Research on the Participation of Chinese Sports Cultural Elite in Ice and Snow Sports

Governments have a responsibility to provide equal opportunities for sport and physical activity to all people of population. Chinese governments have issued many policies, such as “exhibition in the south, expansion in the West and East” of ice and snow sports to promote and stimulate the participation of the broad masses of the people. As a high-cost sport, the participants of ice and snow sports are usually socially elite groups. This study investigated the participation of cultural elite groups in ice and snow sports and investigated the social mobilization effect of ice and snow sports participation promotion policies by using binary regression and sequential regression models. The research shows that there are two different stages of one-time and continuous participation in the development of ice and snow sports in China. The one-time participation of ordinary people in ice and snow sports is mainly in response to the social mobilization of government policies. At the same time, it is positively correlated with site restrictions and knowledge of ice and snow sports. In the continuous participation group, gender, income, perception of ice and snow culture, and convenience near the site were highly positively correlated with consumption level. According to the results, low- and middle income people are less likely to participate in these activities because of their income. Therefore, this policy can increase inequalities.

The Art of Bracketing Empire Out and Creating Parallel Worlds: The Case of Late Persian Yehud

The goal of this article is to draw attention to a seemingly strange, generative pattern that, at times and under certain conditions, has shaped socially shared worlds of imagination among subordinate groups within imperial or hierarchically asymmetric structures of power, especially among “retainer” groups who saw themselves as a “cultural elite” of the subordinate group. I am referring to a generative pattern that in a significant number of such groups, across time and space, has led to constructions of worlds of imagination, and vicarious participation in them through readings or other social acts of imagination that involved “bracketing the empire out.” The article focuses on the world of the literati of late Persian Yehud/Judah, and especially the bracketing out of Ramat Rahel, the most obvious and monumental, explicit, imperial site in the province, but a number of various examples from diverse historical and geographical contexts are also brought to bear to make a point that this is a well-instantiated pattern. The article then concludes with a discussion of what was often gained by acts of imagination and memory involved in bracketing out “empire” and under which circumstances such acts tended to be historically likely.

Gendered Norms and Family Roles in the Narratives of Hungarian Elite Members and Their Partners

Our paper contributes to studies on the enduring underrepresentation of women in elite positions through the analysis of elite members’ and their partners’ narratives on career and partnership. Using a dataset of 34 individual interviews (17 couples) among Hungary’s political, economic, and cultural elite, we explore how narrators project themselves in the context of their marital relationships and family roles. We identify three pairs of narratives during our analysis. Narratives show the positions from where narrators discuss the theme of career and partnership as elite member/partner, power couple/non-power couple, and male/female. Our findings show that narrative positioning is significantly gendered, and it is strongly connected to the traditional gendered role system. Having an elite position or pursuing a career calls for explanation only from women. In the meantime, a non-power couple position calls for explanation from men, which suggests the increasing presence of the norm of equality in the Hungarian elite.

Cultural citizenship without state: historical roots of the modern polish citizenship model

Citizenship is usually seen as a product of modern nation-states, or of other political entities which possess institutional infrastructures and political systems capable of producing a coherent framework that defines the relationship between that system and its members. In this paper, we show that an early system of modern citizenship was created in the absence of a formal state, notably by the cultural elite of a stateless nation. The Polish case illustrates that an elite may become a dominant class in the given society only later, and institutionalize that early citizenship system within the framework of a newly founded state. As a result of the legacy of the emergence of citizenship predating the restoration of statehood, the contemporary Polish citizenship model is influenced by a strong and largely overlooked cultural component that emerged at the turn of the 19th century. This model uses the figure of the intelligentsia member as its ideal citizen. Despite the dramatic political and economic changes in the decades which have passed since its emergence, this cultural frame, which was institutionalized during the interwar period, still defines the key features of the Polish citizenship model. Consequently, we argue that the culturalization of citizenship is hardly a new phenomenon. It can be seen as a primary mechanism in the formation of civic polities within the imperial context. Moreover, it shows that such processes can have many ambiguous aspects as far as their Orientalizing forces of exclusion are concerned.

The Magazine “Zolotoe runo” (1906–1909) as a Reflection of the Artistic Life of Russia at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Purpose. The article studies the history of the magazine “Zolotoe runo” (“Golden Fleece”) that has been publishing in Moscow from 1906 till 1909. It was a project of the young art lover, millionaire N. P. Ryabushinsky, who decided to continue the mission of “miriskusniki” (members of the “World of Art” movement) and promote the aesthetic principles of symbolism, which he saw as the most promising style of art at the beginning of the 20th century.Results. Based on the analysis of the memoirs written by contemporaries, correspondence between the representatives of the Russian cultural elite, publications in the periodical press, as well as outcomes of modern research, the author argues that the magazine “Zolotoe runo”, providing its pages to outstanding writers and publishing works of iconic artists and articles about their works, became one of the most influential periodicals about art in Russia.Conclusion. This research shows that, having said a new word in art and journalism, the magazine “Zolotoe runo” became a worthy reflection of the artistic life of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.

ENTRE O “POVO” E A “ELITE”: CULTURA POPULAR E APROPRIAÇÃO DIFERENCIAL À LUZ DA PRÁTICA DO FOLCLORE “ALEMÃO” NO BRASILBETWEEN THE “PEOPLE” AND THE “ELITE”: POPULAR CULTURE AND DIFFERENTIAL APPROPRIATION IN THE LIGHT OF THE PRACTICE OF “GERMAN” FOLKLORE IN BRAZIL

No Brasil, verifica-se a existência de uma elite cultural responsável pela promoção e legitimação do folclore “alemão” autêntico. Tal constatação traz interessantes implicações, que podem ser sintetizadas no seguinte questionamento: “como uma prática cultural de origem popular pode depender de uma elite?”. À luz do aporte teórico- -metodológico da sociologia da cultura e das elites, o artigo propõe uma reflexão e um tensionamento acerca das fronteiras classicamente estabelecidas entre os domínios da cultura erudita e da cultura popular, tomando por base o caso do folclore “alemão” praticado no Brasil. Defende-se a pertinência da noção de “apropriação diferencial” para a análise da cultura popular (de modo geral) e do folclore “alemão” (de modo particular), conceito que possibilita a compreensão das múltiplas circulações, intersecções e apropriações de bens simbólicos entre os domínios do “popular” e do “erudito”, do “povo” e das “elites”, processos característicos e constitutivos dos produtos simbólicos de matriz popular.ABSTRACT In Brazil, it may be verified the existence of a cultural elite responsible for promoting and legitimating authentic “German” folklore. This finding has interesting implications, which can be synthesized in the following question: “How can a cultural practice of popular origin depend on an elite?”. In the light of the theoretical and methodological perspective of the sociology of culture and elites, the article proposes a reflection and problematization on the classically established boundaries between the domains of erudite culture and popular culture, based on the case of “German” folklore practiced in Brazil. I argue in favor of the relevance of the notion of “differential appropriation” for the analysis of popular culture (in general) and “German” folklore (in particular), a concept that allows the comprehension of the multiple circulations, intersections and appropriations of symbolic goods among the domains of “popular” and “erudite”, of the “people” and the “elites”, characteristic and constitutive processes of the symbolic products of popular origin.

“SEMIOTICS OF DISTINCTION”: THE ANALYSIS OF FASHION DISCOURSE IN THE “KOMMERSANT” NEWSPAPER (CASE STUDY, TEXTS PUBLISHED IN 2009)

The article analyzes the reviews of female and male fashion collections published in the “Style” supplement of the “Kommersant” newspaper during the year 2009. The “Kommersant”, the leading quality publication in Russia in the 2000s, positioned itself as a media for the financial, political and cultural elite of the country, and thus presented a case extremely interesting for discourse analysis. Namely, the world financial crisis of 2008 turned out to be a threat situation to the status quo of the elites of the moment. The situation required articulation of the belonging to the group (elite), more intense than before the crisis. I examined how the system of status markers – the discursive “semiotics of distinction” proposed to the target audience as a strategy for group identification – was constructed in the “Kommersant. Style”: the “consumption of restraint” as a metaphor for “resilience” in the face of the crisis becomes the leading recommendation of the discourse. Putting the results into the context of the 2010s, it can be realized that the idea of “restraint” in consumer behavior transcends the elitist discourse and is popularized in the field of mainstream publications.

Becoming an Activist: Ruth Harrison’s Turn to Animal Welfare

This chapter focuses on Harrison’s life prior to writing Animal Machines. Together with her siblings, Harrison was brought up in close contact to Britain’s cultural elite. After attending schools in London, Harrison commenced her university studies in 1939. The outbreak of war had a transformative impact on her life. Harrison was evacuated to Cambridge where she likely came into contact with ethologist William Homan Thorpe. She converted to Quakerism and subsequently enrolled in the Friends’ Ambulance Unit. The Quaker principles of non-violence, humanitarianism, and bearing witness to injustice would serve as important reference points throughout Harrison’s campaigning. After the war, she completed her studies in the dramatic arts but abandoned a potential career as a theatre producer. In 1954, she married architect Dexter Harrison. Similar to many Quakers, Harrison’s humanitarian concerns motivated her to become involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and protest perceived technological, moral, and environmental threats to society.

Catalonia and Regional Self-Government in the First Quarter of the 20th Century

The Mancomunitat represents the first experience of self-government in Catalonia in the 20th century. This idea began to form among Catalan intellectuals in the second half of the 19th century, when the interests of the local bourgeoisie and the cultural elite of the region unexpectedly coincided in connection with the need to defend their interests before the central authorities. The Mancomunitat emerged at a time when the political system of the restoration was in crisis as the main monarchist parties were ousted from the political life of the region by Catalanists and Republicans. In these conditions, the Spanish government preferred to satisfy the demands of the nationalists, since they were a more conservative force and did not pretend to change the political system of Spain. As a result, the Catalan provinces were able to create the Mancomunitat, which allowed them to coordinate efforts to deal with administrative issues.