Bringing Culture Back In

Economists used to claim that material self-interest and the rational choices of the individual were universal factors that transcended cultural values and differences. This position has been challenged by critics, who have pointed out the methodological and philosophical weaknesses of this approach. They dispute the idea that social order can be explained as the product of the choices of individual agents, and that social agents operate independently of their social and cultural values and norms. Today, there is virtual agreement, not only among students of culture, but also among social scientists that "culture counts" in both politics and society as well as in international relations. In this book, a number of international political scientists, economists, philosophers and humanist scholars address the role of culture, ethnicity, and religion in contemporary states and societies.

Economists used to claim that material self-interest and the rational choices of the individual were universal factors that transcended cultural values and differences. This position has been challenged by critics, who have pointed out the methodological and philosophical weaknesses of this approach. They dispute the idea that social order can be explained as the product of the choices of individual agents, and that social agents operate independently of their social and cultural values and norms. Today, there is virtual agreement, not only among students of culture, but also among social scientists that "culture counts" in both politics and society as well as in international relations. In this book, a number of international political scientists, economists, philosophers and humanist scholars address the role of culture, ethnicity, and religion in contemporary states and societies.

This text explores how cultural life in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) was strictly controlled by the ruling party, the SED, through attempts to dictate the way people spent their free time. It shows how people's cultural life in the GDR developed a dynamic of its own.

Asian Americans are often stereotyped as the “model minority.” Their sizeable presence at elite universities and high household incomes have helped construct the narrative of Asian American “exceptionalism.” While many scholars and activists characterize this as a myth, pundits claim that Asian Americans’ educational attainment is the result of unique cultural values. In The Asian American Achievement Paradox, sociologists Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou offer a compelling account of the academic achievement of the children of Asian immigrants. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the adult children of Chinese immigrants and Vietnamese refugees and survey data, Lee and Zhou bridge sociology and social psychology to explain how immigration laws, institutions, and culture interact to foster high achievement among certain Asian American groups. For the Chinese and Vietnamese in Los Angeles, Lee and Zhou find that the educational attainment of the second generation is strikingly similar, despite the vastly different socioeconomic profiles of their immigrant parents. Because immigration policies after 1965 favor individuals with higher levels of education and professional skills, many Asian immigrants are highly educated when they arrive in the United States. They bring a specific “success frame,” which is strictly defined as earning a degree from an elite university and working in a high-status field. This success frame is reinforced in many local Asian communities, which make resources such as college preparation courses and tutoring available to group members, including their low-income members. While the success frame accounts for part of Asian Americans’ high rates of achievement, Lee and Zhou also find that institutions, such as public schools, are crucial in supporting the cycle of Asian American achievement. Teachers and guidance counselors, for example, who presume that Asian American students are smart, disciplined, and studious, provide them with extra help and steer them toward competitive academic programs. These institutional advantages, in turn, lead to better academic performance and outcomes among Asian American students. Yet the expectations of high achievement come with a cost: the notion of Asian American success creates an “achievement paradox” in which Asian Americans who do not fit the success frame feel like failures or racial outliers. While pundits ascribe Asian American success to the assumed superior traits intrinsic to Asian culture, Lee and Zhou show how historical, cultural, and institutional elements work together to confer advantages to specific populations. An insightful counter to notions of culture based on stereotypes, The Asian American Achievement Paradox offers a deft and nuanced understanding how and why certain immigrant groups succeed.

School counseling in the 21st century requires a new set of skills and practices than seen in past decades. With a sharper focus on social justice, the experiences and challenges for marginalized groups, and more open discussions as to issues students face, school counselors must be best equipped to handle all types of diverse students and situations. School counselors and guidance programs must address multicultural needs, underserved populations, and students with issues ranging from mental illness to family issues to chronic-illnesses and LGBTQ+ identities. Moreover, they must be prepared to guide students to learning success and adequately prepare them for future careers. The challenges students face in the 21st century lead to new ways to prepare, support, and educate school counselors in modern educational atmospheres with student bodies that are handling vastly different challenges, identities, and lifestyles. School counselors must navigate the profession with information on best practices, techniques, and 21st century skillsets that can adequately support and help all students. The Research Anthology on Navigating School Counseling in the 21st Century provides emerging research on the best practices in school counseling, along with methods, techniques, and professional development initiatives to better understand diverse student populations, needs, and challenges. This book will not only focus on how school counselors must adapt and learn in their own professional careers, but also how school counseling is functioning in the 21st century with the new concerns and obstacles students must face and overcome. The chapters provide a holistic view of how counselors are navigating their positions to best serve their students through effective practices, programs, and new tools and technologies. This book is ideal for school counselors, therapists, school psychologists, counseling educators, administrators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students who are interested in school counseling in the 21st century.

`Paul James has written a magnificent account of the world′s current condition, one that highlights the complexities and contradictions with which people, communities, and nations must contend and that does so in a compelling and creative style. Stressing the interaction between global and local forces, his writing style is lively and compelling as well as peppered with a wide range of citations, from Woman′s Day to the Cambodian Daily (on the same page!)′ - James N Rosenau, University Professor of International Affairs, The George Washington University Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism establishes a new basis for understanding the changing nature of polity and community and offers unprecedented attention to these dominant trends. Paul James charts the contradictions and tensions we all encounter in an era of increasing globalization, from genocide and terrorism to television and finance capital. Globalism is treated as an uneven and layered process of spatial expansion, not simply one of disorder, fragmentation or rupture. Nor is it simply a force of homogenization. Nationalism is taken seriously as a continuing and important formation of contemporary identity and politics. James rewrites the modernism theories of the nation-state without devolving into the postmodernist assertion that all is invention or surface gloss. Tribalism is given the attention it has long warranted and is analyzed as a continuing and changing formation of social life, from the villages of Rwanda to the cities of the West. Theoretically adept and powerfully argued, this is the first comprehensive analysis that brings these crucial themes of contemporary life together.

Notions of culture, rituals and their meanings, the workings of ideology in everyday life, public representations of tradition and ethnicity, and the social consequences of economic transition— these are critical issues in the social anthropology of Russia and other postsocialist countries. Engaged in the negotiation of all these is the House of Culture, which was the key institution for cultural activities and implementation of state cultural policies in all socialist states. The House of Culture was officially responsible for cultural enlightenment, moral edification, and personal cultivation—in short, for implementing the socialist state’s program of “bringing culture to the masses.” Surprisingly, little is known about its past and present condition. This collection of ethnographically rich accounts examines the social significance and everyday performance of Houses of Culture and how they have changed in recent decades. In the years immediately following the end of the Soviet Union, they underwent a deep economic and symbolic crisis, and many closed. Recently, however, there have been signs of a revitalization of the Houses of Culture and a re-orientation of their missions and programs. The contributions to this volume investigate the changing functions and meanings of these vital institutions for the communities that they serve.

Religious culture is an important keyword for understanding rapidly changing East Asian society, especially China, Japan, and Korea. Despite the common influence of Confucian culture on these countries, each has shown a very different pattern of social progress in modern and postmodern times. Although surveys report a low ratio of religious identification and membership in this region, people in this area are religious in a different way from Western societies, and religious culture is closely related to political, economic, and social subsystems. A real force of changing East Asian society is not only political powers or economic classes, but also an invisible culture based on religious belief and practice. This book focuses on the dynamic relationship between social progress and religious culture, organization, or movements in each society since 1945.