The specifics of the study required the use of an interdisciplinary approach, in which the theoretical developments of literary criticism complement historical and ethnographic methods. The results obtained indicate an ambivalent attitude to interethnic contacts with the peoples of the North in Russian culture. Images of the aborigines were associated with potential threats from another world. And, at the same time, they acted as victims of deception, violence and rejection by bearers of genuine Christian virtues. In addition, there was a noticeable difference in value judgments between folk and official culture. Folk culture tended towards stability, repetition and cyclical nature. On the contrary, the official culture with its European rationalism, was oriented towards the values of progress. Christmas stories by peripheral writers complemented by ethnic flavor were the evidence of something new in the public consciousness. At the regional level, the importance of interethnic communication and ethnic tolerance increased. The disparate components of Russian culture gradually came closer together, although these processes were not yet completed. Only further consideration of literary tests can help in understanding the contradictions of the past.

Oblicza samotności w epistolografii rosyjskich emigrantów pierwszej fali

A strong sense of loneliness and alienation was a common feature among Russian emigrants of the first wave, who were suddenly forced to leave the country due to the revolutionary events of 1917 and the civil war. They were unexpectedly deprived of contact with their loved ones and familiar places, losing their common denominator: their homeland. Thrown into a foreign world, they desperately missed their relatives and friends, the sounds of their native language, and the familiar materiality of life. The resulting feeling of loneliness led to various types of problems: lack of adaptation to new socio-cultural realities, social isolation, identity crisis, deteriorating mental and (or) physical condition, and creative impotence. Coping strategies for the traumatic experience of emigration included voluntary ghettoization, linguistic purism, and an extremely active exchange of letters with relatives and friends, which somewhat compensated for the lack of physical contact and direct conversation. Through correspondence, some sought information about loved ones left behind, while others sought deeper understanding, sympathy, and the chance to share their problems and fears. The analyzed epistolary material reveals similarities in the fates of the first wave of Russian emigrants, who, regardless of their origin and financial status, experienced similar problems and emotions. This is evident in the correspondence of both well-known emigrants (Mikhail Arcybashev, Ivan Bunin, Vera Muromtseva-Bunina, Aleksandr Kuprin, Nadezhda Teffi, Boris Zaitsev) and less well-known representatives of the post-October diaspora (Klaudia Fłorovskaya, Alexei Gvozdiński).

"They Don't See Us": Asian Students' Perceptions of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment on Three California Public University Campuses.

Sexual violence and sexual harassment (SVSH) are prevalent among college and university students; however, the experiences of ethnic minority students, especially Asians, are understudied. This study aimed to reduce this gap by exploring Asian students' perceptions of SVSH on three public university campuses in Southern California. We examined their perceptions about the campus environment related to SVSH, attitudes, and behaviors toward help seeking, and utilization of on-campus resources. A total of 23 in-depth interviews were conducted with Asian students enrolled at the three University of California campuses. Thematic coding was conducted to generate main themes and subthemes. Five main themes emerged: (a) SVSH is considered a "taboo" topic in Asian culture and family systems, and Asian student survivors are often reluctant to disclose incidents or seek support services. (b) Students did not feel their campus environments were tailored to understand or meet the sociocultural realities and needs of Asian student survivors. (c) Campus SVSH services and reporting processes were seen as non-transparent. (d) Peers were the major source of support and SVSH information, as opposed to official campus-based resources and training. (e) Survivors often conduct an internal cost-benefit analysis evaluating their decision about whether to report. This study highlights the lack of conversation surrounding SVSH in Asian families, and how the cultural stigma of sex and sexual violence prevented Asian students from receiving knowledge and resources about these topics in their families. Instead of relying on formal campus resources (e.g., Title IX and confidential advocacy services, mental health services), many students turn to their peers for support. Thus, facilitating peer support groups, training university students to support each other through SVSH incidents, and tailoring campus services to the diverse cultural backgrounds of students are key considerations to foster a safe campus environment and prevent SVSH.

The Legacy of Traditional Chinese Taiji Philosophy as a Factor in Harmonizing the Contradictions of Socio-cultural Reality (using the example of Chinese Neorealist Art)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the influence of the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taiji on artistic creativity and the development of the internal evolution of artistic culture. Taoist philosophy of nature and Confucian ethics synthesized the philosophical core of the traditional Chinese worldview with its emphasis on the simplicity and naturalness of the world order, and formed the fundamental principles of Taiji. Fundamental to Taiji, the concept of Yin and Yang emphasizes the dual nature of the existence of movement and variability as a balance of opposing forces of development. The Taiji philosophy of dialectical development is supplemented by the idea of ​​the genesis of renewal energy - Qi. The main research method is the method of revitalizing traditional systems on a new intellectual basis. The method of diachronic analysis of the social situation that influenced the development of Chinese neorealism in art was used. As a result of the study, the functional significance of the influence of the principles and philosophical ideas of taiji on the evolution of neorealism is described. Using the example of the work of Chinese neorealist artists Xin Dongwan and Zheng Yi, the authors come to the conclusion that there are three driving factors of artistic motivation for creativity: internal, external and subjective. The basic principles of Taiji philosophy and ethics, such as: the naturalness of change without the use of force (Wu Wei), change as the only constant in the existence of the world and its stability, gentleness - help develop the creative power of renewal. The idea is shown that in the ancient Chinese philosophical heritage, Confucianism and Taoism became two full-fledged directions, functionally complementing each other in explaining differences in cultural, political, philosophical and social environments.

Тенденции и противоречия современного семейного воспитания в Российской Федерации: ценностно-смысловой аспект

The article presents the priority directions for the development of family education in the Russian Federation, taking into account the modern socio-cultural reality. The problematic trends that caused the crisis phenomena in the sphere of state family policy in Russia are analyzed. The discussion issues discussed during monitoring studies by various sociological platforms on the problems of the family institute are considered. The thesis is put forward about the need to enrich the family education system with value-semantic, human-centered content through the development of civil society institutions whose activities are aimed at popularizing traditional values and norms. Conclusion dwells upon the necessity and significance of developing prognostic, multidimensional studies as part of strengthening the structure of the school educational segment related to the transmission of knowledge about humanistic, universal values of native history and culture; organization of the Public Council for discussing problems and developing the foundations of educational and moral values of youth, including generalization of the best practices of family education and their replication in the subjects of the Russian Fed-eration.

Comparative pedagogies in mother tongue education: Türkiye and Indonesia

This study examines mother tongue education pedagogical discourses in Türkiye and Indonesia to address understudied language instruction policy dynamics and their practical implications in diverse educational settings. The study examined mother tongue education and its complex effects on cultural identity and educational outcomes in light of global and local linguistic landscapes. This study examined Turkish and Indonesian pedagogical discourses and classroom interactions in selected samples. Comparative written discourse analysis was performed on selected texts from Turkish and Indonesian 7th-grade secondary school textbooks. Classroom interaction was examined using in-class observations of 7th-grade secondary school students from both countries. The study used Teun van Dijk's Critical Discourse Analysis method for written discourse analysis and Flander's Interaction Analysis matrix for intra-class interaction patterns. The study compares written and oral secondary school pedagogical discourses in both countries using selected examples to determine their similarities and differences. This allows two large and powerful educational systems to benefit from each other. The study finds significant differences in mother tongue education program implementation and outcomes by comparing policy documents, teacher narratives, and classroom practices, highlighting the complex relationship between language policy, instructional methodology, and educational equity. The findings emphasize the need for context-sensitive language education policies that respect linguistic diversity and promote inclusive education. This research enhances mother tongue education research and provides actionable insights for educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers in Türkiye and Indonesia to promote reforms that consider learners' sociocultural and linguistic realities.

ASAS KURIKULUM PENDIDIKAN ISLAM

Buya Syakur is a charismatic scholar whose intelligence is very broad, and very relevant to the times, his direction of thinking which prepares and produces cadres to create a nation that is very precise and extraordinary, by cultivating and developing enthusiasm and synergizing with socio-cultural realities. The indication is that apart from students understanding religion, first they do not rule out social life. Based on taukhid, as the main basis for implementing the Islamic education curriculum (having a good relationship with God). The meaning of taukhid here is not only to acknowledge the oneness of God (divine unity), but also to be proven by real reality by acknowledging the relationship between humans and others (hablun min al-nas, anthropo-sociological aspects), and the relationship between humans and their natural environment. (hablun min al-'âlam, cosmological aspect). Second, the Islamic Education curriculum that was initiated by Buya Syakur is good morals. This is aimed at providing provisions for children with good morals and a clean soul. The third principle of the curriculum is lifelong learning. This means that God gives an appeal to humans to always remember and always learn throughout life. Don't be afraid to fail or give up. The hope of Buya Syakur's thinking is to make humans as themselves and their gods, so that they realize that as a noble being, they must have noble privileges as well, so that ultimately create a cadre of understanding of religious values, proven by behaving well, broad in thinking, logical in opinion and have a clean soul. Keywords: Basic Curriculum And Islamic Education

Гендерная идентичность и гендерная ментальность: теоретико-обзорный анализ

The aim of the paper is to identify the peculiarities of the content of definitions of the categories “gender identi-ty” and “gender mentality”. It is revealed that the first of them corresponds to a greater extent to the thematized socio-cultural reality. This concept is more developed in modern science, while the concept of “gender mentali-ty” is a relatively new and not yet sufficiently developed concept in scientific terms, therefore, in modern litera-ture one can rarely find studies that analyze this concept. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to take into account the differences in the depth of conceptualization of the terms “gender mentality” and “gen-der identity”. Currently, there is a transformation of gender mentality, which leads to an inversion of masculine and feminine strategies of human behavior. Gender identity depends on a person’s ability to understand him-self, realize his position in the sociocultural space and effectively adapt to society.

Reality theatre as a method for social science research: the Vietnamese diaspora in central europe

ABSTRACT This article examines the use of reality theatre and its seemingly distinct categories, ethnotheatre and documentary theatre, within the social sciences. Reality theatre employs qualitative methodology, data production, and factual information as a basis for the staging process and interlinks social science research with creative practice. This approach, I argue, results in performances that are not only entertaining but informative, educational, or function pedagogically as a stimulus for social change. I argue that the division of reality theatre into several categories can be omitted in favour of a broader approach, in order to analyse the sociocultural realities staged through performance. This is demonstrated through analysis of two theatre projects from Central Europe focused on the Vietnamese diaspora – Rimini Protokoll’s Vùng biên giới (Border Area) (2009), and the Czech part of the What’SAP project (a two-year project connecting Czech Republic, Serbia, Hungary, and France in an exchange of knowledge creation and audience participation in intercultural dialogues) called Každý má v sobě dva vlky (Everyone Has Two Wolves Inside of Them) (2023). By examining and analysing how each project utilises reality theatre, I present them as important examples of the links between social science and contemporary theatre practice.

Социокультурные аспекты зарождения паралимпийского движения

The Paralympic movement has deep historical roots, however, until the 20th century it is exclusively applied in nature, aimed at the rehabilitation of certain diseases. The transformation of the axiology of the Paralympic movement takes place in parallel with a similar process concerning sport as such. This trend is determined by the new socio-cultural realities that are developing in Europe in the mid-19th century. According to the authors, the emergence of Paralympic sports become a natural continuation of these trends.

ФАКТОРЫ РИСКА В ЭПОХУ НЕОПРЕДЕЛЕННОСТИ (НОВЫЕ КРИЗИСЫ И ИХ КУМУЛЯТИВНЫЕ ЭФФЕКТЫ)

The article presents the results of a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the current risks to the political, economic, and socio-cultural reality. The author examines the set of factors that determine the content and form of emerging conflict divisions, noting that in existing and emerging social cleavages, identification demands, problems of recognition and respect occupy a prominent place. These issues elicit an active counter-reaction from populist parties and movements. The intensity of the conflict is shaped by the multitude of interwoven cleavages which create a cumulative effect that makes it challenging to achieve consensus. The paper stresses that the internal conflicts of contemporary societies intensify the destabilizing effects of the global order. In the author’s opinion, the main explanatory framework of recent world history is the process of globalization, but the latter does not lend itself to an unambiguous interpretation, although it has resulted in the emergence of a multitude of economic, socio-cultural, political and moral cleavages between those who have benefited and those who have lost. German scholars, who were the first to identify these diametrically opposed positions, conventionally labeled their bearers as “cosmopolitans” and “communitarians”. The new conflict lines have significantly different socio-cultural features from those of the industrial revolution of the 18th-19th centuries, in terms of socio-economic factors. The set of new crises, representing a complex combination of objective and subjective dimensions of the crisis situation, intensifies the confrontation and becomes a serious challenge to democratic systems. The major objective of politics has been and remains the prevention of such crises or their timely reduction; strategically, it lies in articulating a vision of the common good and guiding society towards its realization.

ЯВЛЕНИЯ ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНОЙ ГРАММАТИКИ КАК МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНЫЙ КОМПОНЕНТ В ПРЕПОДАВАНИИ ИНОСТРАННОГО ЯЗЫКА

The process of speech generation is intricately linked with cognitive styles, linguistic culture, and pragmatic factors. Intercultural communication practices seek to embrace a new mindset, assimilate into a different linguistic culture, and understand the perspective of its inhabitants. Grammatical constructions convey substantial linguistic, cultural, and cognitive insights about native speakers. This article aims to enhance scientific comprehension of the correlation between language grammar, socio-cultural reality, and the cognitive style of native speakers in the context of teaching English and French to native Russian speakers. It is essential to highlight the cognitive and linguocultural aspects of grammatical phenomena, emphasizing that grammar represents not only a set of intricate sentence construction rules but also embodies the result of the historical development of consciousness within a linguistic culture. Notably, the disparities between linguistic cultures are visibly apparent when examining aspectual and temporal meanings.