Culture, Gender, and Power Differences in Conflict

Culture, Gender, and Power Differences in Conflict Nursing Essay

Check before you submit. Get Turnitin Score Report in 15 Minutes.

Don't risk the 'Red' score. Get the exact same Turnitin report your professor uses. Join 50,000+ students who submitted their essays with confidence this semester.

Get Turnitin Score Report Request Human Rewrite

Beasts of the Southern Wild; social constructionism and culture Before participating in this week’s discussion forum, please complete the assigned readings and watch the film Beasts of the Southern Wild. You can watch it online, free of charge, at the following URL: https://www.novamov.com/video/b62e21f6efc28 (Links to an external site.) If you have watched this film in the past, prior to taking this class, please watch it again after completing the assigned readings. After watching the film, please address the following questions in an in-depth post on the discussion forum: 1, Based on this week’s readings, what do you think “culture” is? 2. How does it relate to conflict resolution? 3. How is the film Beasts of the Southern Wild relevant to “culture”, and to “culture and conflict”? 4. Please discuss Avruch and Black’s conceptualization of culture? 5. how some of their ideas are illustrated in the film? 6 How are Roy’s notions of power and conflict relevant? 7. How is the social constructionist framework an adequate analytical lens for this film? Identify and discuss examples from the film that illustrate the social constructionist stance that the ways in which we understand the world and the categories we use are culturally and historically specific. Think about agency as well. Social constructionism acknowledges that both structure and agency exist. It is not a deterministic framework. As Burr explains: “From a social constructionist perspective individuals are not determined by society, nor is there an ‘essential’ human nature or a ‘coherent, unified self’ capable of making ‘self-originated choices and decisions’ (Burr 1995:97). Can you find examples of human agency in the film? Sample1 Based on this week’s class readings I have found that culture encompasses many different things. It not only involves where we live, and those with whom we live, it delves deeper into our human interactions and perceptions of the world. The readings also firmly support the idea that culture is extremely relevant to conflict resolution. After reading this week’s readings and watching the film I definitely can see the association. The film Beasts of the Southern Wild is very relevant to the discussion of culture as well as to culture and conflict. It is evident from the beginning of the film that culture can greatly impact the way in which we perceive and deal with conflict. Avruch and Black discuss how every individual can perceive, interpret, evaluate, and act differently in a given situation. This leads them to the question of how individuals conceptualize conflict. They discuss this concept by focusing on three particular areas of culture and conflict: cross-cultural, intercultural, and transcultural. The message they try to make evident is that culture influences conflict. The way in which Hushpuppy and her dad experience conflict (intercultural) is different from the way everyone in the Bathtub experiences conflict with those in the relief shelter (cross-cultural) once they are evacuated. The culture of these people strongly influences how they express conflict. Roy describes power as something we do. She further discusses her idea that power is shaped significantly by the social situations we live in. I particularly feel that Roy’s discussion of culture and power is relevant to the movie. In her writing she is firm in the belief that individual histories and identities influence each individual to act in a certain way. This in and of itself creates a significant power dynamic. This is clearly evident in the film. At the point in the movie where those living in the Bathtub are forced to evacuate we see a significant power struggle strongly influenced by the culture of these people. They are being taken from their home and forced to go elsewhere. They feel betrayed and fight the removal from the Bathtub extensively. Shortly thereafter we see them escaping the relief center to go home. Social constructionism involves looking at and understanding the world in a way that is based upon individual objective, unbiased observations of the world. This understanding is further rooted in historical and cultural context. Social constructionism also involves our understanding of the world related to our social interactions. This can definitely be related back to the film. It is shown that the individuals living in the Bathtub fear and dislike those on the other side of the dam. Social constructionism supports the idea that they developed these ideas and observations based on the human interactions they have with themselves. Maybe if their everyday lives involved some of “the other people” they would have differing opinions and ultimately be more receptive to these individuals. Examples of human agency are present in this film. The individuals living in the Bathtub are truly not determined by society. They live in and among themselves and function effectively that way. This can even been seen in the relationship between Hushpuppy and her father. At the beginning of the film they live in two different places and throughout the film we see both of them trying to function on their own not being forced to work as a “unified self”. I believe that Hushpuppy is an excellent example of human agency in the film. She is a young child that really is fending for herself. She makes her own choices and decisions without the influence of others. My internal dialogue surprised me during this film. The lives of Hushpuppy, her father, and their friends is not anything I have ever had to experience. In addition to living in poverty this group of individuals is then completely uprooted from their cultural background and moved somewhere completely foreign to them. They don’t know how to function out of the context of their home. I was frustrated that they didn’t trust the doctors and nurses caring for them in the shelter because my cultural background has taught me that these are individuals that can be trusted. They didn’t know or understand that concept. I found that the themes present in the readings and in the film really provided insight for me about how everyone can conceptualize conflict differently and that conflict can truly be influenced by culture. The information presented this week will be very beneficial as I advance in my career as a nurse and eventually a nurse practitioner. Knowing some of these concepts will help me to better understand why the patients and families I interact with may experience conflict differently. Sample2 • Before this week’s lecture, I thought of culture as a simple definition. However, throughout completing the various reading assignments for this week, I have learned that culture has a very in-depth meaning unable to specify with a one sentence answer. I believe culture is a way of life for a group of individuals. This includes the personalities and beliefs encompassed throughout a group as well as ways of communication, values and strategies for conflict resolution. According to Washington (2010), “Every society has a culture that carries its social rules. These rules are an unwritten code of conduct which is learned continuously throughout life” (par. 2). The different culture one possesses influences the way conflicts are resolved. There are five domains that have been developed to help understand the process and influences of conflict resolution. These domains include: Internal, transactional, organizational, cultural, and structural domains (Roy, 2008, p. 182). Each of these domains has its own definition and influence on conflict resolution. First, the internal domain is one’s ability to develop and express different emotions when it comes to conflict. Secondly, the transitional domain is a combination of everyday behaviors one expresses such as their body language (Roy, 2008, p. 182). Different cultures can have different body postures meaning different things. Body language contributes to approximately 90 percent of total communication, therefore it is important to understand the different meaning behind various culture’s body language (Karr, 2013, par. 2). For instance, it may be polite to shake hands when greeting someone in the United States, however, in a different area it could be taken as an insult. As expressed by Roy (2008), all five of the domains must be intertwined together in order to have a deep understand of the forces used for conflict resolution (p. 182-183). I gathered from the readings that culture plays a vital role in conflict resolution. Not only does culture create the conflict depending on different beliefs, different cultures has different ways of resolving the conflict. Avruch and Black (1991), express culture as something not easily defined. One conceptualism expressed in the reading included an anthropological concept of culture. For instance, culture could be defined as “A distinguishing trait of our species and is transmitted through learning” (Avruch and Black, 1991, p. 27). Avruch and Black (1991), also explain the importance of culture for an individual to adapt to its habitat. The ability to adapt to different habitats and cultures come from both internal environments and external environments which play a key part in setting the “evolutionary challenge in human adaptation” (p. 27-28). Throughout Beasts of the Southern Wild, there were different examples shown of the ability to adapt to different habitats in regards to anthropological culture. First, the movie audience was shown the culture of Hushpuppy and her father, Wink. Hushpuppy and Wink live in frugal means. They are expected to kill what they needed to eat, live among animals and the only evidence of fresh water was the water surrounding their homes, also known as the “bath tub”. Sch