Reading Korean society through Stuart Hall’s cultural theory: constructing a new paradigm for socialist politics in the 21st century

This paper discusses the legacy of Stuart Hall’s cultural studies approach to socialist politics. Like many other socialist thinkers, his ideas are the direct outcome of political intervention, often through the form of theoretical practice. Because gaps will always remain between reality and theoretical explanation, political intervention tends to be an overreaction to social change or the underestimation of people’s power. Hall’s political practice cannot therefore be exceptional in that it is far from perfect. This paper attempts to establish a balance sheet in terms of his involvement in the debate on the nature of British society, Thatcherism and neo-liberalism. From this examination, some key concepts will be employed to analyse the nature of Korean society in relation to neo-liberal restructuration and the neo-liberal historic bloc. Discussing Hall’s ideas and applying these to Korea, the paper sets out to demonstrate both weaknesses and strengths in Hall’s thought. The strength consists of his open-ended and empirically sensitive reformation of Marxism. On the other hand, the core weakness is found in his post-Marxist epistemological relativism. The main argument set out here is that, in order to develop and refine Hall’s thought, there should be an ontologically realist position compatible with epistemological relativism. For this difficult task, the concept of needs can be suggested as a fresh starting point.     

Distinction through visual art

Visual art is one of the fields where, according to Bourdieu, culture is used to reproduce the class structure. Like other items in the cultural repertoire, paintings, as major examples of visual art, imply social divisions in how they are engaged with by artists, critics and audiences. Within the Bourdieusian framework, cultural engagements with paintings are interpreted as indicators of social position, since appreciation depends on a trained capacity in the family and the educational system, which is often inaccessible to less powerful sections of the population. This would imply that the sorts of paintings favoured by working-class people differ from those preferred by the middle or upper classes. More recent studies have contested the view that a gulf exists between the art tastes of different classes in ways that reproduce the class structure. The argument of the omnivore thesis that distinctions between more popular and legitimate tastes have become blurred has predominantly been based on empirical references in the field of music. This article explores this thesis on the basis of data about visual arts in the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion project. While some differences continue to be connected to social divisions of income, education and occupational groups, important similarities are found across the board, and certain significant differences appear to relate to factors other than social class, such as ethnicity, age and gender. It is also significant that some people appear disconnected from and disinterested in paintings.     

Interethnic parenting experiences in raising mixed-ethnicity children: A systematic qualitative review

There has been growing interest over the years in examining interethnic unions to explore their unique parenting configurations and associated mixed-ethnicity children’s outcomes. One aspect that determines parenting is how parents perceive and experience their parenting role in relation to one another, to their children, and to society at large. The present review aimed to narratively and systematically synthesize the existing literature on the strengths and challenges that parents experience in interethnic unions about themselves, their partners or co-parents, or their mixed-ethnicity children. A total of 49 studies were identified through a systematic search. Included studies were dissertations and published journal articles that contained qualitative and quantitative findings. Five themes were identified about the interethnic parenting experience: (1) strengths in parenting mixed-ethnicity children, (2) challenges in interethnic parenting, including the specific challenge of negotiating cultural differences between parents, (3) strategies to overcome cultural differences, (4) self-reflections about parents’ own ethnocultural backgrounds, and (5) similarities in parenting between interethnic and non-interethnic parents. A Model of Interethnic Parenting Experiences summarizing the identified themes is outlined. The review findings are discussed with reference to gaps in the literature and potential moderators of the known parameters regarding interethnic parenting. Recommendations for future research are made that may further elucidate the nuanced experience of interethnic parenting.     

Highbrow cultural participation of Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands: Testing an identification and social network explanation

Little is known about ethnic differences in highbrow cultural interests, because research on social differentiation in cultural participation has traditionally focused on educational or income inequalities. Employing data from the Netherlands’ Longitudinal Lifecourse Study 2010 we explored the extent to which educational attainment, national identification and social integration explain inequality in cultural participation among Turkish and Moroccan immigrants, and to what extent the effect of education was moderated by aspects of social identification and integration. Our results indicate that Turks and Moroccans, who identify more with the Netherlands and have a social network that includes larger numbers of Dutch and higher educated friends, are more active in the cultural realm. Most interestingly, we found that strong identification with Dutch society actually moderates the relationship between an immigrants’ educational attainment and their cultural participation: that is, highly educated people of Turkish and Moroccan descent, who strongly identify with the Netherlands, participated more in highbrow culture than their highly educated counterparts who identified less with the Netherlands.     

Reconnecting Religion with Social and Cultural History: Secularization's Failure as a Master Narrative

This article argues that the religious history written within the last thirty years has been unduly constrained by the impact of the secularization thesis. Through evaluating the original historiography and sociology that gave birth to it, and aspects of its cultural presence in Western (predominantly British) society and finally through an examination of the most recent scholarship, secularization emerges as a belief in itself. Focusing upon religion as a means of organizing responses to the world the article concludes with some suggestions about the directions the construction of religious history reunited with social and cultural concerns might wish to follow away from a now less than useful theory.     

Cultural maintenance within the Tamil minority in Kuching: spanning three generations

This paper intends to determine whether the minority Tamil immigrant community in Kuching, Sarawak still maintains its heritage culture or has assimilated it with the dominant cultures in Sarawak. Are the Tamils in Kuching still maintaining their cultural norms? The data comes from a set of questionnaires investigating language, social and cultural identity, and unstructured interviews spanning three generations. The results show that, while some assimilation has occurred, the community has maintained its cultural identity. The most interesting revelation is the growing number of the younger generation who are adapting their heritage and cultural norms, clearly demonstrating Gibson’s accommodation and acculturation without assimilation.     

Extending the cultural research infrastructure: The rise of the regional cultural consortiums in England

Two distinguishing features of the New Labour Government have been its focus on regionalism and the establishment of a department of state, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), explicitly dedicated to ‘cultural’ policy. This paper tracks the development of a new set of regional cultural organizations, the Regional Cultural Consortiums (RCCs). These were established to contribute to regional development and to deliver the DCMS's national policy goals. The paper examines the RCCs' remit, challenges, achievements and prospects, and locates these in wider debates about evidence-based policy and continuity and change in cultural and regional policy. Particular consideration is given to the RCCs' research and data collection activities and their role in developing a move towards improved capacity in regional cultural research and data collection.     

Integration in Canada: A systematic review of the youth experience

Although there is substantial research examining adult perspectives of immigration and integration, there is notably less data on youth attitudes and experiences. When youth are surveyed, a preliminary review of the existing literature reveals that non-immigrant voices are very rarely included. This systematic literature review (a) identifies the major themes and summarizes the findings of existing research; (b) determines gaps in the existing literature and; (c) proposes recommendations for future integration research, policy, and interventions. Ultimately, this paper finds that integration policy and research in Canada tends to focus on the changes required by immigrant youth but rarely discuss the cultural adaptation and inclusion required by settled Canadians. A paradigm shift in research, settlement practice, and policy is necessary to better reflect the bi-directional cultural exchange and the mutual responsibilities of integration.     

The sociocultural adjustment of Chinese graduate students at Korean universities: A qualitative study

Although 21% of all Chinese students studying at Korean universities are in graduate schools (Korean Educational Development Institute, 2008), little is known about their sociocultural adjustment. This study explores Chinese graduate students’ perceptions regarding their sociocultural adjustment experiences and capture the essence of the influences on their sociocultural adjustment during their early cross-cultural transition. The study is based on interview data from nine Chinese graduate students who attended three universities in Seoul in 2009. The model of sociocultural adjustment is employed as a conceptual framework to explore the perceptions of Chinese graduate students regarding their sociocultural adjustment. The four main themes emerged from the in-depth interview sessions were perceived cultural distance, language competency, low level of interaction with host nationals, and biased stereotypes.     

Measuring the Size and Concentration of Business Funding of Culture in the UK: Closing the Gap between Advocacy and Theory

In the past few years, UK public bodies have increased their calls for cultural leaders to diversify even further their funding sources and exploit the dynamics of the mixed-economy. So far only major cultural organisations in London have been able to successfully diversify their funding portfolio. A drop in public funding is likely to make it even more challenging for a large proportion of cultural organisations to close their income gap. To ensure the successful development of policies of funding decentralisation and inform organisational strategies, more theory-based empirical research on trends, drivers and motivations, and models of funding sustainability is needed. One of the many factors preventing the development of this line of research is a wide gap between research conducted for advocacy purposes and academia in the UK. This paper illustrates the extent and implications of this gap by providing a brief summary of the academic literature in the field and reviewing methods and results of existing data collection efforts by advocacy organisations, in particular the Private Investment in Culture survey by Arts & Business UK (A&B). The scope of this paper has been limited to business funding in the form of cash and in-kind sponsorship, donations and membership, since there is relatively more cross-sectional time series data and academic and advocacy studies of this form of funding than of individual giving and trust and foundation support. The paper proposes recommendations on ways of closing this gap, in particular by improving existing sampling methodology for this type of data collection and expanding and strengthening the existing academic research on motivations, market dynamics and concentration of business funding.     

Acculturation in a postcolonial context: Language,identity, cultural adaptation,and academic achievement of Macao students in Mainland China

The mainstream acculturation research focuses on international students and immigrants’ settlement in a new cultural environment, but little is known about the adaptation process of people from postcolonial areas relocating to their home country. Drawing from research on acculturation and postcolonial studies, this research examined the importance of language and social identity of Macao Chinese (N = 102; 50 males, Mage = 20.1) transitioning to universities in Mainland China. The results of path analysis showed that Chinese national identity and perceived Mandarin language proficiency were positively associated with each other, but they were linked to cultural adaptation through different paths. Perceived language proficiency was directly linked to social, academic, and psychological adaptation, whereas Chinese identity was indirectly associated with social and academic adaptation through acculturation to the Mainland Chinese culture. Moreover, academic adaptation was, in turn, associated with academic achievement (i.e., GPAs). The present study extends acculturation research to a postcolonial context, highlighting that national identity and language proficiency are important factors for successful cultural adaptation to the homeland. The theoretical and practical implications regarding intra-cultural adaptation barriers andprocesses in postcolonial contexts were discussed.     

Express acceptance or feel anxiety? The effects of trait-related information about foreign residents on endorsement of multiculturalism

Apart from direct contact, people also familiarize themselves with other groups through indirect information. For example, as previous studies have revealed, indirect information on personality traits of outgroup members have influences on intergroup attitudes. Extending existing work, the current study specifically examined the effects of such indirect information on people’s endorsement of multiculturalism, a set of attitudes regarding the attainment of harmonious coexistence among diverse cultural groups. Based on the Stereotype Content Model, two experiments were conducted to investigate how media coverage and social consensus information about moral, social and competence-related traits of foreign residents in China would affect local people’s endorsement of multiculturalism. In experiment 1, when participants learned from the news that foreigners in China possessed high competence, they expressed more appreciation towards the cultural diversity that foreigners brought to the local society, but less support for foreign residents maintaining their own cultural traditions. In experiment 2, participants who learned that other local people perceived foreign residents as having high sociability, morality or competence showed more appreciation towards cultural diversity and more support for maintaining such diversity. Furthermore, in both experiments, perceived anxiety played a mediating role in how indirect trait-related information affected local people’s support for maintaining cultural diversity. Lastly, possible explanations for some unexpected findings and implications for future research are discussed.     

Book Review of "Fan Cultures," by Matt Hills

This article is a reflexive account of my geographical, intellectual, and emotional journeys as I studied the telenovela genre in my native Venezuela. As such, it focuses on the process as opposed to the findings of my research. I trace the personal and academic reasons for my interest in telenovelas, and how this important genre provides an entrance to study the inextricable links of culture, media, and society in a social formation I know well. As I wrestle with the strengths, weaknesses, and implications of my two identities-Venezuelan woman, U.S.-educated feminist scholar-I flesh out the paradoxes, struggles, contradictions, predicaments, and pleasures that are part and parcel of my research experience, trying to understand how these inform my scholarship.     

The role of student–university value alignment in international student acculturation in Australia

This study integrates acculturation and person–environment fit theories to investigate the role of student–university value alignment in international student cross-cultural adjustment to host universities in Victoria, Australia. The study used a mixed methods design with the quantitative data collected from a student survey and the qualitative data generated from interviews with university staff. Structural equation modelling and thematic analysis were employed to analyse the quantitative and qualitative data respectively. The results of the study indicated that international students who possess similar values to their host university, adjust better, both psychologically and socially into the university environment as well as feel satisfaction with their host university. The study also confirmed the mediating role of international student social adjustment in the relationship between student–university value fit and student overall satisfaction with their host university. The findings highlight the key role of international student–university value alignment in contributing to the success of students’ cross-cultural adjustment to the new cultural environment they experience. Therefore, universities should constantly communicate and deliver on their values during both the promotional stage of international student recruitment and the student journey with the university.     

A multidimensional analysis of homesickness based on the perceptions of international students in Turkey: A mixed method study

In this study, the perspectives of international students about homesickness and their adaptation to Turkish culture were explored. A multidimensional homesickness analysis based on the perception of international students in Turkish universities is presented. For this purpose, a mixed method was used. Two different techniques were used in the qualitative dimension: metaphor analysis and cognitive mapping. Metaphors were created by 60 international students studying at a state university in Turkey. Cognitive mapping data were collected from 22 international students. In addition, a survey model was used to procure quantitative data. Quantitative data were collected by using the Utrecht Homesickness Scale. The sampling group included 200 international students studying in eight different public universities. The inductive content analysis technique was used to analyse qualitative data and the metaphors related to homesickness were conceptualised as deprivation, difficulties, pain, and yearning. The metaphorical expressions revealed both the compelling homesickness of international students and socio-cultural adjustment difficulties in Turkey. The cognitive mapping concerning homesickness was highly similar to the metaphors. Cognitive mapping results aggregated as memories, cultural events, dishes, family members, friends, and hobbies. The quantitative results indicated high mean homesickness scores for ‘missing family’ and ‘missing friends’ sub-dimensions. Moreover, the mean scores were relatively low for the ‘adjustment difficulties’ and ‘loneliness’ sub-dimensions. Quantitative data revealed that the perceptions of homesickness differ depending on various socio-cultural factors. This study proposes that countries hosting international students should take psychological, social, and cultural adjustment measures, especially for freshmen students who experience more homesickness.     

Cultural values and attitudes toward immigrants and multiculturalism: The case of the Eurobarometer survey on racism and xenophobia

The current paper uses archival data to examine variations in Schwartz's and Hofstede's cultural value orientations and their relationship to attitudes toward immigration and multiculturalism reported in the Eurobarometer Survey [Attitudes towards minority groups in the European Union: a special analysis of the Eurobarometer 2000 opinion poll on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. Eurobarometer Opinion Poll. Retrieved September 1, 2003, from http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/index_en.htm] on racism and xenophobia. The results demonstrated that mastery, masculinity, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and collectivism were associated with weaker support for policies that promote social co-existence. Masculinity and mastery were also linked to more pessimistic attitudes towards multiculturalism, and increased harmony was correlated with less desire for cultural assimilation. The results largely converge with research undertaken at the individual-level of analysis, and the data suggest four clusters of cultural values related to immigration attitudes: humanitarianism-egalitarianism, conservation, collectivism, and instrumentality.     

The Social Stratification of Cultural Consumption: Some Policy Implications of a Research Project

The paper briefly describes a recently completed research project on the social stratification of cultural consumption, presents some major findings from this project, and considers their implications for public policy in relation to the arts. A central theme is the inadequacy of the ‘homology’ argument, claiming that social hierarchies and cultural hierarchies map closely onto each other. This argument is shown to be empirically unsound and to underestimate the complexity of the relationship between social stratification and cultural consumption, as this is determined by the combined effects of income, education and social status. One question that then arises is what policy response, if any, is required by the fact that many individuals do not participate extensively in the arts even though they have the economic and cultural resources required to do so (self-exclusion rather than social exclusion). And a second is that of how far, in attempts at increasing participation, status-linked motivations might be exploited.     

Sudanese refugee youth and educational success: The role of church and youth group in supporting cultural and academic adjustment and schooling achievement

There is a burgeoning body of research about refugee youth that adopts a deficit approach by focusing on the problems and barriers youth encounter in adjusting culturally and academically to schools. Less research takes an asset approach through an examination of the strengths refugee youth bring to formal schooling and how these assets can be built upon to support academic achievement and cultural adjustment. In this article, we challenge these deficit notions, through examining the everyday spaces inhabited by Sudanese refugee youth living in regional New South Wales, Australia. Our research poses the question: what role do institutions outside school play in supporting Sudanese refugee youth as they move from one culture to another? The question is significant because little research has examined the role played by institutions outside school, e.g., church, youth groups and sporting associations in fostering the social and cultural capital required for refugee youth to integrate within the broader community, and to engage successfully in schooling. Drawing on Bourdieuian concepts of cultural and social capital and habitus, we suggest that religious affiliation enabled the young people to access social capital through “prosocial and proeducational moral directives” (Barrett, 2010; p. 467). Moreover, religious involvement provided refugee youth with access to socially legitimised forms of cultural capital. These forms of capital shaped the students’ habitus and contributed to school adjustment and achievement. We conclude that future research is needed to examine the role that church and other institutions outside school play in contributing to cultural and academic adjustment.     

Welcome or not? – Natives’ security feelings,attachment and attitudes toward acculturation of immigrants

Cultural diversity due to immigration has become a key topic in many societies today. The question of how the native population experiences these developments is of prime importance for intercultural relations and sets the base for acculturation of immigrants. Drawing on attachment and multiculturalism research, we supposed here that general and specific feelings of security might be related to more positive attitudes toward cultural diversity, whereas feelings of threat might be related to less openness. More precisely, the present study investigated how natives’ general attachment (secure or fearful) as well as their specific feelings of (cultural or economic) security might be related to their expectations about acculturation of immigrants in the multicultural context of Luxembourg. The sample included N = 134 Luxembourg nationals with an average age of M = 45.02 (SD = 17.41) who filled out an online questionnaire. Results revealed that self-reported fearful general attachment was positively related to more unwelcoming acculturation orientations. Relations between general attachment and acculturation orientations were mediated by feelings of cultural security, which had strong effects on host nationals’ (un)welcoming acculturation orientations over and above general attachment. Findings suggest that (un)welcoming orientations toward immigrants, entailing openness for cultural contact and exchange, are related to feelings of cultural and economic security which are partly biased by a general secure or fearful attachment. Feelings of security seem thus to provide a secure base for tolerance and openness to cultural diversity which are needed in order to deal successfully with the challenges of today’s multicultural societies.     

Clarifying the link between acculturation experiences and parent–child relationships among families in cultural transition: The promise of contemporary critiques of acculturation psychology

The field of acculturation psychology has been the focus of recent critique, calling into question current conceptualizations of acculturation experiences among families in cultural transition. This paper will consider how these critiques can inform theory and research that aims to clarify the link between the process of acculturation and the quality of parent–child relationships among families in cultural transition. For example, while the concepts of process and change are central to psychological approaches to understanding acculturation, this has not always been successfully reflected in choice of research methodology. Further, some theorists highlight the problem of conflating culture and national identity and of homogenizing culture into a few essentialize traits, psychological characteristics or sets of discourses. This paper will outline how a focus on the dynamic and complex process of acculturation opposes ideas of acculturative experiences as acontextual, ahistorical, and independent with some teleological endpoint. It is suggested that acculturation experiences should be reconceptualized as a dialogic, relationally constituted, and continually negotiated (unfinalizable) process. Finally, it is suggested that narrative and qualitative methodologies represent an especially useful way to highlight the fluctuations in acculturative experiences within a family context, and might offer greater promise in clarifying the link between acculturation experiences and the quality of parent–child relationships among families in cultural transition.