The Dynamics of Public Opinion on Cultural Policy Issues in the U.S., 1972–2010

This study investigates the dynamics of public opinion on cultural policy issues over the past four decades. We find collective opinions on many such issues follow the same path over time, driven by an underlying cultural policy mood (CPM). We use more than 2,000 survey marginals, nested in more than 200 time series, that reflect aggregate opinions in 16 cultural policy domains, across 38 years. Using a dynamic principal components method, the results show that since the early 1970s, CPM has moved steadily and consistently in a liberal direction. Over this period, changes in CPM have been tightly linked to changes in aggregate religiosity. Opinion on two notable cultural issues—the death penalty and abortion—do not follow CPM. While public opinion has grown increasingly anti-death-penalty for more than a decade, over roughly the same period it has become as pro-life on abortion as at any time since Roe v. Wade. The measurement of CPM provides evidence of a macro construct of cultural issues that includes opinion toward many, but not all, morality policies.     

Globalization,Cultural Critique,and China

In this essay, I illustrate a way of following discussions of economic globalization into discussions of domestic national issues involving cultural critique, arguing that the character and interests of local sites for transnational exchange are key aspects of analysis and closely associated with the logic of globalization theories. The essay begins with a summary of Saskia Sassen's place-based view of globalization, while in the second section, I consider five aspects of this place-based view in light of Chinese contexts for the international exchange of cultural critique. In the final section, I offer a broader sketch of three commonly discussed views of globalized, transnational forces and their relationships to domestic issues of cultural critique.     

Transnational Cultural Studies: What Price Globalisation?

One of the most significant aspects of globalisation has been the developing focus upon local resistances, of various types, and the ways in which these resistances seek to carve out specific spaces that both maintain and construct cultural difference. Performing cultural studies in those spaces, particularly those not determined by the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of cultural theories that are traditionally highly resistant to orthodoxies, is both challenging and exciting. Questions of whether a transnational cultural studies is possible in such contexts have been exercising a number of scholars in the past few years. This paper reviews some of those concerns and considers some of the issues involved in the developments of cultural studies within a transnational humanities context, which often operates in ways unfamiliar with the anti-establishment beginnings of Anglo-American/Australian cultural studies.     

Sex Workers and Cultural Policy: Mapping the Issues and Actors in Thailand

This article deals with the deeply controversial side of cultural tourism in mapping the position of the sex industry. In doing so, it places sex tourism in two epistemic contexts: one context expands the notion of cultural policies, the other notes the implicit and explicit origins and effects of cultural policies affecting sex work, although these positions are not mutually exclusive. Sex tourism, we argue, poses a particular challenge to the understandings embedded in these contexts. The sex industry points us to the limits of cultural policies, both in terms of expanding the scope of cultural industries and also in documenting their effects. So far, while we expand the list of cultural industries, the sex industry remains as the industry that must not speak its name. Officials do not want to name it; neither do they do much to stop it. Naming and mapping sex tourism is then a useful place to start. For empirical substantiation, Thailand is our case study. We document the cultural and economic importance of sex work. In doing so, we also remain sensitive to the context of racism, stigma, trafficking, and HIV/AIDS issues that intersect sex work.     

Essence,Identity, Signature: Tattoos and Cultural Property

This paper examines a range of problems centring on the theorization of cultural identity and cultural property by reference to debates about the appropriation of the Maori tattoo, or ta moko , and the authenticity of contemporary Maori tattooing practices. Through a consideration of the relationship between cultural identity and tattooing, and the question of whether tattooing is an effect of a specific identity or constitutive of that identity, it addresses the paradox inherent in attempts to protect indigenous, cultural and artefacts from (mis)appropriation: that is, that to re-articulate such non-Western cultural phenomena in terms amenable to their repositioning as property is precisely to render them meaningless or useless, in terms of their contextually specific uses and significance. Against the background of these issues, the use of ta moko as a form of signature or authorizing mark of identification is taken to highlight issues concerning the complex relationship between the attribution of certain cultural practices, characteristics or properties, to a certain group, and the notions of authorship and authority that underwrite such designations.     

Cultural citizenship online: the Internet and digital culture

This paper explores connections between cultural citizenship and Internet-based media. It argues that engaging with cultural citizenship assists in moving debates beyond misleadingly narrow conceptions of the digital divide. It suggests that cultural citizenship invokes questions of access, visibility and cultural recognition, as well as tensions between intra- and inter-cultural communication online. The paper calls for a reflexive and critical research agenda which accounts for the ‘attention economy’ of the Internet and issues of cultural ethics online. The paper concludes that research and debate in this field must acknowledge ongoing tensions and contradictions between a postmodern ‘remix’ ethic in which the Internet serves as an open cultural archive which citizens can freely access and rework, on the one hand, and claims for cultural authorship, sovereignty and protection, on the other.     

Cultural Diversity and Education: the Dilemma of Political Stability

In their recent work both John Rawls and Joseph Raz have shown a keen awareness of the need to address the challenges associated with the cultural diversity so characteristic of many liberal democracies. However, a number of the issues raised by non-liberal minorities in Britain in relation to educational policy suggest that these prominent liberal responses ultimately fail to address the complexities of the problems posed by cultural pluralism. Nonetheless, these two approaches identify important considerations which will have to be taken into account by any adequate response to cultural diversity. Viewed together, Rawls' emphasis on political stability and Raz's recognition of the pervasiveness of cultural membership imply that a genuine accommodation of cultural membership can only be achieved within the context of a dynamic political community.     

提升政党文化影响力与文化自觉

政党文化是执政党能力的重要组成部分,是判断党执政能力强弱的重要标尺。政党文化的影响力与文化自觉有着密切的联系,政党精神力量的发掘、传承在很大程度上取决于文化自觉。坚守和彰显马克思主义的指导地位、扩大政党主流意识形态的凝聚力、发挥和强化政党道德的约束力都离不开党员和党员领导干部的道德自觉和文化自觉。因此,要提升党的执政能力就必须提升政党文化的影响力,自觉推进马克思主义理论创新,加强政党文化建设,发挥政党道德的自律作用,依靠党员和党员领导干部的道德自觉和文化自觉形成与党的执政地位相适应的文化软实力。     

Universals and Particulars: the Case of Liberal Cultural Nationalism

Recent work in liberal political theory has rejected cosmopolitanism to incorporate the empirical agenda of nationalism and multiculturalism. In this article three issues facing cultural national liberalism are first extracted from Rawls's Political Liberalism : the range of reasonable cultural identities under liberalism; the substantive ethical bases of the state; and the possibility of principles of cultural self-respect. I then examine three works which address these problems, Will Kymlicka's Multicultural Citizenship , David Miller's On Nationality , and Charles Taylor's 'The Politics of Recognition'. Kymlicka provides principles of cultural self-respect but is caught between conceptualising culture in universalist and particularist terms. Miller's liberal national state rests on shared meanings, but this serves to complicate the introduction of universal moral ideas. Taylor presents authenticity as an alternative self-understanding to liberal autonomy, but I argue against the notion of cultural authenticity.     

Conflicting Equalities? Cultural Group Rights and Sex Equality

This article explores the tensions within multiculturalist theory between the aspiration to promote cultural recognition and the need to promote and protect women's concern with issues of sex and gender inequality. The article asseses the three main approaches to the reconciliation of sexual equality and group rights; according priority to the traditional values and practices of cultural groups; accepting collective and cultural rights but within a framework international human rights; and finally, the acceptance of group rights subject to respect for individual rights and freedoms. By focusing on the experience of aboriginal women activists in Canadian politics and their struggle to preserve constitutional sex equality, this article argues that only the third approach provides adequate safeguards for women in their public and private roles.     

Privatisation — A History and Survey of Changes in Organisation Structures, Cultural and Environmental Profiles

This paper provides a brief history of changes after privatisation to organisational structures and cultural profiles of affected entities. It assesses the experience of change in the electricity industry in New Zealand, the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories and the State Electricity Commission of Victoria and then examines results of a survey of senior executives of organisations privatised in Australia between 1990 and 1998. These senior executives had access to knowledge of pre- and post-privatisation conditions and their answers to a series of questions on organisational structure, cultural and environmental issues were analysed. The detailed answers involve limited areas of 'no change' but, critically, significant cultural changes relating to private ownership are established. These are summarised for readers' convenience by tables and discussed within the text.     

A Question of Authority: Religion and Cultural Conflict in the 2004 Election

In this study I adopt a view of cultural conflict that extends beyond the usual set of controversial “moral” issues like abortion and gay rights to include symbolic issues related to patriotism and group affect. Using a set of survey items asking about respondents’ preferences in child-rearing, I create a measure of individuals’ orientations toward authority that proves to be a potent predictor of attitudes on cultural issues, affect toward social groups, party identification, and vote choice. This authority effect persists even in the presence of extensive multivariate controls for demographic and religious variables. I find that both authority measures and religion measures shape political attitudes, suggesting the need for a multi-faceted approach to understanding cultural conflict.

Cultural Difference

President Trump’s criticisms of minorities, immigrants, and poor countries, while controversial, point to the need to discuss cultural differences more candidly. Much of the upset over diversity in America and the world results from the fact that everyone is not the same. The United States is the world’s most individualist country, where most people approach life as a quest to achieve their personal goals. But most minority Americans and recent immigrants tend to adjust to the world as it is rather than seeking change. That is a major reason why integration of these groups has proven difficult. Poor countries abroad are often ill-governed because local culture accepts misrule more passively than in the West. The entire American tradition, including political theory and theology, takes an individualist culture as normal and thus fails to address our current challenges. We need a new tradition in which cultural difference is the subject rather than denied.     

Chinese Foreign Policy Making 2010–2011: Using the Cultural Approach to Explain Complexity

The rising economic strength of China over the past decade has aroused concern over the imbalance of global power. Research on Chinese foreign policy has again become of critical importance to the study of international relations and comparative politics. This article will begin with an overview of pertinent studies, categorizing them into cultural and non-cultural approaches, then it will re-examine the methodological problems associated with studying Chinese foreign policy making. Essentially, this article argues that that any research approach can generate methodological mistakes if undertaken without due care and attention. Rather, a multi-approach with emphasis on cultural factors will be a good model for future study. In other words, we have advocated an improved synergy of rational choice, structural, and cultural approaches. In the case study of Chinese foreign policy making between 2010 and 2011, the multi-approach provided a comprehensive picture of the Chinese thinking process behind seemingly irrational or illogical policy choices. It was the rising sense of frustration, the combination of over-confidence and self-doubt, which made foreign policy choices reflect the national interests at certain times and not at other times.     

The lasting impact of adolescence on left-right identification: Cohort replacement and intracohort change in associations with issue attitudes

This study examined how the ideological correlates of left-right identification in the Netherlands changed between 1980 and 2008, and whether these changes were driven by cohort replacement. Analyses on repeated cross-sectional data revealed an increasing association with immigration and a decreasing association with redistribution, secularism, and civil liberties. Cohort differences were found for cultural attitudes: Secularism was most important for voters who were adolescent between 1917 and 1960, while civil liberties were most important for the 1960–1980 cohort and immigration was relatively important for the 1980–2008 cohort. Consequently, over-time changes in the importance of cultural issues, but not redistribution, were partly driven by cohort replacement. This indicates that the left-right distinction is partly shaped by circumstances during voters' adolescent years.     

Culture Wars,Secular Realignment,and the Gender Gap in Party Identification

Changes in the U.S. partisan balance over the past decade are often attributed to the enhanced political salience of cultural issues. Yet as white men have continued to become more Republican in recent years, white women increasingly identify with the Democrats. To the extent that cultural issues are influencing this partisan change, men and women must be responding differently to this cultural agenda. Using a pooled ANES data set from 1988 through 2000, I explore the extent to which cultural values are responsible for this gender realignment. Findings suggest that salient cultural issues influence the partisan choices of both men and women, however in somewhat different ways. For women, the issues themselves—reproductive rights, female equality, and legal protection for homosexuals—have become increasingly important determinants of party identification. For men, the influence of cultural conflict on partisanship is argued to be equally pervasive, albeit less direct.     

跨越文化的沟壑

操着不同的语言,受着不同文化熏陶的人们,在进行交往的时候,不但要跨越语言障碍,还要跨越由于文化差异所造成的种种障碍,才能使交际得以顺利进行。否则,就会产生误解,使交际受阻。这主要是因为语言不是孤立存在的,而是深深地扎根于民族文化中,并反映本民族的价值观、信仰和民族情感。只有跨越文化沟壑,才能掌握这门语言。     

简论中国文化建设的范式

近代以来,如何实现中国化现代化的任务就历史地摆在中国人的面前。江泽民同志提出的“三个代表”中,中国共产党要始终代表先进化前进方向的论述,再一次将化建设的问题凸现出来。但如果对近代以来提出的诸多化建设主张作一番考察,会发现有些主张本身脱离了中国化建设的社会背景,是悬空的讨论,缺少对化作用和地位的正确认识;有些主张则仅限于原则性的阐发,缺乏可操作性,因而难免显得空疏。本拟在吸取前人研究成果的基础上,为中国化建设构建一个范式,它涵盖了中国化建设的理论基础、价值标准、指导精神、实践途径,从而避免上述缺陷。     

Cultural Policy and Governance: Reviewing Policies Related to Cultural and Creative Industries Implemented by the Central Government of Taiwan Between 2002 and 2012

Cultural and creative industries have exhibited rapid changes in recent years, and public sectors worldwide have expanded interest in policies related to these industries as a means of promoting culture, innovation, and economic vitality. This article argues that the cultural values promoted by and economic significance of cultural and creative sectors are essential to the formation of policy and to the development of new industries. This article offers insight into cultural policy that has governed regional and local development, and addresses academic debates about policy related to cultural and creative industries based on several cultural, economic, and geographical factors. In addition, this article presents the results of analyzing various theories and case studies, based on how the Central Government of Taiwan (CGT) has adopted policies to promote cultural and creative industries. The research results link areas of cultural and economic development with policies enacted by the CGT. Ideas concerning the cultural ministry, industrial development, civic boosterism, subsidies, regional development, creative clusters, tourists and tourism businesses, and export markets are areas of emphasis in this study.     

Argentinian Myths: Semiotics and Cultural Identity

This paper offers a semiotic reading of certain aspects of Argentinian culture and identity. We will analize some of the fundamental myths that are held by tourist when they visit the city of Buenos Aires. Tourists assume the existence of an Argentinian identity and believe it can be found by doing certain things. However cultural identities are nowadays defined by a tension between the local and the global consumption.