The chaotic late Qing and early Republican periods

This article excavates some of the core intellectual elements underlying the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and their historical genealogies. Rather than focusing on the modern nature of the revolution, Mizoguchi locates the revolution within the context of traditional Chinese culture and thought. A central focus of the article is the notion of “self-governance” (zizhi), which played a central role in determining the shape the revolution was to ultimately take. It analyzes the social thought of key figures of the Qing period, showing how in modified guise, core Confucian ethical concepts such as the dichotomy between the private (si) and public (gong) as well as utopian concepts such as datong (great harmony) determined the deep structure of revolutionary thought at the end of the Qing and into the Republican and Communist periods.     

Counting culture to death: an Australian perspective on culture counts and quality metrics

Metrics-based approaches to understanding the value of culture imply homogeneity of artistic purpose, invite political manipulation and demand time, money and attention from cultural organisations without proven benefit. The system retailing as Culture Counts, a dashboard approach to quality measurement that emerged from Western Australia and is currently trialling in Australia, the US, the UK and Asia, serves to further abstract assessment processes. Cultural policy-makers across international domains need a more robust appreciation of the limits of metrics. Statistical data, well channelled, may provide useful ancillary information. But, where questions of value are concerned, it cannot replace critical judgment.     

Linear and branching formats in culture assimilator training

The task of persons trained for interaction in a new cultural environment is conceived of as a decision-making task where the trainee generates and evaluates alternative acts. Different structures for presenting training materials may foster development of internalized standards for generation and evaluation of alternative acts to different degrees. Tue present study compares a linear with a branching structure. The linear structure was found to (1) require more time than the branching structure, (2) result in fewer correct solutions of relatively easy training items, and (3) result in more correct solutions of relatively difficult training items.     

Social stratification of culture and leisure in Turkey

Using three sets of survey data, this article explores the variations and social bases of leisure and cultural consumption patterns during the last decade in Turkey. In particular, this article explores the social basis of reading habits of daily newspapers, magazines and journals, going out to movies and the theatre, as well as spending patterns on these and various other cultural activities. Questions addressed in this study are: how are culture and leisure consumptions stratified in contemporary Turkish society, and what types of changes can be detected between 1994 and 2004? In summary, the data indicate that leisure and cultural consumption tend to be stratified by educational and income level and, to some extent, white-collar occupations. Second, households with female heads tended to engage more in “highbrow” consumption, compared to households with male heads.