English as a lingua franca in the Asian context

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chit Cheung Matthew Sung
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Asian Context

The global phenomenon of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has gained a great deal of attention among applied linguists in recent years. With English serving an increasingly important role as a lingua franca in the Asian context, this special issue aims to explore ELF in Asia through the lens of identity. It critically explores issues and concerns surrounding ELF and identity formation from an Asian perspective by investigating ELF communication involving Asian speakers of English and examining their voices and experiences which have been under-represented in the ELF literature. Building upon a small but growing body of literature on ELF and identity, this special issue brings together articles that examine different aspects of identity formation in ELF communication in several Asian contexts, addressing an array of issues including how identities are constructed and negotiated in lingua franca settings and how different aspects of identities are shaped by linguistic and socio-cultural norms of various ELF contexts and by complex interactions of power relations, language attitudes and ideologies.

The Awkwardness of Australian Engagement with Asia: The Dilemmas of Australian Idea of Regionalism

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
BAOGANG HE
Keyword(s):  
Regional Integration ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Full Member ◽  
Regional Institutions ◽  
International Power ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
High Level ◽  
Pacific Community

AbstractAustralia has experienced difficulties engaging with Asia-Pacific regional integration. Despite Australian attempts to punch above its weight in regional forums and to be a regional leader, it is still not regarded as a full member or as quite fitting into the region. It is an ‘awkward partner’ in the Asian context, and has experienced the ‘liminality’ of being neither here nor there. The former Rudd government's proposal for an ‘Asia Pacific Community’ (APC) by the year 2020 was a substantive initiative in Australia's ongoing engagement with Asia. It has, however, attracted a high level of criticism both at home and abroad. The main critical analysis of the proposal has focused on institutional building or architecture, or its relationship with existing regional institutions, but overlooks a host of often fraught questions about culture, norms, identities, and international power relations. The APC concept needs to be scrutinized in terms of these questions with a critical eye. This paper examines the cultural, cognitive, and normative dimensions of Rudd's proposal. It analyses four dilemmas or awkward problems that the APC faces.

scholarly journals Gossip as evaluative sensemaking and the concealment of confidential gossip in the everyday life of organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 135050762097936
Author(s):  
Ziyun Fan ◽  
Patrick Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Distinct Form ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Learning Paradox ◽  
Espoused Values ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
And Behavior

Gossip is pervasive at the workplace, yet receives scant attention in the sensemaking literature and stands on the periphery of organization studies. We seek to reveal the non-triviality of gossip in processes of sensemaking. In drawing on empirical data from an observational study of a British Media firm, we adopt a processual perspective in showing how people produce, understand, and enact their sense of what is occurring through gossip as an evaluative and distinct form of informal communication. Our research draws attention to the importance of gossip in the routines of daily practice and the need to differentiate general from confidential gossip. We discuss how gossip continuously informs learning as evaluative sensemaking processes that encourages critiques and evaluation to shape future action and behavior. Within this, we argue how confidential gossip can challenge power relations while remaining part of formal authority structures, constituting forms of pragmatic and micro-resistance. This shadowland resistance provides terrain for learning that both criticizes and preserves espoused values and cultural norms. We conclude that confidential gossip as an evaluative and secretive process provokes a learning paradox that both enables and constrains forms of resistance in reinforcing and simultaneously questioning power relations at work.

scholarly journals Editorial – Contentious Mobilities/Canadian Mobilities

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Sodero ◽  
Nicholas Scott
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Canadian Journal ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Life And Death

This special issue of Canadian Journal of Sociology on ‘Contentious Mobilities’ showcases Canadian scholarship that investigates mobilities in the context of unequal power relations. Mobilities become contentious when they confront the systematic exclusion of others, advance unconventional mobile practices and defy or destabilize existing power relations. Increasingly, mobilities are contentious in relation to rapidly changing economies, societies and environments. This special issue stages an overdue encounter between the mobilities paradigm and research on sociopolitical contention. Simultaneously, this special issue addresses an empirical gap, featuring Canada as a prolific and influential site for leading-edge research. Five key themes emerge amongst the diverse papers in this issue: life and death, employment-related mobility, intersectionality/in(visibility), governance, and automobility. Further, we identify five potential topics for Canadian mobilities, including climate change, disaster, technology and travel, the good city and methods.

scholarly journals Hydrological and Climatic Changes in Deserts of China since the Late Pleistocene

2010 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoping Yang ◽  
Louis A. Scuderi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Changes ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Western China ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Monsoon Climate ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Aeolian Dunes ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Dryland Rivers ◽  
The Last Glacial

Large areas in western China were wetlands or less arid between 40 and 30 ka, corresponding to the “Greatest Lake Period” on the adjacent Tibetan Plateau. During the last glacial maximum, some of these western Chinese deserts again experienced wetter conditions; however, at the same time the sandy lands in the eastern Chinese desert belt experienced an activation of aeolian dunes. While interpretations of the mid-Holocene environment in the deserts of China are controversial, it is quite likely that it was more humid not only in the eastern areas influenced by monsoon climate systems but also in the western deserts where moisture is currently associated with westerlies. Evaluation of lacustrine records in the lakes recharged by dryland rivers and the complex interactions of these systems, as well as other paleoenvironmental proxies such as the Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae ratio, should be interpreted with greater caution. Facing the highlighted uncertainties in our understanding of climate changes in Chinese deserts, it is hoped that this special issue will improve our knowledge considerably.

Assessment of HiTOP Constructs Across the Population: A Commentary on the HiTOP Measure Development Project

Assessment ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 107319112110482
Author(s):  
Edelyn Verona
Keyword(s):  
Measure Development ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Critical View ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Mental Wellness ◽  
Symptom Measures ◽  
Taxonomic System

The set of articles in this issue demonstrates the promise of the HiTOP collaborative effort in advancing a viable alternative dimensional taxonomy of psychopathology. Besides transcending the limitations of our current taxonomic system and categorical diagnoses, the potential contributions of HiTOP should extend to also critically examining long-standing notions of psychopathology and mental wellness, evaluating the ability of symptom measures to capture the various manifestations of disorder in the population, and questioning the emphasis on predominant Western cultural norms as a basis for our definitions of psychopathology and their measurement. This commentary addresses the extent to which the implementation of the measurement studies featured in the special issue centered these goals, drawing on the work of scholars from within and outside the fields of psychiatry and clinical psychology, some who have taken a critical view of these fields. The hope is that we work to challenge some basic assumptions and increase self-reflection, with an eye toward reducing bias and mental health disparities.

scholarly journals Designing the Future: Strategy, Design, and the 4th Industrial Revolution—An Introduction to the Special Issue

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Tyrone S. Pitsis ◽  
Sara L. Beckman ◽  
Martin Steinert ◽  
Luciano Oviedo ◽  
Bettina Maisch
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
California Management Review ◽  
Future Strategy ◽  
Applied Design ◽  
Impact Of Technology ◽  
Strategy Design ◽  
The Impact

This is an introduction to the special issue of California Management Review on Design Thinking (DT). This special issue joins the growing body of work exploring the idea of DT and whether DT makes a difference in terms enhancing or augmenting the impact of technology—and, as a result, innovation—in a positive way. We have chosen an interesting, relevant, and useful array of papers that provide different approaches, views, and interpretations of applied design thinking. These articles provide both management and scholarly readers with insights in how DT is used, as well as its impact and usefulness in a variety of contexts.

scholarly journals Implicitness and experimental methods in language variation research

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (s1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Rosseel ◽  
Stefan Grondelaers
Keyword(s):  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Status ◽  
Terminological Confusion

AbstractThis special issue brings together research that reflects on the status and role of different types of language attitudes, and the methods required to study them. Many linguists distinguish between explicit and implicit attitudes towards language, but more often than not it remains unclear how these constructs are defined, and what their potential significance is for the study of language variation and change. The contributions to this issue address this question by critically reflecting on theory and methodology, by highlighting (and clarifying) the terminological confusion, and by showcasing new methods and tools. It is hoped that this special issue can inspire theoretical and methodological convergence in a notoriously fragmented field, so that attitude researchers can identify the underlying structure of language attitudes, and the theoretical significance of language evaluation to processes of language variation and change.

Introduction to Special Issue Financial and life instability: Obstacles to and opportunities for emerging adult development and future well-being

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 439-442
Author(s):  
Margherita Lanz ◽  
Joyce Serido
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Adult Development ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Financial Instability ◽  
Special Issue

Current global economic instability has exacerbated the challenges of contemporary emerging adulthood and increased the urgency of examining financial instability as a life condition during this life stage. For this special issue, we assembled eight papers from different countries to examine how emerging adults are navigating financial instability. In the current introduction to the special issue, we identified the main themes that emerged from the collected studies: the role of family, emerging adults’ financial self-agency, financial disruptions and wellbeing, and the processes linking financial factors and positive development. Overall, these studies demonstrate that while the overall processes linking finances and development may be similar in different nations, the specificity of each context highlights the need to consider the important role of cultural norms and attitudes. We conclude this introduction, suggesting future research paths and implications for educators and practitioners that provide financial educators programs.

scholarly journals Feminisms and decolonising psychology: Possibilities and challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-305
Author(s):  
Catriona Ida Macleod ◽  
Sunil Bhatia ◽  
Wen Liu
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Liberation Psychology ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Emancipatory Politics ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
Gendered Power

In this special issue, we bring together papers that speak to feminisms in relation to decolonisation in the discipline of psychology. The six articles and two book reviews address a range of issues: race, citizenship, emancipatory politics, practising decolonial refusal, normalising slippery subjectivity, Islamic anti-patriarchal liberation psychology, and decolonisation of the hijab. In this editorial we outline the papers’ contributions to discussions on understanding decolonisation, how feminisms and decolonisation speak to each other, and the implications of the papers for feminist decolonising psychology. Together the papers highlight the importance of undermining the gendered coloniality of power, knowledge and being. The interweaving of feminisms and decolonising efforts can be achieved through: each mutually informing and shaping the other, conducting intersectional analyses, and drawing on transnational feminisms. Guiding principles for feminist decolonising psychology include: undermining the patriarchal colonialist legacy of mainstream psychological science; connecting gendered coloniality with other systems of power such as globalisation; investigating topics that surface the intertwining of colonialist and gendered power relations; using research methods that dovetail with feminist decolonising psychology; and focussing praxis on issues that enable decolonisation. Given the complexities of the coloniality and patriarchy of power-knowledge-being, feminist decolonising psychology may fail. The issues raised in this special issue point to why it mustn’t.

scholarly journals Theory driven analysis of social class and health outcomes using UK nationally representative longitudinal data

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Welcome Wami ◽  
Gerry McCartney ◽  
Mel Bartley ◽  
Duncan Buchanan ◽  
Ruth Dundas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Variation Explained ◽  
Market Relations

Abstract Background Social class is frequently used as a means of ranking the population to expose inequalities in health, but less often as a means of understanding the social processes of causation. We explored how effectively different social class mechanisms could be measured by longitudinal cohort data and whether those measures were able to explain health outcomes. Methods Using a theoretically informed approach, we sought to map variables within the National Child Development Study (NCDS) to five different social class mechanisms: social background and early life circumstances; habitus and distinction; exploitation and domination; location within market relations; and power relations. Associations between the SF-36 physical, emotional and general health outcomes at age 50 years and the social class measures within NCDS were then assessed through separate multiple linear regression models. R2 values were used to quantify the proportion of variance in outcomes explained by the independent variables. Results We were able to map the NCDS variables to the each of the social class mechanisms except ‘Power relations’. However, the success of the mapping varied across mechanisms. Furthermore, although relevant associations between exposures and outcomes were observed, the mapped NCDS variables explained little of the variation in health outcomes: for example, for physical functioning, the R2 values ranged from 0.04 to 0.10 across the four mechanisms we could map. Conclusions This study has demonstrated both the potential and the limitations of available cohort studies in measuring aspects of social class theory. The relatively small amount of variation explained in the outcome variables in this study suggests that these are imperfect measures of the different social class mechanisms. However, the study lays an important foundation for further research to understand the complex interactions, at various life stages, between different aspects of social class and subsequent health outcomes.

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