Transcending cultural differences: the role of language in migrants' integration

This research seeks to contribute to current debates on migration by examining the role of language in the process of migrants’ integration. It will consider how migrant workers living in an area with little history of international immigration navigate their way within a new destination to cope with language difference. The paper is based on empirical research (interviews and focus groups) conducted in Northern Ireland, an English speaking region with a small proportion of Irish-English bilinguals (10.3 percent of population had some knowledge of Irish in the 2001 Census). Much of the research to date, while acknowledging the importance of culture and language for migrants’ positive integration, has only begun to unpack the way in which cultural difference such as language is dealt with at an individual, family or societal level. Several themes emerge from the research including the significance of social and civil structures and the role of individual agents as new culture is created through the celebration of difference.

Humanitarian Travels: Ethical Communication in Lonely Planet Guidebooks

Aside from the more mundane purpose of telling us where to eat, sleep and sightsee in foreign lands, guidebooks communicate an ethical vision that sees travel as the key to reducing cultural differences and inequalities. This article argues that Lonely Planet guidebooks in particular encourage a form of ‘responsible independent travel’ that both reflects and produces a powerful discourse of humanitarianism. By examining the controversy over Lonely Planet’s publication of guidebooks to Burma, this article uncovers the problematic colonial logic embedded in that ethical vision.

Culture and the Irish Border:Spaces for Conflict Transformation

The Irish border has been described as a ‘natural’ cultural divide between the island's two dominant indigenous ethno-national communities. However, an examination of key resources of ethno-national group culture - religion, sport and language - provides evidence to challenge this representation. Moreover, in the post-1994 period of conflict transformation, evidence is also presented to support the proposition that the Irish border region has developed into a cultural space in which Irish nationalist and Ulster unionist ethno-national communities can explore cultural differences and commonalities through cross-border, cross-community contact and communication in small group encounters. This space underpins the reconfiguration of the border from barrier to political bridge between North and South. European Union (EU) Peace programmes for Ireland, beginning in 1995, provided the support for a cross-border approach to escaping the cage of ethno-national conflict in Northern Ireland. However, post-2004 EU enlargement signalled the beginning of the end for EU Peace funding and severe economic recession has undermined the expectation of British-Irish intergovernmental intervention to support cross-border partnerships and their work. Therefore, the outlook for the sustainability of this cross-border cultural space is gloomy with potentially deleterious consequences for the continued reconfiguration of the border from barrier to bridge.

Translation, Intertextuality, Interpretation

Intertextuality is central to the production and reception of translations. Yet the possibility of translating most foreign intertexts with any completeness or precision is so limited as to be virtually nonexistent. As a result, they are usually replaced by analogous but ultimately different intertextual relations in the receiving language. The creation of a receiving intertext permits a translation to be read with comprehension by translating-language readers. It also results in a disjunction between the foreign and translated texts, a proliferation of linguistic and cultural differences that are at once interpretive and interrogative. Intertextuality enables and complicates translation, preventing it from being an untroubled communication and opening the translated text to interpretive possibilities that vary with cultural constituencies in the receiving situation. To activate these possibilities and at the same time to improve the study and practice of translation, this article aims to theorize the relative autonomy of the translated text and to increase the self-consciousness of translators and readers of translations alike.

Adolescents' views about a proposed rewards intervention to promote healthy food choice in secondary school canteens

Using rewards may be an effective method to positively influence adolescent eating behaviour, but evidence regarding this approach is limited. The aim of this study was to explore young adolescent views about a proposed reward intervention associated with food choice in school canteens. Focus groups were held in 10 schools located in lower socioeconomic areas within Northern Ireland and involved 90 pupils aged 11-12 years (54 girls, 36 boys). Our findings indicated a high degree of acceptability for a reward scheme but there was major diversity in the type of rewards valued by pupils, largely defined by geographical area and socio-cultural differences. Pupils from rural areas tended to emphasize group-based and longer-term rewards, whereas pupils from urban-city schools tended to suggest individualistic and immediate rewards. The major factors influencing food choice were food price, value for money, taste and visual appearance. Pupils felt that factors outside of their control, such as being assigned to the second lunch sitting placed considerable constraints on their food choice. This research not only indicated a high degree of acceptability for a rewards-based intervention but also highlighted a number of socio-cultural and environmental factors that should be considered by researchers when developing such an intervention.

Angels with dirty faces? European identity, politics of representation and recognition of Romani interests

The contradiction between acknowledgement of cultural differences and their accommodation in public has been a constant theme in studies of diverse societies. This review essay discusses five volumes that grapple with questions of Romani inclusion and the problems Roma face across Europe. The volumes under review point to problems faced by Romani communities and analyse the various legal, political and social challenges that situation of the Roma poses to institutions of contemporary societies. The essay reviews the challenging nature of the status of Roma as we move away from the one-sided towards more reciprocal relationship engagement of state with society in general, and the multiply excluded groups, in particular. The essay finds that the role Roma play in these relationships is either over-, or under-estimated by the literature, largely as a result of limited opportunities to acknowledge and, in effect, accommodate Roma who are rarely understood as actors in their own right.

Thinking ‘Dignity’ as a basis towards inclusive development

In an era of increasing political disenfranchisement, deep economic inequalities and associated social humiliations encountered by the rapidly globalising planet, this paper seeks to chart the current thinking about the paths that civil society need to take in order to achieve distinctive peace. Here commitment as part of the universal cosmopolitan order is critical to go beyond the binaries of religious and cultural differences. The role of dignity, of interdependency, respect and understanding has become all the more critical to sustain hope and life in this age of austerity. The paper argues for an empowered citizenship, based on dignity and respect to think socially towards inclusive development.

Incorporation of spiritual care as a component of healthcare and medical education: comparison of viewpoints of healthcare providers from a rural community hospital in Uganda with those of medical students from United Kingdrom

This study addresses cultural differences regarding views on the place for spirituality within healthcare training and delivery. A questionnaire was devised using a 5-point ordinal scale, with additional free text comments assessed by thematic analysis, to compare the views of Ugandan healthcare staff and students with those of (1) visiting international colleagues at the same hospital; (2) medical faculty and students in United Kingdom. Ugandan healthcare personnel were more favourably disposed towards addressing spiritual issues, their incorporation within compulsory healthcare training, and were more willing to contribute themselves to delivery than their European counterparts. Those from a nursing background also attached a greater importance to spiritual health and provision of spiritual care than their medical colleagues. Although those from a medical background recognised that a patient’s religiosity and spirituality can affect their response to their diagnosis and prognosis, they were more reticent to become directly involved in provision of such care, preferring to delegate this to others with greater expertise. Thus, differences in background, culture and healthcare organisation are important, and indicate that the wide range of views expressed in the current literature, the majority of which has originated in North America, are not necessarily transferable between locations; assessment of these issues locally may be the best way to plan such training and incorporation of spiritual care into clinical practice.

The Promise of Peace:Revisiting the Northern Irish Model

The Northern Ireland peace process is often eulogized as a successful model of conflict transformation. Although the process exhibited many of the problems that beset other societies seeking to move from conflict to a negotiated peace (including disagreements over the functioning of institutions and the meanings of cultural symbols, unresolved issues relating to the effects of political violence on victims and survivors and society at large; and the residual presence of violent and political ‘spoiler’ groups), the resilience of political dialogue has proven remarkable.
This collection revisits the promise of ‘a truly historic opportunity for a new beginning’ a decade and a half on from the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The book will bring together academics from across a number of disciplines, including management and organizational behaviour, law, politics, sociology, archaeology and literature.

The different contributions aim to assess what impact it has made in the legal, policy, and institutional areas it specifically targeted: political reform, human rights and equality provision, working through legacies of the past (including police reform, prisoner release and victims' rights) and the building of new relationships within the island of Ireland and between Ireland and Britain. With the emergence of first-time voters who had no direct experience of the violence the book explores what the Agreement offers for future generations.

The book is the culmination of a 12-month research project sponsored by the British Academy and Leverhulme that addressed the following aspects of the peace process:
Peace walls: The euphemistically named peace walls remain one of the most visible reminders of Northern Ireland’s divisions and they are famously the only material manifestations of the conflict that have grown in number and extent since the 1998 Agreement. They were originally placed between antagonistic neighbouring communities – often at their request – at times of heightened tensions. Research under this theme explored the lack of ongoing engagement with their continuing presences, evolving meanings and impact on the communities that reside beside them needs to be overtly addressed.
Cultural division: Cultural differences have often been seen as lying at the heart of the ‘Irish problem’. Despite this, art and artists have increasingly been seen as having the potential to develop new discourses. Research explored the following questions: What role can the arts play in re-imagining the spaces opened up by the promises of the 1998 Agreement? What implication does the confrontation with the legacies of conflict have for artistic practices? What impact do the arts have on constructions of identity, on narratives of history, and on electoral politics?
Institutional transformation: This strand of research explored the significance of the process of organizational change which followed the establishment of the 1998 on political and other public policy institutions such as the police and prison services. It suggested that the experience and lessons learned from such periods of transition have much to contribute to how Northern Ireland begins to address political polarization in other areas of public service infrastructure, chiefly around the sectarian monoliths of education and housing.
Working through the past: ‘Legacy’ issues have gained increasing prominence since 1998: issues to do with public symbolism (particularly relating to the flying of flags and parading), defining victimhood, securing victims’ rights, recovery of the ‘disappeared’, reintegrating ex- prisoners back into society, and the possibilities for truth recovery and reconciliation have all acquired salient and emotive force. Although the 1998 Agreement promised to ‘honour the dead’ through a ‘new beginning’, it is increasingly unclear as to whether an agreed narrative about the past is possible – or even worthwhile pursuing. Research under this theme looked at the complex relationship between memory, commemoration and violence; how commemorative events are performed, organized, policed and represented. It also addressed the fraught issue of how to come to terms with Northern Ireland’s divided and bloodied past.

The editors are in the process of guiding contributors to adapt their papers, which were presented to a series of workshops on the above themes, to the purposes of the book. In particular, the contributors will be guided to focus on the related aims of assessing the extent of change that has occurred and providing an assessment of what remains to be done. To that end, contributors are asked to engage directly with the questions that close the ‘Introduction’, namely: To what extent has the ‘promise’ of the 1998 Agreement been fulfilled? To what extent has the 1998 Agreement given rise to forms of exclusion? To what extent has the 1998 Agreement shaped new forms of debate, dispute and engagement? In the absence of that guidance having been sent out yet, the outlines below are, for the time being, the abstracts of their original papers.

Culturally Sensitive Care of the Baby and Family in the NICU: a review of the literature

This oral presentation summarised the literature on cultural differences in grieving and provision of end-of-life care in the nICU

delta C-13 and delta N-15 reveal significant differences in the coastal foodwebs of the seas surrounding Trinidad and Tobago

This study assessed nearshore, marine ecosystem function around Trinidad and Tobago (TT). The coastline of TT is highly complex, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Paria and the Columbus Channel, and subject to local terrestrial runoff and regional riverine inputs (e.g. the Orinoco and Amazon rivers). Coastal organisms can assimilate energy from allochthonous and autochthonous Sources, We assessed whether stable isotopes delta C-13 and delta N-15 Could be used to provide a rapid assessment of trophic interactions in primary consumers around the islands. Filter-feeding (bivalves and barnacles) and grazing organisms (gastropods and chitons) were collected from 40 marine sites during the wet season. The flesh of organisms was analysed for delta C-13 and delta N-15. Results indicate significant variation in primary consumers (by feeding guild and sampling zone). This variation was linked to different energy Sources being assimilated by consumers. Results suggest that offshore production is fuelling intertidal foodwebs; for example, a depleted delta C-13 signature in grazers from the Gulf of Paria, Columbus Channel and the Caribbean and Atlantic coastline of 9 Tobago indicates that carbon with an offshore origin (e.g. phytoplankton and dissolved organic matter) is more important than benthic or littoral algae (luring the wet season. Results also confirm findings from other studies indicating that much of the coastline is subject to Cultural eutrophication. This Study revealed that ecosystem function is spatially variable around the coastline of TT, This has clear implications for marine resource management, as a single management approach is unlikely to be successful at a national level.

Cross-Cultural Patterns in Dynamic Ratings of Positive and Negative Natural Emotional Behaviour

Background: Studies of cross-cultural variations in the perception of emotion have typically compared rates of recognition of static posed stimulus photographs. That research has provided evidence for universality in the recognition of a range of emotions but also for some systematic cross-cultural variation in the interpretation of emotional expression. However, questions remain about how widely such findings can be generalised to real life emotional situations. The present study provides the first evidence that the previously reported interplay between universal and cultural influences extends to ratings of natural, dynamic emotional stimuli.

Methodology/Principal Findings: Participants from Northern Ireland, Serbia, Guatemala and Peru used a computer based tool to continuously rate the strength of positive and negative emotion being displayed in twelve short video sequences by people from the United Kingdom engaged in emotional conversations. Generalized additive mixed models were developed to assess the differences in perception of emotion between countries and sexes. Our results indicate that the temporal pattern of ratings is similar across cultures for a range of emotions and social contexts. However, there are systematic differences in intensity ratings between the countries, with participants from Northern Ireland making the most extreme ratings in the majority of the clips.

Conclusions/Significance: The results indicate that there is strong agreement across cultures in the valence and patterns of ratings of natural emotional situations but that participants from different cultures show systematic variation in the intensity with which they rate emotion. Results are discussed in terms of both ‘in-group advantage’ and ‘display rules’ approaches. This study indicates that examples of natural spontaneous emotional behaviour can be used to study cross-cultural variations in the perception of emotion.

Managing Cultural Diversity in Healthcare Partnerships: The Case of LIFT

Purpose: The National Health Service (NHS) Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme was launched in 2001 as an innovative public-private partnership to address the historical under-investment in local primary care facilities in England. The organisations from the public and private sector that comprise a local LIFT partnership each have their own distinctive norms of behaviour and acceptable working practices - ultimately different organisational cultures. The purpose of this article is to assess the role of organisational culture in facilitating (or impeding) LIFT partnerships and to contribute to an understanding of how cultural diversity in public-private partnerships is managed at the local level. Design/methodology/approach: The approach taken was qualitative case studies, with data gathering comprising interviews and a review of background documentation in three LIFT companies purposefully sampled to represent a range of background factors. Elite interviews were also conducted with senior policy makers responsible for implementing LIFT policy at the national level. Findings: Interpreting the data against a conceptual framework designed to assess approaches to managing strategic alliances, the authors identified a number of key differences in the values, working practices and cultures in public and private organisations that influenced the quality of joint working. On the whole, however, partners in the three LIFT companies appeared to be working well together, with neither side dominating the development of strategy. Differences in culture were being managed and accommodated as partnerships matured. Research limitations/implications: As LIFT develops and becomes the primary source of investment for managing, developing and channelling funding into regenerating the primary care infrastructure, further longitudinal work might examine how ongoing partnerships are working, and how changes in the cultures of public and private partners impact upon wider relationships within local health economies and shape the delivery of patient care. Originality/value: To the authors' knowledge this is the first study of the role of culture in mediating LIFT partnerships and the findings add to the evidence on public-private partnerships in the NHS