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Cultural Expressions (cultural + expression)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	40%

Selected Abstracts

Incentives for and Protection of Cultural Expression: Art, Trade and Geographical Indications

THE JOURNAL OF WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Issue 2 2010
Anselm Kamperman Sanders
After the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Cultural Diversity, the interaction between the protection of traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) and geographical indicators (GIs) is an interesting one. The capacity of a geographical indication of origin to create a global market with local control over brand, quality and methods of production seems to make it immensely suitable for preservation of cultural diversity. Since the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights does not limit the potential causes of action for the unauthorized use of GIs, the tort of misappropriation may be applied in relation to TCEs. In order to reconcile intellectual property rights with non-Western belief systems, application of the tort of misappropriation, unjust enrichment and the remedy of restitution may make enforcement of GIs in relation to TCEs more palatable than other forms of protection. [source]

The Legal Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions

THE JOURNAL OF WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Issue 2 2004
The Tunisian Example
First page of article [source]

The Making of American Working-Class Literature

LITERATURE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2008
Janet Zandy
This essay traces a line of American literary history that emerges from the lives of workers. Starting with early ballads and songs from indentured servants and enslaved blacks and concluding with contemporary multicultural writing, it documents a process of cultural formation that is embedded in class relationships and struggles. Events in labor history and conditions of unsafe work become the subjects for cultural expression as poems, songs, stories, and novels at the time of the event and as reclaimed cultural/labor antecedents by future generations. The writing shows a reciprocal worker visibility across time and across race, gender, and ethnic differences. The continuous thread is struggle , for physical and material sustainability , and for the right of human expression. Drawing on the chronology of working-class writing from the anthology, American Working-Class Literature (co-edited with Nicholas Coles, Oxford University Press), the author shows how American working-class literature is at once a literary line, a body of work, and a labor line, the work of bodies. [source]

Ambiguation, Disjuncture, Commitment: A Social Analysis of Caribbean Cultural Creativity

THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 3 2002
Huon Wardle
Sociological reassessments of the Caribbean during the last decade provide the basis for this analysis of cultural creativity in Kingston, Jamaica. The intersection of different social networks and formations , for example, lateral transmigrant patterns and vertical state institutions , creates the groundwork for a simultaneous co,working of three characteristic modes of Creole cultural expression , commitment, ambiguation, disjuncture. These modes are not necessarily dialectically integrated because the social formations to which they are allied typically have not been effectively synthesized in teleological or functional terms. I focus especially on a street rhetoric of ambiguation and displacement which I see as falling within the interplay/intermixture mode lying between disjuncture and commitment. [source]

Motivations for the Restoration of Ecosystems

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2006
ANDRE F. CLEWELL
cambio climático; capital natural; restauración ecológica Abstract:,The reasons ecosystems should be restored are numerous, disparate, generally understated, and commonly underappreciated. We offer a typology in which these reasons,or motivations,are ordered among five rationales: technocratic, biotic, heuristic, idealistic, and pragmatic. The technocratic rationale encompasses restoration that is conducted by government agencies or other large organizations to satisfy specific institutional missions and mandates. The biotic rationale for restoration is to recover lost aspects of local biodiversity. The heuristic rationale attempts to elicit or demonstrate ecological principles and biotic expressions. The idealistic rationale consists of personal and cultural expressions of concern or atonement for environmental degradation, reengagement with nature, and/or spiritual fulfillment. The pragmatic rationale seeks to recover or repair ecosystems for their capacity to provide a broad array of natural services and products upon which human economies depend and to counteract extremes in climate caused by ecosystem loss. We propose that technocratic restoration, as currently conceived and practiced, is too narrow in scope and should be broadened to include the pragmatic rationale whose overarching importance is just beginning to be recognized. We suggest that technocratic restoration is too authoritarian, that idealistic restoration is overly restricted by lack of administrative strengths, and that a melding of the two approaches would benefit both. Three recent examples are given of restoration that blends the technocratic, idealistic, and pragmatic rationales and demonstrates the potential for a more unified approach. The biotic and heuristic rationales can be satisfied within the contexts of the other rationales. Resumen:,Las razones por la que los ecosistemas deben ser restaurados son numerosas, dispares, generalmente poco sustentadas, y comúnmente poco apreciadas. Ofrecemos una tipología en la que estas razones,o motivaciones,son ordenadas entre cinco razonamientos: tecnocrático, biótico, heurístico, idealista y pragmático. El razonamiento tecnocrático se refiere a la restauración que es llevada a cabo por agencias gubernamentales u otras grandes organizaciones para satisfacer misiones y mandatos institucionales específicos. El razonamiento biótico de la restauración es la recuperación de aspectos perdidos de la biodiversidad local. El razonamiento heurístico intenta extraer o demostrar principios ecológicos y expresiones bióticas. El razonamiento idealista consiste de expresiones personales y culturales de la preocupación o reparación de la degradación ambiental, reencuentro con la naturaleza y/o cumplimiento espiritual. El razonamiento pragmático busca recuperar o reparar ecosistemas por su capacidad de proporcionar una amplia gama de servicios y productos naturales de la que dependen las economías humanas y para contrarrestar extremos en el clima causados por la pérdida de ecosistemas. Proponemos que la restauración tecnocrática, como se concibe y practica actualmente, es muy corta en su alcance y debiera ampliarse para incluir al razonamiento pragmático, cuya importancia apenas comienza a ser reconocida. Sugerimos que la restauración tecnocrática es demasiado autoritaria, que la restauración idealista esta muy restringida por la falta de fortalezas administrativas, y que una mezcla de los dos enfoques podría beneficiar a ambas. Proporcionamos tres ejemplos recientes de restauración que combinan los razonamientos tecnocrático, idealista y pragmático y demuestran el potencial para un enfoque más unificado. Los razonamientos biótico y heurístico pueden ser satisfechos en el contexto de los otros razonamientos. [source]

PARADIGMS BEHIND (AND BEFORE) THE MODERN CONCEPT OF RELIGION

HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 4 2006
CATHERINE BELL
ABSTRACT This essay identifies five paradigms that are basic to understanding the historical emergence and uses of the generic idea of "religion" in the Christian cultures of Europe and America. The spread of this concept has been sufficiently thorough in recent centuries as to make religion appear to be a "social fact," to use Durkheim's phrase, rather than so many cultural expressions and different social practices. The supremacy of Euro-American culture,and an academy still saturated with Christian ideas,has enjoined other cultures and forms of religiosity to conform to this idea of religion; for these cultures contentment with the status quo can vie with the anxieties of influence, including "modernization." The key paradigms discussed are the following: Christianity as the prototype; religion as the opposite of reason; the modern formulation of "world religions"; the cultural necessity of religion; and critical analysis of the Western "construction" of religion. These paradigms demonstrate the limits on theoretical variety in the field, the difficulty in making real changes in set ways of thinking, and productive foci for interdisciplinary methods of study. [source]

Bounded Choices: Somali Women Constructing Difference in Minnesota Housing

JOURNAL OF INTERIOR DESIGN, Issue 2 2007
Tasoulla Hadjiyanni
ABSTRACT Coming to Minnesota to escape a devastating war, Somali refugees found themselves living in rental units that had little resemblance to the dwellings they left behind. Interviews with eight Somali women in their Minnesota homes reveal the difficult choices they had to make in order to preserve Somali cultural traditions and practices amidst strong American influences. As a way to construct the Somali sense of difference, women appropriated their living environments by relying on all five senses and various forms of cultural expressions that range from burning unsi to adorning the walls with Somali handicrafts. Unwilling to let go of valued Somali institutions, many had to make bounded choices like cooking while veiled in open kitchens, limiting children's play to accommodate formal impromptu visits, and restraining their social gatherings to the bedrooms to continue the tradition of gender separation. By proposing design solutions to the housing problems revealed through the study, this paper hopes to alert those who work with refugees and other immigrant groups that, with a little extra care, a house can be transformed into a home that fosters a sense of belonging and eases the stresses of adjusting to new life circumstances. [source]

Incentives for and Protection of Cultural Expression: Art, Trade and Geographical Indications

Neo-Colonial Aspects of Global Intellectual Property Protection

THE JOURNAL OF WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Issue 1 2009
Andreas Rahmatian
An essential instrument in the process of neo-colonialism by economic means is the establishment of a legal framework of international trade that confers legally enforceable rights that support and safeguard economic penetration and control. This includes, in a similar way as in colonial times, the guarantee of protection of foreign property rights in dependent regions. Today, intellectual property rights fulfil this colonizing role to a large extent. It will be shown that the implementation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights is one major device that drives such an economic neo-colonialism forward. This is reflected in the history of the making of this treaty, as well as in the methods of enforcement of intellectual property rights, which will be demonstrated in the example of China. Besides this international expansion of Western-style intellectual property rights, there is another, seemingly contrasting and alternative non-proprietarian, legislative project, which nevertheless has neo-colonial effects: the protection of traditional cultural expressions in the context of "traditional" arts. The article discusses that, despite presumably good intentions, this measure reflects colonial features, such as the concept of indirect rule, and invites segregationist legislation. [source]

The Lumpen and the Popular: Guillermo Cabrera Infante and Julio García Espinosa

BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 4 2009
OLGA RODRÍGUEZ-FALCÓN
This article deals with the post-1959 re-definitions of the concept of ,popular culture' and its relation to the cultural legacy of Havana's nightlife during the 1950s. After the 1959 Revolution, many Euro-Cuban cultural producers saw and represented the cultural expressions of the Afro-Cuban poor in the capital as being central to Cuban ,popular culture'. This article focuses mainly on two Euro-Cuban authors, writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante and filmmaker Julio García Espinosa, whose works during the first years of the 1960s were highly influenced by Havana's nightlife culture. What both authors shared was a view of the nocturnal in Havana as the heterotopical space and time,following Foucault's concept of ,heterotopia' (1998: 175-185),where the divisions between high and low art in Cuba could be transcended through the encounters of the different cultural traditions then cohabiting in the city. [source]