Search results for: western and Muslim culture

Authors: Zhen Li

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In contemporary China, the rise of consumer culture and feminism has facilitated the ‘She-Economy’, where Chinese women’s consumption power has been boosted along with the thriving Chinese economy. Domestic reality TV shows such as Sisters Who Make Waves (hereafter SWMW) target female audiences by bringing women's issues such as age, appearance, and balance between family and career to the discussion. Against this backdrop, this study adopted multimodal content analysis to investigate how SWMW failed to live up to the feminist goals the show had claimed and how serious women’s issues were consumed and capitalized by the consumer media culture from consumer culture and feminist perspectives. The findings reveal that while the female-themed work claims to uncover the charm that age brings to women over their thirties, it merely mentions female anxiety and uses feminism in disguise to achieve commercial success without in-depth thinking and discussion of what real-life issues women in China are tackling. They further show that the mass media-promoted modern femininity combined with consumerism deepens anxiety over aging among female audiences. The study sheds light on understanding the new development of Chinese femininity and the impact of consumer culture on feminist consciousness in contemporary China.

Keywords: consumer culture, feminism, multimodal content analysis, she-economy

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Authors: Efua Ehiaguina, Haruna Moda

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Interest in the development of appropriate safety culture in the oil and gas industry has taken centre stage among stakeholders in the industry. Human behaviour has been identified as a major contributor to occupational accidents, where abnormal activities associated with safety management are taken as normal behaviour. Poor safety culture is one of the major factors that influence employee’s safety behaviour at work, which may consequently result in injuries and accidents and strengthening such a culture can improve workers safety performance. Nigeria oil and gas industry has contributed to the growth and development of the country in diverse ways. However, in terms of safety and health of workers, this industry is a dangerous place to work as workers are often exposed to occupational safety and health hazard. To ascertain the impact of employees’ safety and how it impacts health and safety compliance within the local industry, online safety culture survey targeting frontline workers within the industry was administered covering major subjects that include; perception of management commitment and style of leadership; safety communication method and its resultant impact on employees’ behaviour; employee safety commitment and training needs. The preliminary result revealed that 54% of the participants feel that there is a lack of motivation from the management to work safely. In addition, 55% of participants revealed that employers place more emphasis on work delivery over employee’s safety on the installation. It is expected that the study outcome will provide measures aimed at strengthening and sustaining safety culture in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Keywords: oil and gas safety, safety behaviour, safety culture, safety compliance

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Authors: Milene Magalhães Pinto, Irlen Antônio Gonçalves

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This paper is within the area of History of Education in Brazil, having a descriptive and exploratory nature. It has been built on the belief that professional education is organized under political guidelines and solidifies through institutionalized discourses, allowing to know its mission concerning the society in which it operates by studying these speeches. Our purpose is to analyze how the Republican political culture yielded changes in public education through reforms to professional education in the First Republic, based on seven procedures of law that occurred in the Legislature of State of Minas Gerais. The Republican effort to reform the teaching was the result of a conception of society that aspired to advance the country by way of the national worker.

Keywords: professional education, republican political culture, education reforms, Brazil

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Authors: Fadil Elmenfi

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Edward Said, in his book Culture and Imperialism, devotes the introduction to the Arabic translation. He claims that the fading echo of Orientalism in the Arab world is unlike the positive reflections of its counterpart elsewhere in the world. The probable reason behind his inquiry would be that the methodology Abu Deeb applied in translating Said's book contributed to the book having the limited impact which Said is referring to. The paper adds new insights to the body of theory and the effectiveness of the performance of translation from culture to culture. It presents a survey that can provide the reader with an overview of Said's Orientalism and the two Arabic translations of the book. It investigates some of the problems of translating cultural texts, more specifically translating features of Said's style.

Keywords: Orientalism, retranslation, Arabic Language, Muhammad Enani, Kamal Abu Deeb, Edward Said

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Authors: Oris Tom-Lawyer, Michael Thomas

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This paper seeks to analyse the hegemony of the English language in Western Africa through the lens of educational policies and the socio-economic functions of the language. It is based on the premise that there is a positive link between the English language and development contexts. The study aims to fill a gap in the research literature by examining the usefulness of hegemony as a concept to explain the role of English language in the region, thus countering the negative connotations that often accompany it. The study identified four main research questions: i. What are the socio-economic functions of English in Francophone/lusophone countries? ii. What factors promote the hegemony of English in anglophone countries? iii. To what extent is the hegemony of English in West Africa? iv. What are the implications of the non-hegemony of English in Western Africa? Based on a meta-analysis of the research literature between 2003 and 2018, the findings of the study revealed that in francophone/lusophone countries, English functions in the following socio-economic domains; they are peace keeping missions, regional organisations, commercial and industrial sectors, as an unofficial international language and as a foreign language. The factors that promote linguistic hegemony of English in anglophone countries are English as an official language, a medium of instruction, lingua franca, cultural language, language of politics, language of commerce, channel of development and English for media and entertainment. In addition, the extent of the hegemony of English in West Africa can be viewed from the factors that contribute to the non-hegemony of English in the region; they are French language, Portuguese language, the French culture, neo-colonialism, level of poverty, and economic ties of French to its former colonies. Finally, the implications of the non-hegemony of English language in West Africa are industrial backwardness, poverty rate, lack of social mobility, drop out of school rate, growing interest in English, access to limited internet information and lack of extensive career opportunities. The paper concludes that the hegemony of English has resulted in the development of anglophone countries in Western Africa, while in the francophone/lusophone regions of the continent, industrial backwardness and low literacy rates have been consequences of English language marginalisation. In conclusion, the paper makes several recommendations, including the need for the early introduction of English into French curricula as part of a potential solution.

Keywords: developmental tool, English language, linguistic hegemony, West Africa

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Authors: Mustafina-Bredikhina Diana, Kuznetsova Olga

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Corruption as a social phenomenon is obviously a serious barrier to the development of a prosperous society and the economic development of the country as a whole. It is extremely important to analyze the influence of culture on the level of corruption in different countries and assesses the influence of culture, religion, and mentality on corrupt behavior and their perception in society. Corruption should be considered in relation to the public consciousness, which is formed in certain socio-historical conditions and cultural traditions. Often, society, formally condemning corruption, reproduces obvious corrupt behavior at the personal level of its individual members. Based on a brief analysis of the major corruption scandals and the corruption counting system of countries, the authors conclude that culture, mentality, and religion, while playing an important role in the formation of public consciousness of the concept of "corrupt behavior" are not decisive. It is more important to build a dialogue between the authorities and society, creating a uniform rejection of corrupt behavior.

Keywords: corruption, culture, corrupt behavior, perception of corruption, religion

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Authors: Tsung-Han Lin, Chia-Han Yang

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Recently, it’s obvious that many hotels not only provide customized service, but offer local culture to give customers different experiences. Luxury decoration and fancy equipment are not enough anymore. Customers expect that hotels not just as an accommodation, but connecting to their trips. Therefore, culture becomes significant when developing marketing strategy for hotels. Tainan, located in south of Taiwan, is the city full of culture that some hospitality industries promote their hotels exactly base on culture. Historic Tainan (台南; táinán), is a city of ancient monuments, delicious food and, above all, temples: there are more gods worshipped and more festivals and rituals observed in Tainan than in any other place in Taiwan. The oldest and most absorbing parts of Tainan are historic Anping, on the west side of town by the sea, and the cultural zones in the heart of the old city; the latter were created specifically to make things easier for visitors, with city information, signs and maps tailored to each zone and well-marked in English. The Chihkan, Dong-an Fang, Five Canals and Confucius Temple cultural zones contain the richest concentration of sights – reckon on spending at least two days to do them justice. As a result, the study aims to analyze the significance of culture on marketing strategies and C and H two hotels in Tainan city as case studies conducting the comparison of cultural marketing and experience marketing to provide a framework for hotels to develop their marketing strategies.

Keywords: cultural marketing, hospitality, historical city, Tainan city

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Authors: Ali Akbar

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The importance of advancing women’s rights is closely intertwined with the development of civil society and the institutionalization of democracy in Middle Eastern countries. There is indeed an intimate relationship between the process of democratization and promoting gender equality, since democracy necessitates equality between men and women. In order to advance the issue of gender equality, what is required is a solid theoretical framework which has its roots in the reexamination of pre-modern interpretation of certain Qurʾānic passages that seem to have given men more rights than it gives women. This paper suggests that those Muslim scholars who adopt a contextualist approach to the Qurʾānic text and its interpretation provide a solid theoretical background for improving women’s rights. Indeed, the aim of the paper is to discuss how the contextualist approach to the Qurʾānic text and its interpretation given by a number of prominent scholars is capable of promoting the issue of gender equality. The paper concludes that since (1) much of the gender inequality found in the primary sources of Islam as well as pre-modern Muslim writings is rooted in the natural cultural norms and standards of early Islamic societies and (2) since the context of today’s world is so different from that of the pre-modern era, the proposed models provide a solid theoretical framework for promoting women’s rights and gender equality.

Keywords: contextualism, gender equality, Islam, the rights of women

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Authors: Rizky Kertanegara

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Reception studies is one of the cultural studies lately evolved in the realm of communication science. This qualitative study was pioneered by Stuart Hall who initiated the dominant, negotiation, and opposition of audience reading to the text of the media. In its development, this reception studies is developed by Kim Christian Schroder become multidimensional reception studies. In this update, Schroder aware that there has been a bias between readings made by the informant with readings conducted by researchers over the informant. Therefore, he classifies the reception into two dimensions, namely the dimension of reading by informants and implications dimensions conducted by researcher. Using Schroder approach, these studies seek to describe the reception of adolescent girls, as research subjects, to the elements contained sexual openness in the music video Cinta Laura as the object of research. Researcher wanted to see how they interpret the values of Western culture based on the values of their culture as a teenager. Researchers used a descriptive qualitative research method by conducting in-depth interviews to the informants who comes from a religious school. The selection of informants was done by using purposeful sampling. Collaboration with the school, the researchers were able to select informants who could provide rich data related to the topic. The analysis showed that there is permissiveness informants in addressing sexual openness in the music video. In addition, informants from Catholic schools were more open than the informant derived from Islamic schools in accepting the values of sexual openness. This permisiveness is regarded as a form of self-actualization and gender equality.

Keywords: cultural studies, multidimensional reception model, sexual openness, youth audience

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Authors: Eija Raatikainen

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The aim of the study is to examine psychological safety in the context of change in working life and continuous learning in social- and educational organizations. The participants in the study are social workers and vocational teachers working as employees and supervisors in the capital region of Finland (public and private sectors). Research data has been collected during 2022-2023 using the qualitative method called empathy-based stories (MEBS). Research participants were asked to write short stories about situations related to their work and work community. As researchers, we created and varied the framework narratives (MEBS) in line with the aim of the study and theoretical background. The data were analyzed with content analysis. According to the results, the barriers and prerequisites for psychological safety at work could be located in four different working culture dimensions. The work culture dimensions were named as follows: 1) a work culture focusing on interaction and emotional culture between colleagues, 2) communal work culture, 3) a work culture that enables learning, and 4) a work culture focused on structures and operating models. All these have detailed elements of barriers and prerequisites of psychological safety at work. The results derived from the enlivening methods can be utilized when working with the work community and have discussed psychological safety at work. Also, the method itself (MEBS) can prevent open discussion and reflection on psychological safety at work because of the sensitivity of the topic. Method aloud to imagine, not just talk and share your experiences directly. Additionally, the results of the study can offer one tool or framework while developing phycological safety at work.

Keywords: psychological safety, empathy, empathy-based stories, working life

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Authors: Waepa Wanhussen

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The Ministry of Public Health has established policies accelerating health promotion to prevent public health problems in five border provinces of Thailand. One of these policies employs the religion to guide the community development and solve health issues consistent with the lifestyle and culture of those people. This policy is an important strategy to solve the problems due to the unrest and conflicts in the southern border provinces. This participatory action research aimed to develop mosques as healthy religion places in Narathiwat Province. In the development, the participatory action, consisting of 5 stages, was conducted from October 2012 - May 2013. Stage I: Conducting a survey for problems and needs for developing healthy religion places by employing community participation. Stage II: Analyzing problems and situations at a workshop containing informal interviews and group conversations with 200 participants (health providers at district level, Imams (the Muslim leaders), and community leaders). Stage III: Planning for developing healthy religion places by health providers, Imams, community leaders. Stage IV: Implementing the plan according to the conditions of problems and needs of the community in order to develop healthy religion places. Stage V: Evaluating the implementation by using the instrument, a criteria of being healthy religion place, for collecting data. Data were analyzed by using percentage. It was found that out of 630 mosques 575 (90.12%) passed the criteria of being a healthy religion place. Among these mosques, 190 mosques (30.15%) were in good and very good level, in which, after the implementation, the number of being good and very good healthy mosques increased by 22.58%. The researcher suggested that the developing sustainably healthy religion places require the participation of residences in the community and agencies such as local government, the Islamic Council of Narathiwat Province, and Council of Culture of Narathiwat Province. The healthy religion places can be used to strengthen and sustain health promotion and disease prevention in the community as health learning centers.

Keywords: healthy religion places, development of community participation, nursing informatics, health

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Authors: Saman Javadi, Mohammad Hassan Mahmoudi, Fatemeh Jafari, Aminreza Neshat

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Urmia Lake’s water level has been dropped during the past decade. Although the most common reason in studies was declared climate change, but observation of adjacent lake (like Van in Turkey) is not the same as the common reason. Most of studies were focused on climate and land use change, but groundwater resource as one of the most important element is negligible. Due to population and agriculture activities growth, exploration of groundwater resource has been increased. In as much as continued decline of water levels can lead to saltwater intrusion, reduce stream discharge near outcrop regions and threaten groundwater quality, aquifers of this region were affected by saltwater intrusion of Urmia Lake. In this research comparison of saltwater intrusion into eastern and western coastal aquifer was studied. In conclusion eastern aquifers are in a critical situation; vice versa the western ones are in a better situation. Thus applying management of groundwater operation would be necessary for eastern aquifers.

Keywords: coastal aquifer, groundwater over-exploration, saltwater intrusion, Urmia Lake

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Authors: Bade-Afuye Toyin Beatrice

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Nigeria, as a multi-cultural nation, boasts of many festivals, many of which are found in the six geo-political zones of the country. One of the major festivals that bring together the Nigerian citizens as one entity is the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST), organized by the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC). The festival is celebrated yearly in ways that are unique to Nigerians and culture enthusiasts locally and abroad. The festival has equally boosted the Nigerian economy through tourism promotion and culture preservation. This study shall adopt the cultural identity theory. The theory will be used to examine the festival as a platform that showcases culture, which represents the totality of the ways and lives of the Nigerian people. To achieve this, the researcher shall gather data as a participant-observer during the festival, which featured elements such as costume, make-up, dance, drama, children's theatre, fashion parade, local cuisines, local games, music, props, acrobatic displays, trade fair among others. These elements are the cultural aesthetics of the festival, thereby creating spectacles and colours in unique styles by each of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT Abuja. The study particularly examines the 2021 edition of NAFEST hosted by the Ekiti State Government. The study reveals that the festival is a unique multi-ethnic event that brings together Nigerians and their kinsmen in the diaspora. NAFEST has equally provided a good opportunity to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the Ekiti people and the economic values of their products and materials. The paper, therefore, concludes that the National Festival of Arts and Culture has over the years promoted national unity and social integration among Nigerians.

Keywords: colours, culture, spectacle, NAFEST

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Authors: Hamed Najafi, Ghasem Nikjou

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Nowadays, there is an increasing attention to the resources scarcity issues. Because of failure in present patterns in the field of the allocation of exhaustible resources between generations and the challenges related to economic justice supply, it is supposed, to present a pattern from the Islamic perspective in this essay. By using content analysis of religious texts, we conclude that governments should remove the gap which is exists between the per capita income of the poor and their minimum consumption (necessary consumption). In order to preserve the exhaustible resources for poor people) not for all), between all generations, government should invest exhaustible resources on endless resources according to Hartwick’s criteria and should spend these benefits for poor people. But, if benefits did not cover the gap between minimum consumption and per capita income of poor levels in one generation, in this case, the government is responsible for covering this gap through the direct consumption of exhaustible resources. For an exact answer to this question, ‘how much of exhaustible resources should expense to maintain justice between generations?’ The theoretical and mathematical modeling has been used and proper function has been provided. The consumption pattern is presented for economic policy makers in Muslim countries, and non-Muslim even, it can be useful.

Keywords: exhaustible resources, Islamic justice, intergenerational justice, distribution of resources, Hartwick criteria

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Authors: Stephen Pembi, Samuel K. Msheliza, Helen A. Andow

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Organizational culture is very important in the organization because it enhances organizational performance and serves as a sense of making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitude and behaviour of employees. However, organizational culture issues are frequently disregarded in lieu of activities that may or may not have a good impact on performance. This study examines the relationship between organizational culture and organizational performance of Adama Beverages Ltd, Adamawa State. The study employed an explanatory survey research design with a questionnaire as a source of data collection. One hundred and thirty-five copies of the questionnaire were administered using the convenience method of sampling, out of which one hundred and twenty were retrieved and well answered. The data collected were subjected to the Pearson product-moment correlation technique to test the hypotheses of the study using SPSS. The overall results signify that organizational culture has a significant positive relationship with organizational performance. The multiple regression results show that mission, adaptability, and involvement have a significant positive influence on organizational performance, while consistency has a significant negative influence on organizational performance. Therefore, this study concluded that organizational culture is a strong determinant of organizational performance in Adama Beverages Ltd, Adamawa State. The study recommends that the level of employee input into decision-making, flexibility in responding to changes in the business environment, consistency with values and traditions, and organizational performance should all be maintained by Adama Beverages Ltd.

Keywords: adaptability, consistency, involvement, mission, organizational performance

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Authors: Crystal Shackleford, Michael Pasek, Julia Smith, Jeremy Ginges

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There is extensive debate about the causal role of religion in intergroup conflict. It is commonly accepted that religious beliefs promote in-group cohesion, but religion is often believed to exacerbate inter-group conflict. Fiji is religiously diverse and has a lengthy history of ethno-religious conflict. In a preregistered field experiment using a modified version of the trolley problem dilemma, Christian and Muslim Fijians were asked, first from their own perspective, and then from their God’s perspective, whether a religious ingroup member should sacrifice their life to save five children who were ingroup or outgroup members. Almost all Muslim participants believed that the person should always sacrifice themselves to save the children. Amongst Christian participants, thinking from God’s perspective increased their likelihood of saying the children should be saved by 35% and removed a 27% gap between responses to saving ingroup versus outgroup children. These results replicate previous findings from a Palestinian sample and demonstrate, in another cross-cultural context with a history of violent conflict, that religious cognition can decrease bias and promote the application of universal moral principles.

Keywords: conflict, moral dilemma, psychology, religion, thought experiments

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Authors: S. Jabeen

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Though Pakistan has a rich cultural history and a diverse population; its global image is tarnished with labels of Muslim ‘fundamentalism’ and ‘extremism.’ Cultural policy is a tool that can be used by the government of Pakistan to ameliorate this image, but instead, this fundamentalist reputation is reinforced in the 2005 draft of Pakistan’s cultural policy. With its stern focus on a homogenized cultural identity, this 2005 draft bases itself largely on forced participation from the largely Muslim public and leaves little or no benefits to them or cultural minorities in Pakistan. The effects of this homogenized ‘Muslim’ identity linger ten years later where the study and celebration of the cultural heritage of Pakistan in schools and educational festivals focus entirely on creating and maintaining a singular ‘Islamic’ cultural identity. The current lack of inclusion has many adverse effects that include the breeding of extremist mindsets through the usurpation of minority rights and lack of safe cultural public spaces. This paper argues that Pakistan can improve social inclusivity and boost its global image through cultural policy. The paper sets the grounds for research by surveying the effectiveness of different cultural policies across nations with differing socioeconomic status. Then, by sampling two public literary festivals in Pakistan as case studies, the National Youth Peace Festival hosted with a nationalistic agenda using public funds and the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) that aims to boost the cultural literacy scene of Lahore using both private and public efforts, this paper looks at the success of the private, more inclusive LLF. A revision of cultural policy is suggested that combines public and private efforts to host cultural festivals for the sake of cultural celebration and human development, without a set nationalistic agenda. Consequently, this comparison which is grounded in the human capabilities approach, recommends revising the 2005 draft of the Cultural Policy to improve human capabilities in order to support cultural diversity and ultimately contribute to economic growth in Pakistan.

Keywords: cultural policy, festivals, human capabilities, Pakistan

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Authors: O. A. Adeyemi, M. O. Idris, W. A. Oke, O. T. Olorode, S. O. Alayande, A. E. Adeoye

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of capability building at subsidiary level and the challenges to such process. The relevance of external factors for capability development, have not been explicitly addressed in empirical studies. Though, internal factors, acting as enablers, have been more extensively studied. With reference to external factors, subsidiaries are actively influenced by specific characteristics of the host country, implying a need to become fully immersed in local culture and practices. Specifically, in MNCs, there has been a widespread trend in management practice to increase subsidiary autonomy,  with subsidiary managers being encouraged to act entrepreneurially, and to take advantage of host country specificity. As such, it could be proposed that: P1: The degree at which subsidiary management is connected to the host country, will positively influence the capability development process. Dynamic capabilities reside to a large measure with the subsidiary management team, but are impacted by the organizational processes, systems and structures that the MNC headquarter has designed to manage its business. At the subsidiary level, the weight of the subsidiary in the network, its initiative-taking and its profile building increase the supportive attention of the HQs and are relevant to the success of the process of capability building. Therefore, our second proposition is that: P2: Subsidiary role and HQ support are relevant elements in capability development at the subsidiary level. Design/Methodology/Approach: This present study will adopt the multiple case studies approach. That is because a case study research is relevant when addressing issues without known empirical evidences or with little developed prior theory. The key definitions and literature sources directly connected with operations of western subsidiaries in emerging markets, such as China, are well established. A qualitative approach, i.e., case studies of three western subsidiaries, will be adopted. The companies have similar products, they have operations in China, and both of them are mature in their internationalization process. Interviews with key informants, annual reports, press releases, media materials, presentation material to customers and stakeholders, and other company documents will be used as data sources. Findings: Western Subsidiaries in Emerging Market operate in a way substantially different from those in the West. What are the conditions initiating the outsourcing of operations? The paper will discuss and present two relevant propositions guiding that process. Practical Implications: MNCs headquarter should be aware of the potential for capability development at the subsidiary level. This increased awareness could induce consideration in headquarter about the possible ways of encouraging such known capability development and how to leverage these capabilities for better MNC headquarter and/or subsidiary performance. Originality/Value: The paper is expected to contribute on the theme: drivers of subsidiary performance with focus on emerging market. In particular, it will show how some external conditions could promote a capability-building process within subsidiaries.

Keywords: case studies, dynamic capability, emerging market, subsidiary

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Authors: Chih-Ping Chen

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In recent years, some scholars established the reflection of cultural values in advertisements. However, despite the Internet’s rapid development, few studies have focused on observing cross-cultural differences of values reflected in online advertisements. As mirrors of culture, advertisements are believed to reflect values relevant to consumers. Therefore, this research aims to examine the cultural values reflected on online skincare advertisements between countries with different cultural influences. We argue that culture affects the values presented in the slogans, endorsers, brand prominence, and product prominence of online advertisements; a concept that challenges the standardized manner of communication utilized by most multinational brands. Results highlight that the Philippines and Taiwan are neither located on extreme low-context nor extreme high-context cultures. Moreover, although advertisements reflect culture, it may be affected by potential value shifting caused by globalization, standardized communication, and the advertisers’ marketing priorities.

Keywords: cross-culture, cultural values, online advertising, prominence, beauty

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Authors: Oleg Sokolov

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Despite the fact that the epoch of the Crusades ended more than 700 years ago, its legacy still remains relevant both in the Middle East and in the West. There was made a comparison of the positions of the most prominent Western and Arab medievalists of XX-XXI centuries, using the example of their interpretations of the success of the First Crusade. The analyzed corpus consists of 70 works. In the modern Arab Historiography, it is often pointed out that the Seljuks' struggle against the crusaders of the First Crusade was seriously hampered by the raids of the Arab Bedouin tribes of Jazira. At the same time, it is emphasized that the Arab rulers of Northern Syria were ‘pleased’ with the defeats of the Turks and made peace with the Crusaders, refusing to fight them. At the same time it is usually underlined that the Fatimid aggression against the Turks led both the first and the second to defeat from the Crusaders and became one of the main reasons for the success of the First Crusade and the Muslims' loss of Jerusalem in 1099. The position of Western historians about the reasons for the success of the First Crusade differs significantly. First of all, in the Western Historiography, it is noted that the deaths of the Fatimid and Abbasid Caliphs and the Seljuk Sultan between 1092 and 1094 years created political vacuum just before the crusaders appeared in the Middle East political arena. In 1097-1099, when the Crusaders advanced through Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine to Jerusalem, there was an active internecine struggle between the parts of the Seljuq state that had broken up by that time, and the crusaders were not perceived as a general threat of all Muslims of this region at that time. It is also pointed out that the main goals of the Crusaders - Antioch, Edessa, and Jerusalem - were at that time periphery since the main struggle for power in the Middle East was at this time in Iran. Thus, Arab historians see the lack of support from Arabs of Syria and Jazira and the aggression from Egypt as a crucial factors preventing the Seljuks from defeating the Crusaders, while their Western counterparts consider the internal power struggle between the Seljuks as a more important reason for the success of the First Crusade. The reason for this divergence in the treatment of the events of the First Crusade is probably the prevailing in much of Arab historiography, the idea of the Franks as an enemy of all peoples and religions of the Middle East. At the same time, in contemporary Western Historiography, the crusaders are described only as one of the many military and political forces that operated in this region at the end of the eleventh century.

Keywords: Arabs, Crusades, historiography, Turks

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Authors: Agnese Zviedre

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In 2010 Latvia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that the state will recognize the importance of accessibility to the physical, social, and cultural environment. Nevertheless, accessibility of art and culture in Latvia has become a focal point only since 2020. A study on the impact of cultural consumption and participation done by the Latvian Academy of Culture and the research center “SKDS” results show that art and cultural institutions lack knowledge and understanding of needs and required accessibility measures for people with disabilities to participate in cultural and art events. At the same time, even if art institutions want to create accessible events for people with diverse bodies and minds, many barriers exist, such as budget, lack of time, and lack of knowledge. Even though disability is still largely invisible in the public space, due to recent public campaigns and awareness of the need for accessibility, the media and society are starting to speak about disability as a social issue, not a medical one. Thus, this paper focuses on the first-hand experience of implementing different Western accessibility guidelines and working with communities as a production manager for the multidisciplinary exhibition project “Invisible Lives” in Riga and curator of the education program of Riga Photography Biennial’s 2022 Central Event - Exhibition “Screen Age III: Still Life”. Analyzing two events from the Disability studies perspective, this paper focuses on working with existing knowledge and budget to achieve accessibility.

Keywords: accessibility, contemporary art, curatorial practices, disability studies

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Authors: Hana Almakky, Reza Sahandi, Jacqui Taylor

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Social media continue to grow, and user interfaces may become more appealing if cultural characteristics are incorporated into their design. Facebook was designed in the west, and the original language was English. Subsequently, the words in the user interface were translated to other languages, including Arabic. Arabic words are written from right to left, and English is written from left to right. The translated version may misrepresent the original design and users preferences may influence their culture, which should be considered in the user interface design. Previous research indicates that users are more comfortable when interacting with a user interface, which relates to their own culture. Therefore, this paper, using a survey investigates the preferences of Saudi Arabian on the Arabic version of user interface of Facebook.

Keywords: culture, social media, user interface design, Facebook, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Deng Tingting

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The coordinated and integrated development of regions is an inevitable requirement for China to move towards high-quality, sustainable development. As one of the regions with the best economic foundation and the strongest economic strength in western China, it is a typical area with national importance and strong network connection characteristics in terms of the comprehensive effect of linking the inland hinterland and connecting the western and national urban networks. The integrated development of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle is of great strategic significance for the rapid and high-quality development of the western region. In the context of new urbanization, this paper takes 16 urban units within the economic circle as the research object, based on the 5-year panel data of population, regional economy, and spatial construction and development from 2016 to 2020, using the entropy method and Theil index to analyze the three target layers, and cause analysis. The research shows that there are temporal and spatial differences in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, and there are significant differences between the core city and the surrounding cities. Therefore, by reforming and innovating the regional coordinated development mechanism, breaking administrative barriers, and strengthening the "polar nucleus" radiation function to release the driving force for economic development, especially in the gully areas of economic development belts, not only promote the coordinated development of internal regions but also promote the coordinated and sustainable development of the western region and take a high-quality development path.

Keywords: Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, new urbanization, coordinated regional development, Theil Index

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Authors: Khin Thi Htun, James Jain, Tim Andrews

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This study examines the under-researched phenomenon of crowdfunding use and effectiveness in developing non-western markets. More precisely, using an institutional theoretical lens, the research explores the attitudes, motivations, and practice surrounding the initiation, development, and receipt of crowdfunding campaignsin a business context symptomatic of widely dissimilar regulatory, normative cognitive institutional ‘pillars’ to those studied – and utilized in practice - to date. As, in essence, a form of alternative finance, crowdfunding is used primarily to fund a wide range of projects through the securement of small amounts of money from a large pool of investors/participants. Being tied almost inextricably to e-commerce channels, the practice of crowdfunding typically sources its means and communicates the purpose of each venture mainly, though not exclusively, online. The wide range of projects supported to date span social entrepreneurship, community benefits initiatives, creative and artistic endeavors, assistance to disadvantaged social cohorts, and small business start-ups. Adopting a longitudinal, comparative approach, the study reported here embodies an investigation centered on six case start-up campaigns within the Thai societal context, covering a range of fundings calls and cause choices. Data was sourced from a variety of respondents using semi-structured interviews, observation (direct and participant), and company information. Results suggest that the motives and effectiveness of crowdfunding campaigns differ significantly in non-western consumer contexts from the norms that have evolved to date in mature Western contexts(particularly the US and UK). Specifically, whereas data on the different regulatory pressures showed relatively insignificant variation, the results regarding cognitive and, especially, normative dissimilarities between the Thai and US/UK institutional profiles surfaced potentially important differences with far-reaching implications. Particular issuesto emerge from our data concerned consumer motivation in terms of support and engagement with different types of campaigns. This was found to stem from social norms symptomatic of ‘collectivist’ and ‘relations based/particularist’ cultural assistance behavior, in turn, linked to deeply-held societal values regarding interpersonal network (‘in group’) reciprocity. This research serves to refine and extend the limited body of knowledge to date on crowdfunding by exploring the phenomenon in a non-western, non-developed country contextswhere social norms and values differ. This was achieved through uncovering and explicating the effects of cultural dissimilarity on motivation, decision-making, construed ethics, and general engagement with crowdfunding ideas. Implications for theory into e-marketing and cross-cultural marketing, as well as for practitioners seeking to develop effective crowdfunding campaigns in a Southeast Asian cultural environment, are discussed to conclude the paper.

Keywords: crowdfunding, national culture, e-marketing, cross-cultural business

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Authors: Haiping Zhu

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The purpose of this work-in-progress paper is to explore how the Chinese philosophic-religious tradition of Taoism impacts on the consumption behaviour of contemporary Chinese consumers. Although much cultural research has been conducted on Chinese consumption behaviours, most studies have approached the subject from Western perspectives. Examination of the limited literature indicates a gap in the knowledge of the relationship of traditional Chinese Taoism philosophy and Chinese consumption behaviour. To bridge this gap, this study examines Chinese consumption behaviour at a Taoist-related Chinese religious festival - the DuanWu festival - in order to seek some understanding of how the Taoism philosophic-religious tradition influences Chinese consumption behaviour from the point of view of the individuals involved. It focuses attention on their expression of Taoism cultural values, purchasing experience and subsequent consumption behaviours. This study undertook multiple methods for Taoist case study data collection: accompanied shopping with Taoists before DuanWu Festival; participant observations during DuanWu Festival; and in-depth interviews in order to explore Taoists consumption behaviours at the end of the Festival. Specifically, the finding from the Taoist case study corroborates and details the influence of the Taoism doctrine: man–nature orientation, Fenshui, ecological effect, and ecological knowledge, on their attitudes toward green purchasing behaviour. Findings from this Taoist case study - one of a series of three Chinese philosophic religious tradition case studies - contribute to the deeper understanding of contemporary Chinese consumers from a non-Western viewpoint and offer initial insights for global marketers to differentiate consumer needs and develop effective marketing strategies.

Keywords: consumer behaviour, culture values, green purchase behaviour, Taoism

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Authors: Hung Nguyen, Norma Harrison

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This paper examines the role supply chain dependence as contingency factors which affect the effectiveness of different critical factors (in terms trust, information exchange and shared culture) in delivering supply chain satisfaction and financial performance. Using the data of 468 manufacturing firms in the Global Manufacturing Research Group, this study shows that supply chain dependence strengthens the positive relationship between shared culture & vision and supply chain satisfaction while dampens the relationship between trust and satisfaction. The study also demonstrates the direct positive effect of satisfaction on financial performance. Supply chain managers were advised to emphasize on the alignments of common understanding, codes, languages, common shared vision and similar cultures.

Keywords: information exchange, shared culture, satisfaction, supply chain dependence

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Authors: Urvi Panwar, Kanchan Mishra, Kanjaksha Ghosh, ShankerLal Kothari

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Background: Day-by-day the increasing prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases have become a global issue to manage them by medical sciences. The adult neural stem cells are rare and require an invasive and painful procedure to obtain it from central nervous system. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs) therapies have shown remarkable application in treatment of various cell injuries and cell loss. MSCs can be derived from various sources like adult tissues, human bone marrow, umbilical cord blood and cord tissue. MSCs have similar proliferation and differentiation capability, but the human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs) are proved to be more beneficial with respect to cell procurement, differentiation to other cells, preservation, and transplantation. Material and method: Human umbilical cord is easily obtainable and non-controversial comparative to bone marrow and other adult tissues. The umbilical cord can be collected after delivery of baby, and its tissue can be cultured using explant culture method. Cell culture medium such as DMEMF12+10% FBS and DMEMF12+Neural growth factors (bFGF, human noggin, B27) with antibiotics (Streptomycin/Gentamycin) were used to culture and differentiate mesenchymal stem cells into neural cells, respectively. The characterisations of MSCs were done with Flow Cytometer for surface markers CD90, CD73 and CD105 and colony forming unit assay. The differentiated various neural cells will be characterised by fluorescence markers for neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes; quantitative PCR for genes Nestin and NeuroD1 and Western blotting technique for gap43 protein. Result and discussion: The high quality and number of MSCs were isolated from human umbilical cord via explant culture method. The obtained MSCs were differentiated into neural cells like neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. The differentiated neural cells can be used to treat neural injuries and neural cell loss by delivering cells by non-invasive administration via cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or blood. Moreover, the MSCs can also be directly delivered to different injured sites where they differentiate into neural cells. Therefore, human umbilical cord is demonstrated to be an inexpensive and easily available source for MSCs. Moreover, the hUCMSCs can be a potential source for neural cell therapies and neural cell regeneration for neural cell injuries and neural cell loss. This new way of research will be helpful to treat and manage neural cell damages and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer and Parkinson. Still the study has a long way to go but it is a promising approach for many neural disorders for which at present no satisfactory management is available.

Keywords: bone marrow, cell therapy, explant culture method, flow cytometer, human umbilical cord, mesenchymal stem cells, neurodegenerative diseases, neuroprotective, regeneration

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Authors: Karen de Andrade

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Literature is generally understood as an aesthetic creation, an artistic object that relates to the history and sociocultural paradigms of a given era. Moreover, through it, we can dwell on the deepest reflections on the human condition. It can also be used to propagate projects of domination, as Edward Said points out in his book Culture and Imperialism, connecting narrative, history and land conquest. Having said that, the aim of this paper is to analyse how Wole Soyinka elaborated his main theoretical work, Myth, Literature and African World, a collection of essays published in 1976, by comparing the philosophical, ideological and aesthetic practices of African, diasporic and European writers from the point of view of the Yoruba tradition, to which he belongs. Moreover, Soyinka believes that (literary) art has an important function in the formation of a people, in the construction of its political identity and in cultural regeneration, especially after the independence. The author's critical endeavour is that of attempting to construct a past. For him, the "African World" is not a mere allegory of the continent, and to understand it in this way would be to perpetuate a colonialist vision that would deny the subjectivities that cross black cultures, history and bodies. For him, comparative literature can be used not to "equate" local African texts with the European canon; but rather to recognise that they have aesthetic value and socio-cultural importance. Looking at the local, the particular and specific to each culture is, according to Soyinka, appropriate for dealing with African cultures, as opposed to abstractions of dialectical materialism or capitalist nationalism. In view of this, in his essays, the author creates a possibility for artistic and social reflection beyond the logic of Western politics.

Keywords: comparative literature, African Literature, Literary Theory, Yoruba Mythology, Wole Soyinka, Afrodiaspora

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Authors: Omneya N. Mekhaimer, Elkhayam M. Dorra, A. Samer Ezeldin

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Over the recent decades, studies on organizational culture have gained global attention in the business management literature, where it has been established that the cultural factors embedded in the organization have an implicit yet significant influence on the organization’s success. Unlike other industries, the construction industry is widely known to be operating in a dynamic and adversarial nature; considering the unique characteristics it denotes, thereby the level of disputes has propagated in the construction industry throughout the years. In the late 1990s, the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) created a Task Group (TG-23), which later evolved in 2006 into a Working Commission W112, with a strategic objective to promote research in investigating the role and impact of culture in the construction industry worldwide. To that end, this paper aims to study the influence of organizational culture in the contractor’s organization on the frequency of disputes caused between the owner and the contractor that occur in commercial projects based in Egypt. This objective is achieved by using a quantitative approach through a survey questionnaire to explore the dominant cultural attributes that exist in the contractor’s organization based on the Competing Value Framework (CVF) theory, which classifies organizational culture into four main cultural types: (1) clan, (2) adhocracy, (3) market, and (4) hierarchy. Accordingly, the collected data are statistically analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 28) software, whereby a correlation analysis using Pearson Correlation is carried out to assess the relationship between these variables and their statistical significance using the p-value. The results show that there is an influence of organizational culture attributes on the frequency of disputes whereby market culture is identified to be the most dominant organizational culture that is currently practiced in contractor’s organization, which consequently contributes to increasing the frequency of disputes in commercial projects. These findings suggest that alternative management practices should be adopted rather than the existing ones with an aim to minimize dispute occurrence.

Keywords: construction projects, correlation analysis, disputes, Egypt, organizational culture

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Authors: Tissa Ravinda Perera

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An open economic policy was introduced by Sri Lanka in 1977, before many other countries in Asia to align her economy to world economic trends and it was affected indigenous businesses since they had to compete with foreign products, processes, technology, innovations and businesses. The year 2010 was a milestone in Sri Lankan history to achieve the developmental goals when Foxbuisness rated Sri Lanka as the best performing global economy. However, Sri Lanka missed her chances of achieving development with the political and social chaos, consequent the regime change in 2015. This paper argues that to support the development of the country, Sri Lanka must develop an entrepreneurial culture. In this endeavor, creativity and innovation will play a pivotal role to achieve the desired level of development. In this study, it was used secondary data from various local and international sources to understand and explore the existing scenario of Sri Lankan economy, state of entrepreneurial culture and innovation, and challenges and competencies for the development of an entrepreneurial culture in Sri Lanka. The data was collected from secondary sources were depicted in tables in this paper in a meaningful manner. Based on the tables many findings were aroused and conclusions were made to support the argument in this paper. This paper revealed that the development of an entrepreneurial culture has to be associated with creativity and innovation to gain a competitive advantage over the development strategies of other countries. It is exposed that an entrepreneurial culture will help minorities, women and underprivileged societies to empower themselves. This product will help to confront and manage youth unrest which has created anarchy in the country from time to time. Throughout this paper, it was highlighted the past, present and future scenario of Sri Lankan economy along with modification to be done to it through the development of an entrepreneur culture in light of innovation and creativity to achieve the desired level of development.

Keywords: economy, industry, creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial culture

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