Symbolic Exchange Research Articles

Road traffic culture and personality traits related to traffic safety in Turkish and Iranian samples

This study aims to examine differences in cultural road traffic symbol exchange, risk propensity personality traits, risk perception, attitudes towards traffic safety and driver behaviour in a Turkish and Iranian sample. In addition we investigate the capability of personality traits and cultural road traffic symbol exchange to predict risk perception, attitudes towards traffic safety and driver behaviour in these two samples. A questionnaire survey was carried out in samples of Turkish (n=213) and Iranian (n=254) road users. The results showed that Iranian drivers were more likely to conduct rule violations and speeding, and were less likely to use seat belts than drivers in the Turkish sample. The Iranian sample also estimated a lower probability of road traffic accidents and also less severe health consequences of road traffic accidents. Personality traits, and particularly normlessness, were the strongest predictors of attitudes and driver behaviour in both samples. However, cultural variables also added to the explained variance in all three social cognitive constructs among Iranians. Trait theory may have a stronger applicability than cultural theory in developing middle income countries. Human factor campaigns could benefit by focusing on personality traits and, to some extent, on cultural road traffic symbol exchange to facilitate traffic safety in Iran and Turkey. Investments in development of road traffic infrastructure may not be efficient if psychological cognitions and driver behaviour are not addressed accordingly in the two countries.

The Metacapitalism Spectacle

Purpose: The spectacular Internet Bubble that burst in 2000 makes the latest 2008 global financial crisis seem persuasive in its reflection of the same flawed logic, which prompted all other crises and bubbles in-between. The flawed logic of a globalised electronic free-market economy is built on the premise that disruptive Internet innovation would enable seamless electronic transformation of corporations, and their interconnectedness and collaboration across the ‘electronic’ demand and supply chains (outsourcing non-core and at times core activities), which would free up corporate capital resources to decapitalise non-core assets. However, when we look more closely at the facts of the past twenty or so years, the theoretical surface no longer seems smooth with the shift from a virtuous circle of industrialised value creation and job creation, where businesses were prospering, employment expanding and communities thriving to a post-industrial globalised world. This new economic world order is where corporations moved to lower-cost regions and production capability became distributed more widely, and as we get closer to the evidence of leaner but meaner working conditions, more responsibilities and fewer staff, longer working hours, stagnant salaries, smirking bean counters promising more cuts, and powerless nation-states in the face of an increasingly weakened link between business growth and local job growth, cracks begin to appear. This thesis examines such resource allocation tensions, which are often articulated in socio-economic, political, technological or ethical rationales, with accounting arbitrarily ‘calibrating’ their parameters. These parameters may include age, time limits, useful lives, budgetary and efficiency constraints. The purpose of which is to privilege and legitimise parochial power structures over deep-seated inequities of resource allocation. Design/Methodology/Approach: Accounting is a complex communicative symbolic exchange of interests that obfuscates the potency of our role, in the pacification and de-politicisation of resource allocation tensions. The spectacle of international and regional wrangling over economic governments’ bailouts and rescue packages due to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the continuing European Debt Crisis, only overwhelms its observers and disconnects them from the powers that control their lives. The disenfranchised populace are out in force voicing their discontent, but nevertheless are completely oblivious to who should be blamed for their miserable condition. Some blame politicians and foreign governments, while others blame corrupt institutional structures and financial institutions, and so forth. All the while, the spectacle and its euphoria go on, away from the perpetrators of exploitation and injustice. The contemporary nature of MetaCapitalism that has its intellectual underpinnings in the contentious neoliberal ideology, lends itself to an exploratory approach in its study so as to clarify and define its problematic nature. This thesis develops an exploratory evaluating methodology that provides an analytical critique of the subjective-objective complexities of the MetaCapitalism model assumptions, so as to provide evidence of the model’s success or failure. Findings: Presented in this way, the story sounds historically compelling, logically consistent and empirically convincing – but only if I can establish one basic fact: the global process of ‘financialisation’ has been led by the United States. Its liberalisation and deregulation of financial markets in favour of self-regulatory regimes, have failed to avert the recurrence and intensity of financial crises. This is the starting point. So let’s look at the evidence. MetaCapitalism change strategy has exacerbated the intensity and frequency of structural resource allocation changes within the largest global corporations and this has amplified their market volatility. The Big 4 audit firms, who monopolise 85 per cent of the global audit market, have failed their agency role within the financial markets. The findings from the analysis of nearly 70,000 corporations reveal that they have failed to recognise the complexity of the new technological structural changes to resource allocation, even after analysing their conventional analytical methods, which should have signalled the problems. How could they have missed those signals when giving unqualified opinions of the audited financial reports of corporations, which have subsequently collapsed or had to be bailed out within less than a few months from the issuance of the audit report? Originality/Value: The scale of the study, breadth of the analysis, and novel critique of the new technological business changes and their neoliberal ideological underpinnings, are some of the contributions of this research. However, one of the most important contributions of this research is the development of a corporate performance evaluation method, which exposes the culpability of the Big 4 audit firms in their failure to fulfil their entrusted agency role in the financial markets.

El viaje de Marina Abramovic y Lady Gaga a través de la hipermodernidad: “Si compartes tus fans, te doy capital simbólico”.

This text is part of a single event: the artistic collaboration between the performer Marina Abramovic and Lady Gaga in 2013. We can read this collaboration as a metaphor about the relation between the art and the popular culture in a time in which Internet 2.0 has made possible the participation of receptors in the creation of cultural products. Therefore, the borders between high culture and media culture have been erased, due to the public become part of the creative process of art or media texts, which are the underlie of symbolic exchange in the contemporary world. The objective of the text is study the possible consequences of all these changes for feminism and the women's representation in art and the media.

The culture of gift giving: What do consumers expect from commercial and personal contexts?

ABSTRACTGift giving forms part of a symbolic exchange ritual that is common to all cultures and all periods of history. The goal of the present study is to explore such acts as exchange processes that seek reciprocity aimed at perpetuating relations. From the standpoint of the recipient, we posit the existence of a pattern of behaviour based on the sequence of perceived value–satisfaction–reciprocity. Findings obtained from a sample of 797 individuals indicate that how this sequence works is shaped by the occasion on which the gift is given, whether on commercial occasions—dates marked out by retailers on which everybody gives gifts—or personal occasions—dates marked by private celebrations. If we bear in mind that the ultimate goal of giving gifts is reciprocity or the intention to give in return, choosing an appropriate value may prove to be of particular interest in commercial terms for givers (buyers), recipients (users) and firms (influencers). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Consumption as Sign in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis

As one of the foremost American postmodern authors, Don DeLillo tends to focus on construction of postmodern subject’s consciousness through media, technology and consumption. Nevertheless, despite many affinities between Baudrillard and DeLillo, many researches which have been done on his works have failed to theoretically analyze them from Baudrillardian perspective. Although there is affinity between Baudrillard and DeLillo, there is dissimilarity as well. While Baudrillard believes that that there is no escape for individual from the ideology of the system, DeLillo claims that there is hope for change and revolution for the individuals by their action in society, particularly by the means of art, to be more than a cog in the machine of ideology of system. Baudrillard, as one of the most influential postmodern theorists, defines consumption as organized control of sign and one of the many ways any subject is assimilated in any given society. For Baudrillard the logic of consumption is based on social differentiation. By the logic of social differentiation, individuals distinguish themselves and obtain social prestige and standing through the purchase and use of consumer goods. In his theorization about the concept of need and value, Baudrillard finds Marx’s logics of use value (utility and functionality) and exchange value (economic value) inadequate to include the whole function of an object and adds the logic of sign value. Baudrillard asserts that in consumption economic exchange value (money) is transformed into sign exchange value (prestige, etc.); yet this functioning is maintained by the use value. The only way out of this dilemma, Baudrillard claims, is to return to symbolic exchange which is neither a conception nor an agency, but an act of exchange and a social relation and the only approach to real human communication and understanding. Therefore this research attempts to highlights those affinities in DeLillo’s first post-9/11 novel a.k.a. Cosmopolis .

Samen kunst maken': de semi-directieve werkrelatie binnen de hedendaagse dans.

Unlike ballet, contemporary dance neither knows distinct aesthetical or technical conventions nor strongly directive work relationships. Based on 18 in-depth interviews with dancers and/or choreographers who are predominantly associated with the Brussels dance scene, we examine the most important factors ensuring a minimal order in the semi-directive mode of artistic collaboration that dominates within contemporary dance. We successively discuss (i) the motives to initiate or break off a collaborative relation, (ii) the importance of mutual artistic trust and a particular personal fascination in the one whom one cooperates with, and (iii) the expectation of a considerable creative contribution and a sufficient degree of personal recognition. In the conclusion, we first briefly signal the relatively scant interest for processes of co-creation within the sociology of the arts. We then conceptualize the analysed semi-directive work relation in light of the model of symbolic exchange (the dynamic of gift and counter-gift) developed by Marcel Mauss and point out the relevance of both this interpretation and the presented empirical findings for the study of work relationships in other artistic fields and the so-called creative economy.

John Dewey and the Artful Life: Pragmatism, Aesthetics, and Morality

John Dewey and the Artful Life: Pragmatism, Aesthetics, and Morality

SEARCH FOR WORKERS AS SYMBOLIC CONSTRUCTION

The labour market is seen as a field of symbolic exchange where the main actors are employers and job applicants, whereas the objects of exchange are workplaces and professional competence of employees. The analysis is based on the observed behavioural practices and verbal expressions. An attempt has been made to consider the area of interaction between employers and jobseekers as a field of symbolic production and consumption and to describe methods of construction and perception of representations in the labour market. The analysis of several interviews has revealed significant characteristics of the image of an employee, the employer’s expectations and the specificity of perception of a job applicant. Search and recruitment is a communication process which forms an image of the profession. The use of various search channels imposes restrictions on the construction of the image of a required worker by the employer and determines the specificity of perception of the vacancy by job applicants. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-7-3

Entre mundos: um encontro com o outro na tessitura da narrativa jornalística

O espaço mediático se constitui como palco privilegiado de trocas simbólicas e compartilhamento de sentidos na sociedade contemporânea. A atividade jornalística, prática
 discursiva componente desse espaço, nos coloca em contato com diferentes povos e culturas, tecendo narrativas e figuras de alteridade. É para tais narrativas que nosso trabalho se volta, com o objetivo de pensar a relação desenvolvida com a diferença no processo de produção do jornalismo. Trabalhamos uma série de reportagens chamada Nova África, exibida pela TV Brasil, e buscamos perceber a dinâmica instaurada entre a enunciação jornalística e a intervenção dos entrevistados,
 no processo de constituição de sentidos da série. Ao olhar para a participação dos entrevistados, indagamos se o jornalismo consegue acolher as marcas do outro quando fala sobre ele.
 Palavras-Chave
 Alteridade. Jornalismo. Diálogo intercultural.

Allegories of the End: Classical Sociologies of Economic Sustainability and Cultural Ruin

AbstractAgainst the backdrop of contemporary discourses of “sustainable growth” and “cultures of waste”, this essay considers the arguments of early sociologists concerning the relationship between subsistence economies of reproduction and sacrificial economies of symbolic exchange. In the first few decades of the twentieth century, Marcel Mauss and Thorstein Veblen each formulated influential accounts of the social barriers and physical limits to human life which find an echo in later cultural theories concerning economies of excess and overproduction in (post)modern societies. Rather than assess the empirical validity or theoretical accuracy of these arguments, this essay examines how factual descriptions of excess and decay can be read as sociological allegories of a world in ruins. The model for such a reading can be found in the work of another sociological classic, Georg Simmel, whose systematic account of the self‐preservation and expansion of social groups anticipates his later more impressionistic and fragmentary reflections on “the tragedy of culture”, understood as a struggle for individual autonomy against social and natural forces of objectification. Simmel and his classical contemporaries thus anticipate later thinkers who ask whether “the end of an era” should be understood as a terminal point, an ideal purpose, or a cyclical stage in the “progress” of history.

Barriers Concerning Digital Inclusion in one São Paulo Public School: What Have Adolescents Been Learning on the Internet?

This paper presents findings from research on adolescents in one public school of Sao Paulo. The aim of this study was to analyze the existing barriers concerning digital inclusion and understand how adolescents have been using the internet, with special focus on what they are learning in the virtual world. Methodology: qualitative research based on psychoanalysis and critical theory. Data collection was carried out by participative observation in computer classes over a period of seven months. A questionnaire was administered to 67 students, ages 13 to 16. Results: the analysis was focused on three issues: connection, capability and content. It was observed a serious lack of ICT resources in the school: 21 computers for 700 students, resulting in insufficient connection time. Although 76% of students said they had internet access at home, most of them were digitally illiterate. Content most accessed by adolescent included shooter games, social networking, funny videos and pornographic websites. Conclusion: The main barriers identified concerning digital inclusion were low ICT connection in the pedagogical context; precarious levels of basic education; and above all, adolescents’ virtual habits, largely rooted in trivialities. The vast majority of adolescents have not benefited from the internet in terms of learning, knowledge expansion or development of computer skills due to conventional usage practices encouraged by the culture industry. This is most prevalent in the area of gaming. Adolescents’ activities in cyberspace were characterized by the fulfillment of voyeuristic, exhibitionist, and sadomasochist satisfactions which complicate the sublimation process and relevant symbolic exchanges.

Poems for the Royal Weddings, 1496–1497 by Nancy Marino (review)

Reviewed by: Poems for the Royal Weddings, 1496–1497 by Nancy Marino Linde M. Brocato Marino, Nancy. Poems for the Royal Weddings, 1496–1497. Papers of the Medieval Hispanic Research Seminar 64. London: Department of Hispanic Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, 2008. 94 pp. ISBN: 0902238663 Nancy Marino’s edition of the two pliegos sueltos from 1497 and her introduction contribute significantly to the growing body of work bringing to the fore the material and symbolic culture of the reign of the Catholic Monarchs. Her painstaking work situating the two poems, one on the marriage of Juana to Philip the Fair (actual marriage in Lier on 20 October 1496) and the other on the marriage of Juan to Philip’s sister Margaret of Austria (actual marriage in Burgos on 3 April 1497) reveals both the larger political goals—closing ranks against the French, actively participating in and encouraging the providencialism and messianism around the Holy Roman Emperor, and thus fulfilling Alfonso X’s dream of empire—and the details of the symbolic exchanges among the royals and aristocracy thus engaged in the public expression of those goals in the extended ceremonies. The Coplas fechas sobre el casamiento de la hija del rey d’España con el hijo del emperador duque de Bergoña, conde de Flandes, archiduqe de Autarixa (El casamiento) is a pliego suelto of four leaves in a quarto format, set in tortis type in two columns, with two woodblock illustrations at the end of the text also used in Cárcel de amor, and is attributed by F. J. Norton and Edward M. Wilson to Fadrique Biel de Basilea. It is known in four copies, two [End Page 273] at the Biblioteca Nacional, one in the British Library, and a fourth at Harvard University’s Houghton Library. The Coplas fechas a los altos estados de los reys nuestros señores, de cómo salieron a misa con el alteza del muy alto príncipe e princesa de España e de los cavalleros que con sus altezas salieron (Los altos estados) is also four pages in quarto format, in tortis type of two columns, with a woodcut on the title page, and is attributed by Norton and Wilson to Juan de Burgos, although their date of 1496, before the events represented within the text, cannot stand; the unique copy is held at the Library of Congress. Marino asserts that the poems publicize the successful insertion of Spain into the Holy Roman Empire and onto the forefront of the European political scene, as well as projecting it “against a background of social stability and prosperity on the home front” (7). The details included suggest authorship by someone close to or within the court of the Reyes Católicos. On the basis of textual and contextual evidence, Marino advances the candidacy of Pedro de Gracia Dei, whose family name perhaps indicates that he was either a converso or a herald, and who had significant remuneration for his service in Prince Juan’s household. Several of Gracia Dei’s prose works survive, most of them heraldic or genealogical in nature, in keeping with his position as Rey de Armas, although Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo refers to him as a chronicler, and indeed several of his works are historical, including two chronicles in verse. As Marino asserts, the poems are not literarily brilliant, but serve to present to modern readers “a glorification of a way of life, a social order, and a system of values” (7). How these poems do that is by detailing the pomp and performativity of the negotiations, processions and rituals (fashion, social performances, jousts, juegos de cañas and so on) that formed part of the larger ritual of the marriages (and indeed, the actual marriage ceremony of Juan and Margaret is secret and not revealed to any but the most intimate and, presumably, powerful). By recounting as epideictic the powerful individuals who participated and their roles, praising and pointing to the wealth and puissance expressed by their positions in the processions and to the sumptuous garb and jewels they were permitted to wear on this particular occasion, the poet makes them the essence...

Rethinking language faculty. Has language evolved for other than language related reasons?

Attempting to give a straightforward answer to the question, I put forward in this paper – Has language evolved for other than language related reasons?, I would emphatically say – No, it has not!, as long as language has still anything to do with symbolic expression of a person’s thoughts – that is, making them public, as well as symbolic exchange, which next to the exchange of goods, and next to the exchange of women, is, according to antropologists, the cornerstone of our culture. But if we understand language as a system of internal computations in a living organism, which are based on recursion and resemble a prototype of general intelligence, and which can be used in the domain of social exchange of goods, perception of kinship, communication, counting livestock, navigation, and setting order in a sentence, then I would have to affirmatively say – Yes, it has! Do these skills have anything to do with language seen as a means of communication or language seen as a paring of sound and meaning? Well, probably no more than the exchange of goods has to do with the exchange of symbols. I draw the general conclusion: in my initial question – Has language evolved for other than language related reasons? – the most important concept is not that of evolution or the faculty of language, but what I call “language related reasons,” as it means anything we may wish it to, depending on what is meant by “language.”

Symbolisme et échange symbolique dans la transplantation d'organes

<titre>Résumé</titre>Cet article examine la place du symbolique dans la transplantation d’organes. Dans un premier temps, l’étude porte sur la symbolique mise en œuvre par l’Agence de la biomédecine dans ses campagnes d’exhortation visant à accroître le nombre d’organes prélevés. Dans un deuxième temps, il s’agit de savoir si le prélèvement d’organes correspond à un échange de biens symboliques. En conclusion, l’article propose d’isoler la notion de don organisationnel comme forme caractéristique de l’échange entre les familles et le monde médical au moment du prélèvement d’organes.

Transcendent Sacrifice and Spirituality: Cambodian Grandparents raising Orphaned Grandchildren

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to analyze the lives of 10 grandparents raising orphaned grandchildren in Cambodia. Using family exchange theory, this study shows that families struggle to engage in instrumental exchange and continue to provide affective exchanges but greatly sacrifice their own spiritual growth in symbolic exchanges. Struggles to provide for everyday existence limits participation in Buddhist merit building practices that are associated with movement into a higher spiritual level. Grandparents willingly accept the obligation to provide care to orphaned grandchildren, yet this transcendent sacrifice constrains grandparents' likelihood of better existences in their next lives.

Building Europe on a Weak Field: Law, Economics, and Scholarly Avatars in Transnational Politics

The present article mobilizes the concepts of “weak field” and “avatar” to explain Europe’s historically variable meanings, analyzing two successful reinventions (as a “community of law” and a “single market”) and one failure (“social Europe”). Focusing on law and economics, the authors first show that the weak field of EU studies serves as a crossroads between nationally anchored scholarly professions and Europe’s political field; second, they show that under certain conditions legal and economic constructions have exerted performative effects via scholarly avatars. Depending on their strategic positioning, scholarly avatars facilitate symbolic exchange across political, technocratic, and scholarly boundaries and endow theoretical constructions with performative potential.

El gusto por lo extremado: un análisis crítico de Baudrillard y Derrida sobre el terror y el terrorismo

For Baudrillard, the «new terrorism» should be understood as a symbolic exchange of gift and counter-gift: the terrorist’s death is an unanswerable counter-gift that disrupts the coercing circle of social relationships «imposed» by the global system. In turn, Derrida’s conception has two dimensions, explicative and normative. First, Derrida considers 11/9 as a multi-faceted symptom of an autoimmunitary crisis that has political, religious and technological-capitalist aspects. Second, Derrida argues that there is an Abrahamic «moment» of terror, violence and sacrifice that is constitutive to ethical decisions and responsibility. On the critical side, I will argue that Baudrillard’s view is premised on an extreme and partisan notion of a system interpreted as a totalitarian ruler writ large. In turn, Derrida unnecessarily turns the common observation that human actions can have perverse consequences into a law of autoimmunity inspired by biology. By seeing terror as constitutive even to the most common ethical relationships, Derrida also runs the risk of turning an extreme phenomenon into a catch-all concept, and of losing touch with the day-to-day ethical practice. I will conclude that Baudrillard’s and Derrida’s conceptions of terror and terrorism partake in a «taste for the extreme» that makes them ultimately unconvincing.

Cultural and socio-demographic predictors of car accident involvement in Norway, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda

The prevalence of road traffic accidents is increasing towards endemic proportions in developing countries. The present study investigated cultural and demographic predictors of car accident involvement in a developed country in Europe and three developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The comparison was carried out with questionnaires among a randomly obtained representative sample of the Norwegian population (n=247) as well as stratified samples in Accra and Cape-Coast in Ghana (n=299), Dar-es-Salaam and Arusha areas in Tanzania (n=599), and the central Kampala and the Mbarara district in Uganda (n=415). Measurement instruments of culture as symbol exchange and destiny orientation were used to predict self-reported road traffic accident involvement by car among the respondents. Demographic characteristics, such as gender, age and education, were also included as predictors of car accidents. The results showed that male gender was the only significant predictor of accident involvement in Norway. Introverted and extroverted culture, destiny orientation and written culture were associated with accident involvement in the African countries. Male gender also predicted accidents in these countries. Non-technical injury preventive countermeasures in developing countries could focus on cultural practice and fatalistic beliefs. Countermeasures in both developed and developing countries should target male drivers.

Traffic culture as symbol exchange – A cross-country comparison of Russia and Norway

The core aim of the study was to gain insight into the cross-country differences in traffic risk perception and driving behaviour and also how culture and cultural differences may influence perceived risk and risk behaviour by comparing a sample of the Russian population with a sample of the Norwegian population. A new measurement instrument aimed at measuring culture as symbol exchange was applied. Self-completion questionnaire surveys were carried out among representative samples of the Norwegian (n=247) and the Russian (n=299) population aged 18years and over. The results showed that culture defined as symbol exchange was weakly associated with risk perception. It is suggested that research carried out to date on the role of culture in risk research may have focused on criterion variables which are not very relevant. However, while traffic safety culture does not seem to be important for risk perception, this study shows that it seems to be relevant for drivers’ risk behaviour and thus it is still relevant and important to focus on traffic culture in risk research despite the fact that culture does not predict perceived risk. As symbol exchange, the newly developed measure of traffic safety culture is capable of predicting drivers’ risk behaviour in traffic and is therefore a valid predictor of traffic safety.

Dynamical systems as the main instrument for the constructions of new quadratic families and their usage in cryptography

Let K be a finite commutative ring and f = f(n) a bijective polynomial map f(n) of the Cartesian power K^n onto itself of a small degree c and of a large order. Let f^y be a multiple composition of f with itself in the group of all polynomial automorphisms, of free module K^n. The discrete logarithm problem with the pseudorandom base f(n) (solvef^y = b for y) is a hard task if n is sufficiently large. We will use families of algebraic graphs defined over K and corresponding dynamical systems for the explicit constructions of such maps f(n) of a large order with c = 2 such that all nonidentical powers f^y are quadratic polynomial maps. The above mentioned result is used in the cryptographical algorithms based on the maps f(n) – in the symbolic key exchange protocols and public keys algorithms.