The Romanticization of Charismatic Leadership in the Arts

ABSTRACT

This inter-disciplinary article focuses on the role, significance, and impact of charisma in cultural leadership. It brings together fresh empirical data with a critical review of the literature to investigate the role of charisma in the operation, reputation, and strategic success of arts organizations. For the first time, this article synthesizes a diverse range of literature from sociology, psychology, political science, management, and leadership studies and applies it critically to the context of the arts. This comprehensive review is compared against interviews with key stakeholders in the arts, which challenge the neo-charismatic literature on leadership and support a return to aspects of the original formulation of charisma, as envisaged by Max Weber. The article finds that charismatic leaders are seen as extraordinary individuals and are excessively romanticized by arts managers, policymakers, and audiences. It questions this normative bias and concludes that charismatic leaders should be treated with a degree of skepticism, even caution, to temper any negative impacts on "followers" and organizations.     

Defining the Arts and Cultural Universe: Lessons from the Profiles Project

This article discusses state support of artists in the United Kingdom, focusing on the Arts Council England. To understand the present—or the future—support of visual artists, one needs to understand the past. Accordingly, the article begins with a brief history of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1946, discussing Thatcher's reforms after the 1979 election. Tony Blair's New Labour continued many of the same strategies instituted by the Conservatives. At the same time as fiscal constraints and "enterprise culture" were imposed, the mission of the Arts Council was broadened to include both geographical representation and a more populist agenda. A review of the contemporary arrangements for state support of artists in the United Kingdom shows that many of the tensions that exist within today's Arts Council were institutionalized in its early days. The article concludes with a comment on what the current situation may portend for the future.     

Japanese Cultural Diplomacy in Action: The Zenrin kyōkai in Inner Mongolia, 1933-45

In studies of Japanese “cultural diplomacy” between 1933 and 1945, the part played by the Zenrin kyōkai (Good Neighbour Association), a semi-official humanitarian organisation that provided medical assistance and educational opportunities to the Mongols and Hui (Han Chinese Muslims) living on the fringe of the Chinese Republic, has been largely overlooked. Dismissed by some as merely a front for intelligence-gathering operations, this article re-examines the operations of the Zenrin kyōkai, both in Inner Mongolia and in Japan, and argues that the relationship between it and the military was more complex than earlier studies have shown. In particular, the humanitarian activities of the Zenrin kyōkai went beyond military control and set the organisation apart from the other main agents of Japanese “cultural diplomacy” active in the region. Although not always successful in its attempts to woo the local population, the Zenrin kyōkai was a crucial instrument of the Japanese imperial project in the region and a reflexion of the complexity of that project.     

Methodological challenges in doing ethnomathematical research

Abstract

Researchers in ethnomathematics are confronted by a variety of methodological questions when they carry out ethnomathematical research. These have to deal with: participants and knowledge holders; language used in research; interviews and observations; familiarity (or lack thereof) with the knowledge holders; mathematical analysis of cultural artefacts; etc. Knowledge in this field engages with indigenous knowledge systems. This article primarily deals with indigenous games which the author researched. He proceeds to explore questions which arose and to provide possible solutions. The author also reflects on and analyses other studies that have grappled with the questions and draws on the implications and insights of these studies in constructing the suggested answers. The article therefore demonstrates that ethnomathematical research contributes to the demystification of the historical false projection by colonialism that Africa and Africans were and are not culturally embedded in mathematics – especially applied mathematics.     

African tourist art as tradition and product of the postcolonial exotic

ABSTRACT

Figurative art made in Central and West Africa for the global market is a form of tourist art – a category that has been plagued in art historical research by misconstrued concepts such as the authenticity of traditional/precolonial art. Following its categorisation as a commodity, studies focused on the decontextualisation of the object, thus marginalising the producing culture. In this article I investigate the role of the artist in preserving tradition and the role of the trader who, as cultural broker, exoticises the object. Since it can be argued that these are acts of decolonising, African tourist art can be regarded as a product of the postcolonial exotic, as defned by Graham Huggan (2001). Accepting the inescapability of postcoloniality, tourist art can be repositioned as a successful attempt to preserve and promote African cultural traditions and identity in the new era.     

‘We're not like that’: Denial of racism in the Afrikaans press in South Africa

Abstract

While the South African media on the whole underwent significant shifts after the demise of apartheid, repositioning was especially acute on the part of the Afrikaans-language press, which during the apartheid years largely served as legitimising institutions for apartheid and now had to adapt to the changing democratic political and social environment. This repositioning coincided with a liberal consensus in the news media in general, in terms of which individual rights, independence of the media and freedom of speech were emphasised. What complicated matters for the Afrikaans media was the need to retain the loyalty of primarily white Afrikaans readers, who remained attractive to advertisers, while having to orientate itself in relation to the new centres of political power in the country. The precarious balance between the liberal consensus of individual rights and freedom of expression on the one hand, and the imperative to carry a torch for Afrikaans cultural identity in the new dispensation, comes to light in news coverage of a recent racist incident at a historically white, Afrikaans university. This article will seek to explore editorial comment on the incident in selected Afrikaans media, to indicate how the event was interpreted and presented as an individual transgression, rather than a systemic and historically determined problem.     

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.