Cultural Struggles

Gathers the essential essays of Dwight Conquergood, performance studies scholar, ethnographer, and activist

If societies have only memories of war, of cruelty, of violence, then why are we called humankind? This book marks a new trajectory in Memory Studies by examining cultural memories of nonviolent struggles from ten countries. The book reminds us of the enduring cultural scripts for human agency, solidarity, resilience and human kindness.

This unique resource is now in an extensively revised second edition with more than 90% new material and an expanded conceptual framework. Filled with rich case illustrations, the book explores how children's cultural identities--as well as experiences of marginalization--shape the challenges they bring to therapy and the ways they express themselves. Expert practitioners guide therapists to build competence for working across different dimensions of diversity, including race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. Purchasers get access to a companion website featuring chapters from the first edition on play therapy with major cultural groups: African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian Americans. New to This Edition *Virtually a new book; incorporates a broader definition of culture and an increased social justice focus. *Chapters on working with children of color, LGBT children and adolescents, undocumented families, and Deaf children. *Chapter on dismantling white privilege in the play therapy office. *Chapters on school bullying and on how technology is transforming play, including tips for conducting tele-play therapy.

Discourse as Cultural Struggle challenges the cultural imbalance in current research traditions, and argues for a culturalist perspective in facilitating better intercultural exchange amidst accelerated processes of globalization. It is the first engagement with discourses in non-mainstream cultures. Covering a wide range of issues in public, professional, media and intercultural communication, the twelve original essays here tackle culturally pressing issues by aligning viewpoints from various geopolitical contexts. This is a thought-provoking book for scholars and researchers of language and communication studies who seek innovative approaches in their fields of interest. “Here is a book that takes diversity seriously and lifts it to the level of an epistemic paradigm. What we know is culturally constituted and discursively articulated; this relativism is converted into an absolutism due to historical power relations, and we find ourselves a curious situation in which anything that suggests diversity at fundamental levels of thought becomes a serious theoretical problem. This book addresses this absurdity, and in the context of globalization, the exercise is to be welcomed.” — Jan Blommaert, University of London “This volume opens up new and innovative perspectives for all interested in discourse analysis, cross-cultural communication, and social change. It links and relates approaches which originate more in the ‘West’ with those stemming from the ‘East’. Thus, a challenging debate is finally made possible which ultimately could and should lead to more collaborative research and, even more importantly, to better and mutual understanding.”— Ruth Wodak, Lancaster University “This fine volume enters the large field of Discourse Studies by insisting that cultural knowledge of discourses is essential, and thus necessary for our understanding of how discourse shapes human communities and relations among them. It is a rich collection of conceptual and case studies, a fine addition to our literatures, and worthy of our careful study.” — Donal Carbaugh, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

In this book, South African performer and activist Robert Mshengu Kavanagh reveals the complex and conflicting interplay of class, nation and race in South African theatre under Apartheid. Evoking an era when theatre itself became a political battleground, Kavanagh displays how the struggle against Apartheid was played out on the stage as well as on the streets. Kavanagh's account spans three very different areas of South African theatre, with the author considering the merits and limitations of the multi-racial theatre projects created by white liberals; the popular commercial musicals staged for black audiences by emergent black entrepreneurs; and the efforts of the Black Consciousness Movement to forge a distinctly African form of revolutionary theatre in the 1970s. The result is a highly readable, pioneering study of the theatre at a time of unprecedented upheaval, diversity and innovation, with Kavanagh's cogent analysis demonstrating the subtle ways in which culture and the arts can become an effective means of challenging oppression.

Does our cultural background influence the way we think and feel about ourselves and others? Does our culture affect how we choose our partners, how we define intelligence and abnormality and how we bring up our children? Psychologists have long pondered the relationship between culture and a range of psychological attributes. Cultural Issues In Psychology is an all round student guide to the key studies, theories and controversies which seek to explore human behaviour in a global context. The book explores key controversies in global psychology, such as: Culture: what does it mean and how has it been researched? Relativism and universalism: are they compatible approaches in global research? Ethnocentrism: is psychological research dominated by a few regions of the world? Indigenous psychologies: what are the diverse research traditions from around the world? Research methods and perspectives: how can we compare and contrast cross-cultural psychology and cultural psychology? The book also includes detailed examinations of global research into mainstream areas of psychology, such as social, cognitive and developmental psychology, as well as abnormal psychology. With insightful classroom activities and helpful pedagogical features, this detailed, yet accessibly written book gives introductory-level psychology students access to a concise review of key research, issues, controversies and diverse approaches in the area of culture and psychology.

This unique resource is now in an extensively revised second edition with more than 90% new material and an expanded conceptual framework. Filled with rich case illustrations, the book explores how children's cultural identities--as well as experiences of marginalization--shape the challenges they bring to therapy and the ways they express themselves. Expert practitioners guide therapists to build competence for working across different dimensions of diversity, including race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. Purchasers get access to a companion website featuring chapters from the first edition on play therapy with major cultural groups: African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian Americans. New to This Edition *Virtually a new book; incorporates a broader definition of culture and an increased social justice focus. *Chapters on working with children of color, LGBT children and adolescents, undocumented families, and Deaf children. *Chapter on dismantling white privilege in the play therapy office. *Chapters on school bullying and on how technology is transforming play, including tips for conducting tele-play therapy.

Addressing Cultural Issues in Organizations provides conceptual models and practical approaches to organizational interventions which take account of cultural difference.