COMM 600 History and Theory of Intercultural Communication-- Cultural diffusion and Turkey

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1 1 COMM 600 History and Theory of Intercultural Communication-- Cultural diffusion and Turkey Dr. Fran Hassencahl Office: BAL 3008 Office Phone: /3828 Fax: Office Hrs: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 2:00-5:00 Other Office Hrs. By appointment Basic definition of cultural diffusion: The spreading of ideas or products from one culture to another. This can be accomplished by direct diffusion based on contact between two cultures over a period of time. This often is facilitated through trade and or warfare or if the cultures are contiguous or mobile through intermarriage. Forced diffusion is often accomplished through warfare, legal, or judicial edict by those who are able control the behavior of a given culture. Innovative diffusion, which occurs as inventions and technologies, medical discoveries and Intellectual ideas, spread, from one culture to another because they answer a pressing need or when cultures have recourse to mass media and the internet to spread these ideas. Diffusion can be a two way street where there is a mutual exchange of ideas Goals of the course: Using Turkey as a case study we will examine a series of events where the interface of Turkey with other cultures and nations states permitted cultural diffusion between Turkey and its neighbors. Such diffusion is not necessarily a oneway process and may at first be subtle and slow to mature or it may be rapid, such as the immediate embrace of cell phone technology. Diffusion of information and goods, as we shall see from the readings, may be accompanied by a value judgment of goodness or badness of such activity. Generally, my procedure is to list some articles that focus and are light reading for the topic and then focus in on the more complex reading. All readings are posted on BlackBoard except for The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk, Vintage, 1998.

2 2 Background reading: Excerpts from Gary Ferraro, Cultural Anthropology, Thompson Wadsworth, 2007 and Everett M. Rogers and Everett Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, Free Press, Chapter 8: Globalization and McDonaldization from The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer, Pine Forge Press, 2004 Ismail Sahin, Detailed Review of Roger s Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Educational Technology-Related Studies Based on Rogers Theory in The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology TOJET April 2006 ISSN: vol.5 no. 2 Article 3 14 Vijay Mahajan and Robert A. Peterson Models of Innovation Diffusion, Sage, 1982, pp. 7-13, 43, 44. Unit I Lectures with PowerPoint by instructor on Diffusion Theory and an overview of Turkey as a country and ally of the United States. We are in NATO country here. Unit II Direct diffusion: We will examine situations where trade between Turkey, Europe, and Asia fostered diffusion of products and ideas. Read: America s Arabian Cuppa Joe in Saudi Aramco World, September/October 2010 Recipes: Three Turkish Delights, Saudi Aramco World, March/April Sweet Wars: The proof of the pudding is in the eating, not the nationalist nomenclature, 14 December 2007 The Times Hearts of the New Silk Roads in Saudi Aramco World, January/February 2008 Mike Dash, Tulipomania: the Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions it Aroused, Crown Publishers, Excerpts Christopher Walker, Splendid Ruins of an Excellent Republic, Saudi Aramco World, September/October, 2007 (diffusion of Turkish ideas about government to the Founding Fathers of the US).

3 3 Beken Saatcioglu, How Closely Does the European Union Membership Conditionality Reflect the Copenhagen Criteria? Insights from Turkey, Turkish Studies Vol. 10, no.4 December Mehmet Ali Birand, Turkey Wakes up to EU Reality in Writing Turkey, ed. Gerald MacLean, Middlesex University Press, Fadi Hakura, Turkey s Accession to the European Union, in Writing Turkey, ed. Gerald MacLean, Middlesex University Press, Tarik Oguzlu and Mustafa Kibaroglu, Is the Westernization Process Losing Pace in Turkey: Who s to Blame? Turkish Studies Vol. 10, no.4, December Assignment 1: Using the insights gained from the instructor s discussion of her visit to a Shopping Mall in Turkey in 2011 and the reading of the above articles, do a close reading for two weeks of the advertisements in either Today s Zaman or Hurriyet Daily News, which are Turkish newspapers on line in English, and discuss in an essay how these ads characterize the female consumer? What assumptions are made about her needs and values? Assignment 2: Choose one of the following: Check out the local restaurant scene for Turkish restaurants, high end grocery stores for Turkish products, or check the bookstores for Turkish cookbooks and orally report on your findings. Assignment 3. Monitor either Today s Zaman or Hurriyet Daily News for discussions about Turkey joining the European Union. Discuss in a paper: 1) the nature and frequency of the arguments presented and 2) reasons presented as to why Turkey has not been admitted and/ or why the delay. How do these reasons fit in with the reasons raised in the reading? Unit III Situations where wars brought and did not bring diffusion and embrace of European military strategies. Lectures on Organizational Culture and the Ottomans Fran Hassencahl, Hungarian-Turkish Wars, in Magill s Guide to Military History. Ed. John Powell. Salem Press, Andrew Wheatcroft, The Ottomans: Dissolving Images, Penguin, 1995, Introduction and pages See also Bibliography on organizational culture posted on BlackBoard.

4 4 Assignment 4: Read The White Castle, Vintage, 1998 by the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. Analyze it within the context of stages of the process of multiculturalism as outlined by Wurzel (1988). Note that this book is also a case study in diffusion through war and intellectual exchange. In your paper, discuss the following aspects: 1). Monoculturalism (where we see our culture as the best and others as inferior); 2) Cross-cultural Contact (where we start to see differences and become curious about those differences); 3) Cultural Conflict (and shock); See Lecture on Stages of Being Foreign. 4) Intervention (where we start to get new information and to learn about the other culture); 5) Disequilibrium (where we begin to raise questions and reconsider our beliefs which leads to stage 6); 6) Awareness and Accommodation. Ultimately, this could bring us to stage 7) Multiculturalism. Note also the efforts to overcome the Europeans militarily and the use of technology, which we will discuss in class. Unit IV Forced diffusion in this case by the State, who wishes to modernize Turkey and its fallout in education, media and women s issues. Discussion of essentialism in Turkey; is biology destiny? Observations by the Instructor of her visits to Fathi College and Suleyman Sah University about the role of English language Instruction in Turkish private high schools and universities. Assignment 6: Take one of these articles and look for a counterpart article in American research on education, media usage, women as consumers, etc. You will then compare the two articles and the issues they raise. For example: To compare foreign language instruction, you would look for an article on globalization and foreign language training in US schools. Report on your findings in a brief three-page paper. Donald Quataert, Clothing Laws, State, and Society in the Ottoman Empire, , International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Aug., 1997).

5 5 Meyda Yegenoglu, Colonial Fantasies: Toward a Feminist Reading of Orientalism, Cambridge University Press, Introduction and The Battle of the Veil: Women between Orientalism and Nationalism. Elizabeth Ozdalga, The Veiling Issue, Official Secularism, and Popular Islam in Modern Turkey, Curzon, 1998, pp Feride Acar and Ayse Ayata, Discipline, Success and Stability: The Reproduction of Gender and Class in Turkish Secondary Education, in Fragments of Culture, eds. Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber, I.B. Tauris, Yasemin Kirkgoz, Globalization and English Language Policy in Turkey, Educational Policy, September 2009, vol. 123, no. 5. Ali Sabanci, School Principals Assumptions about Human Nature: Implications for Leadership in Turkey, Educational Management Administration & Leadership, October 2008; vol. 36, 4. Ayse Oncu, Global Consumerism, Sexuality as Public Spectacle and the Cultural Remapping of Istanbul in the 1990 s in Fragments of Culture, eds. Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber, I.B. Tauris, Ayse Durakbasa and Dilek Cindoglu, Encounters at the Counter: gender and the Shopping Experience, in Fragments of Culture, eds. Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber, I.B. Tauris, Yael Navaro- Yashin, The Market for Identities: Secularism, Islamism, Commodities, In Fragments of Culture, eds. Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber, I.B. Tauris, Nezih Orhon, Social Media Turkish Style Media Development, 2011, Vol. 58 Issue 1, Aysun Gürol, Comparison of the Internet Usage Levels amongst Final Year Students of Faculty of Medicine and Health Colleges in Turkey: According to the Gender Variable, Telematics & Informatics, Nov, 2010, Vol. 27 Issue 4, Christine L. Ogan and Kursat Cagiltay, Confession, Revelation and Storytelling: Patterns of Use on a Popular Turkish Website, New Media & Society, Oct. 2006, Vol. 8, no.5, Final wrap up Film: Yol/ The Way by Yilmaz Guney, 1981 Assignment 6: After viewing the above films, the class will break into small groups to discuss the treatment of the main characters, who seem to change and

6 not change. Based upon the readings and your observations draw some conclusions about diffusion of new and the retention of old ideas and organizational culture. Also, note the differences and similarities in the films treatment of female characters. 6