A Framework for Visualizing the Process of Immigrant Absorption

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a schematic framework to assist in the visualization of the goals and processes involved in the absorption of immigrants. It is intended to help those engaged in working with immigrants to individualize persons and groups of immigrants in terms of various attitudes, values and behaviors, and to determine the goals, models and time-frames suitable for strengthening, and/or supporting and/or changing these aspects. The inter-relationship among some of the aspects is examined, and the paper includes examples of absorption, melting-pot and cultural-pluralism in various countries.     

American Atrocity Revisited: National Identity,Cascading Frames,and the My Lai Massacre

This study draws on the “cascading activation” model of press-state relations to explore U.S. political and news discourse surrounding the 1968 My Lai Massacre. We systematically analyze White House, military, congressional, and news communications and draw upon scholarship in social psychology to assess why the press might challenge certain frames in response to My Lai but indiscriminately echo others. In particular, within these communications, we examine how serious and widespread the actions at My Lai were conveyed to be, how the circumstances were portrayed, how the actors involved in the incident were characterized, and the extent to which America’s core values were questioned. Our findings suggest that the Nixon administration employed frames designed to downplay the severity of the My Lai incident, highlight extenuating circumstances faced by those directly involved, denigrate the alleged low-level perpetrators, and bolster the national identity. These frames were then largely echoed in the press, despite consistent and forceful challenges by congressional Democrats. These findings, we argue, align with the cascading activation model, and we build on it by highlighting the underlying importance of “cultural resonance” in the framing process. We reflect on the theoretical and practical implications of these patterns and, in doing so, engage the broader scholarly debate over the process through which U.S. news coverage aligns with the communications of government officials, particularly in moments of national dissonance.     

The relation between cultural values and models of democracy: a cross-national study

The relation between democracy and culture is a long-lasting subject of interest in political science. In the contemporary approach to cultural analysis, value orientations are studied as fundamental manifestations of culture. The mainstream research has focused on finding a relation between the quality of a democratic system and the existence of essential values in a society. There is, however, an understudied question as to what the relation between cultural values and models of democracy in different countries exactly is. We know that there are different models or patterns of democracy (for example, majoritarian versus consensus and participatory versus spectator democracy) discernible in various countries. But what is the reason that a particular country, or set of countries, appreciates and accepts one type of democracy, while suspecting and discrediting other types? This article aims to find an answer to this question from the perspective of cultural differences. Using the empirical data derived from the operationalization of dimensions of democracy and dimensions of culture at the national level, we examine hypotheses regarding the relation between societal cultural values and the practice of different models of democracy in various countries.     

Ethnic Group Representation in a Cross-National Comparison

This paper compares the levels of ethnic group representation in parliament in 95 democracies. The analyses are comparative in nature, breaking with the literature where single country studies are the norm. Considering both electoral and cultural variables, the results cast doubt on whether the role of the electoral system in shaping political representation is dominant. In contrast to what much of the literature suggests, once controlling for the ethnic make-up of society and cultural attitudes, electoral aspects seem of little significance. Levels of ethnic group representation are best explained with cultural variables, in particular liberal attitudes towards marginalised groups in society.     

证人的目击面孔心理重建及认知检测

提取目击证人对犯罪嫌疑人的面孔记忆是一项困难的工作,由于证人在识记面孔时有多种影响因素,在提取和再认记忆时又会有各种认知因素的影响,导致面孔心理重建的失真。因此,从认知心理学和实验心理学的角度入手,分析影响心理重建的因素,并用最佳的手段提取记忆,可以使面孔重建的可靠性最大化。认知相关电位在记忆检测领域的日臻完善,使目击证人的再认正确与否有了可靠的参照,从记忆反应的脑电图形分析,可以有效判断证人对列队辨认中的面孔是否存有记忆。     

辨证认识话者自动识别系统

为了警示近年来我国司法话者识别领域中出现的一些崇外、盲目追求快速与省事的苗头,结合话者自动识别系统的研究、应用状况,从语音的共性与个性、话者识别结果的相对性与绝对性出发,通过分析比对话者自动识别与语音识别所用的特征参数及实现过程,辨证分析了制约话者自动识别系统准确率的根本原因。指出了话者自动识别系统尚无法达到人们对其的期望,以及适合于司法诉讼领域的话者自动识别系统的发展方向。     

我国文化遗产保护法律体系：构建与发展

文化遗产是一个国家、民族自我认同和身份的象征,是该国软实力的重要组成部分,从法律的角度厘清它的内涵与外延具有重要意义。应当从法律角度解释文化遗产的概念,梳理我国文化遗产保护的立法历程,阐述该法律部门体系化的构建,并以“生态人类中心主义”价值理念为指导,在立法上完成向非物质、整体、动态文化遗产保护的转变。     

金融支持民族地区文化产业发展研究

在文化产业发展进程中,金融的资源配置功能具有极为重要的推动作用。因此,必须系统整合文化产业链,促进民族地区金融与文化创意产业的有效结合,保障文化产业顺利发展。     

论马克思主义文化观与政党文化建设

牢牢树立政党文化建设的根本原则,准确把握政党文化建设的价值取向,不断加强政党文化建设的文化自觉,推进党的文化建设,对增强国家文化软实力,建设社会主义文化强国具有重要的意义。     

Recognition,reification and (dis)respect

Abstract

Axel Honneth Honneth, A. 1982. Moral consciousness and class domination: Some problems in the analysis of hidden morality. Praxis International, 2(1): 12–24.  [Google Scholar] was already recognized as the leading figure in the ‘third generation’ of critical theory, long before he took up, in 1996, Habermas's chair in philosophy at Frankfurt and the directorship of the Institut für Sozialforschung. He has for a long time been reconceptualizing Frankfurt critical theory in terms of an originally Hegelian conception of recognition, and associated notions of respect and disrespect – a model which brings out a concern with human suffering which was a strong feature of the first generation of critical theorists. This volume of translated essays, together with a recent volume in German and his 2005 Tanner Lectures on reification, provides a good opportunity to triangulate Honneth's developing work.