Review of Scottish Arts Council Report,Taking Part in Scotland 2008

The review looks at the 2008 report by the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) into audience involvement in the arts and culture in Scotland. It notes that the research is part of a continuing attempt by the SAC to map trends in audience participation in the arts, and that the survey often provides an in-depth account of how people spend their leisure time. However, it notes some deficiencies in its remit and questions whether the limitations of the report make it a valuable contribution to the SAC's future direction and policies.     

Independent artist-run centres: an empirical analysis of the Montreal non-profit visual arts field

Canadian independent artist-run centres provide an interesting case study of the potential role and relevance of non-profit institutions in the contemporary arts field. Predominantly established during the 1970s, they have been founded by artist collectives typically operating within urban contexts, with the aim of providing new opportunities to cope with the physical, economic and cultural constraints that generally impede the professional development of artists. A remarkable urban environment in which it is possible to find, and study, a large number of such organizations is the city of Montreal, in the Quebec Province of Canada, which constitutes an excellent reference to track the onset and the evolution of independent artist-run spaces, and to understand why, how and to what extent they are currently experiencing new pressures and challenges, both on the internal and external sides. This article offers an empirical study of these organizations with reference to their organizational, managerial and strategic vision, and to co-operative interaction and network building practices. It contributes to the field of research on cultural management through its study of the effects of management systems on the strategic action of independent visual arts organizations.     

The Gramppian Hills: An Empirical Test for Rent-Seeking Behaviour in the Arts

To remind cultural policy practitioners that rent-seeking theory exists (in recently published cultural economics reference books the theory is hardly mentioned), and to encourage theoreticians further to develop their models of personal and institutional behaviour predicting and explaining it, this article suggests a simple graphical test for rent-seeking behaviour in the non-profit art world. The author hopes to reinvigorate debate about arts rent seeking and about its good and ill effects, about possible diagnostic techniques and about possible control measures.     

Theory-based evaluation and the social impact of the arts

The well-documented challenges in researching the social impacts of the arts are closely related to key issues in contemporary social research and evaluation, most particularly the problem of causal attribution. The article contends that some of the most common criticisms of the evidence base for the social impact of the arts relate to the successionist model of change which underpins positivist social science research and evaluation. Illustrating this with reference to research on the arts and quality of life, the article considers the alternative generative understanding of causation that underpins theory-based evaluation (TBE) approaches, favoured recently in the UK as part of the “What Works?” agenda. While these approaches fit well with knowledge about the determinants of arts impact, the article considers whether in fact TBE approaches offer an effective strategy for understanding how and why arts engagement can result in social change. The limitations and possibilities of TBE are considered with reference to four recent UK studies of the impact of the arts on individuals which make use of them.     

The arts,Bohemian scenes,and income

ABSTRACT

Where and how does arts activity drive neighbourhood revitalization? We explore the impact of arts establishments on income in US zip codes, nationally and across quantiles (from four to seven subgroups) of zip codes stratified by disadvantage (based on income and ethnicity/race). We focus on what is new here: how neighbourhood scenes or the mixes of amenities mediate relationships between the arts and income. One dramatic finding is that more bohemian/hip neighbourhoods tend to have less income, contradicting the accounts from Jane Jacobs, Richard Florida and others. Arts and bohemia generate opposing effects, which emerge if we study not a few cases like Greenwich Village, but use more careful measures and larger number of cases. Some arts factors that distinctly influence neighbourhood income include the number of arts establishments; type and range of arts establishments; levels of disadvantage in a neighbourhood; and specific pre­ and co­existing neighbourhood amenities. Rock, gospel and house music appeal to distinct audiences. Our discussion connects this vitalizing role for arts activity to broader community development dynamics. These overall results challenge the view that the arts simply follow, not drive, wealth, and suggest that arts-led strategies can foster neighbourhood revitalization across a variety of income, ethnic, and other contexts.     

Local cultural strategies: a strategic review

The development of Local Cultural Strategies was recommended to all local authorities in England through the publication of a guidance document, Creating Opportunities, by the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS, 2000). Although not a statutory duty, by the end of 2002 Local Cultural Strategy development was strongly encouraged by the government, and the adoption of a strategy became part of performance review for local authorities under Best Value Performance Indicator BVPI 114. This recommendation encouraged local authorities to formalize and publish plans for the strategic development of their cultural and culture-related services. These used a broad definition of culture and recognized of the value of partnership working within localities, regions and sub-regions in which local authorities were taking the ‘lead’. It also reflected the advocacy of a cultural planning approach by central government for local government.

Cultural planning encourages a culturally sensitive approach to local cultural development, focusing on a diverse range of ‘cultural resources’, including leisure and sports facilities, qualities of natural and built environment, youth and ethnic communities and communities of interest, as well as the need for different local authority service departments and private, voluntary and other public sector partners to be involved early on in strategic development. According to this approach, culture is broadly defined as a ‘way of life’, and DCMS's guidance states that Local Cultural Strategies should promote cultural well-being and the quality of life in their designated areas.

As a result, Local Cultural Strategies have been developed at all tiers of English local authorities, including district and borough, metropolitan and unitary authority, county and regional levels. This article discusses the development of Local Cultural Strategies in England and reviews information on those strategies that have been developed. It examines the different approaches local authorities have taken towards this task, the methodologies for consultation employed, the frameworks for monitoring and the evaluation of cultural provision they offer. It considers the benefits and problems associated with the production of Local Cultural Strategies as strategic development frameworks for local culture, and questions the future of this process following their ‘subsumption’ into Community Strategies as part of a broader package of reforms for local government. In doing so, it examines how these documents offer an opportunity to examine local approaches to cultural planning.     

The acceptability of lies: A comparison of Ecuadorians and Euro-Americans

This study examined differences between Ecuadorian and Euro-American college students in the perceived acceptability of lies. Six different lie domains were examined: flattery, impression management, conflict avoidance, enhancement of others’ self-esteem, self-aggrandizement, and instrumental lies. Overall, Euro-Americans rated lies as more acceptable than Ecuadorians. In both cultures, lies motivated by a desire to benefit others were considered to be more acceptable than lies that primarily benefited the self. Additionally, lying to the outgroup was perceived as being more acceptable than lying to the ingroup. These results were interpreted in light of the findings that Ecuadorians scored higher on measures of uncertainty avoidance and power distance, whereas Euro-Americans scored higher on levels of independence. The implications of these findings for intercultural relations and future directions for research are discussed.     

Transnational imagination in action cinema: Hong Kong and the making of a global popular culture

Taking action cinema as an example, this paper outlines a historical approach to the transnational study of globally popular cultural forms. Action cinema has long had a complex economy in which Hollywood not only trades stars, styles and narratives with the hybrid culture of Hong Kong cinema itself, but draws on a vast ‘direct to tape’ industry significantly based in East Asia. The paper outlines a Hong Kong‐based approach to two earlier phases in the history of action: the ‘international co‐production’ as an industrially innovative form (1973–85), and the golden age of the ‘direct to tape’ industry enabled by the rapid spread of video technology (1985–93). Focusing on the latter, it suggests that the global uptake by filmmakers of a ‘contact’ narrative and an ethic of emulation taken from Hong Kong cinema allowed direct‐to‐video action to address issues of social class in emotionally complex ways.     

Cross-cultural small group research: A review,an analysis,and a theory

The small group research reported in the literature has been conducted predominantly with American subjects. Because these studies have primarily sampled only one culture, it was speculated that the findings may not be applicable to groups in other societies. After examining the available cross-national small group research, the investigator found that group behavior frequently varied from culture to culture, particularly with regard to leadership, conformity, network performance, and risky shift. In discussing cultural differences in group behavior, a value theory of small group development was posited. Essentially, the theory maintains that cultural values determine how a small group and its members behave. Research strategies for testing the theory are also examined in the article.     

A grey literature review of the UK Department for Culture,Media and Sport's Creative Industries Economic Estimates and Creative Economy research programme

This is a review of the DCMS's annual estimates of the size, scope and activities of the UK's creative industries, with a particular focus on the latest publication in January 2009. Running parallel to these estimates is a research programme, latterly codified as the Creative Economy Programme (CEP), which constantly assesses and periodically modifies the methodologies used for collating statistics. This programme is also reviewed, primarily through two 2007 documents: a report commissioned from Frontier Economics and a DCMS overview of all the CEP's work in 2006–2007. The review also draws on primary sources in the form of national and international reports on methodologies for classifying and measuring the creative industries, as well as appropriate academic literature.     

Sharing Taijiquan with the World Xing Qilin:A Representative Bearer to Transmit and Promote Li-Style Taijiquan

As Taijiquan is going global,the culture embodied in this traditional physical practice is gaining wider attention and interest among the people around the worl...     

Intercultural Communication Schemas of Deaf and Hearing Adults: Visuospatial Decision-Making During Deception Detection

ABSTRACT

Some cultures rely heavily on visual channels for gathering information. One specific group is the Deaf and hard of hearing community who often rely on signed languages to communicate. Language and thought are woven, therefore this study examined whether bicultural-bilingual schemas can be activated via the visual channel. A sample from a Deaf community were compared to hearing participants via a decision task whereby judgments were made regarding the veracity of a suspected liar. The results of the experiment reveal that it is possible to activate culturally appropriate schemas for decisions about veracity in a visual task during intercultural communication.     

The cultural hybridity of Lena: A multi-method case study of a third culture kid

This study used a multi-method case study to explore the central paradox of global nomadism, that cultural hybrids seem at home in any cultural context, but feel at home only among others with a similar cultural history. The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) was used to provide a psychometric profile of Lena, an Adult Third Culture Kid. Lena presented an atypical and theoretically impossible IDI profile, simultaneously ethnocentric, with issues in Minimization, yet clearly ethnorelative, with no issue evident on the AA or EM scales. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted to explore these IDI results, their implications for the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), which is the theoretical basis for the IDI, and whether they helped to explain the paradox of global nomadism. The interviews helped Lena to realise that although she was surrounded by people from different national backgrounds throughout her life, their shared cultural experience was stronger than their surface differences, resulting in a Minimization orientation of ‘beneath our superficial differences, people are basically all the same’.     

Ostrich Eggs and Peacock Feathers: Sacred Objects as Cultural Exchange between Christianity and Islam

This article uses the wide dispersal of ostrich eggs and peacock feathers among the different cultural contexts of the Mediterranean – and beyond into the Indian Ocean world – to explore the nature and limits of cultural inheritance and exchange between Christianity and Islam. These avian materials previously possessed symbolic meaning and material value as early as the pre-dynastic period in Egypt, as well as amid the early cultures of Mesopotamia and Crete. The main early cultural associations of the eggs and feathers were with death/resurrection and kingship respectively, a symbolism that was passed on into early Christian and Muslim usage. Mercantile, religious and political links across the premodern Mediterranean meant that these items found parallel employment all around the Mediterranean littoral, and beyond it, in Arabia, South Asia and Africa. As an essay in the uses of material culture in mapping cultural exchange and charting the eclectic qualities of popular religiosity, the article provides a wide-ranging survey of the presence of these objects, from their visual appearance in Renaissance paintings to their hanging in the shrines of Indo-Muslim saints. A final section draws conclusions on the relationship between shared objects, cultural boundaries and the writing of history.     

No place to call home: Cultural homelessness, self-esteem and cross-cultural identities

This study examined relations between a cross-cultural geographically mobile childhood and adulthood cultural homelessness, attachment to cross-cultural identities, and self esteem. Cross-cultural identities are loosely defined identities (e.g., third culture kids, military brats, missionary kids) that describe some individuals’ childhood cross-cultural experience. The 475 participants spent at least two years before age 18 in a country different from their parents’ home culture, then returned to the latter. They completed an online survey which included general demographic information regarding cross-cultural experiences in childhood, as well as the Cultural Homelessness Criteria, the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, and items that evaluated the strength of affirmation, belonging, and commitment to a self-labeled cross-cultural identity. Cultural homelessness was related to lower self esteem scores; higher affirmation, belonging and commitment to any cross-cultural identity was related to higher self esteem and lower cultural homelessness. Furthermore, such affirmation, belonging, and commitment buffered the cultural homelessness-self esteem association, whereas just having a cross-cultural identity did not.     

European Modernism and the Information Society: Informing the Present,Understanding the Past. Edited by W. Boyd Rayward.

ABSTRACT

Scholarship on the relationship between China and Russia has largely focused on the political and ideological realms, neglecting cultural and social factors. Beginning with some general points about the role of ‘the cultural’ in interstate politics, this article assesses the cultural dynamics of Chinese–Russian relations during the first half of the twentieth century, primarily during the republican period and the first decade of the PRC. The final section of the article then reconsiders the legacy of emigration movements, which brought Chinese workers to the Russian Far East and Siberia, and Russian settlers and refugees to Manchuria and Shanghai.