scholarly journals The modern city: A symbolic space of memory and a crucible for multiculturalism?

Literator ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-106
Author(s):  
J. Vlasselaers
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Daily Routines ◽  
Symbolic Space ◽  
Close Analysis

This article highlights some critical remarks concerning the use of the terms multiculturalism and cultural identity in various currents of contemporary discourse. The focus will be on the modern metropolis Brussels which will serve as a case study. Brussels is the capital of Belgium and of the European Union and is one of the most distinctly international and multiethnic cities in Europe. In this multicultural society, characterized by the coexistence of groups with different linguistic and cultural traditions, the phenomenon of multi-sociality, i.e. the fact that individuals simultaneously take part in several social subsystems, may neutralize and even overrule cultural or ethnic differences. When it comes to the access of relatively prominent social positions, social differences appear to be of more importance than cultural or ethnic-cultural differences. The question thus remains how to cope with the notion of cultural identity. Second- and third-generation immigrants raising the issue of cultural identity, generally refer to contrastive markers. Culture is conceived of as a package: the differences are articulated as culture, while what is shared with ‘outsiders’ (especially material culture, science, technology and daily routines) seems to be irrelevant. The city builds a cultural superstructure submitted to an uninterrupted process of change. The ethnic factor is very attractive because people want to experience a community to which they “really” belong and where they can express themselves. The younger generations, however, gradually step out of the strategies of self-protective isolation and advance towards a moderate cultural relativism. In this respect the irrational and affective dimensions of culture, as well as the spatial and social urban fabric, constitute elements of major importance for a close analysis of ethnic-cultural diversity and inequalities.

‘This Islande is Inhabited with all Sortes’: The Archaeology of Creolisation in Speightstown, Barbados, and Beyond, AD 1650–1900

2013 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 319-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Finneran
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
English Culture ◽  
North Western

Studies of creole material cultures in historical archaeological frameworks in the Americas and Caribbean from the sixteenth century onwards emphasise the diversity and dynamism of cultural traits that are rooted in a range of different backgrounds: indigenous, African and European. Using a case study based upon recent historical and multidisciplinary archaeological research in north-western Barbados, this paper seeks to chart the development of a distinct vernacular Barbadian creole material culture over the period 1650–1900. It is argued here that the evolution of a strong and characteristic local cultural identity, as evidenced by recent archaeological research, counters the usual perception, common among historians of the period, that the plantocracy and its associated agents merely sought to reproduce English culture in the tropics. In fact the cultural picture as presented here is far more nuanced, and has implications for wider historical archaeological studies in the region.

Archaeology and Material Culture of Aram and the Arameans

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Bonatz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultivated Land ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Urban Identity ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Political Units ◽  
First Time

At the end of the 2nd millennium bce, the geographical term Aram appears for the first time in the annals of the Middle Assyrian kings and in connection with the ahlammû or ahlammu Arameans (or Aramaeans). At that time, the ahlammu Arameans were considered nomadic tribes who lived in the area between the Khabur and the Middle Euphrates, where they constituted a serious threat to the cultivated land and the Assyrian state. From the 9th century bce on, when the Aramean tribes had already spread to other parts of Syria as far as to Mount Lebanon, it was more common to refer to the “Land of Aram” as the geographic designation for a large area that included several different ethnolinguistic population groups. The term is used by the Assyrians and in the Hebrew Bible, but only very rarely in local Aramaic written sources. Therefore, it is important to stress that Aram was mostly a foreign-constructed term that local dynasts adopted only in a few cases for political or territorial self-expression. Despite the fact that the Aramaic language, which includes several subdialects, gradually developed from the 9th to the 7th century bce, there is no reason to assume an Aramean political or cultural identity for this period. This is confirmed by the material culture, which definitely shows no distinction between territories and states dominated by Aramaic-speaking population groups and others, such as the so-called Luwian states. Hence, the task to review the archaeology and material culture of Aram and the Arameans in this volume has to be cautious about any ethnic ascriptions. In fact, the Aramean states of the first half of the 1st millennium bce, like Bīt Bahiani/Guzana, Huzirina, Bīt Adīni, Bīt Agusi, Sam’al-Ya’udi, Hamat/Lu’aš, and Damascus-Aram, were individually shaped political units with a strong sense of urban identity. They developed and interacted within the larger Syrian koine that emerged based on common cultural traditions and that continuously transformed its image until it was fully integrated into the Neo-Assyrian state. In this context, it is rather illuminating to investigate the cultural layout of a single state in order to depart from the fallacious idea of a conscious Aramean identity.

“I would never wear those old clodhoppers!”: Age differences and used clothing consumption in the Czech Republic

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-193
Author(s):  
Marketa Rulikova
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Socialist Country ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Significant Variable ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Market Society

The article explores secondhand clothing dynamics in the Czech Republic as evidence of the shifting material culture and moral economy in this post-socialist country. Ethnographical investigation indicates that the practices and meanings surrounding the Czech market in used clothing are quite distinct from what has been observed elsewhere in the world of reused clothes. The case study notes a significant contradiction between widespread participation in the shopping for and wearing of secondhand clothing, and concurrent concealment of such practice among Czechs. This seeming contradiction can be largely attributed to the attraction for inexpensive branded clothes, which helps signal an individual’s well-being and search for respect in a newly competitive market society, and the simultaneous association of reuse with the backwardness and consumer poverty associated with the socialist era. The contrast in values and norms surrounding the acceptability of used garment is especially pronounced in different generations. It is argued here that membership in generations should be considered a more significant variable than class or other social attributes in dissecting social differences in transitioning societies.

scholarly journals Interests Under Construction: Views on Migration from the European Union’s Southern External Border

2020 ◽  
pp. 003232172096646
Author(s):  
Mark McAdam ◽  
Laura Otto
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Loss Of Control ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
Small State ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Under Construction ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
Perceived Unfairness

What do people think about unauthorised migrants reaching their shores? This article examines ethnographically what and how Maltese citizens think about recent migrant arrivals from northern Africa. This case study adds to research on public opinion formation in migrant-receiving societies in the European Union, offering perspectives from a small state tasked with enforcing the European Union’s external border in which migration is viewed critically. Embedding our research within constructivist institutionalism – which assumes that self-interest is not pre-determined but rather constructed – we are the first authors to take up Colin Hay’s call for ethnographic analysis in this field. We suggest that criticism of migration to Malta was grounded in fears and beliefs associated with unorderliness of migration management, perceived unfairness of EU requirements, uncertainty of the future, and a loss of control of being able to determine one’s own cultural identity.

scholarly journals The uniformity concept of urban design: impact of cultural traditions on the meaning of Balinese town

2021 ◽  
Vol 907 (1) ◽  
pp. 012017
Author(s):  
E D Mahira ◽  
B Soemardiono ◽  
E B Santoso
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
The Public ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Religious Systems

Abstract This study considers the conceptions of religion, tradition, and culture in the urban design process, to produce designs that become the identity of cities in Bali. A socio-semiotic approach is used to explore popular accounts of the conceptions of tradition operating in urban spatial arrangements from historical to contemporary periods. The case study in Gianyar City explores the meaning of urban space based on local wisdom that is still believed by Balinese people. Such exploration provides a basis for reconnecting urban designs with their cultural contexts, thereby promoting spatially expressed localism. Especially for Gianyar City, respect for religious systems, beliefs, and religions that have developed and are highly trusted by the public is expressed in symbolic elements that are embodied in the composition of space, and in fact, give rise to the concept of uniformity. This condition resulted in not achieving a more prominent urban cultural identity and being further damaged by the highly standardized process in the Indonesian planning system. However, the principles of religion and culture that are still alive make Balinese architecture alive, despite changing values, whether we realize it or not.

Determinants and barriers of PV self-consumption in Spain from the perception of the installers for the promotion of distributed energy systems

2020 ◽  
pp. 153-169
Author(s):  
José Ángel Gimeno ◽  
Eva Llera Sastresa ◽  
Sabina Scarpellini
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Distributed Energy ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Transition Scenario

Currently, self-consumption and distributed energy facilities are considered as viable and sustainable solutions in the energy transition scenario within the European Union. In a low carbon society, the exploitation of renewables for self-consumption is closely tied to the energy market at the territorial level, in search of a compromise between competitiveness and the sustainable exploitation of resources. Investments in these facilities are highly sensitive to the existence of favourable conditions at the territorial level, and the energy policies adopted in the European Union have contributed positively to the distributed renewables development and the reduction of their costs in the last decade. However, the number of the installed facilities is uneven in the European Countries and those factors that are more determinant for the investments in self-consumption are still under investigation. In this scenario, this paper presents the main results obtained through the analysis of the determinants in self-consumption investments from a case study in Spain, where the penetration of this type of facilities is being less relevant than in other countries. As a novelty of this study, the main influential drivers and barriers in self-consumption are classified and analysed from the installers' perspective. On the basis of the information obtained from the installers involved in the installation of these facilities, incentives and barriers are analysed within the existing legal framework and the potential specific lines of the promotion for the effective deployment of self-consumption in an energy transition scenario.

scholarly journals Whose Landscape Is It? Remapping Memory and History in Interwar Central Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Nóra Veszprémi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Mental Maps ◽  
Habsburg Empire ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Place Memory ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract After the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the sanctioning of new national borders in 1920, the successor states faced the controversial task of reconceptualizing the idea of national territory. Images of historically significant landscapes played a crucial role in this process. Employing the concept of mental maps, this article explores how such images shaped the connections between place, memory, and landscape in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Hungarian revisionist publications demonstrate how Hungarian nationalists visualized the organic integrity of “Greater Hungary,” while also implicitly adapting historical memory to the new geopolitical situation. As a counterpoint, images of the Váh region produced in interwar Czechoslovakia reveal how an opposing political agenda gave rise to a different imagery, while drawing on shared cultural traditions from the imperial past. Finally, the case study of Dévény/Devín/Theben shows how the idea of being positioned “between East and West” lived on in overlapping but politically opposed mental maps in the interwar period. By examining the cracks and continuities in the picturesque landscape tradition after 1918, the article offers new insight into the similarities and differences of nation-building processes from the perspective of visual culture.

scholarly journals Operational and Safety Management at Intersections: Can the Turbo-Roundabout Be an Effective Alternative to Conventional Solutions?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5103
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Gallelli ◽  
Giusi Perri ◽  
Rosolino Vaiana
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Safety Management ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Pollutant Emission ◽  
Emission Rates ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Policy ◽  
Union Policy

The European Union policy strategies on the sustainability of the transport system pursue the goals of maximizing safety and environmental benefits and reducing the severity and frequency of crashes, congestion, and pollutant emission rates. A common issue is the planning of the most effective solution for operational and safety management at intersections. In this study, an egg turbo roundabout is proposed as the alternative solution to a conventional roundabout in Southern Italy which suffers from traffic congestion. A comparative analysis is carried out using microsimulation techniques to investigate the safety effects and operational improvements of converting a traditional priority intersection into standard roundabout or turbo roundabout layout. In particular, the VISSIM software is used to explore the most relevant operational performance measures: queue length, travel times and delays. The lowest values of these measurements are recorded for the simulated turbo roundabout, thus making this scheme more appropriate in terms of operational performances. With regard to safety analysis, the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) is used to collect information on the predicted number of conflicts, the probability, and severity of the potential collisions. The results suggest that, for the specific case study, the safety levels of the standard roundabout and the turbo roundabout are approximately comparable.

scholarly journals Decision-Making Processes in Controlling Exposure to Sunlight Supported by Simulation Tools: A Case Study in Warm Weather

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4100
Author(s):  
Mariana Huskinson ◽  
Antonio Galiano-Garrigós ◽  
Ángel Benigno González-Avilés ◽  
M. Isabel Pérez-Millán
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Information Modeling ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Evaluation Tool ◽  
Simulation Tools ◽  
Building Information ◽  
The Impact

Improving the energy performance of existing buildings is one of the main strategies defined by the European Union to reduce global energy costs. Amongst the actions to be carried out in buildings to achieve this objective is working with passive measures adapted to each type of climate. To assist designers in the process of finding appropriate solutions for each building and location, different tools have been developed and since the implementation of building information modeling (BIM), it has been possible to perform an analysis of a building’s life cycle from an energy perspective and other types of analysis such as a comfort analysis. In the case of Spain, the first BIM environment tool has been implemented that deals with the global analysis of a building’s behavior and serves as an alternative to previous methods characterized by their lack of both flexibility and information offered to designers. This paper evaluates and compares the official Spanish energy performance evaluation tool (Cypetherm) released in 2018 using a case study involving the installation of sunlight control devices as part of a building refurbishment. It is intended to determine how databases and simplifications affect the designer’s decision-making. Additionally, the yielded energy results are complemented by a comfort analysis to explore the impact of these improvements from a users’ wellbeing viewpoint. At the end of the process the yielded results still confirm that the simulation remains far from reality and that simulation tools can indeed influence the decision-making process.

Culture, Identity and Actor Training: Indigeneity in New Zealand's National Drama School

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
PETER ZAZZALI
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Actor Training ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Fulbright Scholar ◽  
Ethnographic Methodology

How can indigeneity be understood through training actors in a colonial context? Do ‘Western’ acting schools misrepresent and exploit indigenous practices and cultural traditions towards reinforcing the settler state? Or does a given school's integration of such praxis and customs demonstrate inclusivity, equity and progressivism? At what point does incorporating indigeneity in actor training become a tokenistic appropriation of marginalized cultures? Drawn from fieldwork as a 2019 Fulbright scholar at Toi Whakaari, New Zealand's National Drama School, I intersect training with culture and society. Using the Acting Program as a case study, I deploy an ethnographic methodology to address the aforementioned questions by investigating Toi Whakaari's bicultural pedagogy while positioning it as a reflection of New Zealand's national identity. I especially explore the school's implementation of Tikanga Māori, the practices and beliefs of the country's indigenous peoples. I argue that while some questions remain, Toi Whakaari integrates Māori forms in a manner that is culturally responsible and pedagogically effective, thereby providing a model from which other drama schools can learn.

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