Culture & Psychology

This theoretical article presents a cultural-level analysis of stereotype content concerning derogated outgroups in the West. It proposes that the ethos of self-control is a key source of widespread thinking about outgroups, and thus a key factor in the social construction of certain groups as superior and others as inferior. Drawing on the social representations approach, the article complements and extends existing analyses of stereotype content that stem from social identity theory and the structural hypothesis. By emphasizing cultural values, particularly that of self-control of the body, it casts light on neglected sources of stereotype content such as its emotional, visceral and symbolic roots. Furthermore, by exploring other dimensions of the self-control ethos—linked to the mind and to destiny—the paper shows that derogated outgroups are often symbolized in terms of contravention of multiple aspects of self-control. Finally, the paper contributes to a cultural understanding of social exclusion by investigating the origin, production and diffusion of the symbolization of outgroups in terms of deficits in self-control.

Joffe and Staerklé present relevant contributions for improvement of our understanding about the mechanisms of social exclusion in western societies. From the analysis of the self-control ethos in three different domains—mind, body and destiny—the authors develop a fresh view about the relations between cultural values and stereotype content. Here I focus on two domains that are worth further exploration: self-control over the body as a symbol of status; and affective roots of prejudices. Two suggestions are made for future inquiries into how individualism, which feeds into the self-control ethos, has a strategic role in the maintenance of social exclusion mechanisms.

This article offers an analysis of the discursive practice of reconciliation occasioned in the accounts of former British prisoners of war of their captivity and of other related events of World War II during a reconciliation trip to Japan. The overall aim is to examine ways in which autobiographical accounts about the past, as produced in interviews, constitute relevant identities and membership within social relations. In telling narratives of post-war experiences of reconciliation, the participants account for changes in their lives. I use the term `narrative of redemption' to describe those narratives in which the participants address the moral sensibility of the problematic status of their wartime past and reconfigure and reformulate the significance of the past in relation to their present position of reconciliation. Adopting positioning theory as a guiding analytic concept, my analysis demonstrates how such talk shapes experiences of reconciliation with a problematic past. I focus on the redemption narrative to uncover the interactional work of positioning with special attention to similar concepts such as footing and reported speech. I discuss, although briefly, implications of applying positioning theory to the work of reconciliation studies.

Murakami's article on positioning in reconciliation narratives accurately portrays the way in which a former POW reformulates his identity and his past and reconciles with his time as a POW and the Japanese who held him. Through further analysis of the narrative provided, along with an additional narrative of reconciliation from the Rwandan Genocide, this commentary will reflect on the multiple positions that continually interact to create one's identity, the role of the collective culture in this process, and the ambiguity inherent in reconciliation.

Edward Telles' book Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil (2006) has contributed to the understanding of racial and skin color relations in Brazil. The main aspects of the past and present of racism in Brazil are discussed, such as whitening, mestizaje , and the ideology of racial democracy, and some additional data are presented. This work reflects on and brings to light the reflections of Telles and of other researchers of racism about a future of more equalitarian racial and social relations in Brazil.

The paper presents a review of Kövecses's book Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation (2005) advancing a more general critique to the cognitive linguistic view of metaphor. Kövecses addresses a pending problem for the cognitive linguistic approach, namely the observed variation both cross-culturally and within cultures in the use of metaphors. If, as predicted by cognitive linguistics, metaphorical expressions are bodily motivated, conceptual metaphors should be universals. Variation is also a problem for this theory. I argue that the problem reflects the incapacity of the theory to integrate bodily and social meanings. To solve this dilemma, three tenets of cognitive linguistics should be changed: the necessity to hypothesize conceptual structures between body and meaning; the framing of metaphor as a logical device rather than a psychological process; and the omission of the phenomenological experience when using metaphors. I conclude with a brief sketch of how a metaphor theory should work when changing those tenets.

This review examines how we can use the theoretical and methodological tools of Gillespie's book to become better social scientists. We examine ways of approaching intergroup relations by applying the ideas of the book to the context of immigrants moving to Greece. Issues of the mediation of culture in communication and understanding between people are then examined. Specifically, the paths of understanding through the use of symbolic resources are explored through the contexts of Ladakhi tourism and of immigrants in Greece. Finally, we examine the ways in which social scientists move in their understanding of social phenomena.

In Weaving Generations Together, Greenfield describes a long-term project spanning two generations of mothers teaching their daughters how to weave. The author considers the economic and social changes that took place in the Mayan village of Nabenchauk between the 1970s and the 1990s, and explains how they affected weaving apprenticeship and the creative and cognitive processes involved in it. We sympathize with this situated analysis of learning, creativity and cognition, and applaud Greenfield's unique contribution to the understanding of human development under shifting socioeconomic circumstances. At the same time, we highlight the need to enrich the author's account in two distinct ways: (1) by favoring a developmental perspective to the study of changes in practices and psychological phenomena that involves the analysis of processes of transformation and not only the description of differences observed across time; and (2) by specifying the relationship between cultural practices and internal processes. A call is also made to further the discussion about the assumptions that underlie the author's sociocultural approach.