Socio-cultural

Wayne Vucinic Book Prize 2007, "for the most important contribution to Russian, Eurasian, and East European studies in any discipline of the humanities or social sciences." 

Endorsement by Slavoj Zizek:

"Alexei Yurchak's Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More immediately seduced me by its very title with a profound philosophical implication that eternity is a historical category--things can be eternal for some time. The same spirit of paradox runs through the entire book--it renders in wonderful details the gradual disintegration of the Soviet system from within its ideological and cultural space, making visible all the hypocrisy and misery of this process. I consider Yurchak's book by far the best work about the late epoch of the Soviet Union--it is not just history, but a pleasure to read, a true work of art." (Slavoj Zizek, author of In Defense of Lost Causes)

Abstract:

Soviet socialism was based on paradoxes that were revealed by the peculiar experience of its collapse. To the people who lived in that system the collapse seemed both completely unexpected and completely unsurprising. At the moment of collapse it suddenly became obvious that Soviet life had always seemed simultaneously eternal and stagnating, vigorous and ailing, bleak and full of promise. Although these characteristics may appear mutually exclusive, in fact they were mutually constitutive. This book explores the paradoxes of Soviet life during the period of "late socialism" (1960s-1980s) through the eyes of the last Soviet generation.

This article discusses how language use affects reasoning and learning in educational settings. Interactions among (1) pupils in upper secondary school, (2) teachers in upper secondary school, and (3) student teachers studying to become secondary teachers were analysed. While previous studies have examined language use among pupils, teachers, and student teachers, respectively, little research has combined these perspectives. As such, this study provides additional insight into the educational discourse. Drawing on sociocultural, dialogical perspectives on learning, the authors of this article found that the inclusion of specialized language promotes learning and enhances professional awareness. These findings hold implications for teacher education and teacher professional development.

Not much is known about flow, a positive psychology experience in non Western countries particularly in human resource development field. Although flow is a universal experience, flow can be expected to be culture specific and culture dependent. There are reasons to believe that emotions at work, and how people express their positive emotions reflects and originated from their cultural characteristics (i.e. Asian are not encouraged to show their negative emotions). The objective of this paper is to
examine the antecedents and consequences of flow from literature review. The literature review was conducted within the accessibility limits provided to Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and INTI International University by online databases in Emerald, Sage, JSTOR, ScienceDirect, Elsevier, and EBSCOhost. Twenty one (21) journal articles published between 2000-2012 were reviewed. Fifteen (15) of the articles were studies carried out in Western countries while five (6) of the articles were studies in non-Western countries. The analysis showed that most of the studies were in quantitative method. It was found that antecedents
of flow include job characteristics (combination of challenges and resources), work environment and negative organizational outcomes. On the other hand, consequences of flow include intrinsic motivation, engagement and positive mood which lead to higher performance. From this limited literature, no clear distinction between antecedents and consequences of flow between Western and non-Western can be found. Human resource practitioners could design work and environment that can cultivate flow experience in order to increase employees' performance.

"This paper investigates factors influencing the shaping of future learning environments. It focuses on the impact of social and cultural requirements on the sustainability of future learning environment. It argues that while today's learning
environments are shaped by yesterday's visions, future learning environments are shaped by toady's' visions that might not be acceptable nor valid for future generations. The case of New Kuwait University City in Shedadiyah is used to illustrate how current social and cultural requirements impact the design of a future university campus and inhibit the production of a sustainable environment. Among several socio-cultural factors, the paper focuses on two significant aspects that have dramatically affected the development of the master plan for the New University City; namely separation of students' sexes and car parking requirements. The first requirement was mandated by a parliament decree to build two separate campuses; one for male students and the other for female students. The implementation of this requirement resulted in the duplication of many educational facilities and immensely increased space and budget requirements. The second requirement reflected dependency on automobiles as primary means of transportation in Kuwait. It resulted in a necessity to allocate large areas of land for vehicular traffic and car parking. These two requirements, as well as other socio-cultural requirements, created a great challenge towards achieving the required level of sustainability. The paper concludes that while recognizing that accommodating clients' social and cultural requirements is necessary for the application of a comprehensive sustainability strategy, these requirements might work against achieving required levels of other aspects of sustainability."

This is document (PPT) excerpts from the Muslim scholars and historians with a special interests and expertise colladed by the author that form part of lecture discussion. This work is a reference from partisan scholarships and written with particular perspective and views reflecting the ethnic identification and or ideological orientation of the Muslim Filipinos or the Bangsa Moro. It is a characterization of the 13th muslim tribes in the Philippines with proper recognition by the 1987 Philippine Constitution as stipulated thereon. These indigenous cultural communities in the Philippines, including the history of Muslim Filipinos, better understood based on important segment written by the insiders and not the foreigners, a highly provocative positionon the specific muslim tribes: their experiences, historical background and as well as struggles to put in the nomenclature of Philippine history as a whole.

Music is a powerful cultural medium. The volume explores the varied roles that music plays in human culture and society, and its unique symbolic and communicative properties. Contributors discuss Richard Wagner, Bob Dylan, John Cage, Eric Burdon, and Igor Stravinsky. From electronic and inner-city DIY to world music and rock concerts, the book looks at music’s part in creating the human sense of place, space, transcendence and identity. Philosophers, cultural thinkers, and sociologists collaborate to explain the exhilaration and fascination that human beings experience when they listen to music.

Table of Contents

Volume Foreword vii
Chapter One Introduction: Philosophical and Cultural Theories
of Music
Eduardo De La Fuente and Peter Murphy

Chapter Two Modern Hermeneutics and the Presentation
of Opera
Agnes Heller

Chapter Three Algo-Rhythm and Mello-dy: A Consideration of
the Relationship Between Technology and the Embodied
Performance of Music
Daniel Black

Chapter Four Bob Dylan Ain’t Talking: One Man’s Vast Comic
Adventure in American Music, Dramaturgy, and Mysticism
Peter Murphy

Chapter Five Music and Religion: Reflections on Cultural
Secularization
David Roberts

Chapter Six Prophet and Priest, Ascetic and Mystic: Towards
a Cultural Sociology of the Twentieth Century Composer
Eduardo De La Fuente

Chapter Seven Collective Effervescence, Numinous Experience or
Proto-Religious Phenomena? Moshing with Durkheim,
Schleiermacher and Otto
Mark Jennings

Chapter Eight Music as a Space of Possibilities 129
John Rundell

Chapter Nine Some Suggestions for a Phenomenology
of Rhythm
Stuart Grant

Chapter Ten The Paradox of “Do-it-Yourself” in
Unpopular Music
Joseph Borlagdan

Chapter Eleven Musical Culturespeak and Cosmopolitan
Identities in Australian Multiculturalism
Graeme Smith

Chapter Twelve The Piano and Cultural Modernity in
East Asia
Alison Tokita

Chapter Thirteen Popular Music, Cultural Memory and
Everyday Aesthetics
Andy Bennett

Chapter Fourteen Everything is Dirt: Reevaluating the Place
of Cultural Status in Producing Aesthetic Attachment
Claudio E. Benzecry

Chapter Fifteen Musical Listening and Boundary-Work
Michael Walsh

A collection of essays on contemporary capitalism. The volume explores art and the new spirit of capitalism; visual culture and the experience economy; aesthetics and organisations; the art of fiscal management; capitalism and myth; and architecture in the age of aesthetic capitalism.

Introduction: Aesthetic Capitalism
Eduardo de la Fuente and Peter Murphy

1 From the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism to the Creative
Economy: Reflections on the New Spirit of Art and Capitalism
David Roberts

2 The Artefacts of Capitalism and the Objecthood of
Their Aesthetics
Vrasidas Karalis

3 The Aesthetic Spirit of Modern Capitalism
Peter Murphy

4 The Visual Experience Economy: What Kind of Economics?
On the Topologies of Aesthetic Capitalism
Anders Michelsen

5 Aesthetic Capital: Hermeneutic Speculation, Economic Themes,
and the Dismal Science
Ken Friedman

6 The Social Negotiation of Aesthetics and Organisational
Democracy
Antonio Strati

7 Neo-Modernism: Architecture in the Age of Aesthetic Capitalism
Eduardo de la Fuente

8 The Aesthetics of Fiscal Consolidation
Carlo Tognato

9 The Innovative Role of Art in the Time of the Absence of Myth
Dominique Bouchet

Nature-based learning is an increasingly popular type of early childhood education. Despite this, children’s experiences—in particular, their form and function within different settings and how they are viewed by practitioners—are relatively unknown. Accordingly, the use of nature as a setting and a resource for learning was researched. A description and an emerging understanding of nature-based learning were obtained through the use of a group discussion and case studies. Practitioners’ views demonstrated their eagerness to share experience that ranged from positive examples to challenges encountered within practice. Case studies recorded in a Scottish nature kindergarten and two Nordic counterparts take a situated view of nature-based learning. Findings indicate that nature is utilised as setting, as resource and as educator within children’s learning and this holds true within different countries. Local, social and cultural contexts exert influence on pedagogical practice and implications for practice based upon these are given.

Advancement in the arts and sciences is a primary driver of economic production and social policy in post-industrial societies. Imagination steps back and asks what advances the arts and sciences? This book explores the collective, social and global dimension of human imagining and the ambivalent relationship of social institutions, including universities, schools, economies, media and culture industries, to the collective imagination. Basic discovery requires high levels of creative thinking: Imagination looks at the social conditions that make path-breaking thought possible on a large scale. It examines the role of aesthetic, pictorial, digital, paradoxical and other imaginative styles of thinking, and the times and places in which such styles become socially prominent and a significant force in economic and cultural production. It looks at successful societies as they are approaching their peak, when new ideas are driving them forward.

The study aimed at establishing the factors that affect sustainability of fish farming projects in public secondary schools in Kiambu County. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: to establish costs of inputs effect on sustainability of fish farming in public secondary schools in Kiambu County; technology effect on sustainability of fish farming projects in public secondary schools in Kiambu County; skills and training effect on sustainability fish farming projects in public secondary schools in Kiambu County and social-cultural factors effect on sustainability of fish farming projects in secondary schools in Kiambu County. The research used the descriptive survey approach. The target population of the study was 65fish farming secondary schools project managers in Kiambu County and 10 fisheries officers in each of the constituency. This corresponded to a target population of 75.By the time of data collection some projects had closed down and therefore data was collected from 44 secondary schools. The study adopted the census sampling technique which involved sampling all project managers in the fish farming projects and a fishery officer in each of the constituencies. The sample size of the study was therefore 54 respondents. The study used questionnaires to gather data from project managers and informant interviews from fisheries officers. Descriptive (mean, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages) were adopted together with inferential statistics (correlation and regression) so as to come to a measure of relationship and meanings. The study established that fish farming sustainability in public secondary schools is greatly affected by social-cultural effects where attitudes play a key role. Cost of inputs was another factor where high costs would mean less production. Technology proved to have an effect on sustainability since adoption of technology would result to higher production and thus more sustainability. Skills and training did also have an effect as better skills and training would result to better management. The study recommended more involvement by the government to lower costs of inputs, avail technology together with extension services and enhance the campaign of " eat more fish " together with involving more women in the projects.

An analysis of internal perspective on women in Lamkaang  Naga tribe in Manipur, India.
Interviews of Church leaders, community elders, elderly widow and some spinsters, were conducted and their perspectives shared in this paper. Increased education among the Lamkaang have led to greater liberation for women,and women's stereotypical roles within the society.

Vernacular Architecture has been a source of inspiration and learning all over the world. India has a rich repository of vernacular evolved over centuries of living corresponding to its existing diverse vibrant and myriad environments providing a good evidence for unearthing these lessons. In the contemporary context where most architectural practices are deficient in their connection to tradition and socio-cultural bearings, looking back to vernacular architecture is prudent and relevant. Within this premise, the Narhai settlement at Lucknow: a culturally and architecturally prolific city in Northern India has been taken as a suitable case for an in depth analysis. The objective of this study is to identify architectural spaces facilitating its interaction within the existing socio-cultural environment. It also aspires to take lessons from the selected spaces in influencing socio-cultural interactions giving rise to recommendations useful for similar socio-cultural domains.

"The Collective Imagination" explores the social foundations of the human imagination. The book looks at the collective expression of the imagination in our economies, universities, cities, and political systems, providing an account of the power of the imagination to unite opposites and find similarities among things that we ordinarily think of as different. It is not only individuals who possess the power to imagine; societies do as well. Looking at various peak moments of creation, the book examines the cities and nations, institutions and individuals who ply the paraphernalia of paradoxes and dialogues, wry dramaturgy and witty expression that set the act of creation in motion. Whilst exploring the manner in which, through the media of pattern, figure, and shape, and the miracles of metaphor, things come into being, the book recognises that creative periods never last: creative forms invariably tire; inventive centres inevitably fade. "The Collective Imagination" explores the contemporary dilemmas and historic pathos caused by this-as cities and societies, periods and generations slip behind in the race for economic and social discovery. Left bewildered and bothered, and struggling to catch up, they substitute empty bombast, faded glory, chronic dullness or stolid glumness for initiative, irony, and inventiveness. The work provides an audit of the creativity claims of the post-modern age. It finds these claims wanting-and looks to the future.

The first Culture/Justice protocol was co-signed on the 25 th of July 1986 by Jack Lang and Robert Badinter.
Following the first international symposium about culture in prison (May-June 1985), this text formalised the
interdepartmental cultural policy in prison which had been in place since the beginning of the 1980's.
However, cultural activities have existed in French penal institutions since the Liberation. From choirs to
theatre groups including concerts, these were often categorised as educational, socio-cultural, recreational and
cultural activities. Initially organised by social assistants, they were then mostly led by prison educators. The
latter had been created as part of the Amor reform in 1946. Only a few penal institutions were affected by
these activites which were supposed to educate, observe and reform the prisoners. In the 1970's, because of
the prison crisis, a new reform was implemented which turned the cultural activities into a means of
rehabilitation and reintegration. In the early 1980's, this approach was transformed because of the intervention
of Minister Lang. New initiatives appeared ; for example, audio-visual technology. From then on, these were led
by artists, associations, and institutions from the world of creativity. The perspective of these new operators
was then to guarantee the right to culture for the detained individuals. Prison educators then had to convert
into coordinators. Consequently, activities depended on the local cultural fabric. Therefore, the penitentiary
administration had to reorganise in order to take on board these new operations.

Globally 214 million women of reproductive age who want to avoid pregnancy are not using modern contraceptive methods.
The government of Tanzania in collaboration with other stakeholders put in places various strategies and policies to increase
uptake of family planning services. These are aimed at increasing contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR), reduction in both total
fertility rate (TFR) and unmet need for family planning services. Despite the various strategies and policies, total fertility rate
still remains high at 4.6 percent; Kahe Ward has a low CPR of 26.5%. The purpose of the study was to examining the socioeconomic and social cultural factors influencing contraceptive uptake among women of reproductive age at Kahe Ward in
Moshi District-Tanzania. Sample sizes of 421 women were interviewed through systematic sampling of the households. Data
was collected from the women using a structured questionnaire and Key informant Interview. The data was analyzed using
SPSS Version 23. Both descriptive and inferential statistics for different variables was computed. Chi- square was used to
show the associations between variables. The study concluded that the contraceptive uptake was 56.3% which is higher than
national level of 38.4%. Middle-aged women (in the age range 20 to 29) were found to use modern contraception than the
older women Married women were found to practice contraceptive uptake than the others

Women’s entrepreneurship is an effective way to combat poverty, hunger and disease, to stimulate sustainable business practices, and to promote gender equality. Yet, deeply engrained cultural norms often prescribe gender-specific roles and behaviors that severely constrain the opportunities for women’s entrepreneurial activities. This excellent new volume of work from the Diana Group explores this paradox.

As women-entrepreneurs circumvent challenges and obstacles, they also ameliorate the cultural context for future women entrepreneurs. In this book, studies covering 40 countries document how culture affects women’s entrepreneurship, and how women’s entrepreneurship, in turn, shapes the cultural milieu. The work is organized into three main themes: (1) the socio-cultural context for women’s entrepreneurship; (2) women’s entrepreneurship as emancipation from traditional family roles; and (3) government policies and programs and self-determination in women’s entrepreneurship.

This illuminating and inspiring book offers valuable insights for students of women’s entrepreneurship, practicing entrepreneurs, and public policy makers interested in promoting women’s entrepreneurship in different cultural contexts around the world.

Upcoming: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/women-s-entrepreneurship-and-culture-9781789905038.html

В справочно-методическом пособии описана история создания и формирования экологически значимых ресурсов Ботанического сада Иркутского государственного университета - единственного в Прибайкалье ботанического сада. Рассмотрен систематический, эколого-биологический, географический состав флоры Сада. Проводится сравнение с флорой основных зеленых зон Иркутска. Для специалистов-ботаников, географов, студентов и преподавателей профильных специальностей, педагогов общеобразовательных школ, озеленительных организаций, широкого круга любителей природы.

My doctoral dissertation examines the experiences of the Italian volunteers in the Waffen-SS troops using in-depth interviews with former volunteers as the main primary source. This phenomenon, even if significant in size (depending on the source, some 15 000-20 000 Italian men volunteered in the Waffen-SS), has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The available literature on the Italian volunteers, mainly written by military history enthusiast journalists and methodologically weak, concentrates mainly on the combat operations and military organization, and offers a rather stereotypical profile of the volunteers.

My dissertation does not aim to reconstruct the military history of the different divisions of the Waffen-SS in which Italian volunteers operated but instead to examine the subjective, private and intimate experience of the volunteers in order to understand the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and cultural and family background, as well as their political ideas. The main objective of my doctoral dissertation is to discover the ideological precepts of the volunteers’ political credo. As the last phase of fascism and its ideology, often defined as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascism, is still the object of wide academic debate, a better understanding of the volunteers’ ideology also contributes to deepening overall knowledge of the nature of this last phase.

The theoretical frame of my dissertation lies in oral history, in particular in the postmodernist approach to oral history, through which I reconstruct the volunteers’ ideology. In-depth interviews with former volunteers are the main primary source, but multiple data collection methods have been adopted. Phone interviews and correspondence with the volunteers have also been considered as primary sources. In addition to interviews and correspondence, family archives consisting of diaries, correspondence with the volunteers’ relatives and photographic material have also been collected and examined. An ethnographic observation of the volunteers’ domestic spaces has been conducted during the in-depth interviews, and photo self-elicitation techniques have been used in cases where the volunteers were willing to share their photographs.

An exhaustive portrait of the ideological structure of the volunteers has been obtained, as well as of the cultural and social origins of the values that contributed to the rise and adoption of this ideology. Further, the volunteers’ motivations to enlist have been clearly reconstructed, together with their cultural, political, social and military backgrounds. The results of the research are particularly relevant both for comprehension of the Italian phenomenon of volunteering in the Waffen-SS and for the reconstruction of the ideological dynamics of the last phase of fascism. The volunteers’ political and ideological system, which can be defined as the Italian SS-fascist ideology, disagrees strongly with the vaguely described ideological profile offered by previous studies that describe volunteers as generically “super-fascist”. The research also offers the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the final fascist ideological trajectory, currently defined, not without a certain level of approximation, as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascist ideology.

Within collaborative learning environments, learners from different socio-cultural background may interact together. These learners evolve within various cultures and social contexts and acquire different socio-cultural values and behaviors. They develop different needs, points of view and learning styles. Thus, they should be supported while communicating and collaborating together. In fact, the communication and collaboration tools provided to each learner should be appropriate according to her/his personal context and socio-cultural profile allowing her/him to learn actively and effectively in a group. Besides, the presentation of information, information structure and the interaction should be possible in different forms and with various media (text, image, audio, visual, audiovisual, symbols for facial expression transmission, pictures and videos). In the last few years and over the last decades, there was a growing interest in the development of Computer Supported Collaborative learning (CSCL) environments. However, the existing systems ignore the variety of learners and their socio-cultural differences especially in the case of distant learning. In fact, the socio-cultural impacts were demonstrated both on learner characteristics (behaviors, cognition, emotion, personality and learning), and on collaborative learning environment variables (communication, collaboration style, on learning style and behavior, motivation and participation). The main goal of this thesis work is to propose an approach to integrate and operationalize social and cultural differences between learners when developing CSCL environments. Therefore, our problem statement is as follows: First, identify, define and model the socio-cultural user background, then propose a socio-cultural adaptation approach of computer supported collaborative learning environments (from the early conceptualization phase to the operationalization phase and the final use of the system).To address this problem statement, the main contributions of this thesis are: the proposition of an ontological framework to model the socio-cultural knowledge and their influences on CSCL environments and the definition of an adaptation approach based on and guided by this framework. The latter is formed by two complementary ontologies: 1) SOCUDO : a generic ontology (domain independent) which models the socio-cultural user characteristics as well as knowledge about the influences of culture on personality, preferences and cognition 2) SCACLO: a generic domain ontology that models the CSCL domain variables that are socio-culturally sensitive. Literature reviews and studies were done within humanities and social sciences and within educational sciences to extract the socio cultural specificities of CSCL learners. Based on the finding of these studies, adaptation rules were built. In order to validate these rules, a trilingual online survey (Arabic, French and English) was widely circulated online targeting three cultures (Tunisian, French and American). The results of this survey were used to refine these rules. The proposed adaptation process based on these rules is a dynamic process that supports both adaptability (by generating automatically adapted recommendations to the user) and adaptivity (by involving the user in the adaptation process and allowing him/her whether to accept recommendations proposed by the system or to decline them and choose others. Long term adaptation rule Refinement and extraction of new knowledge about the user is ensured by the observation and machine learning of the user interaction behavior with the system and with others. To operationalize the ontological framework and the socio-cultural adaptation approach, we implement a collaborative editing CSCL environment that offers adapted functionalities according to the socio-cultural learner profile. The proposed system is able to solve the intercultural communication problems by notifications and intelligent intermediation in order to promote group awareness.

This study aimed to determine the socio-cultural effects of festivals in the province of Batangas as part of the cultural tourism industry. Specifically, it described the profile of the respondents in terms of age, gender, civil status, religion, income educational attainment; assess the perceived socio-cultural and economic effects of festivals in the province of Batangas; to test the significant difference between perceived socio-cultural and economic effects when grouped according to their profile variables; and to propose a plan of action to enhance and promote the cultural tourism industry of Batangas Province. Majority of the residents were 60 years and above, female, married and Roman Catholic with monthly income of 5,001-9,999.99 and elementary graduate. The respondents strongly agreed that one of the socio cultural effects of festivals is it provide unity in the community and in terms of economic effects, hosting a festival is expensive. A plan of action was proposed to enhance and promote the cultural tourism industry of Batangas Province.

"Radical Research explores the view that research is not a neutral tool to be employed without bias in the search for truth. Rather the radical roots of research are to be seen in the focus on freedom and emancipation from blind allegiance to tradition, ‘common sense’, religion, or powerful individuals and organisations.

Radical Research introduces and draws upon leading contemporary debates and data gathered from a diversity of funded projects in; health, education, police training, youth and community, schools, business, and the use of information technology.

This book presents a radical view of research in a way that enables both beginner and the experienced professional researcher to explore its approaches in the formation of their own views and practices. It progressively leads the reader from discussions of case studies to critical explorations of the philosophical and methodological concepts, theories and arguments that are central to contemporary debates. In essence, this book shows how to design, develop and write radical research under conditions where ‘normal’ research rules apply and it offers a ground-breaking and proven alternative to traditional research techniques."

This study explores the tourists' perception of risks attached to safety and security affecting their decision-making process. The study further discusses the risk perception of tourists in relation to social and cultural factors, media influence and demographic factors that motivate tourists to choose a safe destination and how tourists perceive the safety and security measures in the hospitality and tourism industry and at their travel destination. Quantitative research methodology was implemented and samples were collected from both the domestic as well as international tourists. A Stratified Random Probability Sampling method was applied to select the sample at five tourist spots of India i.e., Dehradun, Mussoorie, Haridwar, Rishikesh, and Nainital. 287 questionnaires were returned back and the data was analysed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The findings reveal that tourists' decision-making process is influenced by their risk perception level; therefore, this study validates that tourists' decision-making is influenced by their risk perception level in relation with socio-cultural factors and media influence and provides useful information for destination marketers, hospitality operators and its stakeholders in proper planning and implementation of the policies and to utilize this information while undertaking the marketing campaign or develop tourist products.

El objetivo del presente trabajo es explorar las relaciones entre el populismo, la
polarización política, la posverdad y el tribalismo en la argentina reciente; fenómenos que se conjugan y superponen en la realidad social e impactan en las percepciones, identidades y afectividad de los ciudadanos. En primer lugar, se traza un marco histórico-conceptual acerca del populismo, la polarización y el vínculo entre ambos. Luego, se describen los fenómenos del tribalismo y la posverdad y se fundamenta por qué pueden servir como herramientas analíticas para entender mejor el funcionamiento de la polarización política. Finalmente, se lleva a cabo un primer acercamiento a un caso de la historia argentina reciente (el kirchnerismo), el cual se propone como un ejemplo donde confluyen el populismo, la polarización y la posverdad, y se proyecta un posible estudio más exhaustivo de la cuestión. En conclusión, se propone que el populismo, en tanto promotor de un discurso polarizante planteado en términos dicotómicos y antagónicos, sienta las bases para el desarrollo de identidades tribales fuertes y enemistadas. Y a su vez, que esto desincentiva el diálogo entre personas de distinta afinidad política, que paulatinamente se van “volviendo impermeables” a las ideas y opiniones del otro. Se argumenta que las dinámicas de la polarización potencian los sesgos cognitivos naturales y pueden llegar a hacer a las personas inmunes a la argumentación o a la evidencia científica a la hora de asimilar información nueva, lo cual posibilita la propagación de la posverdad. Por ello se plantea la posibilidad de utilizar la posverdad y el tribalismo como herramientas analíticas, para evaluar de qué manera operan ciertos discursos políticos en el electorado y qué factores pueden estar detrás de la decisión de adherir o rechazar a un movimiento o partido. El tema se destaca por su transversalidad, ya que se nutre de los campos de la historia, la ciencia política y la sociología, pero también de los experimentos sobre psicología social y economía del comportamiento.

In this paper, we expand our prior work on mathematics education in contexts of language diversity by elaborating on the three perspectives on language described by Ruiz (NABE J 8(2):15–34, 1984): language-as-right, language-as-resource, and language-as-problem. We illustrate our arguments with data taken from research contexts in Catalonia-Spain and South Africa. In these two parts of the world, the language policy in education has long been an issue, with a monolingual orientation that values one language (i.e., Catalan in Catalonia and English in South Africa) over others. Throughout the introduction of specific examples of policy documents, classroom practices, and participants’ reports, our main point is that the right of using the students’ languages makes sense because it is itself more than an intrinsic human right; it is an option that potentially benefits the creation of mathematics learning opportunities. Especially for the instances of classroom practices, our examples can be considered as representative in that they point to a common situation in our data: despite the fact of the language of learning and teaching being fixed, there is room for the learners and the teacher to take or react to a decision on what language to use, with whom, and how in concrete moments of the interaction. However, on the basis of our studies and drawing on the literature in mathematics education and language diversity, we argue that language rights are not sufficiently connected to language as a pedagogical resource. The enactment of these rights is still contributing in many ways to the social and political construction of problems concerning the role of certain languages in classroom interaction. We conclude the paper by discussing some possibilities for framing language as a resource that provide effective support to all students’ learning of mathematics.

The first Culture/Justice protocol was co-signed on the 25 th of July 1986 by Jack Lang and Robert Badinter.
Following the first international symposium about culture in prison (May-June 1985), this text formalised the
interdepartmental cultural policy in prison which had been in place since the beginning of the 1980's.
However, cultural activities have existed in French penal institutions since the Liberation. From choirs to
theatre groups including concerts, these were often categorised as educational, socio-cultural, recreational and
cultural activities. Initially organised by social assistants, they were then mostly led by prison educators. The
latter had been created as part of the Amor reform in 1946. Only a few penal institutions were affected by
these activites which were supposed to educate, observe and reform the prisoners. In the 1970's, because of
the prison crisis, a new reform was implemented which turned the cultural activities into a means of
rehabilitation and reintegration. In the early 1980's, this approach was transformed because of the intervention
of Minister Lang. New initiatives appeared ; for example, audio-visual technology. From then on, these were led
by artists, associations, and institutions from the world of creativity. The perspective of these new operators
was then to guarantee the right to culture for the detained individuals. Prison educators then had to convert
into coordinators. Consequently, activities depended on the local cultural fabric. Therefore, the penitentiary
administration had to reorganise in order to take on board these new operations
activities ; film club ;
reading club ; choir ; music ; drama ; télévision ; radio ; fine arts, audiovisual ; newspaper ; ;

For around fifteen years now, anthropology has been engaged in the study of neoliberalism. What contribution does the discipline have to make to a debate largely monopolized by economics and political science? To answer this question, the present article returns to the major texts and highlights the three perspectives from which anthropology has approached neoliberal expansion: culturalist, systemic and the approach based on governmentality. Each has its own epistemological presuppositions and a specific conception of anthropology, globalization and neoliberalism. The article highlights the relevance and limitations of these approaches.

Historically, entrepreneurship has been an important human activity which has
attracted the attention of economists as well as social science researchers. Consequently,
social scientists, in particular, have been able to prove that entrepreneurship is not only an
economic phenomenon but that socio-cultural elements play a prominent role in its general
dynamics. Thus, some theoretical positions have been developed to explain the less obvious
link between socio-cultural factors and entrepreneurial development. Although these theories
have been able to spell out the relevance of sociological factors in entrepreneurship, none of
these existing theories adequately explains the influence of socio-cultural factors on
entrepreneurial behaviour.This chapter attempts to integrate the existing major theories of
entrepreneurial behaviour in order to provide a comprehensive and inclusive sociological
theory capable of analysing the influence of socio-cultural factors on entrepreneurial
behaviour. The chapter concludes that a single-theoretical approach is not adequate to explain
the complex influence of socio-cultural factors on entrepreneurial behaviour.This study
contributes to the existing literature on the sociology of entrepreneurship.
Keywords: , , socio-cultural elements, theoretical integration

Promoting contextualization in Mathematics teaching has been the advocacy of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the hope of enhancing students' learning. Another important emphasis in the current setting is placed on the socio-cultural aspect of Mathematics education in the country. In this study, a socio-cultural Mathematics classroom adopted contextualization to enhance the higher order thinking skills of the students in a public Secondary High School in the province of Laguna. Moreover, it utilized a descriptive design but experimental in nature involving 112 Grade 8 students. Through data investigation and using Sample Paired T-Test and Pearson-Product Moment findings revealed that contextualization in a socio-cultural classroom has produced positive effects on the students' higher order thinking skills since the performance of Grade 8 students as to their analyzing, evaluating, and creating skills significantly improved. Furthermore, contextualizing a sociocultural classroom by using everyday life scenario in connecting Mathematics to the real world and presenting the lesson with a contextual problem motivate students, challenge them to apply Mathematical reasoning to different circumstances, and deliberately involve them in higher order thinking.

Phenomenology in recent years has gained throttle in the philosophical domain; more specifically, the phenomenological methodology had its most significant impact on architectural interpretation and understanding. It is unusual how the phenomenological discourse appeared in the architectural prospect on the decays of structuralism and semiotics. On the other hand, in humanities and philosophy, the growth of structuralism happened only after the decline of phenomenology. These paradoxical conditions are explained due to the translation delay of philosophical ideas and their implementation in architecture. In this research, we dig into the essential question of architectural experience by studying architecture through its phenomenological significance as a dwelling attitude to its inhabitants. The study is on dwellings in the eastern Bekaa region -Lebanon, on houses built between two significant eras, a time frame that shows the essential difference between two construction methods and the transitional phase in-between. Showing case the different typologies that generated in the same area, comparing the area's vernacular architecture and sustainable designs, addressing whether these typologies had any effect on the dweller's socio-cultural and socio-economical dynamics. The area of study is still virgin to different phenomenological interpretation, as the drastic change of typologies occurred in the past 50 years. Dwellers just recently overcame the transitional phase, from applying vernacular construction means, to applying new construction technologies with globalized materials. The area permits us to question the primary existential question of being-in-world, and how citizens coped with their environment in order to sustain their existential being through architectural means. We examine the following phenomenon by learning from dwelling theorists and phenomenologists, focusing on phenomenologists such as Martin Heidegger, Merleau-ponty, and Christian Norberg-Schulz in an attempt to correlate phenomenology with sustainability. Additionally, interpreting architecture hermeneutically through the Arabic parables to comprehend it better in concern with its cultural context.

Tourism is increasingly appeared as an important tool for the community development to many developing countries, though it has impacts. This paper is concerned with the socio-cultural impacts and tourism development in a developing society with a particular reference to Cox's Bazar Bangladesh whether conflicts or co-exists. The study has reviewed the " Social Exchange Theory " to understand the existing knowledge on socio-cultural impacts of tourism development-followed by a questionnaire survey of 180 local people. Perceptions of the local people revealed that tourism is thriving in Cox's Bazar with a significant impact on local economy through generating huge employments opportunity, having multiplier effects which lead to a quality of life to local people while the region was previously based on only the profession of fishing. However, this society is not apart from the negative consequences as similar as other developing societies due to economic benefits become the only priority where diverse community use the same land. Through thriving tourism, this region is facing huge environmental problem, socio-cultural degradation and adaptation of the Westernisation. The current study provides an insight to comprehend the understanding of the socio-cultural impact of tourism development in a developing society to manage and integrate tourism development more efficiently.

Procurement reforms are seen as essential for achieving a long term improvement in financial management within Africa. To gain insight into this situation an analysis of success stories and cases where challenges and difficulties have arisen were investigated. This material was content analysed using Mayring four-step process model. The findings demonstrate some initial improvement within African public sector financial management; however the complete and successful implementation of these reforms is fraught with problems. These issues that limit improved financial management through procurement reform included; inadequate education and training, legislative constraints, especially those associated with procurement technology, and a lack of political support for the reform process. In political terms the study identified that the current political position coupled with socio-cultural sensitivities of participating countries, has created a neglect of ethical and environmental considerations which in turn has slowed the pace and acceptance of reforms.

This study investigated the relationship between the socio-cultural environment factors and students' academic achievement in chemistry in secondary schools in Kaduna State. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlational survey design. A sample of one hundred and twenty (120) Senior Secondary School Two (SSII) students was randomly drawn from Kaduna North and South of Kaduna State. Socio-Cultural Environment Scale (SCES) and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) were used to measure students' perceptions and their achievement respectively. Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) statistics was employed as statistical tool. The findings of the study showed that there is no significant relationship between students' achievement in chemistry and each of the SCES except the sub-scale called authoritarianism where there was a significant positive relationship with students' achievement in chemistry. There is no significant relationship between students' achievement in chemistry and a set of five sub-scales of SCES. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that there should be possibility of balancing the socio-cultural factors and achievement where necessary, in areas where traditional rules must not be violated, especially respect for elders, thereby improving the quality of academic achievement in chemistry in Nigerian secondary schools.

This book addresses the challenge posed by J.K. Galbraith over fifty years ago to make a constructive contribution to a different style of economic analysis - the economics of abundance. It identifies a system of abundance inhabited by the 'people of plenty' and illustrates that the driver of growth in this system is spending by affluent consumers. The book provides essential heterodox economic theory to explain this spending and explore its key drivers and constraints. The greatest threat to this system is under-consumption. The book explains how the system spontaneously responds by creating the institution of marketing, which amplifies the drivers of spending and relaxes the constraints. However, all this has implications for the way in which markets work. The author expertly builds on themes first identified by J.K. Galbraith to introduce a new conceptual framework - that of corporate-guided markets for branded products. Written in a comprehensive style, this book will prove a valuable resource for academics in various fields including: economic and social history, sustainability, sociology, social psychology, cognitive psychology, marketing and cultural studies.
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Contents: Preface 1. Abundance, Scarcity and Sufficiency 2. The Institution of Marketing 3. Socio-Cultural Consumption 4. Subjective Consumption 5. Cognitive Consumption 6. The Role of Markets 7. Implications
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Economics-Abundance-New-Directions-Modern/dp/1843766701/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281622193&sr=1-4

This article is about theological views on war in post-soviet Orthodoxy. It makes a reader aware of different modern ecclesiastical arguments on the problem of war and militarization, special Church ascetical prepositions for transforming a system of war symbols into the spiritual level where these symbols are used to be images of spiritual life and spiritual world. The author also draws attention to special phenomenon of adopting by the Orthodox clergy different symbolical elements peculiar to defence forces that demonstrates a spicific socio-cultural isomorphism between Church and army.

Drawing on the field of cultural historical psychology and the sociologies of skill and labour process, Contested Learning in Welfare Work offers a detailed account of the learning lives of state welfare workers in Canada as they cope, accommodate, resist, and flounder in times of heightened austerity. Documented through in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis, Peter H. Sawchuk’s analysis shows how the labour process changes workers, and how workers change the labour process, under the pressures of intensified economic conditions, new technologies, changing relations of space and time, and a high-tech version of Taylorism.  Sawchuk traces these experiences over a seven-year period (2002–2009) that includes major work reorganization and the recent global economic downturn. His analysis examines the dynamics among notions of de-skilling, re-skilling, and up-skilling, as workers negotiate occupational learning and changing identities.

Peter H. Sawchuk is a professor of adult education, sociology, and
industrial relations at the University of Toronto. He studies, writes,
and teaches in the areas of adult learning theory, the sociology and
psychology of work, and Marxist political economy.

Events in recent times have revealed that human Rights mean different things to different cultures. What constitutes a right to be defended in some cultures may not be a right in another culture. This fact is made more glaring in contemporary times with issues like gay and lesbian rights causing a fight for socio-political superiority between countries. Although Constitutions of African countries now recognize the need for legal protection of human rights, it is imperative to note that getting a global standard of human rights principles to be accepted and practiced by all cultures and religion is a difficult task. Challenging social issues like Female Genital Mutilation, Child labor, and isolation of women from leadership and political activities are examples of varied cultural views on human rights. Different Governments have taken laudable steps towards the development of human rights principles but such steps which are very often carved out from operating Human Rights systems of Western cultures are always confronted with certain inherent cultural traditions of different communities. These are factors that powerfully represent the social fabric of a society. This paper is therefore a review of those socio-cultural factors in Nigeria and some recommendations are also made.