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A list of publications received by the book is presented including "On Scandal: Moral Disturbances in Society, Politics, and Art," by Ari Adut, "A Contemporary Introduction to Sociology: Culture and Society in Transition," by Jeffrey C. Alexander and Kenneth Thompson and "The African Transformation of Western Medicine and the Dynamics of Global Cultural Exchange," by David Baronov.

A list of books about culture, demography, ethnicity, health, politics, sexuality, gender and social psychology, stratification, theory and methodology, urban community, work and organizations is presented including "Narrative and Violence: Ways of Sufferings Amongst Iranian Men in Diaspora," "Computer Games and the Social Imaginary" and "Cognition and Crime: Offender Decision Making and Script Analyses."

Networks of citations among the papers on a research topic reflect the structure of scholarship on that topic. Reference-network data for research areas from several disciplines show substantial variation in the structure of scholarship, ranging from the frequent and disproportionate citation of recent work to the frequent and disproportionate citation of foundational documents. The variation is inconsistent with the pattern expected of a simple physical sciences-behavioral sciences-humanities dimension. Citation-context analyses of references in the networks of various fields suggest that variation in network structure is due in part to differences in why authors cite their colleagues' work: Disproportionate citation of foundational documents occurs when authors cite papers as examples of perspectives or general approaches rather than as support for specific points. Differences in use patterns for citations can help us understand other differences among scholarly communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sources cited within this issue are presented including "Religion in the Contemporary World: A Sociological Introduction," by Alan Aldridge, "Buying Into Fair Trade: Culture, Morality, and Consumption," by Keith R. Brown, and "Cult of the Will: Nervousness and German Identity," by Michael Cowan.

In a sense, the study of everyday life epitomizes the challenges and opportunities of ethnography. The papers in this Special Issue show how the close examination of the day-to-day lives of people in idiosyncratic settings can shed light on universal questions, complicate the elegant narratives we tell ourselves about what we know, enrich our theories, and expand our sphere of empathy. Although the study of everyday life can be traced back at least as far back as the turn of the 20th century, reaching its apogee after the middle of the century, especially in the writings of Erving Goffman and Harold Garfinkel, it remains as uncommon as its object is commonplace. That is because it is easy to overlook the importance of what is happening when ‘nothing’ is happening and difficult to uncover what is significant about ‘the dust of social activity’. We argue—and the papers that follow show—that the details of the day-to-day can not only be unexpectedly interesting in their specifics but also a source of general theoretical insights about communities, organizations, and teams: their continuity, change and contradictions. What the papers have in common (with each other and with Goffman’s work) is an attention to the work that people do every day to sustain their particular self-image in the face of ongoing, mundane challenges of various sorts to the ways they like to think of and present their world and their place within it. This work to maintain the edges of meaning hides in plain sight and occupies us constantly, whether we are part of a public organization, a religious organization, a profit-seeking organization, a profit-resisting organization, an organization-less organization, or we are students of organizations marking the unremarkable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive review and meta-analysis of the literature on the influence of cultural dimensions on work design characteristics. With our proposed work design universals typology as a framework, we provide a narrative review and analyze the influence of six cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism–collectivism, masculinity–femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence–restraint) on work design characteristics' effects on job satisfaction and performance. In addition to running meta-analytic regressions examining the role of cultural characteristics as individual moderators of the relationship between work design characteristics' and job satisfaction and performance, we further utilize qualitative comparative analysis to move beyond treating each cultural dimension as an independent predictor and, instead, investigate configurations of cultural dimensions as moderating variables of the relationships between work design characteristics and workplace outcomes. The present effort, therefore, serves as a test of a complex universal approach when examining the influence of culture on the relationship between work design characteristics and outcomes. Collectively, this study provides a systematic narrative and quantitative review of the work design literature to assess how cultural dimensions (both individually and through complex configurations) may affect the impact of work design characteristics on job satisfaction and performance. Based on our review, we offer recommendations for future research and continued calls for more systematic and integrative cross-cultural work design research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: The majority of people with serious health-related suffering in low- and middle-income countries lack access to palliative care (PC). Increased access to PC education is greatly needed. Objectives: This paper describes the process to adapt an advanced PC training course for a Chilean context. Methods: A joint team of intercultural PC educators from the US and Chile conducted a series of key informant interviews and a target audience survey to iteratively design a PC training course in Chile. Results: Eight key informant interviews identified a strong need for formal PC education pathways, confirmed the five central learning domains, and helped to identify potential course sub-topics. A target audience survey of 59 PC providers from across Chile confirmed a strong desire to participate in such a course. Conclusion: Our team of intercultural PC educators adapted an advanced PC course to the unique context of Chilean providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted major challenges in governance and inequalities particularly among those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups. This paper focuses on the BAME community and explores this through a governance lens, with particular reference to the representation and functioning of boards involved in healthcare and building a transparent culture. To illustrate this, the paper utilises a series of structured reflective questions with model answers termed Right Question, Right Answer and links to the Centre for Quality in Governance (CQG) Maturity Matrix. This article highlights the need to improve diversity and accountability of health and care organisations to their staff and local population. For governance to be effective, it must be aligned and comply with healthcare system regulations to ensure improvement of legislative acts and standards. The paper aims to inform government policy by moving from rhetoric, or merely describing challenges, to action and change by increasing accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health and wellbeing of doctors are crucial, both for the individuals themselves and their ability to deliver optimum patient care. With increased pressures on healthcare, support mechanisms that attend to doctors' health and wellbeing may require greater emphasis to safeguard those working in frontline services. To inform future developments, this systematic narrative review aimed to identify, explore and map empirical and anecdotal evidence indicating the relationships between mentoring activities and the health and wellbeing of doctors. Twelve databases were searched for publications printed between January 2006 and January 2016. Articles were included if they involved doctors' engagement in mentoring activities and, either health or wellbeing, or the benefits, barriers or impact of mentoring. The initial search returned 4669 papers, after exclusions a full-text analysis of 37 papers was conducted. Reference lists and citations of each retrieved paper were also searched. Thirteen papers were accepted for review. The Business in the Community model was used as a theoretical framework for analysis. Mentoring influenced collegiate relationships, networking and aspects of personal wellbeing, such as confidence and stress management, and was valued by doctors as a specialist support mechanism. This review contributes to the evidence base concerning mentoring and doctors' health and wellbeing. However, it highlights that focused research is required to explore the relationship between mentoring, and health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the relationship between a doctor and a patient. The various rules for making sense of the patient's symptoms are of two types, namely constitution rules and regulation rules. The doctors should consider what the symptoms mean for the patient and the steps taken by the patient for the same. The problem facing the therapist in the diagnosis, is that there might be a difference of what the symptoms mean for the patient and what is understood by the therapist.

The article highlights separate modes or languages in ascribing meaning to an illness. Medical, material or molecular involves the suggestion of philosopher René Descartes that the body should be seen as a system of mechanisms. Connection between several diseases like hiatus hernia and the low-fiber content of the diet is included in cultural, social and political mode.

The article presents the author's views on a criticism of his research on Ideational and Sensate cultures by sociologist Hornell Hart. Since by its very nature ideational culture is all inner and charismatically collective and anonymous, it naturally does not yield as great a number of individual philosophers, thinkers, artists, or as great a number of scientific discoveries and inventions, or as high a standard of sensate living, as sensate culture, mainly external, does. And yet, so far as an absorption in God and in inner values is of great value, so far is Ideational culture one of the most magnificent forms of culture, and possibly uncomfortable as a settled dwelling for most of the sociologists. In addition, besides a great art and literature, the Mediaeval Ideational culture created Christianity, the backbone, the heart and soul, of Western culture, the very condition of the possibility of later Sensate culture itself. The weight of this single creation of Ideational culture is likely to be greater than that of almost all the philosophers, artists, scientific discoveries, and Sensate planes of living given by the critic.

Maternal mortality is disproportionately higher in low- and middle-income countries compared to other parts of the world. International research efforts are reflective of the urgency to improve global maternal outcomes. The existing literature of maternal health interventions in low- and middle-income countries targets a variety of populations and intervention types. However, there is a notable lack of systemic reviews that examine the wider contextual and mechanistic factors that have contributed to the outcomes produced by interventions. This article aims to use realist synthesis design to identify and examine the relationships between the contexts, mechanisms and outcomes of maternal health interventions conducted in low- and middle-income countries. This will inform evidence-based practice for future maternal health interventions. In May 2022, we searched four electronic databases for systematic reviews of maternal health interventions in low- and middle-income countries published in the last 5 years. We used open and axial coding of contexts, mechanisms and outcomes to develop an explanatory framework for intervention effectiveness. After eligibility screening and full-text analysis, 44 papers were included. The majority of effective interventions reported good healthcare system contexts, especially the importance of infrastructural capacity to implement and sustain the intervention. Most intervention designs used increasing knowledge and awareness at an individual and healthcare-provider level to produce intended outcomes. The majority of outcomes reported related to uptake of healthcare services by women. All mechanism themes had a relationship with this outcome. Health system infrastructure must be considered in interventions to ensure effective implementation and sustainability. Healthcare-seeking behaviours are embedded within social and cultural norms, environmental conditions, family influences and provider attitudes. Therefore, effective engagement with communities and families is important to create new norms surrounding pregnancy and delivery. Future research should explore community mobilization and involvement to enable tailored interventions with optimal contextual fit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrative burdens have consequences for entrepreneurial outcomes, and entrepreneurial outcomes have consequences for people's quality of life. Public administrators should be concerned since they are the gatekeepers of democracy. Using data from 40 countries, this paper investigates the intersection between burdens and entrepreneurship by examining the relationship between burdens and entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial culture. The extent to which this relationship is conditioned by entrepreneurial motivation is also explored. The findings indicate that burdens suppress entrepreneurial culture by reducing entrepreneurial activity. Further, entrepreneurial motivation can enable entrepreneurs to be more resilient against burdens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues against a prevailing culture-free tendency in cross-cultural qualitative research that has been normalized by conventional qualitative research methodology to propose " chameleonization, " a culturally sensitive research process. First, I delineate the paradoxes encountered in comparative research of Sino-U.S. university partnerships by comparing five fieldwork elements: research ethics, access to fields, informed consent, informants' recruitment, and interview environment and process. The comparison reveals that the seemingly "golden" rule of Western-centered qualitative research and procedure were both disturbing and paralyzing in non-Western fields. Subsequently, this work deciphers these paradoxes with Hofstede's cultural dimension theory as a main analytical framework, supplemented by theories from cultural theorists in the two cultures. These paradoxes can be resolved through a chameleonization process through which researchers attune to a postmodern cross-culturalness by navigating the "folds of culture," as characterized by their cross-cultural qualitative fields. Tentative strategies for applying chameleonization to activate, solidify, and extend a "folding-unfolding-refolding" process are then proposed, followed by a discussion on the approach's potential limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel framework called 'cultural affordances' to examine the dynamic interplay among technology, users and culture, as multilevel and multidirectional interactive networks. The framework includes three dimensions. 1) Cultural affordances of technology describe what technology can offer users and culture in terms of behavioural or cultural changes. 2) Cultural affordances of users describe what users can offer other users, technology and culture in terms of behavioural, technological or cultural changes. 3) Affordances of the cultural describe what culture can offer users and technology in terms of the design and use of technology as well as related changes. To establish the need for a culturally oriented extension to affordance theory, we first revisit Gibson's original definition of affordances of the environment and discuss its significance and limitations, including the need to understand the interplay between technology and users in the digital era. We contend that culture, as an assemblage of all relations and practices, should be included as an indispensable part of affordance theory, and we provide a detailed explanation of the novel, three-dimensional framework of cultural affordances. We then apply the framework to three prior empirical studies and one ongoing study to demonstrate how the framework can be used as an analytic tool to deepen our understanding of the multilevel and multidirectional interplay among technology, users and culture, and we identify related changes, focusing on WeChat. We also discuss how the framework can provide directions for designing new technologies to improve collaborations among users, between users and designers, and between an online platform and the offline world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the United Kingdom, the 2008 financial crisis coupled with the subsequent economic austerity programme forced many public institutions to engage in various cost-cutting and fundraising ventures. In parallel, corporate ideologies came to dominate how academics, officials and professionals debated public activities, in turn profoundly affecting the provision of communal services. This paper explores how 'corporate colonization' (sensu Deetz, 1992), fuelled by austerity, claims public institutions for commercial interests. Drawing on in-depth interviews with senior staff, this paper demonstrates how retrenchment of external support in the UK museum sector has been an uneven process, resulting in the manifestation of three experiential states of corporate colonization: organizational perennity, organizational perseverance and organizational precarity. We thus investigate the differential and uneven ways in which corporate colonization affects organizations pertaining to the UK cultural sector. Overall, we argue that the austerity culture in the UK affects museums in largely negative ways by forcing them to respond to the progressive need to satisfy short-term financial interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to understand user interaction behaviour on social networking sites (SNS), and to investigate cultural influence on acceptance and use behaviour. SNS are growing in importance, and the many advantages they offer to companies are on the increase. The model described in this paper has been defined on the basis of a technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine the adoption and use of SNS, by adding trust and perceived risk constructs. To analyse the culture as a moderating effect of the causal relationships proposed, we focus on two European countries, using a multi-group structural equation model (SEM). This study shows that extended TAM (ETAM) is appropriate for use in predicting the acceptance of voluntary-use technologies, and it focuses on social relationships. The cultural effects may moderate some theoretical relationships in the adoption process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues against a prevailing culture-free tendency in cross-cultural qualitative research that has been normalized by conventional qualitative research methodology to propose "chameleonization," a culturally sensitive research process. First, I delineate the paradoxes encountered in comparative research of Sino-U.S. university partnerships by comparing five fieldwork elements: research ethics, access to fields, informed consent, informants' recruitment, and interview environment and process. The comparison reveals that the seemingly "golden" rule of Western-centered qualitative research and procedure were both disturbing and paralyzing in non-Western fields. Subsequently, this work deciphers these paradoxes with Hofstede's cultural dimension theory as a main analytical framework, supplemented by theories from cultural theorists in the two cultures. These paradoxes can be resolved through a chameleonization process through which researchers attune to a postmodern crossculturalness by navigating the "folds of culture," as characterized by their cross-cultural qualitative fields. Tentative strategies for applying chameleonization to activate, solidify, and extend a "folding-unfolding-refolding" process are then proposed, followed by a discussion on the approach's potential limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a cultural approach to provide rich original qualitative data on the perspectives of female PR training students who newly finished their university degree in public relations in Bahrain. The research analyzes the relationships and stereotypes of these women through bridging PR education to the professional practice of public relations in the cultural context of Bahrain. The researcher adopts a cultural approach to analyze the data using cultural dimensions such as Hofstede (1994) and Hall (1976) in addition to theoretical concepts based on the literature on gender and power. The contribution of this research is that it is the first paper that offers primary data on female public relations education in Bahrain and its impact on the perceptions of female PR practitioners in term of leadership roles, image and power relationships from a cultural angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to comprehend China's foreign policy as the nation takes on the status of a great power. By adopting the Chinese concept of "face" as an analytical tool, my paper illustrates why face as a cultural expression of desire for collective "self-esteem" has been increasingly important to China's current foreign policy, and how the cultural mandate of face informs China's interactions with other nations in order to strive for national self-esteem. It reveals the motivational, cognitive, and behavioural logic behind China's decision to participate in global governance and partnership diplomacy, as well as its use of coercion. The article suggests that China as a great power is neither innately pacifist in maintaining the status quo nor hardwired with revisionist aims to overthrow the existing international order. Instead, its behavioural tendencies largely depend on how other parties can fulfil its desire for face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the return predictability of investor sentiment in 12 Asian and European markets during the period between 2004 and 2016. Employing the composite sentiment index constructed from the consumer confidence index (CCI), advance/decline ratio (ADR), and volatility premium (VP), we find a strong negative relationship between investor sentiment and the next 3 to 24-month returns. This outcome implies that sentiment could be a contrarian predictor of market returns over various periods. Moreover, we reveal an essential role of local factors, including financial development, institutional governance, and culture, in the sentiment-return diversification among regional markets. We discover that the moderating effect of market-specific factors is time-varying and different between Asian and European areas. As a result, sentiment has a shorter-term impact in Europe but a longer-term impact in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are an estimated 25.9 million refugees worldwide, who require health services while living in host countries. To effectively treat refugee patients, nurses must document their history which requires hearing about their traumatic journeys. Listening to trauma has been shown to cause vicarious traumatisation. Aims: To identify the risk and protective factors involved in the development of vicarious traumatisation. Methods: After searching four databases, nine studies were selected for review. Key words 'vicarious trauma', 'refugee' and 'nurse' formed the search. Articles were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program and Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Results: Vicarious traumatisation is common amongst nurses working with refugees. Aspects of culture formed the principal risk and protective factors. Differences between cultures made for strained communication while similarities created better understanding. Some cultures provided more resilience than others. Vicarious resilience, a feeling of personal growth resulting from hearing about and helping patients overcome trauma, was also highlighted. The development of vicarious resilience was a protective factor. Conclusions: Further investigation into how to minimise risk and establish protective factors is required. Some coping recommendations include personal reflection, comprehensive training and better access to counselling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how aspects of national culture may shape the design and implementation of public policy, using the example of energy policy in China. It focuses on cognitive style and on political and legal culture. China’s energy policies display a combination of pragmatism, incrementalism, internal contradiction and ambiguity. This is consistent with evidence from experimental psychology and history that the development of Chinese and East Asian cognitive styles have taken a path distinct from those of Western civilizations with their Greek philosophical heritage. These variations of cognitive style between cultures are reflected in brain function and genes. Policy implementation also bears features from imperial times in the political culture of China’s Communist Party and the contemporary legal system. These arguments reinforce existing calls for caution when seeking to transfer energy or other public policy approaches between countries with different cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers for the special issue on Paradox, Tensions and Dualities of Innovation and Culture is presented.

Risk is an important but under-investigated feature of organizations in Late Modernity. This paper introduces the Special Issue on Organizations and Risk in Late Modernity. The rationale for the special issue is discussed. An overview of important approaches to risk research and organizations is provided to frame the special issue. These approaches include the cognitive science approach, which takes a positivist perspective and assumes that risks are objective and knowable. This view is contrasted with socio-cultural theories based in work by Mary Douglas, Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Michel Foucault. Charles Perrow's organizational theory of the production of risk and accidents due to interactive complexity, and Karl Weick's theory of risk sensemaking, are then discussed. The paper then reviews the contributions of papers in the special issue and outlines issues for future research on risk and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrative data analysis aims to understand the stories' content, structure, or function. However narrative data can also be used to examine how context influences self-concepts, relationship dynamics, and meaning-making. This methodological paper explores the potential of narrative analysis to discover and compare the processes by which culture shapes selfhood and meaning making. We describe the development of the Comparative Ethnographic Narrative Analysis Method as an analytic procedure to systematically compare narrators' experiences, meaning making, decisions, and actions across cultures. This analytic strategy seeks to discover shared themes, examine culturally distinct themes, and illuminate meta-level cultural beliefs and values that link shared themes. We emphasize the need for a shared research question, comparable samples, shared non-biased instruments, and high-fidelity training if one uses this qualitative method for cross-cultural research. Finally, specific issues, trouble-shooting practices, and implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds a theoretical argument for exile as an alternative metaphor to the panopticon, for conceptualizing visibility and control in the context of distributed 'new culture' organizations. Such organizations emphasize team relationships between employees who use digital technologies to stay connected with each other and the organization. I propose that in this context, a fear of exile – that is, a fear of being left out, overlooked, ignored or banished – can act as a regulating force that inverts the radial spatial dynamic of the panopticon and shifts the responsibility for visibility, understood both in terms of competitive exposure and existential recognition, onto workers. As a consequence these workers enlist digital technologies to become visible at the real or imagined organizational centre. A conceptual appreciation of exile, as discussed in existential philosophy and postcolonial theory, is shown to offer productive grounds for future research on how a need for visibility in distributed, digitized and increasingly precarious work environments regulates employee subjectivity, in a manner that is not captured under traditional theories of ICT-enabled surveillance in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Just culture has been identified as a vital component of safety culture by national and international organisations. In a just culture, emphasis is not placed on blaming individuals for errors but rather on examining personal and system processes that can best support safety and prevent reoccurrence. Although those in the practice arena have worked to implement the concepts of just culture, the same is not true in nursing education, leaving nursing students lacking the pre-requisite knowledge, skills and attitudes to implement just culture in practice on graduation. Aims: Assessment of this phenomena is the essential first step to align nursing education with practice in promoting just culture as a mechanism for patient safety. The purpose of this paper is to further refine the Just Culture Assessment Tool-Nursing Education through exploratory factor analysis. Methods: The Just Culture Assessment Tool-Nursing Education was adapted from the Just Culture Assessment Tool, an instrument created for the practice setting. Validity and reliability were established for the Just Culture Assessment Tool-Nursing Education in a study of 800 nursing students to assess their perceptions and understanding of just culture with their nursing programmes. Using the previously conducted data, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Results: Factor analysis supports six subscales, similar to that of the Just Culture Assessment Tool. However, individual items were loaded into different subscales. All subscales demonstrated good reliability. Factor analysis supported further refinement of two items to improve the instrument's ability to capture data. Conclusions: Perceptions of just culture differ between experienced providers and nursing students; nursing students have less experience with reporting errors. Factor analysis of Just Culture Assessment Tool-Nursing Education items demonstrated these differences, supporting modification of items by the instrument developers. An 'if' statement for students to consider their possible actions rather than experience was added to two items to better capture data from nursing students when completing the assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stringent bankruptcy laws are generally understood to increase the costs of failure and thus not conducive for entrepreneurship. In this paper, theory is developed and tested exploring the moderating influences of the dimensions of culture—individualism—collectivism, masculinity–femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance. Results of this study, from conditional fixed effects Poisson regressions, support that stringent bankruptcy laws are positively associated with the levels of entrepreneurial activity in certain cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substance use and mental ill health constitute a major public health burden, and a key global policy priority is to reduce illicit and other harmful substance use. Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) are the second most used class of illicit drugs and a range of mental health issues have been documented amongst users. This paper explores the relationship between mental health and ATS use, through a thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with n = 18 current and former ATS users in England. The findings are presented by trajectory point of; (1) Initiation of ATS use; (2) continued and increased ATS use and (3) decreased and remitted ATS use. This work helps to develop understanding around the complex and bi-directional relationship between ATS use and mental health. Many ATS users lead chaotic lives and engage in multiple risk behaviours, however there is a need to better understand and conceptualise the dynamic interaction between different individual, social, environment and cultural factors that determine individuals' mental health and substance use. There is no 'one size fits all' approach to prevention and treatment, and these findings highlight the need for more joined-up, tailored and holistic approaches to intervention development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper advances our understanding of managerial identity work in the context of HQ–subsidiary relations. We argue that a key part of this identity work is related to cultural stereotypes. On the basis of an analysis of two Finland-based MNCs operating in Russia, the paper elucidates three forms of stereotype-based identity work with enabling or constraining power implications. The first form, stereotypical talk, refers to identity work whereby managers enact their stereotypical conceptions of ‘the other’ to bolster their self-image and ‘inferiorize’ ‘the other’. The second form, reactive talk, is identity work that emerges as a reaction to stereotypical talk whereby managers aim at renegotiating the proposed social arrangement for their own benefit. Finally, the third form, self-reflexive talk, refers to identity work whereby managers attempt to go beyond the social arrangement produced through stereotypical and reactive talk by distancing themselves in a self-reflexive manner from essentialist cultural conceptions. Overall, the paper offers an initial attempt to elucidate how stereotype-based identity work is used to justify or resist existing power structures and power asymmetries in HQ–subsidiary relations within the MNC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interesting recent paper by Jetter and Parmeter (World Development 2018), (J-P), provides a useful robustness analysis of the significant determinants of cross-country corruption and identifies institutions and literacy as key influences, but a nation's culture is shown to not matter. Whereas J-P consider a range of potential influences on corruption, their findings are based on a single measure of corruption. This note considers two additional widely used measures of corruption and tests the robustness of J-P's findings. Results show support for a number of J-P's findings but also show the sensitivity of their main findings to the sample size, and that the influence of culture is shown to be not insignificant. This suggests appropriate caution be used in framing policies, especially when they are based on a single measure of variables that are plagued by measurement issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I identify and respond to four persistent objections to the idea of wilderness: empirical, cultural, philosophical and environmental. Despite having dogged the wilderness debate for decades, none of these objections withstands scrutiny; rather they are misplaced criticisms that hinder fruitful discussion of the philosophical ramifications of wilderness by needlessly complicating the idea itself. While there may be other justifiable concerns about the idea of wilderness, it is time to move beyond the four discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal federalism and public choice theories offer a number of approaches to explaining differences in public expenditure on cultural affairs. This paper empirically explores cultural expenditure in the nine federal provinces of Austria. The methodological set-up is a time-series panel data analysis for cultural expenditure from 1976 to 2002. A number of papers have shown that the main driving forces behind cultural expenditure are Baumol's cost disease and economic growth, and these results are also corroborated by the current study. Moreover, differences between the federal provinces do exist, implying that cultural policies are determined partly by local and regional circumstances. Arguments from recent public choice theories, such as the form of government (e.g. coalition governments) and economic business cycles, do not offer much explanation. However, variables capturing the ideology of policy makers and the sustainability of budgetary policies can explain some of the differences in cultural policies between Austrian provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Botswana is one of the countries severely impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Despite an extensive HIV prevention campaign, the incidence of HIV, particularly among women, remains high. Condoms play a significant role in preventing new HIV infections, although men and women do not consistently use them. Objective: The study assessed the individual, relationship and community factors associated with consistent condom use among women in Botswana. Design: A cross-sectional study using secondary data drawn from a national survey on Gender-Based Violence Indicators in 2012. Methods: The primary survey sampled 639 women, aged 18 years and older, using a multistage procedure. The final sample size for the secondary analysis included a total of 480 women who were sexually experienced and had reported using condoms with their male partners. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to assess the association between consistent condom use and the explanatory variables. The multivariate logistic regression adjusted for cluster/community random effects. Results: About 43% of the women used condoms consistently in the past year. Consistent condom use was more likely among women who were employed in the past year (adjusted odds ratio = 1.77; 95% confidence interval = 1.25-2.50). While, women who lived with their partners (adjusted odds ratio = 0.46; 95% confidence interval = 0.28–0.74), had non-Christian beliefs (adjusted odds ratio = 0.52; 95% confidence interval = 0.29–0.92), perceived that their partners would be angry if they ask to use a condom (adjusted odds ratio = 0.19; 95% confidence interval = 0.06–0.58) and perceived that their community says women need their husband's permission to do paid work (adjusted odds ratio = 0.56; 95% confidence interval = 0.38–0.83) were less likely to use condoms consistently. Conclusion: Consistent condom use among Botswana's female population is suboptimal. Consistent condom use was higher among women with employment, and lower among women who lived with their partners, had non-Christian beliefs, feared their partners' reaction upon asking for condom use and held inequitable community gender beliefs. To enhance women's consistent use of condoms, friendly condom use information, female economic empowerment strategies and programmes that involve religious leaders and promote progressive and healthy masculine practices in Sexual Reproductive Health/HIV interventions should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does profanity contribute to community at work? While obscene talk might be viewed as contrary to the establishment of collegial ties, such discourse can, under the right circumstances, reinforce group sociality as well as challenge hierarchical control. In some sites of labor, participants are permitted—even expected—to use "bad language." Rather than undermining local culture, this form of communication supports it by revealing the intensity of salient moments. We situate profanity as a means of deepening group membership (affiliation), defining a status hierarchy (division), and delineating boundaries (distinction). Not all workplaces are characterized by profanity, but those that are we label "obscenity factories," emphasizing the production of community through conversational deviance. To examine this process, we utilize descriptive ethnographies of trauma doctors in war zones, restaurant cooks, wildland firefighters, and correction officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the significance of information communication technology (I.C.T.) for the theory and practice of organizations. There is voluminous literature in this field, but I.C.T. tends to be perceived as just another example of new technology. In fact, the information dimension of I.C.T. gives it a distinctive character in contrast to other technologies which remains under-theorized. The paper argues that information is intimately linked with power-knowledge relations and the forms of subjectivity that reside therein. In theorizing the exercise of power and the constitution of subjectivity, we suggest that three concepts - culture, control and competition - provide additional insights for the study of the development and application of I.C.T.s in organizations. The paper seeks to illustrate these arguments by reference to case study examples from financial service companies and the National Health Service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers a new model of politics adequate for the Anthropocene epoch. It uses the concept of 'heterotopia' to argue for the environmental potential of Arendtian political philosophy. The adopted meaning of heterotopia combines its Foucauldian (as interpreted by L. De Cauter and M. Dehaene) and medical sources. It is argued that, thus understood, the concept can be applied to the Arendtian idea of judgment. In this capacity, the concept of heterotopia is both politically foundational and environmentally relevant. It helps us maintain the idea of politics as humanely construed activity, while recognising that political actors are also natural beings, whose actions draw on and affect the non-human world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premarital sexual intercourse is viewed as deviant behavior by most parents in our culture and with sufficient intensity to qualify this substantive area for inclusion in the subfield of deviant behavior. However, title has been done to apply the basic Propositions developed within the field of deviance to Premarital coitus. In this paper I apply key aspects of three basic approaches: (1) labeling, (2) anomie, and (3) social and cultural supports, to this substantive area and indicate the ways in which this application may throw light on the strengths and weaknesses of each of these approaches and on their relevance for various types of deviance. Suggestions are made for developing a general theory of deviance using some of the conclusions of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an agency model for headquarters-subsidiary relationships in multinational organizations with headquarters as the principal and the subsidiary as the agent. As a departure from classical agency theory, our model is developed for the unit level of analysis and considers two root causes of the agency problem—self-interest and bounded rationality. We argue that in the organizational setting, one cannot assume absolute self-interest and perfect rationality of agents (subsidiaries) but should allow them to vary. We explain subsidiary-level variation through a set of internal organizational and external social conditions in which the headquarters-subsidiary agency dyad is embedded. We then discuss several agency scenarios reflecting various levels of self-interest and rationality that lead to different manifestations of the agency problem. The proposed framework can inform more relevant applications of the agency perspective in organizational studies and motivate future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literary multilingualism has been dexterously used by the Indian English writers to reflect the cultural and behavioral style of the characters and make the setting realistic. The paper attempts to identify and analyze the kinds of literary techniques used in Indian English fiction and how through the use of these techniques, the writers have tried to sustain the native culture in the setting of the novel. The tools chosen for analysis include translated proverbs, songs and religious verse and the methodology preferred for this purpose is narrative methodology. The analysis of these devices in the textual background shows that in the Indian English fiction, the native culture in the setting of the novel can best be sustained by the use of native elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is a very important part of Vietnam's economy, and the country's central highlands offer a lot of chances to grow tourism. However, due to the challenging terrain, remote location, and diverse ethnic populations, creating sustainable tourism in this area poses a significant challenge. To address this issue, our study employs quantitative research methodologies, including questionnaire surveys conducted with local stakeholders. Our research identifies cultural, economic, infrastructural, policy, and regulatory factors as critical drivers of long-term tourism growth in the region. The results show that sustainable tourism growth in Vietnam's central highlands needs a complete plan that considers the area's unique natural and cultural environment. In addition, our research gives policymakers and people in the tourism industry important information they can use to promote sustainable tourism development in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information sources affect people's tourism, culture, and entertainment buying. It is therefore important to study the apportionment effects by information source type and comprehensively analyze how information sources positively or negatively impact the consumption of tourism, culture, and entertainment. This research analyzed the influence of four information sources on such buying based on data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2014 to 2018. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationships among variables. The findings were that: (1) information sources (Internet, broadcast, print, and word of mouth) had a significant positive impact on tourism, culture, and entertainment buying; (2) the effects of information were significantly different based on age, education level, and place of residence (urban vs. rural); and (3) information source digitalization increased the share of TCE consumption in overall household consumption through improving social interactions and convenience of transactions. The findings contribute to alleviating the information asymmetry in tourism consumption, helping tourism enterprises develop targeted marketing measures, and promoting the improvement of residents' tourism consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese science fiction (sci-fi) draws nutrition from traditional Chinese culture to achieve a modern transformation and promote the development of the national narrative in Chinese sci-fi. There are three ways to realise the transformation. First, adapt and reproduce classic stories, myths, legends and history. By embracing modernity, this unlocks the connections between traditional culture and modern technology, and thus acquires supportive force for modern life. Second, reconstruct history by imagining new routes of technological evolution and thus open up new possibilities for history. By considering contemporary realities, this answers the contemporary call for a more advanced culture. Third, use the national spirit as the soul of Chinese sci-fi. When providing Chinese wisdom and solutions to global challenges, we should balance the relationship between the global vision and the national characteristics of Chinese sci-fi and develop future-oriented national characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]