Intra-cultural and Inter-cultural Contact Orientation of International Students in Japan: Uncertainty Management by Cultural Identification

The lack of exchange between international students and host nationals in Japan has long been a pressing issue, yet very little progress has been made to rectify this situation. This study examined this issue by focusing on how international students in Japan perceive intercultural contact with their host and home culture members during their sojourn. The study applied a qualitative approach based on grounded theory, collecting data through semi-structured interviews with 41 international students from China, the UK, and the USA, and tenets of Social Identity Theory and Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory were adopted. We analyzed the data on a framework of how international students manage uncertainty in the Japanese environment by identifying with the host and their own home cultures, which we distinguished as inter-cultural or intra-cultural contact orientation. International students demonstrated an intra-cultural rather than inter-cultural contact orientation due to the host nationals reacting to them as “foreigners.”

Modern aspects of the culturally related process of teaching and education at the university in the context of the socio-cognitive approach

В статье представлены аргументы важнейшей концептуальной позиции социо-когнитивного подхода, которая основа на представлениях о том, что в культуросообразном процессе обучения и воспитания современный человек, сохраняя свою культурную идентичность, имеет и развитые качества адаптивности к самореализации в глобальном мире. Описана и прокомментирована матрица, отражающая особенности освоения ценностей в современном поликультурном пространстве. Определены наиболее значимые аспекты культуросообразного процесса обучения и воспитания в университете, включая формирование комплекса внешних и внутренних условий, определяющих естественную позитивную культурную идентификацию студентов, культуросообразное воспитание студентов, выстраивание структуры образовательного процесса с опорой на поддержку в студентах мотивированного включенного познания, моделирование корпоративной академической культуры и профессионального поведения, расширение гуманитарного ядра содержания образования. The article presents the arguments of the most important conceptual position of the socio-cognitive approach, which is based on the idea that in a culturally consistent process of education and teaching, a modern person, while maintaining cultural identity, also has developed qualities of adaptability to self-realization in the global world. Described and commented on the matrix of mastering the totality of values in the modern multicultural space. The most significant aspects of the culturally related process of teaching and education at the university have been identified, including the complex of external and internal conditions development that determine the natural positive cultural identification of students, culturally related education of students, building the structure of the educational process based on support in students of motivated included cognition, modeling corporate academic culture and professional behavior, expanding the humanitarian core of the content of education.

Advertising Review: The Portrayal of Muslim Women Athletes in YouTube Ads

Promoting wearing of the hijab by active young consumers is one method of showing respect for the human rights of Muslim women. Some international sportswear corporations such as Nike, Adidas, Under Armour UA, and Haute Hijab HH have been targeting modest athletic wear as new clothing lines to empower veiled athletes and increase their consumer base. This study analyzed four international sports brands’ advertisements on their official YouTube channels aimed at promoting modest sportswear for veiled women. The study investigated the discourse and semiotics used in the advertisements to persuade customers to make a purchase. Methodologically, the study conducted qualitative content analysis to review the ads and explore the extent of viewers’ interactions. The findings determined that the Nike and HH ads were most reached ads, followed by the UA ad, while the Adidas ad was the least reached. Two strategies played a significant role in the success of hijab sportswear ads: cultural identification and transformational appeal. These factors were found to attract the target audience and result in their engagement more than a company’s history and reputation.

Vietnamese migrants are as tall as they want to be

Background Members of the same social group tent to have the same body height. Migrants tend to adjust in height to their host communities. Objectives Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) factors influence growth. We hypothesized that Vietnamese young adult migrants in Germany (1) are taller than their parents, (2) are as tall as their German peers, and (3) are as tall as predicted by height expectation at age 13 years. Sample and Methods The study was conducted in 30 male and 54 female Vietnamese migrants (mean age 26.23 years. SD=4.96) in Germany in 2020. Information on age, sex, body height, school and education, job, height and ethnicity of best friend, migration history and cultural identification, parental height and education, and recalled information on their personal height expectations at age 13 years were obtained by questionnaire. The data were analyzed by St. Nicolas House Analysis (SNHA) and multiple regression. Results Vietnamese young adults are taller than their parents (females 3.85cm, males 7.44cm), but do not fully attain height of their German peers. The body height is positively associated with the height of best friend (p < 0.001), the height expectation at age 13 year (p < 0.001), and father height (p=0.001). Conclusion Body height of Vietnamese migrants in Germany reflects competitive growth and strategic growth adjustments. The magnitude of this intergenerational trend supports the concept that human growth depends on Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) factors.

MIKHAIL FREIDENBERG AND HIS FAMILY: THE ODESSA TRACE IN RUSSIAN CULTURE

Research traditions that have developed in relation to certain cultural phenomena are often limited by the framework of national cultures, the specifics of the studied personality and its creative activity. At the same time, the cultural and social demands underlying these studies do not actually imply the conversion of the identified cultural values from one national (cultural) tradition to another. Thus, it is unlikely that representatives of border territories, as well as territories that had actual ex-territoriality and freedom to choose cultural identification, can give in to an unambiguous definition of cultural identity. Odessa was good example of it. Here the marginality of the frontier cultural zone created its own unique cultural topos, with its “mixed” identity, for which the territorial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic boundaries were not absolute, were mobile, created conditions for the formation of seemingly contradictory ideas about the “eastern West”, about “imperial Jewishness”, “Jewish Russianity”, etc. For the Jewish citizen of Odessa, the national (Jewish) or imperial (Russian) component played a great role. The internal contradictions that exist in these identification models were either resolved in favor of one of the models, or removed due to the local identification model provided by the immediate environment, which we called the environment. In this article, we would like to show this environmental influence through the personality of Mikhail Filippovich Freidenberg, who is known to historians of science and technology as an inventor, but little known to literary historician (mainly as the father of Olga Mikhailovna Freidenberg and the uncle of Boris Leonidovich Pasternak). In our opinion, the description of the artistic and journalistic, as well as satirical works of Mikhail Freidenberg deserves attention. With his name, the intellectual environment of Odessa at the end of the XIX century takes on a holistic appearance, at the same time exposing the problem of “intellectual crowding” of the imperial province. The phenomenon of the environment is conceptualized by the example of the family of Mikhail Freidenberg and relations with relatives, as well as by describing the influence of this environment on Russian culture in the late XIX – first half of the XX century through the formation of the personalities of Olga Freidenberg and Boris Pasternak. It is important to overcome disciplinary boundaries and show how the environment promotes the realization of creative opportunities and how it sets these opportunities. We do it based on the available biographical data, memoirs, diaries and other documents.

Negotiating Cultural Identity in The Inheritance of Loss

This paper seeks to explore three modes of cultural identification presented in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. With three intersecting plotlines, the novel focuses on three divergent modes of cultural identification in different spatio-temporal contexts. The first kind of cultural identification is imbued with a sense of foreignness, exemplified by the judge, Jemubhai, whose cultural identity is deeply shaped by imperialist ideology during British colonization of India. As Indian culture is negated by the colonial power, Jemubhai adheres to English cultural identification and disavows his Indianness. The second mode of cultural identification revolves around the issue of cultural authenticity in the diasporic context for Biju, a young migrant, illegal worker in various restaurants in New York. To survive in a foreign country, Biju forces himself to transgress cultural borders, which disconcerts Biju and further prompts him to pursue cultural authenticity. The third mode highlights Sai’s and Gyan’s trajectories of cultural identification. Just as Sai, Jemubhai’s granddaughter, embodies the idea of in-betweenness, Gyan, Sai’s math tutor, manifests the desire to escape narrow nationalism. Both Sai and Gyan evoke the potential of crossing borders. Juxtaposing the three modes of cultural identification, Desai’s novel explores the process of negotiating cultural identity and gestures towards a field of border-crossing identity.

N.I. KAREEV: INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIPS AND MEETINGS AS A FORM OF SCIENTIFIC DIALOGUE

Показано, как Н.И. Кареев, петербургский историк, философ истории, позитивист, социолог рубежа XIX-XX вв., воспринимал и оценивал «встречу» разных культур во время своих заграничных научных командировок и частных поездок и как использовал этот потенциал в своих исследованиях. Встречи за границей для Кареева становились формой научного диалога, важного в перспективе международной исследовательской деятельности. Пространство заграничных общений осознавалось им многообразно: как культурная идентификация, совместная рефлексия над проблемой (М.М. Ковалевский), сравнение концепций (П.А. Кропоткин, А. Олар), встреча сознаний познающих субъектов (Н.-Д. Фюстель де Куланж), поиск новых методологических приемов (Ш.-В. Лангуа, Ш. Сеньобос). It is shown how N.I. Kareev, a St. Petersburg historian, philosopher of history, positivist, sociologist of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, perceived and evaluated the «meeting» of different cultures during his foreign scientific trips and private trips, and how he used this potential in his research. For Kareev, meetings abroad became a form of scientific dialogue, important events in the perspective of international research activities. The space of foreign communication was realized by him in many ways: as a cultural identification, a joint reflection on the problem (M.M. Kovalevsky), a comparison of concepts (P.A. Kropotkin, A. Olar), the meeting of the consciousness of cognizing subjects (N.-D. Fustel de Coulange), the search for new methodological techniques (S.-V. Langois, S. Senobos).

Criticism of the War on Terror

The war against terror in the mainstream of approaches and strategies is very stigmatizing towards certain cultures and results in unclear targets. The controversy over the U.S. attack on Iraq during the presidency of G W Bush Jr. was related to the issue of international legitimacy and the mainstream conceptions of terror and terrorism, with their derivative products in the approach and strategy of the war on terror. This research presents critical views from the international community on the conception of terror and terrorism and highlights the policy of the fight against terror. This research is qualitative research, with literature review and analysis method in the form of meta-analysis. The findings of this research are that many experts in the international community criticize the conceptions of terror and terrorism and propose other approaches that are considered fair and reasonable. That approach is cultural identification regarding acts of terror (the act of terror) whose emergence factors are stratified and the scope of ethnicity, nation-state, and the dominance of the giant business sector. This alternative approach can be a more just way of handling terror acts and solid moral, legal, and political basis.

ETHNIC PLURALISM, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND INTEGRATION POLICY IN POST CONFLICT RWANDA

Like every war ravaged country, the Republic of Rwanda is reawakening to grapple with the challenges of post-conflict reintegration and transformation. To scholars and observers of the trend, Rwanda is recuperating at a very high speed due to socio-economic reforms and the apparent commitment of the Government of the country to rebuild a new Rwanda from the rubbles of the devastation that greeted the 1994 genocide. Expectedly, the Rwandan government generated laws and codes which govern social interaction – former ‘enemies’ that must co-habit. There is public ban on all divisionism tendencies. In Rwanda there should be no ‘Hutu’, ‘Tutsi’ or ‘Twa’. All are Rwandans. Indeed, there are sanctions against defaulters irrespective of their nationalities. The drive for identity reconstruction is fierce and the government of Rwanda is determined to obliterate the ethnic ideologies which it believes, reinforced the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. However, the questions to ask are: will suppression of ethnic identity effectively obliterate natural affinity for group relations and the right to cultural identification and association? How does the government policy against sectarianism help in the reintegration programmes in Rwanda particularly the traditional judicial option called the Gacaca? This paper seeks to address these questions based on the data collected from a field-work conducted in Rwanda in 2011 and from the observations of scholars of ethnicity and the Rwandan Crisis.

LE NOM COMME SOURCE D’ORDRE ET DE DESORDRE CHEZ L’INDIVIDU EN MILIEU MAXI DU BENIN / NAME AS A SOURCE OF ORDER AND DISORDER OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN MAXI ENVIRONMENT OF BENIN

La question de l’anthroponymie peut être appréhendée comme une préoccupation à caractère multidimensionnelle puisque le nom individuel est un instrument d’identification et d’intégration sociale et culturelle. Malheureusement, on constate de nos jours que les noms de personne chez les Maxi, véritables héritages culturels, porteurs de sens et de signification sont en voie de disparition. D’où cette réflexion ayant pour objectif de contribuer à une analyse du système de dation de nom en milieu maxi du Bénin. De nature qualitative, la production des données s’est basée sur un échantillon de quatre-vingt (80) acteurs sociaux. L’échantillon est identifié à partir des techniques d’échantillonnage par saturation (Deslauriers, 1991) et celle du choix raisonné. Les données ont été collectées à l’aide de deux outils à savoir l’entretien (guide d’entretien et récit de vie) et l’étude documentaire. Les données empiriques dépouillées et traitées ont été analysées suivant l’individualisme méthodologique de Raymond Boudon (1992). Le corpus théorique révèle que le nom peut avoir une influence sur l’individu qui le porte selon qu’il ait une connotation antipathique ou sympathique. The question of anthroponymy can be understood as a multidimensional concern since the individual name is an instrument of social and cultural identification and integration. Unfortunately, we see nowadays that the names of people among the Maxi, true cultural heritages, carriers of meaning and significance are in the process of disappearing. Hence this reflection aimed at contributing to an analysis of the naming system in the maxi environment of Benin. Qualitative in nature, the production of data was based on a sample of eighty (80) social actors. The sample is identified using saturation sampling techniques (Deslauriers, 1991) and reasoned choice. The data was collected using two tools, namely the interview (interview guide and life story) and the documentary study. The empirical data analyzed and processed were analyzed according to the methodological individualism of Raymond Boudon (1992). The theoretical corpus reveals that the name can have an influence on the individual who wears it depending on whether it has an unpleasant or sympathetic connotation. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0922/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>