scholarly journals Bridging the ‘Two Cultures’ of Research and Service: Can Complexity Theory Help? Comment on "Experience of Health Leadership in Partnering With University-Based Researchers in Canada – A Call to ‘Re-imagine’ Research"

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trisha Greenhalgh

This commentary addresses Bowen et al’s empirical study of perspectives of Canadian healthcare staff towards research and their call for multi-faceted action to improve misalignments in the system. This commentary argues that tensions and misalignments between research and service are inherent and can never be eradicated. Building on previous work by Lanham et al, I propose seven principles of complexity which may help to develop system capacities that will help bridge the research-service gap: acknowledge unpredictability, recognise selforganisation, facilitate interdependencies, encourage sensemaking, attend to human relationships, develop adaptive capabilities in staff, and harness conflict productively.

Author(s):  
Ruthellen Josselson

This is a story of the decade-long collision of cultures as the American author teaches group therapy in China. The basic assumptions of the two cultures become visible when clashes in understanding human experience and human relationships become the focus of attention. The author learned about the need for cultural humility in trying to narrate both her own experience and the experiences of her students. The author examines deep psychological encounters between people with radically different worldviews. In China, many people thought of her as “a Good Witch” and a magical being because her approach to therapy was profoundly healing for many. Her efforts to teach her theories and techniques, not at all magical to her, revealed cultural differences both subtle and pervasive. The author discusses what it means to deeply encounter people of a different culture, what it taught her about herself and her Western mind—and also what is universally human. In closely observed, sometimes momentary, interpersonal exchanges, culture emerges from the shadows. Because psychotherapy is such an intricately relational process, it reveals taken-for-granted ways of being in the world. Only in narrative can these processes be illuminated, and this book details the micro-level of encounters with the “Other.” The author invites readers to learn from the challenges she experienced as people from different cultures try to make sense of one another. The author compares her experience with existing scholarship on East/West differences in cognition and social organization and argues that the hegemonic individualistic/collectivistic distinction is not useful.


Author(s):  
Anupriya Ankolekar ◽  
Markus Krozsch ◽  
Denny Vrandecic

2021 ◽  
pp. 097133362199045
Author(s):  
Dharm P. S. Bhawuk

Employing one of the established theories from cross-cultural psychology and sociology, first it is shown that both China and India are collectivist cultures. Then the Chinese and Indian worldviews are compared to highlight fundamental similarities between the two cultures. Finally, it is shown how self-cultivation is emphasised in both China and India. Effort is made to show how ideas presented by Confucius and Lao Tsu are captured in the Indian culture and social behaviours. A number of issues are raised for the development of indigenous knowledge from multiple perspectives using various paradigms and methodology. It is hoped that the special issue and this article will stimulate researchers to bridge Chinese and Indian psychologies which may pave the path towards peaceful prosperity.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 478
Author(s):  
Verónica Roldán

The present study on the religious experience of the Peruvian community in Rome belongs to the area of studies on immigration, multiculturalism, and religion in Italy. In this article, I analyze the devotion of the Peruvian community in Rome to “the Lord of Miracles”. This pious tradition, which venerates the image of Christ crucified—painted by an Angolan slave—began in 1651 in Lima, during the Viceroyalty of Peru. Today, the sacred image is venerated in countries all over the world that host Peruvian immigrant communities that have set up branches of the Confraternity of the Lord of Miracles. I examine, in particular, the cult of el Señor de los Milagros in Rome in terms of Peruvian popular religiosity and national identity experienced within a transnational context. This essay serves two purposes: The first is to analyze the significance that this religious experience acquires in a foreign environment while maintaining links with its country of origin and its cultural traditions in a multilocal environment. The second aim is to examine the integration of the Peruvian community into Italian society, beginning with religious practice, in this case Roman Catholicism. This kind of religiosity seems not only to favor the encounter between the two cultures but also to render Italian Roman Catholicism multicultural.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunwoo Yoon ◽  
Patrick T. Vargas

In the present research we argue that avatars, as identity containers, can mirror people’s self-concepts. Research in cultural psychology suggests that East Asians tend to be more tolerant of contradictions and that they more easily adjust their self-concepts in accordance with changing contexts compared to North Americans (see Heine 2001). We therefore assume that preferred forms of avatars among East Asians and North Americans are different because of this self-concept variability across cultures. We conducted a quasi-experiment to explore how people in the two cultures differently evaluate two forms of avatars, human-like and cartoon-like avatars, in terms of likeability and preference. We found that East Asians rated cartoon-like avatars more favourably than North Americans. Moreover, compared to North Americans, East Asians preferred cartoon-like avatars to human-like avatars for their hypothetical avatars to play games. We conclude by discussing implications for future research.


2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Cui ◽  
Ilan Vertinsky ◽  
Sandra Robinson ◽  
Oana Branzei

Extending the literature on social capital development in the community, this article examines the impact of diverse social interactions (in the community and the workplace) on the development of social trust in the workplace, and investigates whether their effects differ in individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Using survey data collected in Canada and China, the authors find that the diversity of one’s social interactions in the community is positively associated with one’s social trust in the workplace, and this relationship is not significantly different between the two cultures. Diversity of one’s social interactions in the workplace is also positively associated with one’s social trust in the workplace, though only in collectivistic cultures.


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