Mutual attitudes among immigrants and ethnocultural groups in Canada

The domain of intercultural relations comprises two parallel sets of phenomena: acculturation and ethnic relations. These have usually been studied in isolation from each other, but their intersection is of increasing importance for understanding intercultural relations in plural societies. Although this mutual view of intercultural relations has long been recognised, there has been an imbalance in the research carried out: acculturation studies have been predominantly done with the non-dominant groups, and ethnic attitudes have been studied mainly among dominant populations. Beginning in the 1970s, we began a program of research to redress this imbalance with studies in Canada. We examined the acculturation expectations held by the dominant population with respect to immigrants and ethnocultural groups, using the concept of multicultural ideology; we also examined the ways in which dominant groups change and respond to the presence of such groups using concepts of security (both cultural and economic), tolerance, and ethnic attitudes. More recently, we have developed a research instrument to continue this program. The International Study of Attitudes Towards Immigration and Settlement examines the views of members of various ethnocultural groups in a number of countries. This paper reviews the research framework and some findings from these studies among various members of the larger society. The role of a number of demographic and psychological variables related to attitudes toward the kinds and numbers of immigrants are presented. Some conclusions and implications are then discussed.     

Ethnic categorization of immigrants: The role of prejudice, perceived acculturation strategies and group size

People usually perceive immigrants from different national origins as similar to each other, and thus as belonging to a limited number of ethnic out-groups [Sporer, S. L. (2001a). Recognizing faces of other ethnic groups: An integration of theories. Psychology, Public and Law, 7, 36–97, Sporer, S. L. (2001b). The cross-race effect: Beyond recognition of faces in the laboratory. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 7, 170–200.]. In this study, we examine how host nationals (i.e., Italians) categorize immigrants and how prejudice and perceived acculturation strategies influence this process. In our research, photographs of male faces of members of 16 immigrant groups were shown to the participants (N=305). They were asked to identify the national origin of each person on the photographs. In line with the expected over-inclusion into more numerous and more devalued out-groups, the researchers found that (a) participants who perceived Albanians or Moroccans to be the most numerous, were most likely to categorize immigrants as belonging to these groups; and (b) this over-inclusion effect was most pronounced when participants were prejudiced toward these groups and when they perceived them as wanting to maintain their cultures of origin.     

Culture as commons: theoretical challenges and empirical evidence from occupied cultural spaces in Italy

ABSTRACT

What happens when we try to understand art as a commons? Elinor Ostrom [(1990/2012). Governing the commons. Cambridge University Press] challenged Hardin’s “The tragedy of the commons” [(1968). Science, 162(3859), 1243–1248] demonstrating that the governance of common pool resources is not always destined to failure. Ostrom’s analysis was initially applied to the management of shared natural resources; however, over time the term “commons” has also been used to describe non-tangible resources, specifically knowledge. Can Ostrom’s theory of the commons inform artistic practice? This article investigates some challenges presented by these research questions and their implications for cultural policy. In order to provide an empirical ground for the discussion of this topic, this paper will analyse the case studies of two cultural spaces in Italy, Teatro Valle (Rome) and Asilo Filangieri (Naples), which were occupied by groups of cultural professionals and managed as commons between 2011 and 2016; the outcomes of these occupations indicate possible ways to develop a commons-oriented approach to culture.     

Turkish graduate students’ experiences in transitioning to Japanese interpersonal processes

This study aims to explore, identify, and theorize cross-cultural adjustment processes experienced by Turkish graduate students in Japan. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, and 20 participants (ages 25–37) answered the questions. Grounded theory was followed as the research method, and the analysis suggested a grounded theory of transitioning to Japanese interpersonal processes. Our explanatory model comprises five categories: (1) culturally centered expectations, (2) interpersonal experiences in socialization, (3) skills for interpersonal relationships and culture-specific behaviors, (4) relational outcomes, and (5) resolution strategies for difficulties during adjustment process. We observed that participants had interpersonal expectations based on their past experiences in their native culture but acquired behaviors specific to Japanese culture or avoided certain behaviors specific to Turkish culture. Moreover, their initial interpersonal strategies mostly failed during their transition to Japanese interpersonal relationships, and participants subsequently reduced their effort to form new friendships, with withdrawal suggesting an impaired transition to Japanese interpersonal processes from a Turkish cultural perspective. However, many students eventually adjusted the way they related to others to a more Japanese style, which was not necessarily a negative outcome. Thus, we distinguish between expectations (i.e., forming close relationships) and outcome (i.e., adjusting to Japanese interpersonal relations) to clarify the distinction between adjustment and well-being.     

A two-way process? A qualitative and quantitative investigation of majority members’ acculturation

Acculturation refers to changes that result from intercultural contact. Although it is commonly defined as a two-way process with changes occurring among both minority members and majority members, surprisingly little research has focused on the acculturation of majority members. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, the present study attempted to fill this gap by exploring how and how much majority members change because of exposure to immigrant cultures. In the first part, using an open-response format, majority members reported positive as well as negative cultural change across a broad range of life domains. Most changes were reported in the private as compared to public sphere, and in terms of behaviours rather than values. Second, based on their responses to quantitative acculturation scales, the majority-group participants could meaningfully be clustered into three acculturation strategies commonly used to describe minority-group members’ acculturation, namely a separation, integration and undifferentiated acculturation cluster. No evidence for an assimilation cluster was found. Separated majority members (i.e., who maintain their majority culture but do not adopt immigrant cultures) reported significantly more identity threat and perceived ethnic discrimination, but also higher self-esteem. Interestingly, integrated majority members (i.e., who both maintain their majority culture and adopt immigrant cultures) were three times less likely to live in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods as compared to separated participants. The results of this study offer important insights into majority members’ acculturation experiences and their psychological importance. Implications for culturally plural societies and future research are discussed.     

The Role of Intercultural Competence and Local Wisdom in Building Intercultural and Inter-religious Tolerance

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the role of intercultural competence and local wisdom to build tolerance. Recent situation shows that the rights of religious and cultural minorities are on the decline. It focuses on the experience and practice of tolerance in kampong Buneng to prevent ethno-religious conflict. This study employs accommodation theory and qualitative approach to investigate a case study, which describes real phenomena. The findings show that convergence strategy is more dominant than divergence strategy and local wisdom found in Buneng is designed to maintain harmony between village members rather than voicing distinction amongst plural identities occupying the same public sphere.     

The roles of culture and fairness in maintaining relationships: A comparison of romantic partners from Malaysia,Singapore, and the United States

The present study concerns how culture connects to perceptions of equity and relational maintenance behavior in the United States (US), Malaysia, and Singapore. In doing so, this study extends findings that employed cultural modernization theory (CMT) and equity theory to explain cultural and individual variations in relational maintenance behavior. Sex differences were also examined. Three countries were selected for their proximity in Traditional (vs. Rational) Values and divergence in Survival (vs. Self Expression) Values, according to the World Values Survey (WVS) cultural map. Consistent with CMT assumptions, participants in the United States and Malaysia (i.e., countries that espouse self expression values) reported greater use of relational maintenance strategies than did those in Singapore (i.e., a country endorsing survival values). As hypothesized, curvilinear associations between equity and relational maintenance strategies were found for the US participants only. This finding concurs with CMT-grounded assumptions and facts that romantic partners in Western (vs. Eastern), high-income societies (e.g., the US) seek equitable relationships. Sex differences also emerged but only for the US participants.     

A cross-cultural comparison of Japanese and American persuasive strategy selection

This study is a cross-cultural comparison of Japanese and American compliance-gaining communication. American subjects (N = 92) and native Japanese subjects (N = 76) were asked to write out instances of compliance-gaining messages. The findings indicate that the two cultures differ significantly in their selection of compliance-gaining strategies. In addition, this study compares the use of the Marwell and Schmitt (1967 Sociometry, 30, 350–364) and the Schenck-Hamlin, Wiseman, and Georgacarakos (1982 Communication Quarterly, 30, 92–99) typologies. It is argued that the Marwell and Schmitt typology is too restrictive and does not have acceptable representative validity. Finally, this study compares spontaneous elicitation procedures against checklist procedures used in past cultural investigations. It is shown that the two response generating techniques do not yield equivalent results.     

A new route towards more harmonious intergroup relationships in England? Majority members’ proximal-acculturation

Although the ways that immigrants relate to UK culture has been a hot topic since the EU-referendum, little attention has been given to how majority group members such as Host Country Nationals (HCNs) relate to immigrants’ culture. Thus, we explored English HCNs’ globalisation-based proximal-acculturation – the extent to which they prefer to adopt aspects of immigrants’ cultures and/or maintain their national culture. Using two-step cluster analysis, a pilot study (N = 63) revealed a separated, integrated, and undifferentiated cluster, with separated HCNs perceiving cultural diversity more as a threat and less as an enrichment. Using latent profile analysis in a second study (N = 220) also revealed a three strategy-solution, identifying assimilated, integrated and separated profiles. Again we examined how these strategies differed across perceptions of cultural threat and enrichment as well as other psychosocial characteristics: identifying with fellow English citizens, recognizing cultural differences whilst not being culturally embedded (constructive marginalization), and various forms of intergroup contact. Separated HCNs identified more with fellow English citizens, endorsed less constructive marginalization, perceived less cultural enrichment yet more cultural threat than HCNs following some of the other strategies. These results stress that the onus of cultural adoption lies with both groups – minorities and majority members – with English HCNs showing distinct proximal-acculturation strategies. Lastly, when exploring a variable-centred approach, proximal-acculturation orientations (cultural maintenance/adoption) mediated the relationship between cultural threat, cultural enrichment, and intergroup contact on positive feelings towards immigrants. Thus, the ways that HCNs acculturate may provide a new route towards harmonious intergroup relations.     

Globalizing Korean queers? Project L(esbian), the first exhibition of lesbian arts in South Korea

This paper deals with the influence of queer and visual culture in South Korea by concentrating on the example of Project L, the first exhibition organized by self-proclaimed lesbian artists and curators in South Korea in 2005, followed by the group's second exhibition, Gender Spectrum, in 2008. Conflicts between the dominant curatorial approach toward feminist arts and the identity politics of the Project L team are investigated in order to illustrate major theoretical predicaments in which lesbian activists and artists find themselves in feminist organizations and art exhibitions in Korea. As the title “Globalizing Korean Queer” suggests, this paper also examines contradictory circumstances related to the influence of queer theory in non-western countries. A close analysis of Gender Spectrum sheds light upon how a non-western lesbian group utilizes queer theory to understand the distinctive cultural conditions underlying homophobia, beyond merely importing “advanced” theories from the west.     

Face Concerns and Requests in Japan: Exploring the Effects of Relational Closeness and Social Status

The present study examines the relationships among situational features, face concerns, and requesting strategies in the light of discourse patterns and speech levels. Japanese participants (N = 428) rated these measures in one of four situations where relational closeness (high and low) and social status (high and equal) were manipulated. The results of the path analysis generally confirmed that the situational model that predicted situational factors influenced face concerns and requesting language use, and face concerns were mediators from situational factors to language use. These results are discussed in the cultural contexts of face theories.     

Facilitating adaptation and intercultural contact: The role of integration and multicultural ideology in dominant and non-dominant groups

Research on acculturation has documented that adaptation to a receiving society is affected by both the immigrants’ acculturation strategies and the dominant group's expectations about how immigrants should acculturate. However, the acculturation expectations have received relatively less attention from researchers, and support for multiculturalism has rarely been examined from the perspective of immigrants. The present study used the framework of the Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies (MIRIPS) project to investigate the acculturation experiences and intercultural relations in Hong Kong by incorporating mutual views of both the dominant and non-dominant groups. It also tested the mediating role of the dominant group's tolerance towards different cultural groups and the non-dominant group's perceived discrimination. Two community samples were recruited, including Hong Kong residents (N = 181) and immigrants from Mainland China (N = 182). Among Mainland immigrants, the integration strategy predicted both psychological adaptation and sociocultural adaptation. Multicultural ideology predicted psychological adaptation and played a significant role in intercultural contact with Hong Kong people through the mediation of lower perceived discrimination. Among Hong Kong residents, the integration expectation predicted psychological adaptation. Multicultural ideology indirectly affected intercultural contact with Mainland immigrants through the mediation of greater tolerance. These results suggest that the integration strategy and expectation are more important to intrapersonal functioning, whereas multicultural ideology may be more crucial in facilitating social interactions between members of the society of settlement and immigrants in culturally plural milieus. Future research should test the proposed models of dominant and non-dominant groups in other cultures.     

Johnnie To's “northern expedition:” from Milkyway Image to Drug War

Abstract

After the Regulations on the Administration of Movies came into force in 2002, Johnnie To became famous for sticking with the Hong Kong market while Hong Kong filmmakers rushed north. In Drug War, his 50th film, he decided to bring his unique genre to the Mainland for the first time. Drug War was the first Johnnie To gangster film to be shot entirely in the Mainland. Despite its outstanding box office record in the Mainland, some Johnnie To fans would lament that his typical style is missing in Drug War, a film that has become “realistic.” This paper argues that Johnnie To's “northern expedition.” backed up by a tradition of translations between business and pleasure, has to be interpreted against the backdrop of his production company Milkyway Image (HK) Ltd. Johnnie To, as a migrant crossing the border, brought with him the long tradition of cultural translations from Milkyway Image, which acted as a “seed of the untranslatable” in Homi Bhabha's term. It was this untranslatability of Milkyway-cum-Hong Kong flavour that distinguished To from other Hong Kong directors who were assimilated into the Mainland market as a simple mélange. To capture the rich inter-textual allusions to not only Milkyway Image but also to Hong Kong in Drug War helps one to understand how Hong Kong cinema can move on in the age of Chinese cinema.     

When a social worker encounters cultural studies

Abstract

This is a personal narrative, which reflects upon my experiences of encountering cultural studies after attending the Teaching Cultural Studies Workshop. For me, the term ‘cultural studies’ represents something abstract, fancy, and thus difficult to understand, and which intimidates disciplines that emphasize application over theorization, such as social work. However, my fear of cultural studies was overcome in this workshop through the lived experiences of being respected for differences. This personal experience reflects the historical construction of social work within scientific hierarchy, so that the relevance of cultural studies and social work is not recognized by social workers. Despite the often difficult‐to‐understand style, cultural studies does provide important venues for social workers to obtain qualitative understanding of an individual's problems and crises within a social context, which is crucial to effect strategies of resistance among vulnerable populations.     

Evaluating equity: assessing diversity efforts through a social justice lens

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a formative evaluation of The Art Institute of Chicago’s initial efforts to diversify the museum field through the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative (DAMLI) programme. DAMLI is supported by the Walton Family Foundation and Ford Foundation as part of a movement to diversify the arts & cultural workforce in the United States. In Spring, 2018 the author was contracted to evaluate the museum-wide initiative to systematize and improve the experiences of high school, college, and graduate interns from demographic groups currently underrepresented in museum leadership fields. Through the use of [Fraser, N. (1995). Reframing justice in a globalizing world. New Left Review, 36, 1–19.] social justice framework, this paper will focus on the recruitment, selection, and management of internship experiences of the first four cohorts of undergraduate and graduate-level interns within the programme. The paper begins with an overview of recent diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the arts & cultural sector – highlighting the systemic issues leading to the need for such initiatives and presenting a typology for organisational responses to the issue. This paper then categorise the type of organisational change sought by The Art Institute of Chicago based on Fraser’s two-dimensional social justice conditions and remedies framework in order to assess whether or not the Art Institute is achieving its goal of attracting, retaining, and empowering a diverse set of students and influencing their decision to pursue a career in the museum field by providing an equitable and inclusive environment during the internship. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the broader implications of this work for arts and cultural organisations interested in diversifying the cultural workforce.     

Identity Management and the Fostering of Network Ignorance: Accounts of Queer Iranian Women in the United States

This qualitative study explores the narratives of 12, first-generation, queer, Iranian-American women in an attempt to better understand the experiences of being both Iranian and queer, and to explore the various ways participants manage their sexual identities within their ethnic communities. Online interviews were analyzed using grounded theory analysis, which revealed that shame anxiety motivates the fostering of network ignorance. Feelings of fear and guilt, which together cultivate shame anxiety, motivate the identity management strategies of queer Iranian women as they attempt to foster ignorance of their sexual orientation within the Iranian community. Strategies include (co)-covering, deceiving and passing, and avoiding.     

Mrs. Miniver's Girls: Plucky Girls in Hidden Figures,The Zookeeper's Wife,Their Finest,and Colossal

Four recent movies, Hidden Figures, The Zookeeper's Wife, Their Finest, and Colossal exemplify a new cultural version of the movie heroine. This version combines feminism with commitment to solving an overwhelming problem. These heroines, thus, display the character virtues of Wonder Woman and Mrs. Miniver. This new version reflects changing concerns about the cultural understanding of women and a new direction for women moviemakers.     

The perception of transcendent interest: Communication and identification in an emergent community

The interrelationships among five variables were analyzed in an effort to understand the process of community formation in a culturally plural metropolitan environment. The variables—perception of transcendent interest, perception of commonality, cooperative interaction, maintenance adaptation, and growth adaptation—were formulated by explicating and synthesizing the concepts of community, community identification, and coorientation. The perception of transcendent interest, described as the focal point of identification, and the basis of an emerging community, was found to correlate significantly with all the other four variables, but to be best predicted by cooperative interaction and maintenance adaptation. The study offers insight into the processes of acculturation and cultural group formation in a plural system.     

Cultural capital and the place of sport

It is not unusual now to talk about the culture of the body, or to see routine and organized physical activity, as well as sport, as part and parcel of cultural life. In recent decades body management techniques have become a very conspicuous aspect of self-presentation and have been served by the expansion of the supply of commercial services to deal with diet and health, physical training and cosmetic improvement to appearances. The professionalization and commercialization of sport have also accelerated. Bourdieu interpreted measures for body management and maintenance in terms of the accumulation and display of cultural capital. He distinguished three types of cultural capital: institutionalized, objectified and embodied. This article considers some of the elements of the very complex and extensive property, embodied cultural capital. The Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion (CCSE) survey included questions on sporting activity, sports spectatorship and physical exercise routines, important elements in the mosaic of contemporary cultural activities. This article teases out the patterns of participation and taste in this area, examining differentiation by class, gender, education, ethnic and age groups in particular. While showing that all these factors matter, gender is the most important source of differentiation, though this is more the case for sport than for exercise per se. In addition, it is shown that educational qualification is particularly important in predicting participation in exercise, whereas occupational class makes more difference to the choice of sport, whether playing or watching.     

Role of Cultural Intelligence in Acculturation: Explorations on a Physiognomic Minority Diaspora in India

The aim of this study was to analyse how cultural intelligence (CQ) influences the acculturation process and adaptive outcomes of a physiognomic minority indigenous cultural group in India. This study (N = 246) concerning the northeastern (NE) Indian diaspora in Indian cities outside the NE region. Path analysis showed that integration and assimilation predicted higher adaptation; while marginalization and separation lowered adaptation. Likewise, CQ positively predicted adaptation and also moderated the relationship between acculturation strategies and adaptation. Therefore, findings reflect the flexible facilitative role of CQ in promoting adaptation of minority groups in acculturation context.