Western Industrial Societies Research Articles

Conceptual Evolution and Paradigm Reconstruction: An Integrated Framework for International Communication

The tracing of historical origins and disciplinary trajectories enables us to reveal that international communication, as a specific manifestation of global information flow and media evolution, is primarily influenced by the interplay of three societal factors: the roots of political conflicts, the catalytic role of economic and technological developments, and the reshaping of values into distinct blocs. These factors intertwine with the awareness of external exploration across different historical periods. Traditional knowledge production in international communication has evolved along two main lines: political economy and cultural studies. These paths have given rise to three major paradigms—propaganda, global communication, and intercultural communication—each stemming from differing core units of analysis. Together, they have constructed a multifaceted interpretive framework for understanding self-identity and the relationship between self and the external world in the information age since the beginning of the 20th century. This paper argues that on the new journey in the new era, efforts should be made to weaken the attributes of hierarchical control and power conflict derived from the practices of Western industrial societies and the Cold War. In the context of an era marked by the fusion of “new subjects, new networks, new media, and new values,” there is a need to return to the original purpose of communication: the sharing of information and the collective responsibility it entails. This will enable the construction of a new paradigm driven by Chinese modernization for the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations. Such a paradigm aims to unify humanity around shared values, foster the building of a human community with a shared future, and create new forms of human advancement.

Avoiding the hope of avoiding collapse: collapsology and non-hope as an emotional practice of conviction

ABSTRACT Recent years have seen the rise of a ‘postapocalyptic environmentalism’, which sees environmental catastrophe as ongoing or inevitable and therefore rejects the hope of avoiding that catastrophe. So far, research on this form of environmentalism has pointed to the paradoxes and ambivalences involved in its rejection of hope, as well as to environmental activists’ difficulties translating non-hope into movement strategy. However, postapocalyptic environmentalists’ efforts of practicing non-hope have yet to be investigated. Drawing on interviews with participants in a Swedish online environmentalist network committed to ‘collapsology’, the present paper therefore investigates postapocalyptic environmentalist non-hope as an emotional practice of conviction. The paper approaches non-hope as a form of emotional deintegration, in which collapsologists seek to dehabituate the hope and optimism that inform the dominant emotive-cognitive frame of environmental politics in Western industrial societies. They do so by vigilantly maintaining feelings of certainty about the inevitability of civilizational collapse. More specifically, in rejecting hope, the interviewed participants articulate this non-hope as a form of conviction. However, the participants present this conviction as haunted by doubts, dissonances, and ambivalences, and therefore as needing vigilant maintenance efforts. Such efforts include what I call ‘impossibility work’. Implications for further research on postapocalyptic environmentalism and related movements are discussed.

Comparative analysis of full-length 16s ribosomal RNA genome sequencing in human fecal samples using primer sets with different degrees of degeneracy.

Next-generation sequencing has revolutionized the field of microbiology research and greatly expanded our knowledge of complex bacterial communities. Nanopore sequencing provides distinct advantages, combining cost-effectiveness, ease of use, high throughput, and high taxonomic resolution through its ability to process long amplicons, such as the entire 16s rRNA genome. We examine the performance of the conventional 27F primer (27F-I) included in the 16S Barcoding Kit distributed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) and that of a more degenerate 27F primer (27F-II) in the context of highly complex bacterial communities in 73 human fecal samples. The results show striking differences in both taxonomic diversity and relative abundance of a substantial number of taxa between the two primer sets. Primer 27F-I reveals a significantly lower biodiversity and, for example, at the taxonomic level of the phyla, a dominance of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria as determined by relative abundances, as well as an unusually high ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteriodetes when compared to the more degenerate primer set (27F-II). Considering the findings in the context of the gut microbiomes common in Western industrial societies, as reported in the American Gut Project, the more degenerate primer set (27F-II) reflects the composition and diversity of the fecal microbiome significantly better than the 27F-I primer. This study provides a fundamentally relevant comparative analysis of the in situ performance of two primer sets designed for sequencing of the entire 16s rRNA genome and suggests that the more degenerate primer set (27F-II) should be preferred for nanopore sequencing-based analyses of the human fecal microbiome.

Activist as Symptom: Healing Trauma within a Ruptured Collective

Abstract Animal activists serve as symptom-bearers for trans-species collective trauma within Western-industrial society. Findings from literature on traumatology and nonhuman animal activism, contemporary discourse, and the voices of ten activists currently in the field suggest that many animal activists suffer some form of trauma. Activist trauma arises through overlapping, complex relational processes of intersubjective attunement with nonhuman animals and embeddedness within a human social context that disavows nonhuman suffering. In understanding activist trauma as a symptom of a dysfunctional system, I depathologize activist suffering and view activists as integral members of a whole society that seeks healing.

A Different Story in the Anthropocene: Brazil’s Post-Colonial Quest for Oil (1930–1975)*

Abstract This article aims to identify new historical causes for the making of the Anthropocene (the rise of humans to a geological force) by addressing Brazil’s transformation into an oil producer and an oil-dependent country between 1930 and 1975. This example allows an escape from the essentialist explanation of the Anthropocene as the result of humans’ insatiable appetite for consumption, commonly rooted in an analysis of Western industrial society, and to focus instead on the notion of freedom in a former colony. Indeed, in the context of nation-building and modernization debates, petroleum appeared to many Brazilians as an opportunity to emancipate the country from its peripheral role as global raw material provider. The rise of petroleum gave a post-colonial sense to the nation-founding myth of Brazil’s exceptional nature, which served as romantic background for a movement towards resource sovereignty embedded into a global anti-imperialist context. In Brazil specifically, oil production became an opportunity for a process of ecological transformation that promised to rid the country of colonial landscapes of exploitation, and even appeared as a solution for stopping the unsustainable destruction of tropical forests. Ultimately, these petro-ideals of emancipation, by positively linking nature and the nation, also hindered fully detecting the scope of the pollution problems that oil was generating. As argued in the article’s conclusion, this example should rekindle the discussion about the unintended link between freedom and geological change in the analysis of Anthropocene causalities.

CCTV and robbery in high-rise public housing in Hong Kong

PurposeIn Hong Kong, robberies occurring in the elevators in high-rise buildings were identified as a particular problem and the purpose of this paper is to address a dedicated programme aimed at reducing such offences.Design/methodology/approachA comparison of elevator-based robbery statistics over a ten-year policy-implication period, in two police districts, one with a high rate of public ownership and a traditionally high rate of elevator robberies, the second with a higher rate of private ownership and a traditionally lower rate of such robberies.FindingsThe evidence suggests that the programme was successful, with such robberies declining significantly and with no evidence of displacement.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is based on police statistics. There is a need for more research, for example, investigating residents’ involvement with the system and the extent to which it encouraged shared ownership of the initiative.Practical implicationsWhat is clear is that, where in the West the Newman legacy led to the demonisation of high-rise public sector housing, in Hong Kong, where there is no viable alternative, the use of CCTV helped transform such areas into safer communities.Social implicationsThe rate of robbery, most notably elevator-based robbery, fell dramatically, improving community safety.Originality/valueThough there has been a considerable amount of research on the impact of CCTV on crime, almost all of this has focussed on Western industrial societies and little of it has addressed robbery. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this research is the first in Hong Kong, and the first to evaluate the impact of CCTV on robbery.

Cognitive Dissonance and Fertility Rates: A Comparative Analysis of Attitudes toward the Gender Division of Labour in East Asian and Western Industrial Societies

Based on data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), this study examines the extent to which cognitive dissonance regarding egalitarian attitudes toward the gender division of labour are associated with fertility rates in sixteen societies, representing Anglo American, Northern European, Western European and East Asian regimes. The findings show that although levels of support for gender equality in the realms of the family and the market are positively associated with fertility rates, an even stronger relationship to fertility emerges when weighing the differences between the levels of support for gender equality in each realm. The findings lend some corroboration to McDonald’s hypothesis, which suggests that declining fertility rates are influenced by contradictory expectations between gender equality for women in the home and market.

Towards a theology of sports chaplaincy

ABSTRACT Existing literature on the work of sports chaplains focuses primarily on practitioner accounts of chaplaincy within elite sports settings. While these narratives provide useful descriptions of personal experience and practical application, they are largely devoid of theological grounding. This paper seeks to address this imbalance by putting forward a theology of sports chaplaincy that emphasises the missional nature of this ministry. We begin by contextualising mission within the doctrine of the Trinity. We then move to an exploration of the incarnational nature of chaplaincy. In line with the work of established missiological scholars, the concept of missio Dei is located as one possible way of understanding the mission and role of the chaplain in post-Christendom in western industrial society. The paper concludes by identifying sports chaplains as key missiological agents within the context of both amateur and elite sport.

Extending ethnic humour theory: Genuine vs. functional ethnic jokе scripts

Most ethnic humour that has been studied so far consists of jokes which use ethnically non-specific qualities such as stupidity or canniness in order to ridicule an ethnic group and thus to preserve and perpetuate ethnically based social hierarchies in western industrial societies. In light of this dominant logic in ethnic humour theory, the objective of this study is to problematize the relation of such non-ethnic qualities and the notion of ethnic identity, as well as their relation to a specific type of society, in an attempt to convincingly argue in favour of the need to differentiate between ‘ethnically-empty’ functional joke scripts and genuine ethnic joke scripts that are related to the ethnic identity of the target. In so doing, I extend ethnic humour theory by introducing and testing the notion of genuine ethnic joke scripts in order to motivate future research that will tackle other potential ethnic humour idiosyncrasies. Toward this end, I have collected and analysed joke material (N=369) coming from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Albania, societies with histories and relations very different that those in the western industrial societies. Additionally, the study incorporates two questionnaires with members of the two largest ethnicities in the Republic of Macedonia, Macedonians and Albanians, to ascertain the relation between the genuine ethnic humour and ethnic identity.

Toward a Population Revolution? The Threat of Extinction and Family Policy in Czechoslovakia 1930s–1950s

The 1930s and 1940s were a formative period in the development of family policy as a relatively independent branch of the state’s social policy in the Bohemian lands. During this time, several political regimes followed one another (liberal democracy, a conservative authoritative regime, the national socialism of the occupation, and postwar people’s democracy). Despite these political changes, family policy was determined by the discourse of the waning Western industrial society and intensifying nationalism throughout the period in question. The articulation of the national threat created the conditions necessary for active state intervention in the sphere of marital cohabitation and managed support of population growth. This entailed compensating families for preserving the nation as a whole by giving birth to a populous new generation. These efforts were often in conflict with the movement for equality among men and women and increased women’s participation in the labor market. The first part of this article describes the discourse of the nation under threat and its political consequences. The second half focuses on the formation of the social reform consensus during the Second World War and after peace was restored. The third part confronts experts’ proposals with political practice: despite the low number of positive legislative measures, this analysis reveals the evident continuity of efforts to create a conceptual, state-led family policy regardless of the vastly different ideologies of the political regimes mentioned.

Theorizing materialism through the Institutional Analysis and Development framework

Materialism in Western societies has been examined at both individual and cultural levels. However, the underlying institutions that engender and perpetuate materialism as an orientation toward consumption are left unexamined. Therefore, the overall purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between institutions constituting the dominant social paradigm (DSP) (deep-rooted belief structures and practices) of societies and materialism. The model proposed to carry this out is the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. This article contributes to marketing theory by developing a conceptual model that explains and offers transformative implications pertaining to the relationship between materialism and the institutional elements of the DSP of Western industrial societies.

Urban Anthropology

Established academic disciplinary distinctions led early anthropologists to study tribal societies, or village communities, while ignoring the city as a field of research. Thus, urban research became established in some academic disciplines, particularly sociology, but struggled to achieve such a status in anthropology. Over the years, historical events and geo-political changes have stimulated anthropologists to address processes of urbanization in developing countries; yet, urban research in western industrial societies continued to be left out of the mainstream disciplinary agenda. In this chapter we examine major debates in the development of this sub-discipline and discuss the complex methodological and theoretical challenges posed by field-research in urban settings, clearly identifying the significance of the anthropological paradigm in urban research and its centrality both to mainstream academic debates and to the broader society. Today an increasing number of anthropologists carry out research in cities. With half of humanity already living in towns and cities, growing to two-thirds in the next 50 years, there is no denying that research in urban settings is topical and needed as western and non-western society is fast becoming urban or mega-urban. Having outlined the background to current trends in this field of research, the discussion builds towards an assessment of the contribution that empirically-based anthropological analysis can make to our understanding of our increasingly urban world.

Facilitating planning communication across borders: The International Federation for Housing and Town Planning in the interwar period

Several scholars, including Pierre-Yves Saunier and Renaud Payre, have studied how the members of the various networks of the ‘urban internationale’ attempted to overcome professional and political cleavages throughout the twentieth century. In contrast, only a few scholars have scrutinized the ways in which international professional institutions sought to prevail over interlingual difficulties. Although various institutions restricted communication to English, French, and German, many members had only a limited command of foreign languages; additionally, amateur interpreters further impeded multilingual conversation. Resulting language difficulties worsened professional and political conflicts within the urban internationale. Charting the attempts of the International Federation for Housing and Town Planning (IFHTP) to establish an international notation of town plans and an interlingual glossary for urban planning, this essay studies attempts of the urban internationale to facilitate communication across borders during the interwar era. Through the example of the IFHTP, this article studies how planners within this international network organized transborder expert cooperation. It focuses on the debates surrounding the creation of a notation system and a glossary, designed to facilitate communication between planners from Western industrial societies while largely excluding connections to the Colonies and other parts of the world.

Leaving Home and Boomerang Decisions: A Family Simulation Protocol

Boomeranging—adult children returning home—increasingly occurs in Western industrial societies on a cafeteria-like menu of emerging adulthood. We review benefits and problems across family backgrounds and offer a family simulation protocol for computerized life-course microsimulation complementing data and theory about boomeranging and family relationships. A teaching simulation consistent with this protocol has one or two parents and up to three children with given genders, races, and initial ages in a social influence network. It executes on six decision topics over simulated years with choices Stay/Leave-Home, Seek or Stay Married/Not, Seek Employment/Not, Opt for College/Not, Outside Romance/Not, and Resist Home Leaving/Not. Stay/Leave-Home signifies opposite choices on one topic. Employment, medical, education, and marital status events align with macro data and affect simulated decisions.

Lawrence’s “Art Speech” and the Malady of Civilization in Women in Love

A number of interesting parallels concerning the role of aggressiveness in love can be drawn between the implications of Freud’s “Civilization and its Discontents” and those of Lawrence in his novel of ideas Women in Love. Freud’s views on aggression show affinities with Lawrence’s major theme of the doom of western industrial society in his “end-of-the-world” novel. In Women in Love dissolution is shown to be a ubiquitous process in industrial civilization. This is openly stated by Birkin, w...

Different facets of compulsive buying among Chinese students.

Background and aims: Compulsive buying is a severe phenomenon, especially among younger consumers. It is well documented in Western industrial societies like the USA and Germany, and nowadays an increasing interest in compulsive buying in non-Western countries is on the rise. Methods: In the current study, we measured the prevalence of compulsive buying tendencies among Chinese female and male students by using a Chinese translation of the German Compulsive Buying Scale (Raab, Neuner, Reisch & Scherhorn, 2005). We examined the influence of gender, location and age using ANCOVA, and binary logistic regression. Results: Factor analysis identified three factorial dimensions of compulsive buying tendencies which are impairment of impulse control and reactive or compensatory aspects, reduced rationality according to money spending, and post-purchase guilt. Our results indicated that about 6.7% of the sample shows a compulsive buying pattern, and that females are more affected. For location, a geographic difference between Chongqing and Fuzhou was found for the overall compulsive tendencies, but not for the percentages of compulsive buyers. Conclusions: In sum, the existing study provides evidence that Chinese consumers have a factorial structure which differs somewhat in compulsive buying from Western samples. Observations about gender and location were considered. These findings give a deeper understanding of China’s compulsive buying behavior.

Telestroke – How does that work?

Summary The significance of cerebrovascular disorders is steadily increasing due to the demographic changes in western industrial societies. Therefore the implementation of telemedical networks seems tempting to improve deliverance of specialised stroke care in non-urban areas. Networks like TEMPiS, located in the rural area of south-eastern Bavaria, have shown to deliver high experienced stroke therapy to underserved areas. Mandatory for a high quality of supply is the appropriate technical equipment. Moreover, beside the teleconsultations, a continuous training should be performed. Mobile solutions allow more flexibility for the teleconsultants.

The use of surveillance cameras in a Riyadh shopping mall: Protecting profits or protecting morality?

The rise of mass private property means that people increasingly spend their time in publicly accessible spaces controlled by private interests. Unlike public policing, which is reactive and morally toned, the policing that takes place in mass private property tends to be proactive and instrumental and utilizes new surveillance technologies (such as surveillance cameras) not to punish deviants, but to create and sustain the flow of profit. However, much of the literature on this topic has focused on the emergence of private policing in western industrial societies. In contrast, this study draws upon interviews and observational research conducted in the surveillance camera control room of a shopping mall in Riyadh (the capital City of Saudi Arabia) to show how private policing and the use of new surveillance technologies are shaped by existing social relations and cultural traditions. In this setting we argue that new surveillance technologies are used not only to protect profit, but to protect public morality. We discuss the significance of our empirical findings for broader theoretical debates on surveillance, gender and resistance.

F054 Outcome driven fitting assistant FOX®: multicentric study in Advanced Bionics® adult cochlear implant users

The significance of cerebrovascular disorders is steadily increasing due to the demographic changes in western industrial societies. Therefore the implementation of telemedical networks seems tempting to improve deliverance of specialised stroke care in non-urban areas. Networks like TEMPiS, located in the rural area of south-eastern Bavaria, have shown to deliver high experienced stroke therapy to underserved areas.Mandatory for a high quality of supply is the appropriate technical equipment. Moreover, beside the teleconsultations, a continuous training should be performed. Mobile solutions allow more flexibility for the teleconsultants.

Education for Democracy: reasons and strategies

According to social scientists Herfried Münkler in Germany and Colin Crouch in England, major developments in Western industrial societies — individualism, increasing social complexity, globalisation — present serious threats to basic requirements of stable societies and expose democracy to the corrosion of its socio‐moral resources such as social trust and civic commitment to the public good. In order to grow and to flourish, the competences and capabilities that constitute these resources require systematic cultivation through educational processes.The school is the only institution that can provide the appropriate experience of a democratic life to all members of society. At present, however, schools are generally far from this goal.This article describes strategies for providing the experience of schools as democratic lifeworlds from an early age: classroom councils as tools for democratic self government and sites for sociomoral learning; projects of service learning in the community which can be successfully organized by these councils; and early experiences of civic engagement in community contexts as part of democratic classroom practice.