British Monetary Sovereignty: A Cultural Analysis

In this thesis, I will document and analyze historical aspects of the British debate over adopting a common currency with the European Community primarily during the last half of the twentieth century until the present. More specifically, while on the surface such a decision would seem to turn on economic or political considerations, I will show that this historic British decision not to surrender their pound sterling in exchange for the euro was rooted in the nation's cultural identity. During this decades long British debate over the euro, two opposing, but strongly held, positions developed; one side believed that Britain had a compelling interest in bonding with the rest of Europe economically as well as politically, the other side believed that Britain's independent heritage was deeply rooted in many of its traditions including maintaining control of its own monetary matters, which included keeping its pound sterling. As part of this thesis, I have conducted interviews with business leaders, economists, and social scientists as well as researched public records in order to assess many of the arguments favoring and opposing Britain's adoption of the euro. Many Britons strongly believed that it was time to join other Europeans, who were willing to sacrifice their sovereign currency to a bold common currency experiment, while other Britons viewed the pound sterling as too integral a part of British heritage to abandon. Ultimately, British leaders and citizens had to determine whether such a currency tradeoff would be worth it to them as a nation. It was a gamble that twelve other nations (at the time of the euro's 2002 launch) were ready to take, optimistically calculating that easier credit and reduced exchange transaction costs would lead to greater economic prosperity. Many asserted that only with ! ! such a united European monetary coalition would Europe's nations be able to compete trade-wise with powerful economic nations like the United States and China. My conclusion is that Britain's refusal to join the euro was a decision that had less to do with economic opportunity or political motivations and much more to do with how the British people viewed themselves culturally and their identity as an independent nation.

The Reform of the EC Audiovisual Media Regulation : Television Without Cultural Diversity

In the profoundly changing and dynamic world of contemporary audiovisual media, what has remained surprisingly unaffected is regulation. In the European Union, the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS), proposed by the European Commission on December 13, 2005, should allegedly rectify this situation. Amending the existing Television without Frontiers Directive, it should offer a fresh approach and meet the challenge of appropriately regulating media in a complex environment. It is meant to achieve a balance between the free circulation of TV broadcast and new audiovisual media and the preservation of values of cultural identity and diversity, while respecting the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality inherent to the Community. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how the changes envisaged to the EC audiovisual media regime might influence cultural diversity in Europe. It addresses subsequently the question of whether the new AVMS properly safeguards the balance between competition and the public interest in this regard, or whether cultural diversity remains a mere political banner.

Courses in the language and culture of origin and their impact on youth development in cultural transition: A study among immigrant and dual heritage youth in Switzerland

Elena Makarova traces how the concept of intercultural education in German-speaking European countries promotes the inclusion of courses in the Language and Culture of Origin (LCO) for immigrant youth in the school curriculum of host countries. Such courses are assumed to have positive effects on the development of immigrant youth in the host country. Particularly, it has been suggested that participation in LCO courses increases the self-esteem of immigrant youth, facilitates the development of their bicultural identity and improves their integration in the host society. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the nature of the effects of LCO course attendance on the acculturation of immigrant youth and their cultural identity. Accordingly, the aim of the study detailed in the chapter is to examine the impact of immigrant youth’s attitudes towards LCO courses and of their attendance of such courses on their acculturation and cultural identity.

Being, Belonging, and Connecting: Filipino Youths' Narratives of Place(s) and Wellbeing in Hawai'i

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2016-04

International images and mass media: The effects of media coverage on Canadians' perceptions of ethnic and race relations in Australia

Recently, there has been much speculation about the impact of international media coverage of Australia's position on Indigenous people, migrants and asylum seekers on other nations' images of Australia. In this experiment we examined whether there was any basis for such concerns by considering the short-term impact of negative TV coverage of Australians on Canadian viewers. A questionnaire provided baseline data on Canadian students' perceptions of Australians and Australian race relations. Four months later, the students were assigned to one of three conditions that varied media contact with Australians. Students viewed one of two television programs (about right-wing political independent, Pauline Hanson, and her emotive criticisms of Aborigines and Asian immigrants or about an ethnically-mixed group of young Australians and their positive sense of cultural identity), or they viewed no program (no contact control). Results indicated that both positive and negative media coverage of Australians affected Canadians' views of Australia in the short-term. In particular, negative coverage (of Hanson) promoted less favourable views of Australians and Australian race relations over time and relative to the positive media and no media control conditions. The media's role in shaping international images is discussed.

Creating an authentic aural experience in the digital songlines game engine: Part of a contextualised cultural heritage knowledge toolkit

Digital Songlines is an Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID) project that is developing protocols, methodologies and toolkits to facilitate the collection, education and sharing of indigenous cultural heritage knowledge. The project explores the areas of effective recording, content management and virtual reality delivery capabilities that are culturally sensitive and involve the indigenous custodians, leaders and communities in remote areas of the Australian ‘outback’. It investigates how players in a serious gaming sense can experience Indigenous virtual heritage in a high fidelity fashion with culturally appropriate interface tools. This paper describes a 3D ambient audio quilt designed and implemented specifically for the Digital Songlines software, which is built using the Torque Game Engine. The audio quilt developed provides dynamic ambient fauna and flora sound effects to represent the varying audio environment of the landscape. This provides an authentic contextualised interesting aural experience that can be different each time a location is entered. This paper reports on completed and ongoing research in this area.

Contesting Europe's Eastern Rim:cultural identities in public discourse

Since 1989, Europe's eastern rim has been in constant flux. This collection focuses on how political and economic transformations have triggered redefinitions of cultural identity. Using discursive modes of identity construction (deconstruction, reconstruction, reformulation, and invention) the book focuses on the creation of opposition to old and new outsidersA" and insidersA" in Europe. The linguistic study of discourse elements in connection with an exploration of the significance of metaphors in anchoring individual and collective identity is innovative and allows for a unique analysis of public discourse in Europe.

Ethnic and American identity development: A developmental systems approach

Given the role ethnic identity has as a protective factor against the effects of marginalization and discrimination (Umaña-Taylor, 2011), research longitudinally examining ethnic identity has become of increased importance. However, successful identity development must incorporate elements from both one's ethnic group and from the United States (Berry, 1980). Despite this, relatively few studies have jointly evaluated ethnic and American identity (Schwartz et al., 2012). The current dissertation, guided by three objectives, sought to address this and several other gaps in the literature. First, psychometric properties of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) and the American Identity Measure (AIM) were evaluated. Secondly, the dissertation examined growth trends in recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents' and their caregivers' ethnic and American identity. Lastly, the relationship between adolescents' and caregivers' ethnic and American identity was evaluated. The study used an archival sample consisting of 301 recently immigrated Hispanic families collected from Miami (N = 151) and Los Angeles (N = 150). Consistent with previous research, results in Study 1 indicated a two-factor model reliably provided better fit than a one-factor model and established longitudinal invariance for the MEIM and the AIM. Results from Study 2 found significant growth in adolescents' American identity. While some differences were found across site and nationality, evidence suggested recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents were becoming more bicultural. Counterintuitively, results found a significant decline in caregivers' ethnic identity which future studies should further examine. Finally, results from Study 3, found several significant positive relationships between adolescents' and their caregivers' ethnic and American identity. Findings provided preliminary evidence for the importance of examining identity development within a systemic lens. Despite several limitations, these three studies represented a step forward in addressing the current gaps in the cultural identity literature. Implications for future investigation are discussed.

O turismo de base comunitária como vetor de etnodesenvolvimento: a comunidade Mebêngôkre-Kayapó na Terra Indígena Las Casas - PA

This study aims to analyze the contribution that the future implementation of community-based tourism can provide to Mebengokre-Kayapo, people of the village Tekrejarôti, they re-inhabiting the indigenous land Las Casas, located in southern of Pará, taking into consideration that tourism is as vector of ethnodevelopment, and it can also contribute to the conservation of Sociobiodiversity and local culture through experiences that will enable the realization of acquaintanceship, where there will be sharing of the daily activities of the customs of the local people, and cultural changes, which is the aim between visitors and the community, where these ones can promote the knowledge of non-indigenous people, and to consolidate the ethnic and cultural identity thereof too. Thus, this study guided by the participatory action research, it was used data obtained in 2012, that were results from the application of interviews with the community to make the diagnosis of tourism potential. It is an exploratory and descriptive research about the topic. The field research combined with participant observation, workshops and interviews contributed to it was possible to conduct a depth analysis about the environment studied. This research has the intention to obtain concrete results in the implementation and/or promotion of a cultural practice and environmentally sustainable ruled in organizational processes that permeates the guidelines of community-based tourism, however this depends on the conditions of human and forest resources, and infrastructure conditions in the community, providing in the short and medium terms, social activities and culturally positive for the culture of this people, and providing to long term, environmental and economic landmarks. As result, it was possible to identify that the community with its cultural events, parties and ceremonies being allied to their way of life and taken from their criteria, it is able to work with the tourism within their land and it can makes the tourism, a cultural affirmation opportunity and income generation. But, it concludes that for tourism to become ,in fact, there are required to be carried out some measures, that meets the new Regulatory Instruction IN 3/2015, this IN states that for the community to work with tourism in their land, it is necessary to be prepared a visitation plan that fits the established requirements. This research is constituted as an important tool in building this visitation plan, given that it was done from the community demand and it was conducted in a participatory manner, valuing the horizontal dialogue and the autonomy of this people.

O turismo de base comunitária como vetor de etnodesenvolvimento: a comunidade Mebêngôkre-Kayapó na Terra Indígena Las Casas - PA

This study aims to analyze the contribution that the future implementation of community-based tourism can provide to Mebengokre-Kayapo, people of the village Tekrejarôti, they re-inhabiting the indigenous land Las Casas, located in southern of Pará, taking into consideration that tourism is as vector of ethnodevelopment, and it can also contribute to the conservation of Sociobiodiversity and local culture through experiences that will enable the realization of acquaintanceship, where there will be sharing of the daily activities of the customs of the local people, and cultural changes, which is the aim between visitors and the community, where these ones can promote the knowledge of non-indigenous people, and to consolidate the ethnic and cultural identity thereof too. Thus, this study guided by the participatory action research, it was used data obtained in 2012, that were results from the application of interviews with the community to make the diagnosis of tourism potential. It is an exploratory and descriptive research about the topic. The field research combined with participant observation, workshops and interviews contributed to it was possible to conduct a depth analysis about the environment studied. This research has the intention to obtain concrete results in the implementation and/or promotion of a cultural practice and environmentally sustainable ruled in organizational processes that permeates the guidelines of community-based tourism, however this depends on the conditions of human and forest resources, and infrastructure conditions in the community, providing in the short and medium terms, social activities and culturally positive for the culture of this people, and providing to long term, environmental and economic landmarks. As result, it was possible to identify that the community with its cultural events, parties and ceremonies being allied to their way of life and taken from their criteria, it is able to work with the tourism within their land and it can makes the tourism, a cultural affirmation opportunity and income generation. But, it concludes that for tourism to become ,in fact, there are required to be carried out some measures, that meets the new Regulatory Instruction IN 3/2015, this IN states that for the community to work with tourism in their land, it is necessary to be prepared a visitation plan that fits the established requirements. This research is constituted as an important tool in building this visitation plan, given that it was done from the community demand and it was conducted in a participatory manner, valuing the horizontal dialogue and the autonomy of this people.

'Corkonian exceptionalism': identity, authenticity and the emotional politics of place in a small city's popular music scene

Drawing from ethnographic research on Cork city’s popular music scene, this article explores meanings of ‘authenticity’ as constructed through geographical, social and ideological referents. It unpacks local music producers’ position-takings within the local field of cultural production, and locates their narrative claims to authenticity with respect to the city’s strong sense of cultural identity. Their authenticating discourses are revealed as complex, often produced through building imagined communities of ‘us’ (in Cork) versus ‘them’ (in Dublin). The analysis indicates local actors’ deep sense of emotional attachment to place and to others within the music-making community, which impacts on their self-conception as creative labourers, sustains DIY, collaborative practices, and promotes a solidaristic ethos within the local music scene.

The Location of Cultural Authenticity: Identifying the Real and the Fake in Urban Guizhou

This article examines notions of cultural identity and authenticity and how these notions are articulated in the small city of Kaili in Guizhou Province, an ethnically diverse region. Despite its urban status, Kaili has been branded by the local government as a yuanshengtai tourist destination. This Chinese term literally translates as “original ecology” but is used in ordinary conversation to denote a cultural authenticity in which people exist in quiet harmony with nature. Promotional literature uses the term to tout the ethnic cultural practices that mainly occur in the villages of Kaili’s municipal periphery. In contrast, many local urban inhabitants—although amenable to the promotion of Kaili as a tourist destination—have rejected the notion that the city itself could be considered culturally authentic, and proudly declare themselves “fake” ethnic minorities, as against the “genuine” ethnic people of surrounding villages. These small-city inhabitants have also defined themselves against big-city visitors by attributing to the visitors a naïve fascination with cultural authenticity, while themselves remaining aloof from such practices. The cultural authenticity discourse in Kaili has thus facilitated a reordering of social and spatial hierarchies, as blasé small-city residents define themselves against both culturally authentic rural people and authenticity-seeking big-city tourists. In analyzing this, the article draws out the broader implications regarding PRC notions of ethnicity, cultural practices, heritage, and identity.

Representaciones sociales acerca de la televisión colombiana y su vínculo con la identidad cultural en Cartagena.1970-1986

Esta investigación hace un aporte a la construcción de la historia de la televisión colombiana desde la región Caribe, partiendo de los recuerdos de los habitantes de Cartagena, con el objetivo de determinar de qué manera se relacionaron con ella y si existe o no un vínculo con la identidad cultural durante el período 1970-1986. Para identificar este lazo se recurrió a la teoría de las representaciones sociales propuesta por Moscovici y Jodelet, que sirvió como sustento metodológico del trabajo. La información obtenida con la implementación de técnicas cualitativas, dieron origen a una serie de categorías con las cuales se encontró que a través del relacionamiento con la televisión, los cartageneros empezaron a construir una identidad basada en un sentir nacional, que durante un tiempo estuvo influenciada por la mirada construida desde el centro del país. Solo hasta la aparición del canal regional Telecaribe, el televidente de Cartagena inició la construcción de una identidad regional con la cual si se sentía cercano. Las principales representaciones relacionadas con la identidad cultural se refieren a “colombianidad”, “falsa costeñidad” y “costeñidad”, entre otras; la manera en que se nombraron y describieron estas representaciones serán descritas en este informe.

A essência da gastronomia na valorização cultural : a aplicação do conceito "Slow Food" nos Açores

Dissertação de Mestrado, Gestão do Turismo Internacional, 19 de Julho de 2016, Universidade dos Açores.

O Kwaryp de Kanutari : uma abordagem linguística e etnográfica

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Linguística, Português e Línguas Clássicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística, 2015.