As conceptualizations of multicultural education evolve and diversify, it is important to revisit its historical foundation -- the roots from which it sprang. What did the earliest forms of multicultural education look like and what social conditions gave rise to them? What educational traditions and philosophies provided the framework for the development of multicultural education? How has multicultural education changed since its earliest conceptualization? The answers to these questions provide an important contextual grounding for understanding the various models of multicultural education evolving today.

CULTURES AND DEVELOPMENT Guideline Questions  Baidyanath Saraswati There are more than three hundred anthropological definitions of culture referring to various aspects of human life. Development originally stood for lineal progress, growth, advancement, increase of income and a right to gain it or an improvement in the quality of life as a consequence of one’s achievement. Unesco has redefined both terms to provide the framework for the concept of the cultural dimension of development.1

    THE RISE OF THE GLOBAL UNIVERSITY: 5 NEW TENSIONS Prof. Simon Marginson  University of Melbourne A major public role that leading Global Research Universities in developed countries should play is to form long-term partnerships with institutions in emerging higher-education systems. Those partnerships should be designed to build capacity, especially research capacity.

The civilization of a people does not evolve always of its own accord. The more the histories of the growth of the present day nations are traced out, the more we hear of the interconnections of the cultures of different ethnic groups.

THE CULTURAL TURN IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES POSITIONS ON CULTUROLOGICAL OBSERVATION OF COMMUNICATION (Keynote Speech at the Symposium “The Relevance of Cultural Studies” at Athens University, June 26, 03) Thomas A. Bauer In social sciences and humanities of the late last century has been developed a tendency of analyzing social practice (communication, organization and systems of it) by a cultural view of consideration. This “cultural turn” was somehow provoked by the end of capacity of explication of structural scientific models and by the need of new, open and changeable conceptions facing an ever changing and complex social universe. The cultural turn…

VIETNAMESE TAOISM While having only a limited formal organization in Vietnam today, the concepts of Taoism are in evidence in the daily life cycle of ethnic Vietnamese, whether they be dwellers of the cities or peasants tilling the rice-paddies.

HOW DIGITAL CONVERGENCE IS CHANGING CULTURAL THEORY Néstor Garcia Canclini (Mexico) Abstract Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of cultural field loses its explanatory power when economic value dominates the symbolic and when institutions such as museums and publishers depend on market forces. This loss of autonomy is accentuated with digital convergence, which integrates texts and images, the factories that produce them and the habitus of readers, spectators, and Internet users. This process gives rise to new conceptual and political challenges, such as the question of whether new televisual cultures can exist or the autonomy of media which are now resituated in an…

    THE CULTURAL ASPECT OF TECHNOLOGY Fatemeh farahani Today in many developing countries insufficient progress in science and technology is considered to be the chief reason for general backwardness; on the contrary, many in the industrially advanced societies hold unfettered technological progress as the roots of all social ills.

VIETNAM THROUGH DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS Professor Vu Khieu Vietnamese Hero of Labour We understand that dialogue among civilizations is an essential need of our time, as it taps the boundless potential of knowledge and spirit of each and every civilization in order to serve the advancement, prosperity and well being of each person, each nation and the whole of humankind. As for Vietnam, dialogue among civilizations is what we have long desired. It enables us to expand our cultural exchanges with the world community. It helps our culture to develop continuously by further promoting our own values and at the…

    DOING BUSINESS IN VIETNAM: A CULTURAL GUIDE Esmond D. Smith Jr. and Cuong Pham Abstract: Vietnam and its 73 million people is considered a market with huge potential, and US corporations are wise to look into the possibility of doing business there now that relations have been normalized. Ways to overcome language and cultural barriers are discussed. How that U.S.-Vietnamese diplomatic ties have been restored, many American businesses are hoping to be in on the development opportunities offered by what some analysts consider to be Asia's newest economic "tiger." Structural problems do abound in Vietnam. Its underdeveloped economic infrastructure, a…