Dionne Brand and Afua Cooper: Diaspora and Continuities Shaped by National and Regional Cultures

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-209
Author(s):  
Maria Lúcia Milléo Martins

Though the existence of Jewish regional cultures is widely known, the origins of the most prominent groups, Ashkenaz and Sepharad, are poorly understood, and the rich variety of other regional Jewish identities is often overlooked. Yet all these subcultures emerged in the Middle Ages. Scholars contributing to the present study were invited to consider how such regional identities were fashioned, propagated, reinforced, contested, and reshaped — and to reflect on the developments, events, or encounters that made these identities manifest. They were asked to identify how subcultural identities proved to be useful, and the circumstances in which they were deployed. The resulting volume spans the ninth to sixteenth centuries, and explores Jewish cultural developments in western Europe, the Balkans, North Africa, and Asia Minor. In its own way, each chapter considers factors — demographic, geographical, historical, economic, political, institutional, legal, intellectual, theological, cultural, and even biological — that led medieval Jews to conceive of themselves, or to be perceived by others, as bearers of a discrete Jewish regional identity. Notwithstanding the singularity of each chapter, they collectively attest to the inherent dynamism of Jewish regional identities.


2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyson Poska

AbstractFor decades, scholars have emphasized the importance of female chastity in early modern Spanish society. Early modern thinkers enthusiastically promoted the notion in their works, Mediterranean anthropologists formulated a cultural model around female chastity through their studies, and early modern historians followed suit in their examinations of the Catholic Reformation. However, this analysis of recent works on gender and the extensive demographic literature on early modern Spain reveals that there is little evidence that female chastity was a priority for most Spaniards. Instead, demography, economy, class, and the influence of regional cultures may have had more of an impact on the development of sexual mores than any overarching cultural program.


Urban Studies ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (16) ◽  
pp. 3348-3364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen Hirschle ◽  
Tuuli-Marja Kleiner
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Valentina S. Morozova ◽  
◽  

The term “cultural cluster” in recent years has been used extensively in the academic literature in the context of such areas as urban planning, cultural and economic geography, regional development, etc. However, the interdisciplinary aspect has deprived this term’s academic scope of a clear definition. The situation is complicated by the fact that the discussed concept implies an international component; therefore, its interpretation becomes even more specific. To solve this problem, the article presents a comprehensive review of the theoretical concepts of Russian and Chinese scholars. Based on the review, the author made a conclusion about a similar interpretation by Western and Chinese schools of thought of the sociocultural characteristics of a cluster with its sustainable competitive advantages, and also raised the question of the absence of a unified method of their measuring and evaluating. The author’s position is that the border sociocultural cluster is considered as a border formation of units with similar sociocultural characteristics (establishments of science and culture), which, through innovative mechanisms, raise the level of regional competitiveness. Proceeding from the intensification of clustering processes in the Russian-Chinese borderland, the author defines the features of the initial concept using the method of comparative studies, analyzes its specifics, focusing on the cultural and philosophical content (border ontological status, regional culture values, population’s similar ideological attitudes). The author compares Russia’s and China’s border areas clustering processes and determines their features. Thus, the clustering processes in the border areas of Russia and China as an innovative mechanism of the territories’ development are based, firstly, on the existing potential of regional cultures, which allows speaking about the sociocultural basis of this formation. Based on the above, the article substantiates the importance of including the scientific and educational component as a part of the sociocultural in forming the “border sociocultural cluster” concept. In conclusion, the author’s definition of the “border sociocultural cluster” is formulated, which, first of all, rests on cultural-philosophical reflection. Thus, the “border sociocultural cluster” is considered as a specific sociocultural formation, structured by the regional cultures of the border administrative-territorial units, but at the same time conditioned by the existence and functioning in three cultural dimensions – foreign, national and local. In this connection, the author proposes some recommendations for the border cluster policy development with an emphasis on the resources of a regional culture, which will contribute not only to strengthening the Russian cultural presence in the world, but also create favorable conditions for promoting the cultural and spiritual values of our country abroad.


Author(s):  
Rida Fatima Akhtar Shamsheri ◽  
Sana Mukarram ◽  
Shaheryar Naveed ◽  
Aleena Mukarram

Women entrepreneurs’ role is considered crucial for the overall economic development and growth. Entrepreneurship is embedded in the cultural norms and values of the society, and it affects the way individual define their behavior, activities in terms of risk taking proactiveness, the aim of this study is to investigate the influence of the two cultural dimensions of Hofstede’s model i.e., Masculinity and Individualism on the business performance of women entrepreneurs with special reference to small and medium enterprises. The Masculinity side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement while individualism indicates greater importance on attaining personal goals.  The study intends to analyze the relationship of women entrepreneurship with cultural dimensions individualism and Masculinity in Pakistan’s two culturally diversified regions, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad, home to large numbers of women entrepreneurs. To capture the diversity of these regions by using the technique of purposive sampling, a sample of 374 was collected, 51% participants from the capital city and 49 % belonged to GB. The findings indicate that regional cultures within the context of Masculinity and Individualism have significant but antagonistic influences on the business performance of women entrepreneurs.


1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (25) ◽  
pp. 64-76
Author(s):  
Michel Vinaver

Michel Vinaver is a French playwright, born in 1927, who was exiled to the USA during the German occupation, and began to write in the 1950s – alongside a business career until 1982, when he became Professor of Drama Studies in the University of Paris. His complete plays have recently been published in two volumes by Actes Sud, and are widely-produced in France – but in the following article he claims that his few British productions, at the Orange Tree in Richmond and the Traverse in Edinburgh, have often been closer to his textual intentions. This is one of the problems he examines in the following wide-ranging article on the successes and limitations of the French post-war policy of theatrical Decentralization. Against the benefits of financial security and non-metropolitan bias, he weighs the failures to reflect regional cultures, and the cult of the director, with its continuous pressures to be ‘different’ in the interests of promotion and critical prestige. This paper was first presented at a conference at Birmingham University in April 1990. Readers with access to copies of the original Theatre Quarterly may also find it useful to refer to the special issue on People's Theatre in France, TQ23 (1976).


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 243-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lalit Sharma

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of gender and regional cultures on entrepreneurial intentions and perceived barriers to entrepreneurship in two diverse regions of a state. Authors in the past have consistently expressed the need for studies on entrepreneurial intentions that would encompass both the gender and cultural dimensions, as there is a potential interactive effect between sex and culture, which remains largely unstudied despite its potential to provide an explanation for the contradictory findings that have emerged when either sex or culture was studied separately. Design/methodology/approach This is a quantitative study. The primary data were derived from the students of professional courses. The sampling method used was proportionate stratified sampling. The scales used were tested with regard to validity and reliability. The chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test and Mann–Whitney U test were used to draw relationships between the variables. Findings The findings indicated significant gender differences in perceptions of barriers and entrepreneurial intentions among youth. The findings also showed that the barrier perceptions and the entrepreneurial intentions between genders vary with change in culture at the regional level. Originality/value This paper adds to the very limited research available on perceived barriers and entrepreneurial intentions that focuses on the effect of gender from a cross-cultural perspective. This paper further contributes by testing the results in two culturally diverse regions of a single state of India, which has helped us understand the impact of regional cultures while controlling for the effects of the entrepreneurship support systems provided by the governments in different nations.


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