Cultural differences in communications styles

Research indicates that cultures differ in the ways they approach social conflicts, with Japanese being more motivated to maintain interpersonal harmony and avoid conflicts than Americans. Such cultural differences have developmental consequences for reasoning about social conflict. We interviewed random samples of Americans from the Midwest in the U.S. and Japanese from the larger Tokyo area about the future developments of intergroup and interpersonal conflicts. Responses showed increased wisdom (e.g. recognition of multiple perspectives, compromise, and the limits of knowledge) with increasing age among Americans, but older age was not associated with wiser responses among Japanese. Younger and middle-aged Japanese showed greater use of wise reasoning strategies than younger and middle-aged Americans. This cultural difference was weaker for older participants for interpersonal conflicts and was actually reversed for intergroup conflicts. Implications of this research for the study of aging, cultural psychology, and wisdom are discussed.

The portrayal of women has long been a matter of concern as well as discontent. The patterns reflected in the media mostly deal with stereotyping females in very limited roles, and frequently as sex objects. Magazine content could be a crucial source in the issue of adolescent socialization. Magazines directed to adolescent female consumers orient the audience with the explicit and implicit messages of socioeconomic lifestyle. Teens' relying on the subjective as well as objective comprehension of these magazines is crucial to their growing up. Therefore, it was essential to understand the factors that are influential for much of adolescent socialization. In this regard, a content analysis of Goffman's stereotypical categories was examined for the contemporary teen magazines. Coding on two magazines — Seventeen and Teen Vogue (2014 issues) was done using the frameworks of Goffman's scale categories. Two more variables from Kang's (1997) categories were added. While th...

This study shows that in order to develop their social media advertising strategies and obtain optimal results, global luxury brands that wish to enter the Chinese market, must consider a number of Chinese cultural peculiarities. Several studies have already used the cross-cultural theoretical framework for the purpose of identifying some effective luxury brands’ marketing and communication strate- gies. This research recognizes specific features that can be used to create targeted and successful social media advertising approaches. As the majority of Chinese luxury consumers are Millennials and Gen Z, brands are even more challenged. In fact, these segments show preference for digital communication tools, media, and channels, with social media advertising representing the most valuable strategy. Global luxury brands that seek to profitably use social media adverting, besides taking into account specific Chinese cultural-related features and contexts, must also identify, understand, and learn how to employ any useful stratagem emerging from innovation in digital communication. This would allow brands to compete in the global marketplace while increasing their growth rate thanks to updated and effective social media advertising strategies.

Whiteness, like all racial categories, is a mythic and cunning construct with little biological credibility but tremendous social power. Historically, White social dominance has been propped up not only by violence, political control, and socioeconomic configurations, but also by language ideology and linguistic practice. This entry explores several ways in which White advantages and subject positions have been constructed through language. It looks at the racial politics of colonial-era language policies and attitudes, and the racial hierarchy implicit in the contemporary valorization of “standard” language, particularly in the United States. It examines whiteness as a verbal performance and a matter of style, and how White borrowings from non-standard linguistic varieties have often functioned to affirm White racism. It describes how some non-white communities have mocked White language (and, by extension, the negative qualities they associate with whiteness). And it examines some of the linguistic strategies, from code choice to subtle discursive maneuvers, pursued by self-conscious Whites at pains to avoid accusations of racism.

In organizational research and practice, prolific communication is significantly linked with quality leadership traits. Leadership quality helps in mitigating the failure of an organization to survive the increasing business challenges that may result in waste of resources, talents and potentials needed for
achieving optimal organizational productivity. However, an examination of academic literature reveal that corporate leaders are often faced with the challenge of how to move smoothly between different communication styles to communicate clearly articulating ideas and knowledge to employee’s whenever the occasion demands which hinders organizational productivity. Against this background, this study explores the relationship between leadership communication style, personality trait and organizational productivity. The study utilized cross-sectional survey method. Participants were 112 academic staff of University of Lagos, Nigeria who was selected through multi-stage sampling techniques. Data were collected through structured questionnaire and personal observation. Results show that there exists a connection between leadership communication style and personality trait. Also, the finding revealed that leadership communication style determines organization productivity. More so,
the finding established that personality traits and communication styles have combine effect on organizational productivity. Conclusively, the findings were discussed with reference to relevant empirical literatures with recommendations for management of organizations both for practice and future research highlighted.

The portrayal of women has long been a matter of concern as well as discontent. The patterns reflected in the media mostly deal with stereotyping females in very limited roles, and frequently as sex objects. Magazine content could be a crucial source in the issue of adolescent socialization. Magazines directed to adolescent female consumers orient the audience with the explicit and implicit messages of socioeconomic lifestyle. Teens' relying on the subjective as well as objective comprehension of these magazines is crucial to their growing up. Therefore, it was essential to understand the factors that are influential for much of adolescent socialization. In this regard, a content analysis of Goffman's stereotypical categories was examined for the contemporary teen magazines. Coding on two magazines — Seventeen and Teen Vogue (2014 issues) was done using the frameworks of Goffman's scale categories. Two more variables from Kang's (1997) categories were added.

While the roles of females are going through far-reaching changes in society-at-large, advertisements nevertheless have remained as stereotypical. The females' portrayal in the teenage magazines was mostly inclined towards the essence of deferential dispositions and was rarely about self-assurance and independence. There was almost a nonexistent depiction of women in positions of power and in occupational frames. The stereotypical categories that were rife with examples were in the categories of Ritualization of Subordination, Feminine Touch, Independence/Self-Assurance, Licensed Withdrawal,
and Body Display. It could be noted that with these stereotypical portrayals of images, especially with the increased sexualization of teenage girls, there is a huge possibility of limiting the teenage women's self-definitions and potential to grow up into resolute and strong-minded individuals. The racial representation was not been duly addressed, according to the sample results. A more realistic representation of the races in the teen magazines could hold more promise of monetization as the racial groups like the Black Americans, Asian Americans, and the Hispanics have the growth potential over the next few decades. If there is the lesser objectification of women in the magazine contents, the lesser would be the likelihood of alarmingly dangerous tendency of far-reaching problems like sexual coercion.

If, as is widely argued, we live in a cosmopolitan moment, the processes of cosmopolitanization are sometimes fraught with danger. Describing contexts in which cosmopolitanism is censored, this article considers recursive erasures of difference in Turkish-Jewish architecture, bodily marking, and language that highlight this sense of dangerous cosmopolitanism. This scenario complicates the popular notion that cosmopolitanism requires public nomination of difference; instead, cosmopolitanism is sometimes observable only by accounting for knowledge of what should be kept private. Without a fundamental examination of the production and interpretation of knowledge of difference, reckonings of lived cosmopolitanism are incomplete.

This article is about translating oral literature in indigenous societies, especially in multilingual and multicultural areas such as Northwestern California, where shared, regional material becomes ethnically marked when seemingly small changes are introduced. A case in point is the profound symbolic effects that accompany a shift in languages. Though Dell Hymes was deeply concerned with questions of translation, he rarely applied his analytical framework to translations within indigenous cultural settings; more often, he focused on the subtleties of translating oral literature into English, with emphasis on faithfully representing aspects of the structure and style. One way to build on Hymes’s legacy would be to apply his careful attention to matters of structure and style to a discussion of translation within indigenous traditions, where this approach can tease out minor differences that take on great symbolic significance. Translation is a practical, daily matter in much of the world, and in this sense Hymes’s groundbreaking work on the poetics of translation continues to shed light on the subtleties of creating meaning and ethnic distinction in multilingual areas. A commentary to this essay by Charles L. Briggs appears later in this special issue.

Cultural differences between native and Indonesian culture makes foreign students in Indonesia experience a culture shock. Such case occurs on students from Pattani, South Thailand, who study in IAIN Tulungagung. To overcome that culture shock, Pattani students do communication accommodation to make them feel comfortable in a new environment, and thus can be accepted by Javanese students from Indonesia. This research was a kind of qualitative study. The data were collected by using observation and interview techniques. To find out the forms of communication accommodation performed by Pattani students, the researchers adopted communication accommodation theory by Giles. The results of this research revealed that there were two forms of communication accommodation performed by Pattani student. Firstly, convergence, was performed when Pattani students tried to level communication behavior with their speech partners. Convergence done by Pattani students can be classified into pre-convergence, convergence process, and post convergence. Secondly, divergence is defending Pattani identity when communicating with Javanese students. Divergence accommodation was performed in two forms namely verbal and non-verbal.

In this article I propose a Yin Yang perspective to understand culture. Based on the indigenous Chinese philosophy of Yin Yang, I conceptualize culture as possessing inherently paradoxical value orientations, thereby enabling it to embrace opposite traits of any given cultural dimension. I posit that potential paradoxical values coexist in any culture; they give rise to, exist within, reinforce, and complement each other to shape the holistic, dynamic, and dialectical nature of culture. Seen from the Yin Yang perspective, all cultures share the same potential in value orientations, but at the same time they are also different from each other because each culture is a unique dynamic portfolio of self-selected globally available value orientations as a consequence of that culture's all-dimensional learning over time.

Resumen:
Se analizan los hábitos de consumo de infor- mación de millennials universitarios de Loja, Ecuador, tomando como base estudios previos sobre consumo mediático, características de la población y competencias mediáticas. A través de grupos de discusión con estudiantes de las carreras de Comunicación Social y Administra- ción de Empresas de la Universidad Nacional de Loja y de la Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, se establece cómo los millennial de la muestra prefieren el uso de herramientas digi- tales como redes sociales y páginas web para consumir información de su interés, en detri- mento del uso y acceso a medios de comuni- cación tradicionales, debido a su inmediatez, accesibilidad y comodidad.
PALABRAS-CHAVE: Información, Consumo, Noticias, Millennials, Loja, Cultura digital.

Abstract: The article examines Polish translations of the Derridian term différance. Polish philosophical discourse uses the following renditions of différance: róż (ni (c) oś) ć by Bogdan Banasiak, różNICa by Tadeusz Sławek, gra-na-zwłokę-o-różnicę by Stanisław Cichowicz and the most popular: różnia by Joanna Skoczylas. Should a mistake be deliberately committed in Polish, as it was done in the original? Or should it be corrected, and if so–how to explain the correction?

Globalization and mass migration cause living of different cultures together. Immigrants take their own culture to foreign countries. Hence, cultural varieties occur in target countries. Foreign cultures cannot be reshaped, so different cultures meet and live together in target countries. Integration of different cultures is an obligation for cultural pluralism. In order to build a multicultural and tolerant society, society translators who know the cultures of immigrant societies have some important roles. In addition, society translators could contribute to building a stable integration in target countries. Hence, it is important to train society translators not only on target language, but also on target culture. This study has qualitative design investigates contemporary cross-cultural interaction, cultural variety, hybrid cultures and multi-culturalism by interpreting the obtained data. In addition to these, contribution of society translators who know the cultures of immigrant societies to building multicultural policies will also be investigated.

The style of ceramics from Cogotas I have been a very contentious issue. Therefore, the identification of the «nuclear area» needs a regional valuation. In these areas there may have existed distinct levels of communication, interaction and reciprocity between different communities. In this way the distribution of some stylistic compositions in a specific area of the peninsular West may offer guides to interpret the regionalization of the observed pattern.

Higher education is dynamic global industry with highly competitive and developed market. Universities strive to communicate their international programs to impress prospective students interested in studying abroad. International education is provided in local environment and influenced by local culture and characteristics, however it might be perceived as a global product satisfying needs of students worldwide, attaining consistent positioning and referring to similar values on all markets. This study addresses a question, whether there is a difference between communicated characteristics of international programs among universities from various cultures. Websites of seventy universities coming from different GLOBE cultural clusters are analyzed through data-mining methods. The analysis suggests that marketing communications to international students do not stand on cultural grounds as there are only marginal differences between international program communications across the world. The major difference in the group of prime international higher education providers was found between the GLOBE Anglo universities and the rest of the world.

Participants in an intercultural situation of communication, trying to understand the intentions of their co-Iocutors from their own cultural perspective, can frequently commit misinterpretations that lead to misunderstandings of intention and meaning. Intercultural communication studies, for the majority, focus on unveiling and discovering differences that they believe to be at the core of such misunderstandings. Such studies have probed the varying cultural values, to mention a few, on the levels of individualism versus collectivism, of low-context versus high-context, of varying concepts of time or of silence (e.g. Hofstede 1980, Hofstede 1991, Hall 1959, Hall & Hall 1990).

The present study suggests that the perspective of one's primary socialisation culture should be studied on a more specific level if one is aiming to discover possible cultural differences. The level that is proposed to be studied is the production and interpretations of patterns of talk-in-interaction such as pauses, overlaps, speaker changes, simultaneous talk, prosody and intonation patterns, and so on. It is the stance of the present inquiry that these above-mentioned turntaking patterns play a key role in the processes through which the participants interpret each other's meanings and intentions, although the processes themselves remain mostly entirely subconscious. The present study was inspired by a case study that was conducted comparing the turn-taking behaviour between Americans and French conversing in French (Wieland 1991).

Wieland conducted recordings of ordinary dinner table conversations, and later interviewed the participants in order to elicit insights into their interpretations of the interaction. However, little work has been done to further compare the culturally varying interaction patterns and the participants' reactions to them. The majority ofstudies into intercultural communication remain on more abstract levels of cultural values rather than addressing the actual arena of talk-in-interaction, although some have broken this unploughed ground, e.g. Moerman (1988) in his combination of conversation analysis and ethnography.

The stance of the present study is that it is this very level of talk-in-interaction that holds the key to understanding what exactly happens in possible misunderstandings in situations of intercultural communication. Studies on talk-in-interaction focus on conversational turn-taking (Psathas 1995, Ten Have & Psathas 1995, Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson 1974, Schegloff 2000). They therefore bring to light behavioural patterns - and their respective interpretations - that most of the time remain subconscious in the minds of the interactants, as those patterns are learned and internalised early on in the primary socialisation process (Berger & Luckmann 1966). Sample analyses on the conversational overlaps of French speakers carried out previously by the researcher (Kohonen 2000) served as a basis for the hypothesis development.

These earlier analyses made evident the importance of gaining access to participants' perceptions on the interaction, as well as the access into parameters that allow a comparative approach. The present research is an exploratory, qualitative case study that allowed comparisons to be made between the overlap patterns of the native French and the native British English participants conversing in native and mixed groups, furthermore gaining access to participants' perceptions of the interaction. The present study is not intended to be taken as a strictly conversation analytical research, as the Literature Review will show.

The aim of the present study is on the contrary to explore the possible theoretical and methodological triangulations available in the field of social sciences, and to discover how the triangulation of theories and methods could enhance the study of talk-in-interaction, in both native and intercultural settings.

An attempt towards cutting-edge theoretical explorations in translation studies. Starting from the identity crisis in cultural globalization known as “Jihad vs. McWorld” by Benjamin Barber, this paper draws inspirations from Annie Brisset's observation of the “deficient” target language in translation and Edward Said’s criticism on “Orientalism”. It then challenges Jacques Derrida’s “Différance” and points to a new view of cultural identity of negotiable differences, offering a philosophical solution to the global identity crisis.

The present chapter explores the way Chinese and Scandinavian (Norwegian and Swedish) engineers working together on transnational projects in an international company perceive and make sense of their work collaboration with regards to cultural differences and communication practices (Vaara in M@n@gement, 3(3):81–110, 2000; Weick in Sensemaking in organizations. Sage, USA, 1995). The research questions are threefold and expressed as follows: (1) Do national cultural differences affect and hinder work collaboration among Chinese and Scandinavian colleagues working on transnational projects? (2) What other factors may affect effective collaboration in the workplace? And (3) How do the actors of transnational project group make sense of cultural differences? The classic view of culture often sees cultural differences across nations as a source of conflicts and misunderstandings. This paper however, is informed by a socio-constructivist tradition and looks at the way the actors of the in...

Globalisation is quickly making the world smaller, but the work challenges larger. Our colleagues, clients and teams are not only becoming more diverse, they are often working from different locations across the globe. How do we stay connected, efficient and productive? What do we do to overcome technological, cultural and time challenges to meet our KPIs, engage with stakeholders and grow our business?

Executive coach and trainer Nicole Stinton explores the challenges of working across borders in a virtual world. She provides practical skills and effective techniques to improve your business relationships, whether people are located on the next floor, in the next building or an entirely different country.

This book gives you insights and hands-on techniques to make working in the virtual world work for you including:
- Communicating with clarity
- Using technology productively
- Overcoming time challenges
- Connecting with others
- Dealing with issues
- Being inclusive of diversity
- Working with cultural difference
- Leading effectively

People from different cultures vary in the ways they approach social conflicts, with Japanese being more motivated to maintain interpersonal harmony and avoid conflicts than Americans are. Such cultural differences have developmental consequences for reasoning about social conflict. In the study reported here, we interviewed random samples of Americans from the Midwest United States and Japanese from the larger Tokyo area about their reactions to stories of intergroup and interpersonal conflicts. Responses showed that wisdom (e.g., recognition of multiple perspectives, the limits of personal knowledge, and the importance of compromise) increased with increasing age among Americans, but older age was not associated with wiser responses among Japanese. Younger and middle-aged Japanese showed greater use of wise-reasoning strategies than younger and middle-aged Americans did. This cultural difference was weaker for older participants’ reactions to interpersonal conflicts and was actual...

Personal photos and their associated metadata reveal different aspects of our lives and, when shared online, let others have an idea about us. Automating the extraction of personal information is an arduous task but it contributes to better understanding and serving users. Here we present methods for analyzing textual metadata associated to Flickr photos that unveil users’ home location and gender. We test our techniques on a sample of 30,000 people coming from six different countries, allowing us to compare results across cultures and point out similarities and differences.

Translation problems due to the different distribution of the pronouns on the T and V levels, even though they are sometimes briefly commented, are not commonly given much attention in translation studies. Allegedly, a translation can be problematic when the distribution of T and V in source language and target language do not coincide, but also the moment of changing from one to the other level can be of importance. Such is the case when it makes it possible to understand the social role of the people (or characters) involved and the development of their relationship. Therefore, a considerable transformation of the text might be necessary in the translation process, but is not always possible.

Participants in an intercultural situation of communication, trying to understand the intentions of their co-Iocutors from their own cultural perspective, can frequently commit misinterpretations that lead to misunderstandings of intention and meaning. Intercultural communication studies, for the majority, focus on unveiling and discovering differences that they believe to be at the core of such misunderstandings. Such studies have probed the varying cultural values, to mention a few, on the levels of individualism versus collectivism, of low-context versus high-context, of varying concepts of time or of silence (e.g. Hofstede 1980, Hofstede 1991, Hall 1959, Hall & Hall 1990). The present study suggests that the perspective of one's primary socialisation culture should be studied on a more specific level if one is aiming to discover possible cultural differences. The level that is proposed to be studied is the production and interpretations of patterns of talk-in-interaction such as pauses, overlaps, speaker changes, simultaneous talk, prosody and intonation patterns, and so on. It is the stance of the present inquiry that these above-mentioned turntaking patterns play a key role in the processes through which the participants interpret each other's meanings and intentions, although the processes themselves remain mostly entirely subconscious. The present study was inspired by a case study that was conducted comparing the turn-taking behaviour between Americans and French conversing in French (Wieland 1991). Wieland conducted recordings of ordinary dinner table conversations, and later interviewed the participants in order to elicit insights into their interpretations of the interaction. However, little work has been done to further compare the culturally varying interaction patterns and the participants' reactions to them. The majority ofstudies into intercultural communication remain on more abstract levels of cultural values rather than addressing the actual arena of talk-in-interaction, although some have broken this unploughed ground, e.g. Moerman (1988) in his combination of conversation analysis and ethnography. The stance of the present study is that it is this very level of talk-in-interaction that holds the key to understanding what exactly happens in possible misunderstandings in situations of intercultural communication. Studies on talk-in-interaction focus on conversational turn-taking (Psathas 1995, Ten Have & Psathas 1995, Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson 1974, Schegloff 2000). They therefore bring to light behavioural patterns - and their respective interpretations - that most of the time remain subconscious in the minds of the interactants, as those patterns are learned and internalised early on in the primary socialisation process (Berger & Luckmann 1966). Sample analyses on the conversational overlaps of French speakers carried out previously by the researcher (Kohonen 2000) served as a basis for the hypothesis development. These earlier analyses made evident the importance of gaining access to participants' perceptions on the interaction, as well as the access into parameters that allow a comparative approach. The present research is an exploratory, qualitative case study that allowed comparisons to be made between the overlap patterns of the native French and the native British English participants conversing in native and mixed groups, furthermore gaining access to participants' perceptions of the interaction. The present study is not intended to be taken as a strictly conversation analytical research, as the Literature Review will show. The aim of the present study is on the contrary to explore the possible theoretical and methodological triangulations available in the field of social sciences, and to discover how the triangulation of theories and methods could enhance the study of talk-in-interaction, in both native and intercultural settings.

My thesis discusses the style subject according to Gadamer’s approach via clarifying questions. The clarification presents possible statements regarding the components and mechanisms of style. The thesis assumes that style is anchored in the themes of truth and method, and that these subjects are founded upon an array of concepts divided into categories beneath them; at the same time, style is anchored in an array of basic consciousness mechanisms that enables the formation of understanding and motivates its development. In these respects, the thesis reveals that according to Gadamer, the mode of understanding is characterized as a dynamic understanding circle founded upon the categories of truth, accuracy, absoluteness, correspondence, representation, understanding, temporality, irony, application, and personality; additionally, the thesis demonstrates that the motion of thinking in the circular understanding mode, identifying A as if it were B, is enabled due to two basic consciousness mechanisms: the first is characterized as lack of knowledge that assumes perfection, and is termed the absence structure; the second is characterized by attentive intent toward the datum, as active and acted intention, and is termed intentionality

Participants in an intercultural situation of communication, trying to understand the intentions of their co-Iocutors from their own cultural perspective, can frequently commit misinterpretations that lead to misunderstandings of intention and meaning. Intercultural communication studies, for the majority, focus on unveiling and discovering differences that they believe to be at the core of such misunderstandings. Such studies have probed the varying cultural values, to mention a few, on the levels of individualism versus collectivism, of low-context versus high-context, of varying concepts of time or of silence (e.g. Hofstede 1980, Hofstede 1991, Hall 1959, Hall & Hall 1990). The present study suggests that the perspective of one's primary socialisation culture should be studied on a more specific level if one is aiming to discover possible cultural differences. The level that is proposed to be studied is the production and interpretations of patterns of talk-in-interaction such as pauses, overlaps, speaker changes, simultaneous talk, prosody and intonation patterns, and so on. It is the stance of the present inquiry that these above-mentioned turntaking patterns play a key role in the processes through which the participants interpret each other's meanings and intentions, although the processes themselves remain mostly entirely subconscious. The present study was inspired by a case study that was conducted comparing the turn-taking behaviour between Americans and French conversing in French (Wieland 1991). Wieland conducted recordings of ordinary dinner table conversations, and later interviewed the participants in order to elicit insights into their interpretations of the interaction. However, little work has been done to further compare the culturally varying interaction patterns and the participants' reactions to them. The majority ofstudies into intercultural communication remain on more abstract levels of cultural values rather than addressing the actual arena of talk-in-interaction, although some have broken this unploughed ground, e.g. Moerman (1988) in his combination of conversation analysis and ethnography. The stance of the present study is that it is this very level of talk-in-interaction that holds the key to understanding what exactly happens in possible misunderstandings in situations of intercultural communication. Studies on talk-in-interaction focus on conversational turn-taking (Psathas 1995, Ten Have & Psathas 1995, Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson 1974, Schegloff 2000). They therefore bring to light behavioural patterns - and their respective interpretations - that most of the time remain subconscious in the minds of the interactants, as those patterns are learned and internalised early on in the primary socialisation process (Berger & Luckmann 1966). Sample analyses on the conversational overlaps of French speakers carried out previously by the researcher (Kohonen 2000) served as a basis for the hypothesis development. These earlier analyses made evident the importance of gaining access to participants' perceptions on the interaction, as well as the access into parameters that allow a comparative approach. The present research is an exploratory, qualitative case study that allowed comparisons to be made between the overlap patterns of the native French and the native British English participants conversing in native and mixed groups, furthermore gaining access to participants' perceptions of the interaction. The present study is not intended to be taken as a strictly conversation analytical research, as the Literature Review will show. The aim of the present study is on the contrary to explore the possible theoretical and methodological triangulations available in the field of social sciences, and to discover how the triangulation of theories and methods could enhance the study of talk-in-interaction, in both native and intercultural settings.

Diversity enriches professional spaces and ethics, whereas an uncritical perpetuation of privileged norming threatens the fragile hope that the theory and practice of professionalism can evolve alongside commitments to equity and inclusion. Looking specifically at the profession of medicine and the observations that its discourse is shaped by privilege, we draw upon the work of co-cultural communication theory to reassess certain identity performance behaviors of separation, assimilation, and accommodation. We observe that communication behaviors in non-dominant groups place them at disproportionate risk of being labeled as noncompliant or nonconformist to privileged professionalism standards, which tend to prefer "model minority" behaviors of assimilation, which erase co-cultural distinctiveness. We suggest cultural change in medical professionalism requires appreciating that diversity is intrinsic to true, personalized community and that listening to individual stories of identity performance and its intentions is the path to professionalism trainings that are genuinely inclusive.

This paper describes how bodily positions and gestures were used to teach argument diagramming to a student who cannot see. After listening to short argumentative passages with a screen reader, the student had to state the conclusion while touching his belly button. When stating a premise, he had to touch one of his shoulders. Premises lending independent support to a conclusion were thus diagrammed by a V-shaped gesture, each shoulder proposition going straight to the conclusion. Premises lending dependent support were diagrammed by a T-shaped gesture, the shoulder premises meeting at the collar bone before moving down to the belly button. Arguments involving two pairs of entailments were diagrammed by an I-shaped gesture, going from the collar bone to a mid-way conclusion above the abdomen before travelling to the final conclusion at the belly button. The student’s strong performance suggests that placing propositions at different locations on the body and uniting them with gestures can help one discern correct argumentative structures.

Presented as part of the symposium: "Making Sense of Parenting across Culture", organised by Professor Merideth Gattis, University of Cardiff and Professor Terry Kit-Fong Au, Hong Kong University
Observational data from dissertation project "Paternal affection display in contemporary Chinese families"

Επιτόπια έρευνα: Γενάρης 1979, Αύγουστος 1982, Μάρτιος 1983, Ιούνιος-Δεκέμβριος 1983, Δεκέμβριο 1985-Φεβρουάριος 1986, Αύγουστος-Νοέμβριος 1986, Δεκέμβριος 1987-Ιανουάριος 1988. 

Προϊόν επιτόπιας έρευνας, η μελέτη αποσκοπεί σε μια συγκριτική υφολογική προσέγγιση του χορού ως τρόπου έκφρασης και ερμηνείας, με δεδομένα που εντοπίστηκαν και καταγράφηκαν στο Νέο Μοναστήρι Δομοκού (Φθιώτιδα), Μεγάλο Μοναστήρι Βελεστίνου (Μαγνησία), καθώς και στα χωριά της κεντρικής Μακεδονίας Μικρό Μοναστήρι, Πέλλα, Τρίκαλα Ημαθίας, Χαλάστρα Θεσσαλονίκης και Αιγίνιο. Οι κάτοικοι των χωριών αυτών, πρόσφυγες από τρεις κοινότητες της Βόρειας Θράκης (Μεγάλο Μοναστήρι, Μικρό Μοναστήρι και Καβακλί της επαρχίας Ίντζοβο), εγκαταστάθηκαν στην Ελλάδα το 1924, βάσει της σύμβασης “περί εθελουσίας ανταλλαγής των πληθυσμών” που υπογράφηκε το 1919 μεταξύ Ελλάδας και Βουλγαρίας.
Στην παρούσα μελέτη -το αντικείμενο της οποίας είναι το ύφος ή τα ύφη στο χορό ως τρόπος εκτέλεσης και ερμηνείας του-, ο χορός αποτελεί δυναμικό και αναπόσπαστο στοιχείο ενός ζωντανού αισθητικού συστήματος. Εξετάζονται οι συνθήκες που οργανώνουν τις χορευτικές παραστάσεις, καθορίζουν το ρόλο του χορού και επηρεάζουν τη χορευτική συμπεριφορά. Στόχος της, η διερεύνηση των διαφορετικών όψεων (όψη = δομή + ύφος) που διαμορφώνουν στο χορό σχέσεις συστήματος. Για τον εντοπισμό των σημαντικών κινητικών στοιχείων του χορού εφαρμόζεται η εθνοεπιστημονική κινητική ανάλυση, όπως αυτή παρουσιάστηκε από την ανθρωπολόγο Kaeppler (1967 & 1972), σε ένα πρωτότυπο συνδυασμό με ανάλογη μέθοδο της δομικής γλωσσολογίας (φώνημα, μόρφημα, μοτίβο, αλλόφωνο) καθώς και με τις βασικές αρχές της υφολογίας και της εθνολογίας του χορού. Το ενδιαφέρον επικεντρώνεται στη δομική και σημειωτική ανάλυση, που αντιμετωπίζει το χορό ως δομημένο σύστημα. Η μέθοδος που χρησιμοποιείται περιλαμβάνει τα εξής τρία στάδια:

α) προτάσσεται η δομική ανάλυση μέρους του χορευτικού συστήματος -μιας μόνο κοινότητας- που στοχεύει στην περιγραφή των κινητικών συστατικών του: 1) κίνημα (το μικρότερο στοιχείο του χορού), 2) μορφοκίνημα (ο μικρότερος συνδυασμός κινήσεων που, ως κίνηση, ενέχει νόημα), 3) μοτίβο (ο συνδυασμός κινημάτων και μορφοκινημάτων που δηλώνει το είδος του χορού). Ση συνέχεια, εντοπίζονται οι συσχετισμοί των τριών συστατικών, προκειμένου να αποκαλυφθούν οι υφολογικές μονάδες. Ωστόσο, η περιγραφή δεν αρκεί. Συνεπώς,

β) ακολουθεί η ανάλυση του συνόλου των υφολογικών χαρακτηριστικών –και πάλι της μιας κοινότητας--, στην οποία λαμβάνονται υπόψη οι παράγοντες που, κατά την εκτέλεση του χορού, προσδιορίζουν -και ταυτόχρονα επηρεάζουν- το ύφος του (η ηλικία, το φύλο των ατόμων, οι τελετουργικές και κοσμικές περιστάσεις, η εντοπιότητα). Τα υφολογικά αυτά χαρακτηριστικά επισημαίνονται, ερμηνεύονται και ελέγχονται ως προς τη λειτουργία τους τόσο στο συγχρονικό όσο και στο διαχρονικό επίπεδο. Καθώς η συγκριτική αυτή μέθοδος αποκάλυψε “αποκλίσεις” (διαφορετικότητες) ή “παραλλαγές” ως προς το υφολογικό ιδεώδες, το ενδιαφέρον στη συνέχεια εστιάζεται σ’ αυτές ακριβώς τις παραλλαγές με στόχο την  ερμηνεία τους. Η διαδικασία αυτή έχει ως αποτέλεσμα την προβολή εκείνων των υφολογικών στοιχείων, των αλλοκινημάτων, που είναι μοναδικά για κάθε κοινότητα, την χαρακτηρίζουν, ελέγχονται από αυτήν και συμβάλλουν στην αποσαφήνιση του τρόπου αξιολόγησής τους και αποδοχής τους απ' αυτή. Τα υφολογικά αυτά στοιχεία και το σύνολο των τρόπων ερμηνείας τους συνθέτουν το χορευτικό ύφος μιας και μόνης κοινότητας. Τέλος,

γ)  επιχειρείται η σύγκριση του εν λόγω συστήματος –της μιας κοινότητας- που λειτουργεί ως μοντέλο, με τα άλλα μέρη του συστήματος –των δύο άλλων κοινοτήτων.

Η εφαρμογή της εθνοεπιστημονικής μεθόδου οδήγησε στα εξής δύο συμπεράσματα: α) στο παρελθόν γίνεται λόγος για πολλά επιμέρους ύφη (ηλικίας, φύλου, κοινωνικής κατάστασης, περίστασης), που το σύνολό τους χαρακτηρίζει, σε ένα πρώτο επίπεδο, το ύφος της κάθε μοναδικής κοινότητας και, σε δεύτερο επίπεδο, το ύφος των διαφορετικών κοινοτήτων που απαρτίζουν μια εθνολογική περιοχή β) σήμερα, αντίθετα, και με τις επικρατούσες συνθήκες, είναι σωστότερο να μιλάμε για το βορειοθρακιώτικο ύφος -ένα και μοναδικό ως καλλιτεχνικός μονόλιθος (με όση ακρίβεια μπορεί αυτός ο όρος να περιγράψει ένα φευγαλέο αντικείμενο με περιστασιακή ισχύ)-, που ταυτίζεται με μια συγκεκριμένη χορολογική περιοχή της Ελλάδας.
Με οδηγό την αναλυτική έννοια χορευτικό ύφος, η εργασία αυτή είναι μια συμβολή στη μελέτη της χορευτικής παράδοσης των προσφυγικών κοινοτήτων από τη Βόρεια Θράκη, με έμφαση στη μορφή του χορού και τις ποικίλες παραλλαγές του (ενδο- και διαπολιτισμικά), όπως αποκαλύπτονται από την εξέταση της διαλεκτικής σχέσης χορευτικού ύφους και κοινότητας, δηλαδή του πλαισίου μέσα στο οποίο ο χορός λειτουργεί.