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This document introduces a special section on therapeutic cultures in contemporary societies. It discusses the growing prevalence of psychologically and psychotherapeutically informed ideas and practices in everyday life, as well as the commercial success of the 'happiness industry' and the implications of therapeutic discourses in power and governance. The document also examines the assumption that therapeutic cultures are closely linked to neoliberal capitalism and individualization, questioning whether this is still the case in the 2020s. The special section includes four papers that explore therapeutic discourses and practices in various social contexts, emphasizing the need for further research in this area. The papers specifically examine the impact of neoliberal policies and economic crises on mental health and well-being in higher education in Finland and the United Kingdom, highlighting the pathologization of poor academic performance and the neglect of broader social and economic issues. The authors argue that the emphasis on individual responsibility and autonomy contradicts the actual experiences of students. Additionally, the papers investigate the role of self-help books in shaping modern subjectivity in the UK and the contradictions between the neoliberal therapeutic ethos and the construction of a measurable selfhood through digital therapeutic cultures. Overall, the papers demonstrate the pervasive influence of therapeutic discourses in contemporary society and the importance of sociological analysis in understanding this psychologization of society. [Extracted from the article]

There has been a vast proliferation of categories, descriptors and labels used to describe gender and sexual identity over the past few years, with terms now numbering in the hundreds. Many terms, such as heteroflexible, asexual, demigirl and sapiosexual actively contest masculine/feminine and hetero/homo binary arrangements of identity, and LGBTQ minority rights discourses and arguably represent an epochal shift in gender/sexual knowledge frameworks. The cultural conditions that make such change possible have yet to be explored. This paper draws on theoretical approaches to populism to analyse the role of popular culture, digital communication and contestation of institutional and expert knowledges in driving the emergence of new gender and sexual terminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual harassment has received unprecedented attention in recent years. Within academia, it has a particularly reflexive relationship with the human sciences in which sexual harassment can be both an object of research and a problematic behavior amongst those engaged in that research. This paper offers a partial history in which these two are brought together as a common object of social psychology's culture of sexual harassment. Here we follow Haraway in using culture to capture the sense-making that psychologists do through and to the side of their formal knowledge production practices. Our history is multi-sited and draws together (1) the use of sexual harassment as an experimental technique, (2) feminist activism and research which made sexual harassment an object of knowledge in social psychology, and (3) oral history accounts of sexual harassment amongst social psychologists. By reading these contexts against each other, we provide a thick description of how sexual harassment initiates women and men into cultures of control in experimental social psychology and highlight the ethical-epistemological dilemma inherent in disciplinary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) is endemic in South Sudan. Approaches to end VAWG are barely making a dent in prevalence figures. Global evidence tells us that ending VAWG in conflict-ridden contexts is challenging on many levels. Our research points to the need for social and gender norm change approaches to be better contextualised within the political economy and through applying a nuanced critique of the role of culture in normalising many forms of VAWG. In addition, greater involvement of young people is critical as a behavioural tipping point is beginning to emerge in this group. At national level, a lack of political commitment emerges as a key challenge in ending VAWG. Drawing on the findings from 20 qualitative interviews with national civil society organisation (CSO) and non-governmental organisation's (NGO) stakeholders, the article argues that current approaches to ending VAWG in South Sudan (and arguably elsewhere) must be reframed along a continuum of change. Activities must be supported at all levels from national through to the grassroots and be founded in a complex picture of the values and beliefs that sustain VAWG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editors discuss articles on papers that were presented at the conference Narrative, Numbers and Social Change held at the University of Manchester in Great Britain in November 2007.

What is it like to grow up Yup’ik and come of age today in a traditional hunting-gathering community setting located in a remote region of Alaska? Current research describes a contemporary experience often laden with trauma and crisis. Youth in Yup’ik communities today face threats to their very survival as they encounter, early on, things that their ancestors never faced—including alcohol-related deaths, violence in many forms, and high rates of suicide among their young peers. Yet all is not despair for the youth growing up in these remote indigenous communities. Many youth grow-up to become skilled hunters, strong leaders, and able parents. This paper reports findings from the Alaskan Yup’ik site of the Circumpolar Indigenous Pathways to Adulthood (CIPA) study. The goal of this study is to identify strengths and resilience in youth living in a Yup’ik community in southwest Alaska. Interviews were conducted with 25 youth age 11–18, currently residing in a southwest Alaska community. Qualitative analysis revealed important connections between local stressors, community-level protective resources, and youth-driven, solution-focused strategies for overcoming hardship and learning the “ways how to live.” Findings from this study contribute critical information on indigenous youth protection and resilience, including community and cultural resilience processes beyond the individual level, and enhance our understanding of the types of resources that can lead to improved outcomes for Alaska Native youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests a framework in which the importance of the individual dimension and agency can be reclaimed within a profoundly social and relational view of the self. Juxtaposed with recent research on the self, cultural-historical activity theory is discussed, including its foundational premises formulated by Vygotsky and its conception of the self articulated by Leontiev. Expanded in a number of ways proposed in this paper, this theory helps to theorize the self (a) in its practical relevance, as a lawful and necessary moment in human collective practices, (b) as endowed with the capacity to generate new cycles of practice, and (c) as immanent in activities that position individuals to contribute to meaningfully changing the world. The concept of ‘self as a leading activity’ is discussed as a way to capture what the self is, where it is located, and what its purpose and relation to society are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the fall of the Wall and the reunification of Germany in 1990, the landscape of Berlin’s cultural institutions has been transformed into an unstable and still-shifting geographical structure in which both the reassertion of early twentieth-century patterns and the active construction of new cultural centres may be observed. The paper traces the evolution of Berlin’s cultural landscape over the past decade and questions the future of Germany’s capital city as a European cultural metropolis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daniel Bell (1919–2011) and Manuel Castells (1942–) are the grand theorists of the information age. The article provides a detailed, up-to-date, comparative analysis of their writings. It begins with their methodologies, identifying numerous commonalities in their post-Marxian frameworks. The substance of their theories is then examined, where it is shown that both plausibly explain contemporary social reality in terms of the interplay of three forces: the information technology revolution, the restructuring of capitalism and the innovational role of culture. There are found to be major similarities in their accounts (the Kantian interpretation, social stratification) but also significant divergences (role of science, the fourth world, the normative content of culture). Suitably combined, Bell's and Castells's thought goes a long way towards delivering a persuasive sociological theory of the global information society. However, the article concludes by suggesting that extensive further work is needed to clarify the precise relationships between the three factors and their relative weightings in the equations required to explain recent social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks into urban Chinese working-class leisure culture through a case study of the transformed Workers’ Cultural Palace in Zhengzhou in Henan province. Making timely and engaging contribution to the discussion on changing working-class subjectivities in post-Mao China, the author investigates Zhengzhou workers’ cultural and communicative activities, including songs, dramas and political discussions in an urban space. The case study provides hints of a re-politicized space which constitutes a public sphere, attended by the working class, of free discussion on class inequalities and related issues. In the emergent public sphere inhabited by urban workers, class consciousness is nurtured as distinct from the Chinese middle class. The findings point to contested public spheres in China’s increasingly class-divided society and the return of class politics at the bottom rungs, taking issue with seemingly conventional wisdom purporting to declare the end of class in practical Chinese politics and scholarly Chinese studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this research note are to identify the traditional values behind the notion of time in Sicily; to assess Sicilians' attitudes to the past, the present and the future; to record the pace of life of Sicilians and to compare it with that of other cultures. In order to achieve these goals, various research methods were used: analyses of proverbs, interviews, tests and observations. This paper presents the results obtained from the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African Movement of Working Children and Youth aims to empower and support young people, who otherwise would be excluded from educational and socioeconomic chances, to 'prepare their future'. In so doing, they re-interpret and re-combine transnational and local frames of reference in order to legitimize and materialize their ideas. I conceptualize this commitment as promoting a democratization of the future because they broaden the meaning of the (good) future as well as the means of access to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disorder seems inevitable when a social system changes. The Soviet Union's collapse provided a recent example, and China is now providing a new example. During China's transformation from a communist society with a centrally planned economy to a market-based socialist society, "ethical decline" has become an increasingly serious issue, and one that has high social and economic costs. Historical experience from many cultures shows that this ethical decline is not inherent to Chinese culture. Chinese ethics are being compromised by partnerships between government officials and businessmen who benefit at the expense of society because of a lack of monitoring of such relationships during China's radical institutional change. This growing problem poses serious risks to China's social stability and economic development. To solve the problem, it will be necessary to establish a sound legal framework and more effective monitoring and enforcement, rather than hoping for spontaneous evolution of stronger individual ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work in East Africa is confronted with myriad social and structural problems. The heritage of imported theories and concepts from the West is still affecting education and practice. The profession lacks resources and has only limited influence on social policies. Since 2010, a multi-phase, research-focused project called PROSOWO has been running in order to bring the professionalization of social work on the agenda. In this article, empirical data are discussed with regard to developmental and indigenized social work in these countries. The discussion reflects on social work in East Africa from a cross-cultural perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the infusion of North American ideas, culture and experience into the Soviet society, and depicts immigrants as agents of social and cultural change. Having embodied North American representations of modernity, they introduced new working methods, values and routines, as well as novel forms of labor organization to Soviet Karelia. With the help of imported machinery, tools, and equipment, immigrants drastically increased the production rates at Karelia’s industries. Glorified and publicized by the Karelian government and the media, their labour shops, and farm communes became models to be emulated in Karelia and throughout the Soviet Union. North American Finns also came to play an important part in Soviet elites’ attempt to modernize the Soviet society, both economically and culturally. Although they were agents of cultural and technological change in their own right, immigrants’ social and ethnic identities were subsumed and appropriated by the Soviet state and Karelia’s cultural producers in attempts to promote a Soviet version (an alternative) of economic and cultural modernity. Their physical and intellectual movement across national borders shaped and reconstituted the Soviet path to modernization, even if for a short period of time. In the process, concepts of the local, the national and the modern (that is, the global), became increasingly entangled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous circumpolar youth are experiencing challenges of growing up in a context much different from that of their parents and their grandparents due to rapid and imposed social change. Our study is interested in community resilience: the meaning systems, resources, and relationships that structure how youth go about overcoming difficulties. The research reflects an understanding that social and cultural ecologies influence people’s available and meaningful options. The in-depth, qualitative study of 20 youth from the same Arctic community shows Inupiat (Alaska Native) youth are navigating challenges. Findings from this research suggest that Inupiat youth reflect more flexible patterns of resilience when they are culturally grounded. This cultural foundation involves kinship networks that mediate young people’s access to cultural and material assets. Our participants emphasized the importance of taking care of others and “giving back to the community.” Being “in the country” linked youth to traditional ontology that profoundly shifted how youth felt in relation to themselves, to others, and the world. The vast majority of participants’ “fulfillment narratives” centered on doing subsistence and/or cultural activities. In relation to this, young people were more likely to demonstrate versatility in their resilience strategies when deploying coherent self-narratives that reflected novel yet culturally resonant styles. Young women were more likely to demonstrate this by reconfiguring notions of culture and gender identity in ways that helped them meet challenges in their lives. Lastly, generational differences in understandings signal particular ways that young people’s historical and political positioning influences their access to cultural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although culture is frequently advanced as a key obstacle to children’s rights in Africa, the reality of people’s lives shows that the outlook of many communities incorporates both local and global values. This is becoming particularly evident in the case of female genital cutting which is being adapted by practising communities or abandoned altogether despite the fact that it is informed by deeply rooted socio-cultural ideologies. Hence, this article seeks to explore the various ways communities in Africa are trying to adapt long-held values while also maintaining the essence of their culture with regards to female genital cutting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article I argue that it does not make sense – either empirically or normatively – to speak of ‘authentic’ cultures. All we need when talking about cultures is a relatively weak concept that still carries enough normative weight to function as the meaningful background of a person’s identity, autonomy and good life. Discussing the authentic culture, I refer to the debates around the German Leitkultur as well as the Dutch populist movement as examples. However, I am interested not only in the concept of the authenticity of a culture but also in the concept of the authenticity of persons: if an ‘authentic culture’ is not feasible, does this have repercussions on the concept of the autonomy and authenticity of persons? In suggesting that this might be the case, I argue that persons can be autonomous without always being fully authentic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the developments attending cultural studies in South Africa. The institutionalization of cultural studies in the country is a byproduct of several debates on cultural study coming from various sources and by the inherent history of the country itself. Several school of thoughts exist which attempts to define cultural studies in South Africa including the theory which perceived it as the study of areas of culture largely ignored by other disciplines, specifically focusing on transient rather than a permanent form and the theory which viewed it as an academic site for marginal or minority discourses.

Analysis of a random sample of New York Times' advertising business news articles reveals change in the perception and pursuit of sexual minorities - gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans-persons (GLBTs) - as consumers of mainstream products between 1980 and 2000. Critical analysis identified three trends: corporate shunning; corporate curiosity and fear; corporate pursuit. Social representation, cultural norms, stereotypes and visibility were explored for each trend, revealing qualitative and quantitative inequality among social groups. Although all GLBTs experienced increased news coverage, gay men received twice the coverage of lesbians. Advertisers and the Times changed from stigmatizing and avoiding homosexuals to promoting stereotypes of gay affluence, creating 'controversial' ad campaigns with 'shock value', commodifying social identity and establishing a gay market niche. Representations reflect homogenized understandings of sexuality, with bisexuals and trans-persons invisible. Case studies demonstrate the Times' contribution to norms, values and beliefs characterizing GLBTs, supporting research characterizing the media an active agent shaping cultural production of sexuality. Visibility is argued not to have granted social legitimation but to evidence social change in the status of homosexuality from deviant/stigmatized to selectively commodified and spectacularized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational actors involved in cultural change programmes have a consciousness and experience that is often fragmented, contradictory and ambivalent. Studies documenting ambivalence have, however; tended to assume that there is a relatively clear and unambiguous change programme about which employees are ambivalent. This article argues that the nature of such programmes is more uncertain and ambiguous than this suggests. Drawing on a six-year study of the introduction of a cultural change programme in the coke-making plant of an integrated steelworks, this article details how cultural ambivalence intertwines with practical ambiguities in the course of such programmes to create complex cultures of ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-synchronous events are constitutive for the social. Every society has to institutionalize synchronicity over time to make a social order of the present possible. A social world of discontinuity (i.e. a non-synchronized world) is amended by a semantics of simultaneity (i.e. a synchronized world) which makes the non-synchronous appear as synchronous. From this follows that synchronicity is a necessary illusion. Cultures of synchronicity are powerful symbolic representations. The case of the New Europe is a particularly striking case. It synchronizes by standardization and by the timing of standardization which generates non-synchronicity at increasing speed. This is called the first face of Europeanization. The New Europe has to legitimate its non-synchronicity and make it appear as synchronicity. This is called the second face of Europeanization. Thus a culture emerges in which non-synchronicity and synchronicity are constructed simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which explores the ways in which cultural field experts in the U.S. have attempted to unite at least some of the insights of postmodernism with an explicit commitment to social change and human liberation. It provides a ground analysis when Marxist cultural studies declared war against postmodernism. The author notes that the differences between the two discourses is that postmodernism has started to locate the courses of historical configurations.