Ralf W. Wilhelms, Mohammed K. Shaki and Cheng‐Fu Hsiao
The purpose of this paper is to provide a new perspective on existing definitions of culture and systems for classifying cultures, leading to a standardized model for describing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a new perspective on existing definitions of culture and systems for classifying cultures, leading to a standardized model for describing and categorizing cultures.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of the literature on definitions of culture and systems for classifying cultures is presented; a model for standardization of these definitions and systems is proposed, illustrated, and described; the potential benefits to cultural researchers of a comprehensive, standardized model are presented.
Findings
There is a need for a comprehensive, standardized model for definition and classification of cultures; creation of such a model is possible by combining elements from existing, segmented definitions and classification systems.
Research limitations/implications
A standardized classification model is offered as a basis for cultural research, subject to adoption and validation by researchers worldwide.
Practical implications
If the proposed standardized model is adopted and validated by researchers worldwide, study findings will be communicated more clearly and more widely, and the quality and global application value of cultural research will be enhanced.
Originality/value
A review of the literature reveals segmented studies on cultures but no generally accepted model for looking at the “big picture” of human cultures, their evolution and interactions; the proposed model offers a framework for such a perspective.
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Karin Amos, Lúcia Bruno and Marcelo Parreira do Amaral
For the longest period of its history, the university was the guardian and transmitter – not the producer – of knowledge. This relatively recent change of transmitting canonical…
Abstract
For the longest period of its history, the university was the guardian and transmitter – not the producer – of knowledge. This relatively recent change of transmitting canonical knowledge and generating new knowledge is normally associated with Wilhelm von Humboldt. Other highly influential university models were provided by France and Great Britain. The association of certain types of universities with particular countries is a strong indicator of the intricate link between nation-state and education. Hence, the history of tertiary education and its elite institutions, the research universities, must be considered in relation with a sea change in educational history – the gradual emergence of national education systems. Only under the conditions of the by now standard form of organizing modern societies as nation-states did education become a central institution (Meyer, Boli, Thomas, & Ramirez, 1997) collapsing individual perfectibility and national progress. The nationally redefined university was integrated into the education system as its keystone while also being considered the motor of societal development. From a social history perspective, the latter aspect in particular indicates the pragmatic (training professionals, imparting military and technical knowledge, etc.) and symbolic expectations, “myths” of the nation-state that have been so aptly described and analyzed in numerous macro-sociological neo-institutionalist studies (Meyer, Ramirez, & Soysal, 1992; Meyer et al., 1997; Ramirez & Boli, 1987). In a macro-phenomenological perspective, the term “myth” is used to denote a fundamental change in the self-description of European society which since the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries no longer views itself as consisting of separate collectivities divided from each other by social origin – as was the case under feudal conditions – with each collectivity providing itself the necessary education for its members or being provided for by others in the case of neediness. Instead, as a result of a number of material and immaterial changes, society now defines the individual as its key unit, with the nation being consequently the aggregate of individuals and not of collectivities and the state redefined as the guardian of the nation. This conception might be taken as a kind of overlapping area which includes different approaches, such as Michel Foucault's concept of the disciplinary society (Foucault, 1977), Balibar and Wallerstein's (1991) deliberations on the relation between race, class, and nation, and Benedict Anderson's (1991) description of nations as imagined communities. All these studies could be taken as sharing the notion of “constructedness” (cf. Berger & Luckmann, 1972) of modern society with the neo-institutionalist perspective. The concept of a “world polity” which encompasses the “myths” society is based on, the overall notion of a cognitive culture, which takes Max Weber's concept of rationality as a point of departure, is identified as the basis of isomorphic change in the organizational structure of modern education systems (cf. Baker & Wiseman, 2006). However, the strong emphasis on international, world system embeddedness of nation-states and their education systems is not to be taken as a unidirectional dependence on external forces. While modern nation-states originate from and remain tied to international dynamics and developments, they are conceived as unique entities. For most of their history, modern nation-states have been preoccupied with making themselves distinct from each other. Thus, while international competition has always been present, looking abroad traditionally meant reworking, adapting, and reshaping what was imported, or borrowed (Halpin & Troyna, 1995; Steiner-Khamsi, 2004). This is true for education as well as for other areas of society.
Agency is a concept whose status as a social-theoretical tool in and for the 21st century is a challenging question. Sociological theorists endeavor to identify agency's…
Abstract
Agency is a concept whose status as a social-theoretical tool in and for the 21st century is a challenging question. Sociological theorists endeavor to identify agency's analytical and systematic usefulness for social research. Social theorists and critical theorists are less concerned with agency as concept and tool but may be more dedicated to assessing and tracking the fate and future of agency as a historically and socially variable phenomenon. While social theorists recognize the importance of socio-historical variations, critical theorists also are concerned with how modern societies are inherently contradictory and problematic, especially when accounts try to balance a society's “official” validity claims with the realities they obscure. Many sociologists study the societal conditions that have a bearing on whether, how, and to what extent individuals are able to engage in self-determined actions and practices. Correlating a person's location in the social structure with the status of agency in human and social life, within the matrix of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, geographic location, education, and similar indicators, is essential to delineating individuals' ability to pursue opportunities for success and to take advantage of life chances. In societies that are reproducing, fraught with, and burdened by myriad contradictions and proliferating corollary dangers and threats, individuals' locations within the social structure effect their chances for and modes of survival. In the end, agency as a function of socio-historical specificity visualizes how individuals are making decisions and choices (agency ∼ autonomy) within contexts that are beyond their control or understanding (determinism ∼ heteronomy).
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John Smith, Wilfred Ashworth, David F Radmore, Anthony Olden, Morris Garratt, Peter Labdon, WJ Murison, David Cawthorne and Don Revill
‘To MEET the threat, and to realize the potential, we do not need a doctrine of salvation. We have the weapons we need, our minds. Reasoned analysis, imaginative designing and an…
Abstract
‘To MEET the threat, and to realize the potential, we do not need a doctrine of salvation. We have the weapons we need, our minds. Reasoned analysis, imaginative designing and an experimental approach to action form a rational, or at any rate reasonable, triptych which has always served men well. This is the method of liberty; its substance is defined by the new conditions in which we live today. The new liberty means that we have to change our attitudes in order to pass through the turbulence ahead in a manner which enhances human life‐chances. This is what I mean when I say that the subject of history is changing; and the change in approach is reflected in the words which we use—new words; improvement instead of expansion, good husbandry instead of affluence, human activity instead of work, and of course one word which is quite old, liberty.’—Ralf Dahrendorf (‘The new liberty’, 1975 Reith Lectures)
Ute Hilgers-Yilmaz, Ralf Spiller and Christof Breidenich
The Christian Churches have lost a great amount of their attraction in many European countries over the last century. Since the 1960s, ties to the Churches have been relaxed and…
Abstract
The Christian Churches have lost a great amount of their attraction in many European countries over the last century. Since the 1960s, ties to the Churches have been relaxed and approval for their central beliefs and standards has declined.
This is a problem, since the Christian churches are essential agents of fundamental values, such as solidarity and charity that foster the cohesion of a community. Christian faith communities are committed to preserving these values.
If we imagine the Church as a company, from a design perspective the question arises of what stories and images of the Church could revive its values? What could be a convincing set of contemporary visual items of the Christian Churches?
With the creative methods of design thinking some alternative approaches for visual communication of Christian Churches in the age of social media have been developed in a workshop with various representatives of Christian Churches.
Two creative methods were the focus of the workshop, Rummaging and PaperPoint. These methods were selected for refining the strategic concept with the goal to develop solutions for a new way of visual storytelling.
The first strategy is the definition of ‘core values’ and transition to today and the second strategy is change of perspective, refining the concept for the new way of visual storytelling.
The results show that design thinking can be used to bring about creative results even from participants without a professional advertising background.
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Following Lakatos' strategy of a rational reconstruction of science, I present a concrete example of the rise and decline of a research program from the history of the social…
Abstract
Following Lakatos' strategy of a rational reconstruction of science, I present a concrete example of the rise and decline of a research program from the history of the social sciences: the authoritarian character studies of the Frankfurt School. The first version of the authoritarian character studies of the Frankfurt Institute of Social Research was based on a Marxist social and psychoanalytic theory, and included an initial empirical survey. The preliminary results of this survey motivated the Institute's just-in-time emigration from Germany in 1932, and at the same time do not fit into the later theory of the authoritarian character (1936). The second version of the authoritarian character studies (1950) gained the status of a social psychological paradigm, but soon turned into a declining research program, which came to a complete stop around 1968 as far as the Institute of Social Research was concerned. Internal and external factors combined to bring about the sudden end of the authoritarian character studies.
KC Harrison, John M Cox, John Smith, Norman Tomlinson, Jane Dore, David Radmore and Alan Day
IT WAS DIFFICULT to believe the tidings that have only just reached me, the news that Stanley Snaith died in Dorset on December 19 last, a few days after his 73rd birthday. The…
Abstract
IT WAS DIFFICULT to believe the tidings that have only just reached me, the news that Stanley Snaith died in Dorset on December 19 last, a few days after his 73rd birthday. The rising generation of librarians may say ‘Who was Stanley Snaith?’, so all the more reason for this tribute.
Jan G. Langhof and Stefan Güldenberg
This study aims to include two major objectives. Firstly, Frederick’s leadership is explored and characterized. Secondly, it is examined as to why a leader may (or may not) adopt…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to include two major objectives. Firstly, Frederick’s leadership is explored and characterized. Secondly, it is examined as to why a leader may (or may not) adopt servant leadership behavior in the case of Frederick II, King of Prussia.
Design/methodology/approach
The applied methodology is a historical examination of Frederick II’s leadership, an eighteenth-century’s monarch who has the reputation of being the “first servant of the state.” The analysis is conducted from the perspective of modern servant leadership research.
Findings
This study shows Frederick remains a rather non-transparent person of contradictions. The authors identified multiple reasons which explain why a leader may adopt servant leadership. Frederick’s motives to adopt a certain leadership behavior appear timeless and, thus, he most likely shares the same antecedents with today’s top executives.
Research limitations/implications
The authors identified various antecedents of individual servant leadership dimensions, an under-research area to date.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to look at Frederick's leadership style through the lens of modern servant leadership.