Brokering Culture and Power in a Media-Driven World: Parents of Adolescents in Northern Thailand

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 972-990
Author(s):  
Jessica McKenzie ◽  
Joseph Rooney ◽  
Cassandra Stewart ◽  
Rachel Castellón ◽  
Cristina Landeros ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Cultural Socialization ◽  
Northern Thailand ◽  
Cultural Brokers ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
A Value ◽  
Context Data ◽  
Cultural Brokerage

Exposure to modern media alters cultural values and individual identities. Little is known, however, about whether and how media use alters cultural socialization processes in family relationships. In this study, 20 urban Thai parents of adolescent children took part in individual interviews in which they discussed media use in their families. Thematic analysis of interview data indicates that adolescents act as cultural brokers for their parents in a media-driven culture, and that this brokerage engenders adolescent agency, power, and the renegotiation of traditional age-based hierarchies in the Thai context. Data also indicate that parental power and authority are maintained and reasserted by way of parents placing restrictions on adolescent media use and mobilizing their children’s technological desires as opportunities to teach culturally salient lessons about necessity—a value that reflects central tenets of the late Thai King Bhumibol’s Sufficiency Economy and of Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths. Findings suggest that media use can both transform and maintain traditional cultural values and family dynamics in northern Thailand. More broadly, this study carries implications for the psychological science of globalization by applying the concept of cultural brokerage to communities undergoing rapid technological change.

Constructing Cathay

2002 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-290
Author(s):  
W.K. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Vicarious Experience ◽  
The West ◽  
Cultural Brokers ◽  
Cultural Brokerage ◽  
Source Of Information

As relation between China and the West changed precipitately in the middle of the nineteenth century, there was a heightened demand in the West for knowledge about the “Flowery Kingdom”. But until well into the twentieth century, virtually the only direct source of information about China and the Chinese came from missionaries, in which respect they were often lauded as “cultural brokers”. As missionary communication of their experience provided Western readers with a vicarious experience of China, their cultural brokerage inexorably shaped Western popular perceptions of China and the Chinese in the West. These perceptions, when channeled politically, often had a defining effect on the nature and manner of the Western presence in China. This essay examines the China writing of John Macgowan, a veteran missionary from the London Missionary Society. What is interesting about Macgowan’s cultural brokerage is that unlike other missionaries (e.g., Arthur Smith) who often struggled with the difficulties between the missionary enterprise and Western expansionism, Macgowan uninhibitedly affirmed the intimacy between Mission and Empire. His writings on China and Chinese life — their social behavior and habits of thought, their relation with the living environment, the religious and cultural values by which they ordered their lives — therefore gave strong credence not only to the necessity, viability, and nobility of the christianizing project but ultimately to the sanctity of Western presence in China. In other words, Macgowan’s brokerage of his China knowledge exemplified the processes in which knowledge was legislated and communicated to establish the ideological conditions of the Western expansionism in China.

Cultural Clientelism and Brokerage Networks in Early Modern Florence and Rome: New Correspondence between the Barberini and Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger*

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 729-788 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janie Cole
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Music Theater ◽  
Michelangelo Buonarroti ◽  
Cultural Brokers ◽  
Early Modern Italy ◽  
Significant Area ◽  
Archival Documentation ◽  
Cultural Brokerage ◽  
Significant Figures

AbstractThis study draws on the unpublished correspondence between Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, a Florentine poet and grandnephew of the artist, and the Barberini family, in an attempt to examine the wider concepts of cultural clientelism and brokerage networks in the early modern process of cultural dissemination (in the areas of literature, music, theater, painting, architecture, and science) in Florence and Rome. Reconsidering the definition and role of a Seicento cultural broker added to the traditional model of patron and client, it analyzes Michelangelo the Younger’s activity as broker, patron-broker, and broker-client in connection with such significant figures as Maffeo Barberini (the future Urban VIII), Galileo, and the painter Lodovico Cigoli, exploring the ways in which these roles supported his personal commitment to promote his family’s social status and revealing the fluidity of roles in the patronage system. By obtaining Barberini patronage for his theatrical works and public recognition of the mythology of his illustrious forebear, Buonarroti’s cultural brokerage supported these dynastic ambitions. Spanning nearly half a century, this archival documentation casts new light on a little-known, but significant, area of Italian social relations and suggests directions for further research on other Seicento cultural brokers and new definitions for a broader concept of cultural brokerage in early modern Italy.

scholarly journals Reconciling Csikszentmihalyi’s Broader Flow Theory: With Meaning and Value in Digital Games

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hamon Salisbury ◽  
Penda Tomlinson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Software Design ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Flow Theory ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Analysis And Design ◽  
A Value ◽  
Differential Perception ◽  
Mechanistic View

Flow, the concept developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi over the last forty years or so (see Csikszentmihalyi 1975) has been invoked quite often with respect to the way players engage with digital games (e.g. Baron 2012; Cowley et al. 2008; Sweetser and Wyeth 2005; Brathwaite & Schreiber, 2009; Fullerton, Swain, & Hoffman, 2008; Schell, 2008). However, Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi (2002) have argued that ‘video games’ are in fact likely to promote undesirable experiences of a kind Csikszentmihalyi refers to as ‘entropy’ or unstructured and unsatisfying life experiences. This paper explores Csikszentmihalyi’s greater thesis and examines how a broader reading of Flow theory can potentially help us understand Flow like engagements beyond the simple mechanistic view of challenge explicitly introduce personally expressed cultural values into the conditions of Flow. By doing so we can then provide a value centric analysis and design approach, similar to that of Cockton’s (2004; 2012) proposal, to include values in general software design. That is, the very nature of challenges and rewards needs to be considered in order to investigate how overcoming or receiving such challenges would be positively or negatively perceived by individuals, from particular cultures, holding particular values. Thus we hope that we have dealt with the apparent contradiction in using Csikszentmihalyi’s concept in the study of games despite his criticism of such a move, and have provided some indication of how we can deal with unspecified rewards and the differential perception and engagement with potentially equivalent challenges while still supporting the accepted thesis of Flow.

scholarly journals Understanding Culture through Knowledge Cybernetics

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-49
Author(s):  
Ousanee Sawagvudcharee ◽  
Maurice Yolles ◽  
Chanchai Bunchapattanasakda ◽  
Buncha Limpabandhu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Dynamic Modelling ◽  
Communication Management ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Dynamic Representation ◽  
A Value ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Levels Of Reality ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Different Cultures

These days, countries around the world continue with their process of globalization in the digital business and marketing. However, they find themselves straddling different national cultures, which lead to problems of cross-cultural communication management resulting in, for instance, miscommunication and misunderstanding. Consequently, an understanding of the characterisation or mapping of culture is significant, and while there are not many theories of cultural mapping, most stem from the base work of Hofstede. Basically, most people begin with a categorisation of culture through the creation of an ontology that differentiates relatable levels of reality, as a theory of levels allows culture to be broken down into parts that can be analysed more easily. It also helps them to facilitate the creation of a set of generic or universal dimensions of culture which can be used to map different cultures. However, a problem with this theoretical approach is that it does not offer a very dynamic representation of culture, and it has manifestations that impoverish the way that phenomenal manifestations of culture can be explained. On the other hand, there is an alternative approach was adopted by Schwartz. This approach does not discuss ontology but it creates a value inventory in which respondents assess ‘comprehensive’ cultural values. Consequently, there is some relationship between outcome of Hofstede’s and Schwartz’s results. Yolles has developed a theory of Knowledge Cybernetics that delivers a new ontology and a dynamic modelling approach. Schwartz’s results have been merged into this, resulting in a new theory dynamic theory of culture quite distinct from Hofstede’s level theory.

scholarly journals Childhood Cancer: Meanings Attributed to the Disease by Parent Caregivers

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (55) ◽  
pp. 253-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Manuel Quintana ◽  
Shana Hastenpflug Wottrich ◽  
Valeri Pereira Camargo ◽  
Evandro de Quadros Cherer
Keyword(s):  
Childhood Cancer ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Psychological Suffering ◽  
The Family

This study aimed to comprehend the meanings that parents/caregivers of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer attribute to their child’s disease. It is a qualitative, exploratory/descriptive study. Data were collected through group discussions and individual interviews with the parents/caregivers of children/adolescents and categorized using content analysis. The impressions of the researchers were recorded in a field diary, contributing to the data analysis. The results indicate that the disease and treatment involve periods of psychological suffering that affect the family structure. Cancer was reported as a real enemy to be fought through coping or avoidance, which generates expectations about the future and causes feelings of fear, as well as hope. It was concluded that the childhood cancer causes repercussions in the family relationships, the recognition of which can contribute to both the preparation of professional teams who work with this population, as well as the public health policies developed.

scholarly journals The coexistence center for elderly people and its importance in the support to the family and the Health Care Network

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávia Maria Derhun ◽  
Giovana Aparecida de Souza Scolari ◽  
Vivian Carla de Castro ◽  
Maria Aparecida Salci ◽  
Vanessa Denardi Antoniassi Baldissera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Care Network ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
The Family ◽  
Health Care Network ◽  
Set Up

ABSTRACT Objective: To know the perception of relatives of elderly people about the coexistence center and its importance in supporting the Health Care Network. Methodology: A qualitative study carried out with 14 relatives of elderly people participating in a coexistence center. Data collection took place in January 2016 through individual interviews, which were recorded, transcribed and submitted to content analysis. The results were discussed in the light of the theoretical referential of health promotion. Results: The elderly's participation in the coexistence center was an alternative to support care and institutionalization, provided time for self-care and to maintain or engage in the formal labor market and positively influenced the family relationships. Conclusion: The coexistence center was set up as a health promotion institution, being jointly responsible for the care of the elderly with the Health Care Network and the families.

Kuomintang Soldiers and Their Descendants in Northern Thailand: An Ethnographic Study

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Duan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Chinese Education ◽  
Northern Thailand ◽  
Chinese Tradition ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Chinese Cultural Values ◽  
Thai Culture

AbstractThis research explores the community and the life of the Yunnanese Chinese comprising KMT soldiers and their descendants in northern Thailand. By describing three generations of these villagers, the article shows how the original Kuomintang soldiers and their descendants have adapted to life in northern Thailand, and become a category of Chinese there. Despite the influence of Thai culture especially on the young, certain aspects of Chinese tradition have remained important for their cultural identity, while Chinese education reinforces the socialization of Chinese cultural values.

scholarly journals Negotiating Identity and Belonging in a New Space: Opportunities and Experiences of African Youths in South Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (15) ◽  
pp. 5484
Author(s):  
William Mude ◽  
Lillian Mwanri
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
New Space ◽  
Potential Determinant

This paper was part of a large study that aimed to explore determinants of increased suicides among African youths in South Australia. As part of this larger study, narratives from participants indicated that identity crisis could be a potential determinant of suicide. This paper reports on how African youths negotiate and form identity in Australia. A qualitative inquiry was undertaken with 31 African youths using a focus group and individual interviews. Data analysis was guided by a framework for qualitative research. These youths negotiated multiple identities, including those of race, gender, ethnicity and their origin. ‘Freedom and opportunity’, ‘family relationships’, ‘neither belonging here nor there’ and ‘the ability to cope against the paradox of resourcefulness in Australia’ appeared to be important themes in negotiating individual identities. An opportunity was used to acknowledge privileges available in Australia relative to Africa. However, the extent to which individuals acted on these opportunities varied, affecting a person’s sense of purpose, identity formation and belonging in Australia. The loss of social networks following migration, and cultural differences between African and Australian societies, shaped the experience of belonging and identity formation. These findings are crucial as they indicate the need for policies and practices that consider experiences of youths as they form their identity in Australia. Further studies with large numbers of participants are needed to explore these issues further among African youths in Australia.

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