This chapter proposes the concept of the mindsponge and its underlying themes that explain why and how executives, managers, and corporations could replace waning values in their mindsets with those absorbed during their exposure to multicultural and global settings. It first provides a brief literature review on global mindset and cultural values, which suggests that not only can a mindset be improved, but that it is learning mechanism can also be developed. Then the chapter offers a conceptual framework, (...) called the 'mindsponge', which builds upon earlier works linking mindset to themes of multi-filtering. The process is proposed to help identify emerging values in the transition economy of Vietnam and also to reconfirm existing core values. The concept of mindsponge provides executives, managers, and organizations with not only a practical framework for improving their global mind-set by identifying and strengthening core values, but also capturing emerging opportunities. (shrink)

The thrust of this paper is to assess the efficacy of establishing African Global Media channel to strike a balance in communication between Africa and the rest of the world. This paper is a reaction to the imbalance in communication flow as engineered by the global media. Global media has contributed greatly to cultural domination in Africa by Europe and the Western world. These channels of communication such as), Cable News Network (CNN), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBQ, DeutseWelle (...) Television (DWTV) including a host of other transnational print media, transmit programmes with cultural values from Europe and America to Africa. Consequently local African media and their attempts to preserve African culture are frustrated. This paper therefore recommends African governments' committed investment in local industrialization, re-structuring information and communication industries to serve African developmental purposes and the establishment of a unified African Global Media Channels. (shrink)

The thrust of this paper is to access the efficacy of establishing African Global Media channel to strike a balance in communication between Africa and the rest of the world. This paper is a reaction to the imbalance in communication flow as engineered by the global media. Global media has contributed greatly to cultural domination in Africa by Europe and the Western World. These channels of communication such as, Cable News Network (CNN), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Deutse (...) Welle Television (DWTV) including a host of other transnational print media, transmit programmes with cultural values from Europe and America to Africa. Consequently local African media and their attempts to preserve African Culture are frustrated. This paper therefore recommends African governments' committed investment in local industrialization, restructuring information and communication industries to serve African development purposes and the establishment of a unified African Global Media Channels. (shrink)

It has been the better part of a century since the appearance of Dialectic of Enlightenment, and the technologies of mass communication that Adorno and Horkheimer placed at the centre of their analysis of mass culture have altered beyond recognition, and with them the culture itself. And this in turn raises the question of the continuing relevance of the ‘culture industry’ concept. Does the contemporary culture industry still operate along the same lines that Adorno and Horkheimer (...) charted or has it evolved to a point at which their analysis no longer applies? This special issue gathers together a broad range of theoretical approaches that address the pressing need for the analysis of the contemporary culture industry in the Global South and beyond. Through the lenses of the history and theory of Critical Theory (and African critical theory traditions) and topics including digital culture, neoliberalism and its effects, and environmental praxis, the culture industry of Adorno and Horkheimer is revisited in the spirit of renewal and positive critique. (shrink)

—This paper sets out to re-examine the impact of global television on the behavior of youths in Nigeria. The paper identifies cultural imperialism as the most significant impact of global television achieved through programs like sports, drama, musicals, and violent movies transmitted to Nigeria and other third world nations. These programs are transmitted under the guise of informative, educational and entertainment programs while the Nigerian youths are the most affected victims. Through careful analysis of previous researches and literatures, (...) this paper posits that Nigerian youths are caught between the dilemma of the foreign cultures and their indigenous cultures in terms of dress codes, speech, dance and the general ideologies. This paper concludes that aggressive cultural communication and government’s programs targeted at youths at all levels are one of the suggestions that can help tame the cultural dilemma among the youth. (shrink)

Este trabajo presenta un rastreo del tratamiento del concepto de Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial (PCI) en la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (UNESCO). Metodológicamente se procurará analizar genealógicamente las fuentes documentales vinculadas al tema, relevadas del repositorio en línea en la UNESCO. La recuperación de los antecedentes sobre el Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial puede contribuir a consolidar su consideración internacional protectora como bien común.

It is almost impossible to conceive of a people without culture for this would mean that such people do not experience or have any knowledge about the world. Culture determines the perspective or purview through which the world around a people is understood. It shapes their values, practices, behaviours, beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, and conduct. There are variations in the way Africans view the world but within these variations, several common themes are evidently visible giving room for unity in (...) diversity. Some of these themes include the notions of motherhood, respect for constituted authority, belief in the sanctity of human life, life in the hereafter, dignity in labour, moral uprightness, need for inter-subjective living, and close-knittedness with nature. The goal of this paper is bipartite in nature. It argues on the one hand that these cultural practices which are deeply rooted in African worldview, when extended globally would contribute to global harmony. On the other hand, it observes at the same time that this present age and civilisation have lost touch with the cultural practices that are fundamental to the unity and harmony of Africa and by extension, the world, hence, the need for a reawakening of African cultural practices that are germane to global harmony. The paper intends to achieve this by cashing in on the numerous values in the practice of kinship in Africa that encourage shared values and discourage cultural prejudices as kinship is conceived to extend beyond one’s immediate family to the community and embracing the whole of humanity. However, in a paper of this length, one cannot obviously fully explore how each of the aforementioned themes will influence global harmony. Consequently, focus is here only directed on a few. (shrink)

The Age of Enlightenment is more global and complex than the standard Eurocentric Colonial Canon narrative presents. For example, before the advent of unscientific racism and the systematic negligence of the contributions of Others outside of “White Europe,” Raphael centered Ibn Rushd (Averroes) in his Vatican fresco “Causarum Cognitio” (1511); the astronomer Edmund Halley taught himself Arabic to be more enlightened; The Royal Society of London acknowledged the scientific method developed by Ibn Al-Haytham (Alhazen). In addition, if we study (...) the Transatlantic texts of the late 18th century, it is not Kant, but instead enlightened thinkers like Anton Wilhelm Amo (born in present-day’s Ghana), Phillis Wheatley (Senegal region), and Toussaint L’Ouverture (Haiti), who mostly live up to the ideals of reason, humanism, universalism, and human rights. One obstacle to developing a more balanced presentation of the Age of the Enlightenment is the influence of colonialism, Eurocentrism, and methodological nationalism. Consequently, this paper, part II of two, will also deal with the European Enlightenment’s unscientific heritage of scholarly racism from the 1750s. It will be demonstrated how Linnaeus, Hume, Kant, and Hegel were among the Founding Fathers of intellectual white supremacy within the Academy. Hence, the Age of Enlightenment is not what we are taught to believe. This paper will demonstrate how the lights from different “Global Enlightenments” can illuminate paths forward to more dialogue and universalism in the 21st century. (shrink)

The findings show that the family’s provisions of cultural-historical knowledge of other countries, communication methods with people in different cultures, and encouragement to learn foreign languages are positively associated with students’ willingness to exchange historical and cultural information with other people. We also found that students’ willingness to exchange historical and cultural information with others is positively associated with their awareness of cultural diversity, global interdependence, and peace protection.

This chapter critically examines the dominant tradition in formal education as an indirect driver of biocultural homogenization while revealing that there is an alternative tradition that fosters biocultural conservation. The dominant tradition, originating in the Seventeenth Century scientific revolution effected by René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Isaac Newton, John Locke and allied thinkers, privileges science, seen as facilitating the technological domination of the world in the service of economic growth, as the only genuine knowledge. This is at the foundation of a (...) globalized, homogenizing culture that reduces everything and everyone to instruments of the globalized economy. The alternative, now recognized as the Radical Enlightenment, has its roots in the Renaissance. Represented by thinkers such as Giordano Bruno, Giambattista Vico, Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, it challenges such dogmatic scientism and upholds the value of diverse cultures, past and present. It offers an alternative tradition and model of education fostering imagination, understanding and appreciation of diversity in the quest for wisdom. It is a model of education which engenders respect for and appreciation of the value of different cultures, including indigenous wisdom with very different attitudes to nature, thereby developing the capacity to reflect on, question, criticize and overcome the homogenizing imperialism of mainstream modernist culture. (shrink)

Local reports from different international societies have considered the achievement of the successful Glocalized architecture model in line with the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Aga Khan Cultural Foundation’s International Program for Islamic Architecture has also prioritized the understanding of the success drivers in architectural projects. This study aimed to detect the potentials of the common global indicators to access qualitative design assessment through analyzing the Aga Khan Award’s reports. The selected methodology in the present study is (...) a quantitative approach using the systematic content analysis and coding techniques for qualitative data obtained from the technical. The physical, non-physical, modern, and traditional factors that have contributed to the success of the works as well as their combinations were extracted and analyzed using Sensible and Abstract international, national, and local indications. There is a relative superiority for Sensible indications (A combination of modern and physical factors). The hybrid data distribution provides the ground to assess the works, and this can be used to manage the globalization challenges in the contemporary architecture of Muslim societies. (shrink)

Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies (APAS) held at the University of Nigeria Nsukka on 24th - 27th May.

The paper argues that Information Ethics (IE) can provide a successful approach for coping with the challenges posed by our increasingly globalized reality. After a brief review of some of the most fundamental transformations brought about by the phenomenon of globalization, the article distinguishes between two ways of understanding Global Information Ethics, as an ethics of global communication or as a global-information ethics. It is then argued that cross-cultural, successful interactions among micro and macro agents call for (...) a high level of successful communication, that the latter requires a shared ontology friendly towards the implementation of moral actions, and that this is provided by IE. There follows a brief account of IE and of the ontic trust, the hypothetical pact between all agents and patients presupposed by IE. (shrink)

Overview of the global warming/climate change debate.

Recent work in psychology on ‘cultural cognition’ suggests that our cultural background drives our attitudes towards a range of politically contentious issues in science such as global warming. This work is part of a more general attempt to investigate the ways in which our wants, wishes and desires impact on our assessments of information, events and theories. Put crudely, the idea is that we conform our assessments of the evidence for and against scientific theories with clear political relevance to (...) our pre-existing political beliefs and convictions. In this paper I explore the epistemological consequences of cultural cognition. What does it mean for the rationality of our beliefs about issues such as global warming? I argue for an unsettling conclusion. Not only are those on the ‘political right’ who reject the scientific consensus on issues like global warming unjustified in doing so, some of those on the ‘political left’ who accept the consensus are also unjustified in doing so. I finish by addressing the practical implications of my conclusions. (shrink)

We are living in an imbalanced and insecure world. It is torn by violent conflicts on a global scale: between the West and the East, between rich and poor countries, between Christianity and Islam, between the Great Forces and naughty countries, between a global capitalist elite and workers and between the global democratic community and global terrorism. An optimistic thesis will be grounded asserting that varied cultures and civilizations can solve all existing problems and contradictions peacefully (...) and can carry out mutually advantageous cooperation more effectively irrespective of differences between them. Security problems can be explained and defined by means of making use of fundamental philosophical notions. All levels of security are interrelated on a global scale. The problem of regulation of international relations worldwide as regards guaranteeing security of all participants in them is one of primary importance. The present-day multi-polar world could be based on a social and economic pluralism and peace culture. (shrink)

After introducing the new field of cultural evolution, we review a growing body of empirical evidence suggesting that culture shapes what people attend to, perceive and remember as well as how they think, feel and reason. Focusing on perception, spatial navigation, mentalizing, thinking styles, reasoning (epistemic norms) and language, we discuss not only important variation in these domains, but emphasize that most researchers (including philosophers) and research participants are psychologically peculiar within a global and historical context. This rising (...) tide of evidence recommends caution in relying on one’s intuitions or even in generalizing from reliable psychological findings to the species, Homo sapiens. Our evolutionary approach suggests that humans have evolved a suite of reliably developing cognitive abilities that adapt our minds, information-processing abilities and emotions ontogenetically to the diverse culturally-constructed worlds we confront. (shrink)

We have two goals in this paper: first, to provide a diagnosis of global health and underline some of its blockages; second, to offer an alternative interpretation of what the demands for those in global health may be. The assumption that health is a good that requires no further explanation, and that per se it can serve as an actual modus operandi, lays the foundations of the problem. Related blockages ensue and are described using HIV prevention with a (...) focus on vaginal microbicides as a case study. Taking health as a self-evident, and self-explanatory “good” limits other possible goods; and prevents inquiry into the actual practices of creating good. We propose that to create conditions under which global health could be reconstructed, problematization be taken up as a practice, around a series of questions asked in conjunction with those ever-urgent ones of how to ameliorate the condition of living beings. (shrink)

The Global Media and Information Literacy Week commemorates the progress in achieving “MIL for all” by aggregating various MIL-related local and international events and actions across different disciplines around the world.The MIL Global Week 2018, 24 to 31 October, was marked by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in collaboration with various organizations including the UN Alliance of Civilizations, the Global Alliance for Partnership on MIL, the International Federation of Library Associations, the International Association of (...) School Libraries, and the UNESCO-UNAOC University Cooperation Programme on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue. (shrink)

The need for global values in a globalised world is combined with the need for contextual identity. New nationalisms, protectionisms and fundamentalisms are mixed with a globalised pluralistic relativism. Are global values threatened by particular values? Find answers within the 32 articles of this book. In each of the articles the authors, who are all in one way or another linked to Globethics.net, writing from one of four continents, focus and develop on a particular value or virtue in (...) a specific geographic, cultural or religious context. Many of them also give an input to the understanding of the value-basis of the UN-Sustainable Development Goals SDGs and give orientation for “values-driven leadership”, a key vision and mission of Globethics.net. (shrink)

Persons and nations agree on the importance of justice but disagree on its requirements. In The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama argues that human history moves towards liberal democracy as the final ideal for all societies. It is conceivable that liberal democratic societies will converge to similar conceptions of justice and that global spread of liberal democracies will promote consensus. This paper tries to show that consensus on justice is, nevertheless, unlikely, due to reasonable disagreement. (...) Reason does not give a single rational or reasonable solution to conflicting demands of justice. This means that apart from reason, other factors play a role in what is regarded as just. Jurisdiction is influenced by tradition and zeitgeist. This explains why also liberal democracies, which may recognize similar principles of justice, still arrive at differing rankings of these principles and divergent results of jurisdiction in time and place. (shrink)

Many have argued we have a moral obligation to assist others in need, but given the scope of global suffering, how far does this obligation extend? According to one traditional philosophical view, the obligation to help others is limited by our ability to help them, or by the principle that “ought implies can”. This view is primarily defended on the grounds that it is a core principle of commonsense moral psychology. This paper reviews findings from experimental philosophy in cognitive (...) science demonstrating that “ought implies can” is rejected by moral psychology. Researchers find that moral obligations are ascribed to agents who cannot fulfill them, suggesting that moral requirements do sometimes extend beyond what we are able to do. This research furthers our understanding of moral obligation, identifies an important need for further cross-cultural work in moral psychology, and demonstrates a way in which scientific experimentation can be applied to improve upon the conceptual analysis of important philosophical concepts in normative ethics. (shrink)

Many global catastrophic risks are threatening human civilization, and a number of ideas have been suggested for preventing or surviving them. However, if these interventions fail, society could preserve information about the human race and human DNA samples in the hopes that the next civilization on Earth will be able to reconstruct Homo sapiens and our culture. This requires information preservation of an order of magnitude of 100 million years, a little-explored topic thus far. It is important that (...) a potential future civilization will discover this information as early as possible, thus a beacon should accompany the message in order to increase visibility. The message should ideally contain information about how humanity was destroyed, perhaps including a continuous recording until the end. This could help the potential future civilization to survive. The best place for long-term data storage is under the surface of the Moon, with the beacon constructed as a complex geometric figure drawn by small craters or trenches around a central point. There are several cost-effective options for sending the message as opportunistic payloads on different planned landers. (shrink)

This paper examines visual representation from a distinctive, interdisciplinary perspective that draws on ethics, visual studies and critical race theory. Suggests ways to clarify complex issues of representational ethics in marketing communications and marketing representations, suggesting an analysis that makes identity creation central to societal marketing concerns. Analyzes representations of the exotic Other in disparate marketing campaigns, drawing upon tourist promotions, advertisements, and mundane objects in material culture. Moreover, music is an important force in marketing communication: visual representations in (...) music promotions are also explored as data for inquiry. Offers an alternative to phenomenologically based approaches in marketing and consumer research scholarship that use consumer responses to generate data. Contributes additional insight into societal marketing and places global marketing processes within the intersection of ethics, aesthetics and representation. (shrink)

This article takes a new idea, ‘normative behaviourism’, and applies it to global political theory, in order to address at least one of the problems we might have in mind when accusing that subject of being too ‘unrealistic’. The core of this idea is that political principles can be justified, not just by patterns in our thinking, and in particular our intuitions and considered judgements, but also by patterns in our behaviour, and in particular acts of insurrection and crime. (...) The problem addressed is ‘cultural relativism’, understood here not as a meta-ethical doctrine, but as the apparent ‘fact’ that people around the world have culturally varying intuitions and judgements of a kind that lead them to affirm different political principles. This is a problem because it seems to follow (1) that global agreement on any substantial set of political principles is impossible, and (2) that any political theory in denial of this ‘fact’ would be, for that reason, deeply unrealistic. The solution argued for here is that, if domestic political principles (i.e. principles intended to regulate a single state) could be justified by normative behaviourism, and in reference to culturally invariant behaviour, then an international system supportive of such principles is justifiable by extension. (shrink)

Globalization is resulting in complex decisions by businesses as to where and what to produce, while free trade is resulting in a greater menu of choices for consumers, often with the blending of products and goods from various cultures, called ‘glocalization.’ This paper reviews the theories and practices behind these current happenings, which are each economic, politicaleconomic, institutional, and sociological, first by looking at the supply side of why certain countries produce the goods that they do, and then at the (...) demand side, why consumers have particular, cultural tastes and preferences for goods. It also proffers theories to explain firm location and that of intra-industry trade. This occus when countries trade similar products rather than differentiating, as economic theory would suggest. After reviewing the literature, through numerous examples of political-economy and culture, it argues somewhat normatively that differences in culture and goods are a strength to the world community, and that globalization in the end will not likely result in a singular global culture with a uniformity of exactly identical economic goods anytime in the near future. (shrink)

In the face of the climate crisis, countries around the globe have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and achieving carbon neutrality. While the effects of such commitments remain ambiguous, some risks and obstacles could potentially hinder nations, even leading to failure in fulfilling their climate commitments. The paper presents four major challenges that can impede the global progress towards emission reduction targets as pledged: 1) energy security and global socio-economic development demands, 2) political conflicts, geopolitical instability, (...) and warfare, 3) challenges in developing and scaling emission reduction technologies, and 4) public perceptions toward climate change. Without addressing these challenges, humanity and the Earth's ecosystems will face the dangers of venturing into “uncharted waters” full of uncertainties and disorder. A potential solution to these issues is for the world to transition from an eco-deficit culture to an eco-surplus culture, where the lasting values of Earth's ecosystems are recognized as the conscience of our time. (shrink)

This paper advocates for the introduction of poetic inquiry in Nigerian universities as a powerful approach to decolonizing research and reclaiming indigenous ways of knowing. It highlights the need to challenge outdated colonial concepts of higher education that have suppressed poetry and other indigenous forms of exploration and understanding. It argues that the incorporation of poetic inquiry in Nigerian universities can create inclusive and transformative spaces that foster social justice, cultural affirmation, and knowledge decolonization. The paper draws on literature on (...) decolonial and critical pedagogy to argues that poetic inquiry enables researchers to engage with alternative modes of expression and challenge dominant Western-centric paradigms. It underscores the social and political implications of embracing poetry as a means of reimagining narratives and reshaping power dynamics within academia and society at large. By validating and honouring indigenous knowledge systems, poetic inquiry promotes self-determination and cultural revitalization while bridging the gap between academia and the wider community. The paper offers recommendations on how Poetic Inquiry may be integrated into the curriculum of Nigerian universities. (shrink)

The multifaceted importance of old forests and large ancient trees is evident in both their ecological and cultural significance. A recent article underscores the urgency of preserving ancient and rare trees due to their crucial role in forest ecosystems. By providing a global perspective on tree biodiversity and analyzing the age distribution and biodiversity of tree species worldwide, the article highlights the critical need to protect these trees to prevent species extinction and foster biodiversity. Furthermore, studies emphasize the importance (...) of rare trees, some of which remain undiscovered, in maintaining the overall health and resilience of forest ecosystems. (shrink)

Harmony as a basic value is neglected in internationally influential philosophical discussions about rights, power, and other facets of public policy; it is not prominent in articles that appear in widely read journals or in books published by presses with a global reach. Of particular interest, political philosophers and policy makers remain ignorant of the similarities and differences between various harmony-oriented approaches to institutional choice from around the world. In this chapter, I begin to rectify these deficiencies by critically (...) discussing the way harmony has figured into political philosophies from three major traditions in the Global South, namely, African ubuntu, East Asian Confucianism, and South American buen vivir. I point out that, although harmony is at the core of all three political philosophies, it is conceived in different ways, entailing incompatible prescriptions about things such as who should make laws and which sorts of beings have rights against the state. Such contrasting views call for rigorous cross-cultural dialogue amongst theorists of harmony, beyond mounting challenges to more individualist approaches that have been salient in modern Western political thought. (shrink)

Current local and national demographic trends have deepened the existing and formed new global demographic processes that have received a new historical reasoning that requires deep scientific research taking into account the influence of the multifactorial global dimension of the modern society development. The purpose of the article is to study the development of global demographic processes and to define the causes of their occurrence, manifestations, implications and prospects for implementation in the first half of the 21st (...) century. The authors have identified and characterized four global demographic processes, namely population growth, migration, increase of tourism, and change in population structure. It is projected that in the 30’s of the 21st century, the number and growth rates of the world population will reach the objective growth and these dynamics over the next two decades will begin to change in the direction of reducing the growth rates, which will lead to gradual stabilization, and eventually reduce the size of the world population. By the middle of the 21st century, one can observe the preservation of the growth rates of international and domestic migration, the growth of international migration flows from the South to the North and from the East to the West, the strengthening of new economically developed centers of gravity (Canada, Australia and New Zealand), the increase in migration of rural population to cities, as well as urbanization and activation of the metropolises development. The share of international tourists in comparison with the world population will be constantly increasing, and the annual growth rate of the number of international tourists will significantly depend on the world economy and may vary at the several percent level. Permanent change will occur in the age, religious-cultural and socio-economic structure of the population. (shrink)

Human beings define their identity primarily by the way they present, design and style their bodies. In doing so, individuals make statements about their affiliation to a social context. Globalisation implies a change of identity among the members of less industrialised cultures, as they are exposed to effects of cultural dominance. For the individual, this exposure can be the stronger, the more autonomous his or her culture of origin used to be before the confrontation. There is a bias of (...) cultural elements that are being transferred, so that the industrialised culture has a strong impact on other cultures. Global consent with regard to behaviour patterns, especially to bodily self-presentation and the related cognitive styles, leads to the obliteration of traditional knowledge, which is interwoven with the behaviour upon which identity had been defined previously. The cultural elements transferred are being used for the construction of globally standardised personal identities, whereat elements concerning the visual design of the human body are of major relevance for defining the self. The loss of variegated identities in favour of belonging to the global society brings about a number of problems, which can be demonstrated in functional models. These models, in turn, may support the planning of interventional strategies and rescue work. In this article, the role of the body within the destabilising effects of cultural change are analysed, and chances for intervention are discussed. (shrink)

This paper is mainly about situating the French language within (its) history. It analyzes the nostalgia for a linguistic and cultural imaginary global dimension of French. Although there are different globalities for different purposes, the one most widespread global language is English. English works internationally as an international language, even where it was once the colonial language, now left in heritage to once colonised countries. But the situation of the French language is quite different, its "globality" being much (...) more discrete and more locally circumscribed. (Yet the French often refer to French as a once diplomatic language, which it is not anymore, except for the French and for the "Francophonie"). This is not to deny the different global outreach (and different publics) of such languages as Mandarin, Arabic, or Spanish. In this paper, i compare French as a mainly local, and English as a global/international language in their different and divergent postcolonial configurations. Having access to a global language does not preclude the local dimension, which has several tracks. Contrary to the monolinguistic dream, languages actually inhabit each other. Since languages inhabit one another, plurilinguism is an asset, but it is also quite accessible to anyone. The French often have an inbuilt difficulty and complex (which comes with the way the first language is taught and transmitted) about not being able to speak another language, which inhibits them right from childhood. Crying over the fate of small languages or of languages "divested" of their universal claim seems useless. Language is a living organism subject to transformations and to decay. (shrink)

This essay argues that David Miller's criticisms of global egalitarianism do not undermine the view where it is stated in one of its stronger, luck egalitarian forms. The claim that global egalitarianism cannot specify a metric of justice which is broad enough to exclude spurious claims for redistribution, but precise enough to appropriately value different kinds of advantage, implicitly assumes that cultural understandings are the only legitimate way of identifying what counts as advantage. But that is an assumption (...) always or almost always rejected by global egalitarianism. The claim that global egalitarianism demands either too little redistribution, leaving the unborn and dissenters burdened with their societies' imprudent choices, or too much redistribution, creating perverse incentives by punishing prudent decisions, only presents a problem for global luck egalitarianism on the assumption that nations can legitimately inherit assets from earlier generations – again, an assumption very much at odds with global egalitarian assumptions. (shrink)

An ageing population is a global phenomenon that takes place in Latvia, too. The active ageing policy is a social response to social challenges caused by demographic changes. Growing generational gap is a challenge to all “greying societies‘ in Europe and Latvia in particular. The active ageing policy is oriented to provide possibilities for older adults to live independently. However, long-term care institutions remain necessary, especially for those who live alone and have serious health problems. LTCIs are mostly orientated (...) to provide primary needs and health care. People regardless of their age also need a social and cultural life, but for older people who live in LTCIs, it is insufficient. The study shows those who are residing in LTCIs settings are subject to everyday routine. LTCIs care provision is very much dependent on the authorities of the institution. The insufficient level of interaction between older people and the more active part of society prevents the finding of effective ways of achieving that the care in LTCIs is in accordance with the active ageing policy. The study aims to find out ways how intergenerational cultural programs of professional and amateur activities are implemented in LTCIs. The study uses a qualitative approach to explore how LTCIs intergenerational cultural programs are helping to keep our youngest and oldest generations connected. (shrink)

Out of all the possible categories of protected areas, the most widely used around the world has been the national park. The reasons behind this predominance have colored the entire international conservation movement. I look at the ethical implications of the national park ideal ’s phenomenal global success. Working from two assumptions-that human cultural diversity is good and desirable, and that there is a definite relation between such diversity and protected area conservation-I suggest that what is needed most right (...) now is a clarification and refocusing of the debate on this issue. (shrink)

An obvious tendency in the nature of modern development is the overpowering influence of Westernization. We now live in the midst of a technocracy being monitored by the west. This has been given a psychological anchorage that, in nation like Nigeria, our policy for development seems to be undermining the potential in our culture and tradition. We have tacitly accepted a separation of Tradition and Modernity. Thus, our leaders with serious tenacity embrace globalization, deregulation, privatization and readily ponder to (...) western recommendation. Meanwhile, there is a pervading menace of unproductive corruption prebandalism, financial recklessness, crass materialism, uncritical adoption of foreign paradigm and trivialization of indigenous initiatives. It is pertinent to note that development has a cultural basis, its pattern is motivated by reality within a given culture. It does not thrive on holistic import of artifacts across cultural latitude without prior look into the expediency and workability of such. With reference to Africa, development pattern must ensue from the people’s experience and integrated to the global network in pragmatic nature. It is not transferred technology nor a consumer’s economy. It is not attainable at the undermining of indigenous initiative and the strong ethos that define our brotherhood. So, a thorough hermeneutic of development in Africa must pay crucial attention to the cultural imperatives, the ethos and perception of development as an organic whole, not an absolute concentration on the technical and the economical. (shrink)

An obvious tendency in the nature of modern development is the overpowering influence of Westernization. We now live in the midst of a technocracy being monitored by the west. This has been given a psychological anchorage that, in nation like Nigeria, our policy for development seems to be undermining the potential in our culture and tradition. We have tacitly accepted a separation of Tradition and Modernity. Thus, our leaders with serious tenacity embrace globalization, deregulation, privatization and readily ponder to (...) western recommendation. Meanwhile, there is a pervading menace of unproductive corruption prebandalism, financial recklessness, crass materialism, uncritical adoption of foreign paradigm and trivialization of indigenous initiatives. It is pertinent to note that development has a cultural basis, its pattern is motivated by reality within a given culture. It does not thrive on holistic import of artifacts across cultural latitude without prior look into the expediency and workability of such. With reference to Africa, development pattern must ensue from the people’s experience and integrated to the global network in pragmatic nature. It is not transferred technology nor a consumer’s economy. It is not attainable at the undermining of indigenous initiative and the strong ethos that define our brotherhood. So, a thorough hermeneutic of development in Africa must pay crucial attention to the cultural imperatives, the ethos and perception of development as an organic whole, not an absolute concentration on the technical and the economical. (shrink)

This paper examines global English language newspaper coverage of the death of David Bowie. Drawing upon the concept of reification, it is argued that the notion of celebrity is discursively (re)produced and configured through a ‘public face’ that is defined, maintained and shaped via media reports and public responses that aim to know and reflect upon celebrity. In this paper, the findings highlight how Bowie’s reification was supported by discourses that represented him as an observable, reified form. Here, Bowie’s (...) ‘reality’, that is, his authentic/veridical self, was obscured behind a façade of mediation, interpretation and representation, that debated and decided his ‘authenticity’ as a cultural icon. Such debates, however, were engagements with a reified image, enveloped in continual (re)interpretation. As a result, Bowie’s reification was grounded in a polysemous process that allowed numerous versions of ‘himself’ to be aesthetically reimagined, reinvented and repeated. (shrink)

Our environment is saturated in the English language due to globalisation; yet accompanying western philosophical concepts can be contested, even resisted, in different cultural contexts. The philosophical ideas associated with the Anglosphere are rooted in the cultural, economic, religious and social traditions of broader Anglo-European, or “western” culture and are decontested ideologically within that culture. The contestation of western ideology is beneficial for global culture, but this aspect of cross-cultural dialogue is often neglected in South Asia (...) where English language learning occurs in a post-colonial context and is often accompanied by the attempted internalisation of Anglo-European culture and norms. This paper contrasts the philosophical underpinnings of ethics in South Asia and the west. The metaphysical and cultural frameworks underlying these systems can result in conceptual misunderstandings that can only be resolved by dialogue. The aim of this theoretical paper is to examine ethical theories and show how English language can be instrumental in creating this cross-cultural dialogue. (shrink)

The purpose is to substantiate the ways of promoting sustainable tourism in the global economy. Methodology - To determine the importance of sustainable tourism factors, the hierarchy analysis method of T. Saati was used. The method of expert estimations has been used for determining the significance level of the tourism sustainability factors. Findings - The conditions for the promotion of sustainable tourism to the world market and the factors of impact on its development in the global economy have (...) been determined. All impact factors were divided into 7 groups: political and regulatory environment, environmental sustainability, social and cultural strategy, economic sustainability, tourism service, safety, and basic sustainability state. To assess the potential of sustainable tourism by international destinations, it was offered to rank the factors of the index of sustainable tourism development in the countries from the point of view of a tourist. Contribution - The structure of the factors of tourism sustainability index wite emphasis on the role of an immediate tourist was improved. The most importante factors of influence on the choose tourist destination have been identified: the factors of safety, tourist service and the factor of basic sustainability state of a country. (shrink)

In the educational context, the necessity of recognizing the structure of relations among social and educational institutions by examining how individuals’ different social and cultural experiences affect the educational learning outcomes towards global digital communication. The current study examined the interplay of Social and Cultural Capital orientation, cognitive learning ability, and family background. The descriptive correlational research design was employed. It adopted two research instruments, namely the Social and Cultural Capital Questionnaire (SCCQ) and the Otis-Lennon Scholastic Ability tests (OLSAT), (...) to a total of 377 undergraduate college students of select universities in Indonesia. The results of the study showed that the respondents manifest a high level of social and cultural capital orientation, with literacy having the highest factor. Likewise, the respondents have an average cognitive level of ability. Test of difference showed that respondents whose parents with high educational achievement exhibit high social competence, social solidarity, cultural competence, and extraversion, social solidity, and extraversion. Similarly, fathers’ education is the single variable which spelled difference on the student’s cognitive ability implying students whose fathers have high academic qualification exhibit high cognitive ability. Test of relationship showed that literacy practices and global-cultural competence are correlated to students’ cognitive ability. Finally, family income is a predictor of students’ high level of cognitive ability and social and cultural capital orientation. The implications of the results were discussed within, and suggestions were made for future research. (shrink)

The focus of this article is the global and European experience of the reception, assimilation, and social application of the Bible, reproduced in the works of a number of prominent Kyiv Theological Academy (KTA) representatives from the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The analysis specifically covers the works of professors Stefan Solskyi, Kharysym Orda, Nikolai Drozdov, Afanasii Bulgakov, Mykola Makkaveiskyi, Vasylii Pevnytskyi, Arsenii Tsarevskyi, Volodymyr Rybinskyi, Dmytro Bohdashevskyi, and Aleksandr Glagolev. The author uses the metaphor (...) of the Biblical world to describe the historically developed spiritual and cultural component of the European world, for which the Bible played the role of a normative and symbolic core. Affiliation with the Biblical world — as a way of broad social application of the Bible and assimilation of the norms and public behaviors sanctioned by this text — was and still is a stable symbolic marker as well as a cultural and ideological factor of integration with European civilization. The historical panorama of the reception of Biblical knowledge and the inculturation of Biblical morality by Christianized nations, reproduced in the writings of Kyiv academics, is presented as a field of centuries-old intercultural contacts and active inter-confessional interaction, and as an important ideological and moral factor of the socio-political integration and development of civil society. The issues addressed by Biblical studies in Europe and the rest of the world and considerations and solutions prompted by these issues proved to be fruitful for both the academic research and public practices in which academics of the Kyiv Theological Academy were engaged. The past and modern foreign experience related to the inculturation of the Bible was interpreted by the Kyiv researchers in the local context, more specifically, in the modernization attempts of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Therefore, the reflection of European and worldwide experience, though not fully implemented, was productive and was a potential factor that could have contributed to the European modernization of Kyiv cultural and religious life of the time and its integration into the global Biblical World. (shrink)

Purpose is to substantiate the ways of promotion sustainable tourism in the global economy. Methodology - To determine the importance of the sustainable tourism factors, the hierarchy analysis method of T. Saati was used. The method of expert estimations has been used for determining the significance level of the tourism sustainability factors. Findings - The conditions for promotion of the sustainable tourism to the world market and the factors of impact on its development in the global economy have (...) been determined. All impact factors were divided into 7 groups: political and regulatory environment, environmental sustainability, social and cultural strategy, economic sustainability, tourism service, safety, basic sustainability state. To assess the potential of the sustainable tourism by international destinations, it was offered to rank the factors of index of sustainable tourism development in the countries from the point of view of a tourist. Contribution - The structure of the factors of tourism sustainability index with the emphasis on the role of an immediate tourist was improved. The most importante factors of influence on the choose tourist destination have been identified: the factors of safety, tourist service and the factor of basic sustainability state of a country. (shrink)

While the process of influence between various cultural and historical traditions in philosophy has been taking place for thousands of years, this inter-cultural interaction is occurring at a more accelerated pace in the information age. While philosophers throughout history have used visual representations to understand philosophical influence and historical origins and the distribution of philosophical ideas and sub-disciplines, this paper stresses the importance of philosophical visualizations to represent the global interactivity of philosophy. It provides various visualizations to represent (...) class='Hi'>global philosophical interaction, the penetration of Western philosophical ideas into non-Western philosophical traditions, and the appropriation of non-Western traditions by Western philosophers. Such visualizations are important in the contemporary age to promote regional philosophies, to understand philosophical influence and to understand the promotion of a kind of pluralism which remains engaged with the global world. (shrink)

This article considers whether the international legal human rights system founded on liberal individualism, as endorsed by liberal theorists, can function as a fair universal legal regime. This question is examined in relation to the collective right to self-determination demanded by indigenous peoples, who are paradigmatic decent nonliberal peoples. Indigenous peoples’ collective right to self-determination has been internationally recognized in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted by the United Nations in 2007. This historic event may (...) seem to exemplify the international legal human rights system’s ability to function as a truly global legal regime applicable cross-culturally to all well-ordered societies, whether liberal or nonliberal. The article argues, however, that the collective right to self-determination advocated by indigenous peoples for the sake of cultural integrity is inconsistent with the international legal human rights system founded on liberal individualism. By showing the plausibility of indigenous peoples’ defense of their cultural integrity, this article suggests that the international legal human rights system ought to be reconceptualized to reflect a genuine international consensus on human rights among all well-ordered societies if it is to function as a just mechanism for global governance. (shrink)

This essay re-examines the global beauty culture and ideals as established by the West and continually re-imagined worldwide through three primary lenses of race, gender, and political economy. Based on this understanding, it then delves into how the beauty culture in Vietnam has been shaped and transformed since the country conducted economic reforms in 1986 and has become more integrated into the global economy today.

Over the past ten years or so, the position of Liberal Nationalism has progressed from being an apparent oxymoron to a widely accepted view. In this paper I sketch the most prominent liberal defenses of nationalism, focusing first on the difficulties of specifying criteria of nationhood, then criticizing what I take to be the most promising, culture-based defense, forwarded by Will Kymlicka. I argue that such an approach embroils one in a pernicious conservatism completely at odds with the (...) class='Hi'>global justice concerns that I take to be central to liberalism with its core values of equality and liberty. (shrink)

Local and global dependencies and interactions between individuals, groups and institutions are becoming increasingly opaque and risky. This is due to increased importance of highly complex abstract systems created and supported in order to maintain of transport, communications, finance, energy, media, security infrastructure, as well as social and cultural institutions. These systems require the knowledge and skills of experts. Professionals that not only satisfy identified needs, but also create new thereby contribute the development of cultural narcissism phenomenon. The aim (...) of the book is to discuss relations of experts and mass narcissism, on the background of shaping the knowledge societies and knowledge-based economies, and moreover their transformations towards the societies and economies based on creativity and wisdom. Undertaken analysis is contribute to sociology of expertise and intervention by indicating four selected contemporary issues: dilemmas of the knowledge society development; selection between trust substitutes and its reconstruction methods; transformations of social stratification; and the choice of pathways to socio-economic development. (shrink)