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The philosopher and Latin American studies specialist Alfredo Gómez-Muller developed, between France and Colombia, a singular work with which to think the encounter between two worlds. Above all else, his "universalism of dialogic coexistence" entails, through diverse theoretic and practical reworkings, a concern for a cultural justice that is under continuous refinement. Inspired in Aristotle, Sartre, and Marx, such a justice precludes any type of seclusion under a supposedly inevitable "clash of civilizations". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on an industrial survey in which funeral attendants of the U.S. participated. Topics discussed includes evangelical universalism, graveside memorial, biblical truth of damnation, denial of monotheism, Christian culture discussed in books and kingdom of God and grace of God.

The author reflects on an earlier article published in the journal on Universalism in translational studies. The author mentions that most of the parts of the article are correct. The author, however, also states that the article and other translational studies are European Centric and should have more global case studies to help in overcoming the cultural differences that exists.

In this article, I survey a number of existing contributions to the debate concerned with sociology and aesthetic value and in doing so make a contribution to the difficult task of formulating an alternative approach. I argue that sociologists have excelled in ‘bringing art down to earth’, but in doing so they can also have a role to play in evaluating cultural objects. Awareness of the socio-historical context in which our judgements are formulated exposes the myth of aesthetic universalism, and institutional approaches highlight the ways in which certain cultural objects are imbued with value. However, by paying attention solely to contextual factors, there is a danger that the cultural object disappears. Therefore, in surveying the field, I call for a more balanced approach that considers value in terms of context, one which combines reflexive awareness of the position from which judgement is formulated with a renewed attention to the cultural object and, importantly, the dynamics of the evaluative moment. For sociologists as for anyone, the prickly matter of value-judgement is a quotidian practice, an active practice, dependent on a number of dynamic contextual factors. It is important to find ways of theorizing our day-to‐day interactions with cultural objects through which our judgements – individual and collective – are formulated, and through which we decide what is to be prized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By identifying some elements for an axiological interpretation of the spiritual culture, we have permanently have into view the fact that, through culture, the man can reach the universalism of his being, this optimal ideal can be fulfilled only in a world that will become a homeland of spirit, that will consecrate its renaissance and ascension on the path of the most splendid capital in the history of human culture and civilization: VALUE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mana (01049313) is the property of Contra Capa Livraria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The essay distils from Badiou's writing a pedagogy based on his theories of knowledge and truth, as brought to bear on poetry and the arts. By following Badiou's implicit ontology of learning, which presupposes a dynamic and passionate engagement with a concrete situation, the essay argues that Badiou's view of modernity, in particular, contributes greatly to the educational topic, and offers an alternative teaching paradigm to the outmoded schools of criticism of the 20th century. It also argues that the concept of universalism in education, as against identitarian particularism, is further evinced from a discussion of Badiou's study of St. Paul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the philosophical translation of Chinese philosophy professor Roger Ames of the book "Analects." It notes that his translation has served as a medium for expanding communication between the Chinese and Western culture. It also mentions that in constructing channels for dialogue between the two culture, Ames has revealed his confrontation with the hackneyed crisis and spirit of Western universalism, which can be further used to reconstruct the continuous nature of history.

When we ask ourselves the question 'Who am I?', we usually utilize various self descriptions through which we defined ourselves in the past. Those self-definitions may depend on group memberships, roles and social categories such as culture or religion. We were interested in the question of whether people with dual national identities associate distinct national value systems with each of those identities. In particular, we had focused on first and second generation Asian-Canadians and tested the hypothesis that distinct value systems are linked to each of one's two national identities. Participants of South-East and East Asian origin or descent completed Schwartz's (1992) value survey, once as Asians and once as Canadians. The participants revealed discrepancies in how they ranked the value types when instructed to do so as Canadians and as Asians. Specifically, the value types of universalism, self-direction, hedonism and stimulation were rated as significantly more important when participants were responding as Canadians, and the value types of conformity and tradition were rated significantly higher when the same participants were responding as Asians. These results are consistent with the results of other research that compares separate samples in Asia and in the West. But, the present research is fairly unusual in its examination and demonstration of separate value systems within individuals who have two national identities. The implications of having separate value systems associated with each of one's national identities for the interplay between self-identification and culture and for value theory are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a Confucius, universalism and special principle are not in a binary opposition. As a fundamental character of a Chinese, Confucian ethics proposed a synthesis of both, which is termed as Kontextualisierter Universalismus. Culturally, Confucian ethics is the real synthesis of universalism and special principle, which is the embodiment of the fundamental characteristics of Chinese culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums have long experienced diverse pressures on collections, particularly from source communities (many now in modern nation-states) that suffered extreme loss of their heritage under colonialism. A great deal of the world’s archaeology and anthropology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – even when most honourably pursued – can be argued to have advanced under grossly inequitable conditions among the world’s peoples and cultures in terms of their ability to sustain and protect their own heritage. At worst, brutal human violence and uncontrolled pillage occurred. Cultural destruction and social dislocation prevailed in many of the historical movements of artefacts to private collections and museums from their communities of origin. The record is especially stark across the continent of Africa, in China (with 1 million objects missing) and in all parts of the world in relation to indigenous peoples. Instead of being preoccupied with the ‘Universal Museums Declaration’ as a misjudged political event, which did more harm than good, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) is interested in an approach that moves beyond attack on or censorious repression of the discourse of universalism. A more considered response is required – namely, to challenge the discourse itself to move out of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (where it remains atrophied) and to extend its continuing legacy and potential of self-transformation in twenty-first-century terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we re-examine notions of relativism and universalism in the history of anthropology through a re-appraisal of anthropological research in the Mediterranean. In view of the fact of ongoing, public debates on how to bring about a new world order, we trace the notion of a clash of civilizations in intellectual history and depict early attempts to shed light on cultural techniques of exchange and cohabitation. By examining the material basis of all culture and the body-techniques of visionary experiences, we will argue that creative human beings are apt to develop social and individual strategies for dealing with one's own cultural heritage and with Otherness and its various transformations. Following Foucault and Deleuze we concentrate on different modes of "folding", i.e. subjectivations, along which outside experience is transformed into inside experience and vice versa in order to explore the cultural basis on which resistance as well as any commitment to a "clash of civilizations" is negotiated. In the words of Marcel Mauss, "underlying all our mystic states are corporeal techniques...[and] biological methods of entering into communication with God" (Mauss 1979), and we argue that these have always had the potential to challenge dominant cultural politics and ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the meanings of youth culture, and particularly music, in contemporary France, in the light of the Ministry of Culture's adoption a quarter of a century ago of a sympathetic discourse towards it. Contrasting similarly sympathetic French sociological analyses with the seminal work undertaken in Anglophone cultural studies on subcultures, it argues that the variable nomenclature of youth culture in French public discourse is founded on two fundamental ways of conceptualising youth culture, to which the work of Pierre Mayol draws attention. While la culture des jeunes, denoting the leisure practices of 15- to 24-year-olds, connotes a culture existing in an ephemeral, ghettoised present, la culture jeune has undergone the process that Bourdieu calls legitimation. The article concludes by asking whether these dual meanings of youth culture may ultimately be mapped on to the republican opposition between particularism and universalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many geographical areas of the United Kingdom have a distinct multicultural presence. Welfare services in the United Kingdom need to cater to the needs of this diversity and there is active experimentation with regard to various modes of ensuring effective service delivery to the minorities that represent this diversity. In the past, the burden of being culturally appropriate has been appropriated by the voluntary sector and the community‐based organisations. However, the statutory sector now has certain ‘named’ responsibilities toward ensuring that relevant welfare services are available for various groups of people who might be in need. While there are guidelines and directives to ensure that diversity is attended to, there is a great deal of ambiguity about how this will best be achieved. This paper is an attempt to add to the active deliberations in service provision in a multicultural society and will discuss the pros and cons of the alternatives of race‐specific and culturally competent service provisions. It will draw from experiential accounts from working in a race‐specific provision and from other studies of relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By drawing on hermeneutico-dialogical principles, the approach developed here seeks to advance the global implementation of a viable human rights regime in a manner commensurate with the preservation of culture-specific differences. To this end, the present article undertakes to elucidate the conditions under which the ongoing intercultural debate about rights might yield a more productive outcome through fostering the implementation of the international human rights regime in a manner that can do justice to core intra-cultural beliefs, values and practices. Chief among these are: a commitment to moving beyond universalism and relativism as polarized alternatives; endorsement of the comparable validity and dialogical equality of established traditions and cultures; valorization of mutual understanding and learning as the regulative orientation most conducive to yielding potentially transformative advances across cultures in the theory and practice of human rights; and acknowledgment of the need for both external and internal accountability. As contended throughout, these conditions apply equally both to modernist and to traditionalist cultures and call, correspondingly, for a rethinking of entrenched presuppositions in both domains. In defending these conditions, the dialogical approach poses a severe challenge to core presuppositions of the strong universalist stance, as endorsed by some prominent contributors to the contemporary debate about the cross-cultural implementation of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Choosing for whom to work is one of the most difficult ethical questions public relations practitioners have to address. This article attempts to examine the issue of client choice in the philosophical context of universalism versus ethical relativism. In this article, while acknowledging that differences between cultures exist, I argue public relations practitioners should take a universalistic approach in choosing their clients because ethical relativism itself is seriously flawed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with Bhikhu Parekh's theory of intercultural evaluation. Parekh's approach to multiculturalism is based on an open dialogue between minorities and the majority on cultural practices that should be tolerated. In the first part, author criticizes Parekh's concept of operative public values, which Parekh uses as a starting point for intercultural debate. In the second part, author deals with the problem of consistency between Parekh's theoretical arguments and their application to particular cases. In the conclusion, author argues that Parekh's aspiration to avoid both claims of liberal universalism and cultural relativism is unsuccessful because he fails to provide a convincing theoretical argument on how to resolve disputes on cultural values and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe is a cultural space of meeting, mixing and clashing; a space of sharing (and not sharing) economic, cultural and symbolic resources. Dominant ideologies of Europeanism project an image of Europe as a common and distinct cultural Home, a Home that excludes and (re-)creates Otherness when it does not fit a model of universalism and appears as competing particularism. Cultural diversity has always characterised Europe, but growing potentials for mobility and communication have led to the emergence and intensification of diverse cultural experiences and formations. In this context, the growing numbers and kinds of diasporic media have significant implications for imagining multicultural Europe and for participating (or not) in European societies and transnational communities. What is argued here is that diasporic media cultures do not emerge as projects that oppose the universalistic projects of Europe and of global communication, but that they gain from ideologies of globalisation and democratic participation as much as they gain and depend on ideologies of identity and particularism. Drawing from a cross-European mapping and three specific case studies, I try to explain why diasporic media cultures challenge both the limits of European universalism and of diasporic particularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore and to arrive at a personal position vis-à-vis the concepts of universalism and relativism as they apply to gender issues Course: Intercultural communication [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the anthropology of emotion, rival approaches– cultural relativism and a universalism based on common humanity or shared experience– imply different forms of engagement in the field. This article, a sceptical appraisal, suggests that ethnographers commonly fail to build the diversity of emotional practice into their accounts and have therefore provided a flawed basis for theorizing and comparison. With reference to two Indonesian cases– Nias and Java– I suggest that the domain of emotion is diversely bounded cross-culturally and is inconsistently constructed in particular contexts. This has critical implications for fieldwork methodology, cross-cultural comparison, and theories of human development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the theological implications of Schleiermacher's theory of religion in the Speeches and The Christian Faith, highlighting its contemporary promise for making sense of religious diversity. Religion, for Schleiermacher, is neither the result of an ahistorical core experience that is everywhere the same nor the result of particular cultural-historical experiences that are everywhere different. Rather, religion is a dialectical phenomenon, a kind of affective existential potentiality built into human nature that only appears as already modified in various communal and linguistic shapes. This view represents a fruitful negotiation between universalism and particularism. And it has distinct methodological implications: as a Christian, Schleiermacher interprets religion via a double-visioned [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I offer an account of what it means for Universalism to be a metaphilosophy. I first argue that traditional philosophical systems and views suffer from two main defects. First, they are closed, in the sense that they have made their final judgment on what the world is like. Second, they are mostly Eurocentric; regardless of their attempt to be objective and universalist in their orientation, they express the European values, beliefs, and world views. As a metaphilosophy, Universalism is an open concept. It recognizes that our knowledge of the world is an on-going process of discovery. It does not attempt to synthesize or reject the variety of religious, ideological, and philosophical views and approaches; on the contrary, it seeks to provide a universal conceptual framework within which these views and approaches can thrive and dialogue with each other. The structure of this framework is made up of the universal features of nature and human nature. Accordingly the universal is not an ideal or natural or metaphysical essence of some kind. The universal is made, and it is made collectively by scholars from the different academic disciplines. This is why Universalism aspires to articulate the most comprehensive vision of the world. In this attempt it tries to grasp the highest fruits of all the achievements of the human spirit in religion, ideology, philosophy, and culture. I also discuss two more important features of Universalism as a metaphilosophy: co-creation and metanoia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for improved understanding in cross-cultural contexts is resulting in a correspondingly high increase in cross-cultural studies in diverse fields and disciplines. Globalization, economic universalism and internationalization of technology, as well as increased international mobility, immigration and relocation accelerated by the communication explosion, are drawing the world closer, but with an increasing awareness of differences , particularly across the given historical and eco-political divides. The challenge to research is to communicate meaningfully across these divides. This article explores the issues surrounding cross-cultural interviewing. Against the backdrop of growing emphasis on cross-cultural research, there is an emerging need to reconsider interviewing as a research tool with a focus on the interview participants' subjectivities and the subsequent interplay with data collection and making meaning. This entails a recognition of the deep consequences of culture — the embedded patterns of behaviour and the processes of making meaning — and the significance of how these impact on doing research across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on how the religious challenges facing Christianity in the first two centuries are reemerging in the modern world. Assessment of the present situation as Christianity meets other faiths; Challenge of cultural complexities; Ten-point proposal for safeguarding Christianity in Africa.

The pace of globalisation has quickened considerably in the last ten to fifteen years. The process has yielded benefits but also resulted in conflicts. The benefits would be enhanced if the conflicts could be resolved. One source of conflicts is the desire to maintain cultural identity. Can Confucianism contribute to the working out of a universal global justice that can help resolve conflicts, particularly conflicts of cultural identities? Can it be part of the globalisation process without sacrificing its cultural identity? I argue that it can on both counts and thus it is neither a villain blocking the progress of universal justice, a necessary condition for conflict-free globalisation, nor a helpless victim of that progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psicologia Politica is the property of Libreria Univ de Psicologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Discusses globalization and its implications for indigenous cultures. Debate generated by globalization both as a concept and as an empirical process; Impact of globalization on local economic, societal, and cultural structures and identities; Divergent views of globalization; Transnational corporations; Perceived prospects of disappearing indigenous or local cultures; Universalization of particularism and the particularization of universalism; Global capitalism and capitalist globality; Third-world situations of globalization and third world reactions to globalization.

Language and culture include a peculiar vision of the world. They also condition the behavior of what is SAID and what is DONE. This double tension makes one think, from the cultural and political perspective, about universalism or multiculturalism. From a cognitive and discursive semantic viewpoint, this article offers a proposal for the elaboration of laws, policies and democratic practices in which the universality does not have to contradict particularity, if the structural suppositions and the dialogical function of languages is taken as a paradigm. These laws will have a dimension of universal rationality that safeguards human rights; a socially and politically correct dimension within national territories; and a convenient and opportune adequateness for subjects in their individual behavior. In this case they will be inclusive and not exclusive laws for all individuals in relations to their knowledge and actions --in the modalities of their SPEACH and of their DEEDS--, as members of a certain community or nationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the relations between the socio-cultural as well as organizational-management and the character as well as contents of human resources management practices were analyzed. These relations do not have a character of one-way dependency. They rather have a character of mutual influences, i.e. feedback (positive and/or negative), between human resources management practices and cultural conditioning, e.g. values (external and internal in relation to the organization). Feedback is defined by a specific context of co-existence of all elements and by interpretation processes of organizational actors within the frames of the specified variables. In the article the problem of the relations of such dimensions as universalism-particularism, analysis-synthesis, individualism-collectivism, equality-hierarchy, sequence-synchronization are applied to the specific procedures of human resources management (e.g. procedures of motivating and selecting employees) and their internal contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the European culture in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and universalism. Problems of high culture; Connection between the origin of culture with the rule of social exclusivity; Details on the idea of universalism.

This paper focuses on the thematic exploration of the poet from his rural environment to universal concerns. Casting his work in the form of a journey, the poet philosophizes on the suffering humanity he meets on the way. Within this motif, he celebrates culture, knowledge, truth and the universalism of human experience. His poetic struggle for a greener earth is vividly underscored, to signal his point of arrival, from the rural to the universal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four traditions in research on personality and culture are distinguished: (i) the culture-and-personality school and recent relativistic perspectives, (ii) the trait approach, (iii) interactionistic orientations, and (iv) situationist approaches. Next, the first two of these traditions are evaluated to ascertain how much variance is explained by culture. Thereafter, it is argued that the (questionable) focus on explanations with a high level of inclusiveness or generality is a major reason for the near absence of situationist interpretation of cross-cultural differences. Finally, three possible strategies are discussed to bridge the gap between relativism (emphasizing differences) and universalism (assuming basic similarities). A suggestion is made as to how both approaches can be valuable when unexplainable, as well as explainable variances, in cross-cultural personality research are taken seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author examines two writers who incorporate the tensions between particularism and universalism into their thought and feeling, and in doing so exemplify a cosmopolitanism that is new in the conceptual if not in the historical sense. Now, cosmopolitanism is a concept with complex connotations, and admittedly certain of these warrant certain of the criticisms leveled at the category as a whole. History, however, is not unimportant here, for it will be significant to the formation of their mentalities that V.S. Naipaul and Edward Said both belong to diaspora groups shaped by a colonial past. When Said acknowledges that Naipaul is "too remarkable and gifted a writer to be dismissed," one can hope that he does so not only because of Naipaul's deft way with words, but also because, like Said, Naipaul grasps the heterogeneity and intricate intermixtures of peoples, along with their reciprocal aversions and affections, cruelties and generosities, as essential features of the late modern age; and the tragic vulnerability of locality and identity. Naipaul's sense of that vulnerability prevents him from reifying origins, homelands, and native cultures, which, against memory's desire, always succumb to pressures of change. His sense of that tragedy permits him to record the human significance of change as opportunity but also poignant loss.

This article discusses the relationship between the "Asian values" debate and democratic development in Thailand, Although there are beliefs and practices that could be identified as "Thai values" — which share common features with other Asian values — what is more salient in the Thai case is that the debate is not over the unsuitability of liberal democracy to the Thai cultural context but over which set of values, Western or Thai, best promotes civil society and liberal democracy. Western-based democracy is unquestionably accepted as a basis for political legitimacy in Thailand. The "globalizers" see universalism as a major source of democratic development, while the "communitarians" believe such an aspiration could be best realized by going back to Thai cultural roots and values — strong family ties, kinship, and co-operative community spirit — which are anti-state and anti-authoritarian in character and hence pro-democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Habermas's theory of communicative action is deeply critical of all kinds of ethnocentrism, proposing a discursive concept of universal morality which transcends culture, a residual Eurocentrism still pervades it. Habermas's theory rests on a notion of modernity which is tied to Occidental rationalism, and when viewed in the global context or in the context of deeply divided societies it is problematic. The theory fails to grasp that universal morality can be articulated in more than one cultural form and in more than one logic of development. However, his theory can be defended against its Eurocentric bias if it shifts its emphasis from a de-contexualized and transcendental critique of communication rooted in Occidental rationalism to a cosmopolitan model of contemporary cultural transformation. Crucial to that task is a weaker notion of rationality which recognizes that the problem of universality is also a cognitive cultural problem and not just a normative one. Bringing culture and identity to the foreground will involve making room for a level of discourse focused less on consensual agreement than on cultural understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universalism in sociology has been closely associated with construction of theory and assuming certain questions are fundamental. As such it may be a design for imperialism and domination of other societies. But sociology is influenced by the social and cultural context and cannot but be ethnocentric, as is illustrated by the concept of modernization. C. Ake and others argue that Western social science can have only limited utility in Africa. Grounded theory on the contrary provides a basis of indigenous research and basing theory building in data from the sociologist's own country is a contribution to the greater comparability of data and systems of knowledge. One of the manifest goals of the founding fathers of sociology was the establishment of a universal science of society. From Comte to Spencer in Great Britain through Durkheim and their followers to contemporary theorists this idea of developing a universal science of society has had a powerful appeal. In 1966, some sociologists envisaged the gradual realization of a global sociology. At the same time, however, we have observed some particularistics trends in the emerging sociological traditions of different nations which has led to such distinctions as American sociology or European sociology, or Soviet sociology, or to the sociology of Africa.

Comments on the article "From Ought to Is: A Neo-Marxist Perspective on the Use and Misuse of the Culture Construct," by Diana Baumrind which offered an alternative moral theory based on utilitarian ethics. Discussion of relativism and universalism; Information on pluralism, consequentialism, realism in the research works of J. Habermas; Effect of culture on the study of human development.

Advocates of cultural literacy present culture as being of a single weave and as a singular standard that precludes the legitimacy, if not the existence, of other cultural possibilities. The purpose of this paper is to examine how cultural literacy has come to mean a particular form of aesthetic literacy and how that literacy is legitimated. With reference to critical theory, it will be proposed that cultural literacy should take the form of ethnoaesthetic studies of art and culture wherein the value systems of different aesthetic systems are examined, analyzed, and contrasted. In this paper, the following will be discussed: (a) the characteristics of the cash culture and its cash aesthetic, (b) assumptions of universalism that accompany the cash aesthetic, (c) cultural literacy for critical consciousness, and (d) the application of ethnoaesthetics for multiple cultural literacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the twentieth century comes to an end, and with it a millennium, there has been much heated reflection on the passing age and the period of transition. Among the many characteristic phenomena of modern times, globalization has attracted particularly much attention. The process of European integration may be traced back to ancient times (vide Roman imperialism or Carolingian universalism). Recently, however, globalization has expanded and it has accelerated considerably. The author of this paper focuses on the current, paradoxical coexistence of global tendencies toward integration on the one hand and very clearly manifested, diversifying (or even separalistic) national and nationalist tendencies on the other hand. The author analyzes these homogenizing tendencies at the level of media pop culture on the one hand and the increasing, even acute, awareness of diversity, including the diversity of national cultures, on the other hand. She does so within the framework of the symbolic culture concept. Contemporarily, tendencies toward globalization are suspended between the Scylla of uniformization and the Charybdis of diversity. Sociology, is particularly qualified to study these phenomena, at both local and universal levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on contradictions in social change. The current phase of social development is marked by a profound ideological transformation that upsets and contradicts the previous values of universalism, cosmopolitanism, egalitarianism, and innovation. This universe of processes, modes, negotiation;, needs, meanings, oppositions, perceptions, and values, opens up an equal number of possibilities of explanation and realization for the human spirit. A culture is enriched when, as it produces a flow of new meanings, it also expands and creates a flow of new possibilities of realization for people. On the other hand, a culture becomes poor when it closes in on itself, recognizes that it has reached limits of development, when it confuses and reexamines the polarities of meaning it has constructed, and when it renders processes uncertain and allocations of space, time, status, and identity insubstantial. By its production of meanings a culture constructs its ideological framework, which is more or less rich and more or less stable, and this is the essential point of reference for the definition and negotiation of identity.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one on universalism and another on French culture.

A critical reply is presented to the article "Musik – Einheit und Vielfalt ihrer kulturellen Ausprägung," by Rolf Oerter. The author discusses Oerter's thesis on the biological and evolutionary foundations of music. The author examines Oerter's claim that all music cultures have the same basis and that it is necessary to term them as universal.