Studies on cultures have gained significant attention in decades. Such studies are essential due to its impact on organizations and societies. Multiracial communities in the USA have contributed to its development and modernization. As such, the USA strongly influences the world’s economy. In contrast, Japan through its homogeneous racial environment manages to bring the community as a develope...

Cultural and economic patterns from 130 sociological works on suicide from 1981 to 1995 are reviewed in this article. The traditional Durkheimian perspective on suicide was often questioned by research on the impact of the mass media, alcohol, class, modernization, religion, and politics. Major theoretical developments included the application of differential identification theory to Phillips's...

The author proposes a bicultural self theory for contemporary Chinese individuals, encompassing 2 main components: the individual-oriented self and the socialoriented self. The social orientation is rooted in traditional Chinese conceptualization of the self, whereas the individual orientation has evolved and developed under Western influences along with recent societal modernization. The autho...

At the moment, modernization of acupuncture has a high priority. On the traditional side, acupuncture has only recently been awarded the status of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO. On the innovative side, high-tech acupuncture is a registered trademark in Austria. Acupuncture has been used for medical treatment for thousands of years. A large number of empirical data are available but...

This case describes challenges in the adoption and implementation of IT in two public sector enterprises in the postal and distribution businesses respectively, in India. In spite of similarities in the scale of operations and the general cultural contexts, the IT adoption processes and outcomes of the two organizations were significantly different. While one failed to implement IT in its cruci...

Institutions of higher education that serve Pacific island communities often look for innovative ways to reach constituents who live on islands spread across more than 3 million square miles of ocean. Courses taught in distance learning formats provide islanders with opportunities to further their education without requiring them to leave the islands or take time off from their jobs to obtain b...

This article analyses some of the contradictions of contemporary technological society through the term ‘digital divide’ and the societal consequences predicted by this development. It briefly examines the history of communication technology in the 1970s, when a lively debate about the new information and communication order and the unbalanced diffusion of mass media took place. The many views ...

It has become commonplace to observe that as mortality falls, morbidity levels rise. The question is why? The explanation offered here stresses the multidimensional nature of morbidity, and the important role that diverse cultural forces have on the patterns of behaviour which underlie reporting behaviour during modernization. These forces involve rising health expectations on the part of or...

This essay considers the formation of Malaysian social sciences from the viewpoint of the concept of “plural”. It argues the concepts such as “plural society,” “multiculturalism,” and “cultural pluralism,” which often emerge in the analysis of Malayan and Malaysian society. Malaysia has illustrated many types of selfportrait through the concepts of “plural”. The concept of “plural” was firstly ...

Youths in Bolgatanga municipality in the Upper East Region in the rural north of Ghana suffer health and social problems that are caused by their premarital and unsafe sexual behaviour. This study provides more knowledge of and insight into the youths' conceptions, motives and practices concerning premarital sex in the specific cultural and social context of Bolgatanga municipality. The results...