Social Sciences

Considering words and the areas of the mind that they impact as two-dimensional shapes forms the theoretical basis from which intercultural communication between the West and Sub-Saharan Africa are examined. Unique shapes of words are illustrated as arising from their meeting with equally unique 'impactible areas' of people's minds, and cultures, resulting in transmitted and received shapes differing in a way related to lexical content at both ends. Differences in overlap between word impacts, shapes of words and fit between words in different languages / cultures are shown to contribute to imprecision in translation, resulting in the recommendation that local policy be of local origin. The above is applied to Christian mission in Africa through diagrammatic representations of 'love' as a spiritual gift in comparison to fellow words, and by an inter-cultural consideration of public…

New media are changing the way identities are managed. This is increasingly relevant to global communication (Lévy, 2000). The purpose of this article is to understand how these changes effect individual perceptions of media within a new cultural environment. By applying Q-methodology to cultural migration, this research asked cultural sojourners to rank subjective statements of media. Factor analysis were applied to the rankings, which provided three main perspectives of media.. These three perspectives include Instrumental Adaptors, Social Connectors, and Abiders. These perspectives provide an alternative to traditional categories of culture and allow for a unique understanding of cultural adaptation theory.

Cultural products, particularly films, are considered tools for exporting and diffusing the culture of one society to another. Films selected for international festivals are a case in point. However, subtitling such films for an audience of other languages is a demanding task. This challenge may negatively impact the films' qualification, although they may technically and aesthetically be evaluated and ranked on top. The attraction of the films screened depends largely on how successfully certain features of the films, such as cultural references, including the lexical gaps, are treated in English subtitling. The present study aimed to study the lexical gaps in several Iranian films screened at international festivals. To identify lexical gaps between Persian and English, as the international and common language of subtitling for international film festivals, Darwish’s (2010) taxonomy…

This study analyzed the communication among construction workers at Mabapi Estate. Its primary objective was to establish the relationship between languages and work in construction industry through the description and explication of communication behaviors and competences that construction workers relied on to participate in intelligible socially organized verbal and non-verbal interactions. To gather data for the study, an ethnographic participant observation and semi-structured interview methods were used. The study established that construction workers: created a common language that comprised coinages and vocabulary derived from different language communities, had the propensity to talk about issues that may appear uncouth to the civilized society and that they employed varied non-verbal cues to enhance their verbal interactions.

This study examines the role of marital beliefs, marital virtues, and neighborhood cohesion in marital satisfaction among 386 participants in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study used a descriptive correlational study design. Participants were selected using multistage random sampling techniques, and data were collected using a questionnaire. Multilevel modeling was employed to analyze the data. Findings indicated that all marital beliefs, marital virtues, and neighborhood cohesion were positively and significantly associated with marital satisfaction. The findings from multilevel modeling showed that marital virtues and neighborhood cohesion significantly predicted marital satisfaction at both individual and neighborhood levels, whereas marital beliefs predicted marital satisfaction only at the individual level. Besides, marital virtues moderated the association between shared neighborhood…

This study evaluated the environmental and socio-economic effects of timber harvesting and identified the drivers increasing the rate of timber exploitation in the Imo River Estuary, Eastern Obolo Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Conducted across five LGAs, a random sampling technique selected 300 respondents, with 60 from each LGA. Data collection involved structured questionnaires, and analysis included percentages, frequencies, Likert scale rating, exploratory factor analysis, and Chi-square tests. Key findings indicated that the primary drivers of timber exploitation were unemployment, lack of forest regulations, unstable government policies, lack of trained officials, and high timber product costs. Factor analysis revealed that loss of biodiversity, disappearance of forest cover, and damage to immature trees and non-wood forest products are the most significant…

How may culture be defined? Numerous works and important contributions have been answering this crucial question for the past thirty years; yet the problem remains unsolved. When taking a close look at ‘intercultural communication’, we may see that some utterances might not be thatcultural at all. If we have a clear definition of ‘intercultural communication’, then what is ‘intra-cultural communication’ (Winch 1997, Ma 2004)? Is there really a sharp difference between these two concepts and is miscommunication necessarily ‘cultural’ when implying individuals or groups from alleged different cultural backgrounds? We will study various examples and try to separate the cultural from the non-cultural by taking a close look at intercultural and intra-cultural miscommunication, insofar as their definitions seem to ultimately cover the same conceptual maps. After this first step, we will…

Despite the general global consistency of road signs, the depicted human icons possess varying degrees and types of gender by country. This paper proposes that greater gender typing in road signs communicates greater inequality in a cultures’ attitude towards women. Leveraging theoretical concepts from semiotics and Bandura’s social cognitive theory, this pilot study creates and measures a visual gender scale and completes a content and semiotic analysis, providing the requisite foundation for investigating the effects of gender presentation. Results highlight the absence of gender neutral icons, internal validity of the gender scale, and pilot outcomes. A full scale study is warranted to formally measure degree of visual gender and social effect. Limitations include the novelty of a gender scale and inhibited ability to discuss effects theoretically as a result of small sample size.

The western Balkans are persistently grappling with its unfavorable inter-ethnic reputation. Although political toleration has been consistently proposed as a solution for inter-ethnic tensions, this paper argues for the adoption of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) framework, offering a fresh perspective to an old problem. Rooted in the 'communication perspective', CMM provides a crucial platform for stakeholders to interact meaningfully. This study aims to present compelling reasons for embracing dialogical methods in interethnic disagreements. The CMM model focuses on empowering participants with knowledge to collectively shape their social realities. To illustrate, we introduce a visual communication model seamlessly integrating political toleration and CMM concepts. This model establishes a dialogical platform, ensuring equal participation from public and civil society…

Language and culture are interdependent. The uniqueness of the Japanese society makes Japanese language a heavily culture-laden one, which contributes much to the language barrier between Japanese and Americans. It is compulsory that many cultural concepts must be integrated into comparative studies so they can be better understood from a cross-cultural perspective, and communication between Japanese and Americans must always be carried out with culture awareness.Key Words: uniqueness; language; culture; communication