Downloaded from JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY Leung et al. / SOCIAL AXIOMSTo broaden our conceptual framework for understanding cultural differences, the present article reports two studies that examined whether pancultural dimensions based on general beliefs, or social axioms, can be identified in persons from five cultures. A Social Axioms Survey was constructed, based on both previous psychological research primarily in Europe and North America on beliefs and qualitative research conducted in Hong Kong and Venezuela. Factor analyses of these beliefs from student as well as adult samples revealed a pancultural, five-factor structure, with dimensions labeled as: cynicism, social complexity, reward for application, spirituality, and fate control. In the second study, this five-factor structure, with the possible exception of fate control, was replicated with college students from Japan, the United States, and Germany. The potential implications of a universal, five-factor structure of individual social beliefs were discussed, along with the relation of this structure to indigenous belief systems and to culture-level analyses.Culture has long been a fuzzy concept, and numerous attempts have been made to define and measure it (e.g., Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952;Rohner, 1984). The now-classic work of Hofstede (1980) on work-related values represented a major step forward in classifying cultures. For instance, individualism-collectivism, one of his cultural dimensions, has been used to account for a wide range of cross-cultural similarities and differences among nations (e.g., Triandis, 1995). Subsequently, several major projects have adopted a similar approach in the search of cultural dimensions. Using values salient to the Chinese people, the Chinese Culture Connection (1987) identified one additional dimension that Hofstede (1980) did not capture, Confucian work dynamism, or short-term versus long-term orientation (Hofstede, 1991). Schwartz (1994) has established a more psychologically grounded mapping of cultures with seven cultural-level value dimensions. Finally, Smith, Dugan, and Trompenaars 286 AUTHORS' NOTE: We would like to thank Shalom Schwartz, Karen Phalet, and the reviewers for their highly valuable comments. Downloaded from (1996) identified three major value dimensions at the cultural level. Smith and Bond (1998, chap. 3) concluded that these different surveys produced converging results despite differences in instrumentation, subject populations, and time periods during which the data were collected.The value-based approaches to culture described above have all been pitched at the national level. However, both Schwartz (1992) and Bond (1988) have provided value-based approaches to cultural differences pitched at the individual level of analysis. That is, the domains or dimensions along which people from different nations may be compared in their studies were derived by analyzing the data in ways that adduce individual-level constructs, thereby enabling researchers to compare people rather than...

Resumen:Se informa de una investigación etnográfica sobre la educación informal en escolares chilenos, rurales y urbano marginales, de Educación General Básica. Se caracterizan y comparan las modalidades educativas formal, no formal e informal. Se señala que es erróneo caracterizar a la educación informal como asistemática, refleja y espontánea, pues esconde sus potencialidades, marginándola del estudio académico y de la práctica profesional. Se llama la atención sobre la capacidad de esos niños para aprender en ambientes informales, que contrastan con el bajo rendimiento escolar, panificado e intencionado, que los convierte en futuros desertores y marginados sociales. Se dan algunas razones que lo explican: la complejidad, el caos, la improvisación, la imitación, el juego, la paradoja, etc., que nos son considerados apropiados por la escuela. Se aboga por la necesidad de investigar sus características a fin de ayudar a desescolarizar la escuela. Finalmente, se caracteriza a la educación informal como un proceso de creación de relaciones posibles, a diferencia de la educación formal y no formal que son un proceso de repetición de relaciones pre-establecidas. Palabras claves: Educación informal, educación formal, educación no formal, caos, aprendizaje polifacético, imitación, sentido común, juego, azar, improvisación, experiencia de aprendizaje mediado, deprivación cultural, innovación. Complexity, chaos and education AbstractIt reports an ethnographic research on informal education in Chilean school children, rural and suburban areas of General Basic Education. They are characterized and compared the formal educational methods, formal and informal. It is noted that it is wrong to characterize informal education as unsystematic, reflecting and spontaneous, as hiding their potential, marginalizing the academic study and professional practice. It

Resumen: Diferenciamos escuela y procesos escolares de educación y procesos educativos. Esto nos permite entender sus características, fortalezas y limitaciones. Argumentamos que el fracaso escolar en gran parte se debe al desconocimiento de que los procesos educativos tienden a fluir autoorganizándose de manera cada vez más simple y, paradojalmente, más compleja, a diferencia de los procesos escolares que se entrampan en superficialidades y complicaciones perturbando a la enseñanza e inhibiendo el aprendizaje. Abstract:We make a distinction between school processes and educational processes. This enables us to understand the different characteristics, strengths and limitations of the previous processes. We think that failure in schools is mainly due to not realizing that educational processes normally flow in an easy and self organized manner. These educational processes are simple, but at the same time they are very complex. On the contrary, school processes (more superficial and difficult) disturb the teaching and learning processes. Complexidades educativas emergentes e caóticasResumo: Diferenciamos escola e processos escolares de educação e processos educativos. Isto nos permite entender suas características, fortalezas e limitações. Argumentamos que o fracasso escolar em grande parte se deve ao desconocimiento de que os processos educativos tendem a fluir autoorganizando-se de maneira a cada vez mais simple e, paradoxalmente, mais complexa, a diferença dos processos escolares que entrampan-se em superficialidades e complicações perturbando ao ensino e inhibiendo a aprendizagem. * Artículo publicado dentro del contexto del proyecto FONDECYT 1080073: "Complejidades educativas emergentes y caóticas en la escuela lineal". He escrito este artículo siguiendo en parte los criterios de una autobiografía para resaltar la empatía con los profesoras y profesores que colaboran con nosotros en esta investigación.

The election of black and Latino mayors in big cities during the past five years has provided the opportunity to critically examine the role of minority mobilization and coalitions. The focus of this study is on the election of four minority mayors, Henry Cisneros in San Antonio in 1981, Federico Peña in Denver, Harold Washington in Chicago, and Wilson Goode in Philadelphia, all in 1983. The pioneering study by Browning, Marshall, and Tabb (1984) highlights the significance of minority mayoral elections in the context of the struggle for political equality. We have placed our analysis in the context of the three central questions underscored in their theory of political incorporation: How open are urban political systems to minorities? How does minority political incorporation occur? Does political incorporation make a difference for minority interests? Although the four cities we examine are different in some respects from the Northern California cities covered by Browning, Marshall, and Tabb, their findings are generally applicable with modifications.ChicagoHow open is the system? Machine politics have dominated Chicago for over fifty years with decidedly mixed results for the city's black population. Black political power remained disproportionally small and subordinate throughout the machine's existence. Thus, Harold Washington's election in 1983 marked a structural transformation of the electoral system as well as a political coming of age for blacks. Washington inherited a city council divided along ideological and racial lines. Although Washington could not command a majority of the city council when he was first elected, the 1986 council races left him with an even split. Of the 50 council seats, 25 represent liberal votes and 25 are identified with the more conservative Democratic party machine, 16 are black and 4 are Latino. Washington, as mayor, holds the deciding vote.

It is amply accepted that biological evolution is centered in gradual phenotypic and genetic changes of living populations through the time. The issue of human existence has worried the man since immemorial time. The intriguing concepts of life and consciousness vary according to the discipline of study. While for West Biologists, life is the ability to be born, to grow and to die, for Yogis Life is Consciousness which compenetrates to beings from nature kingdoms. Is human brain still evolving? The studies of neuroscience, based on classical well-known triune brain proposed by Dr Paul MacLean around the year 1960, estimate that in the human brain resides the genealogical tree of the species as a result of the evolution of millions of years starting from the brain structure of the reptiles. This involves the well-known three levels of the reptilian brain (intinction), the limbic brain (emotions) and the neocortex brain (rationality). Like the biological evolution, it is also possible to consider a spiritual evolution through also different kingdoms of nature. The neuroscientists say that modern man has developed only one-third of his brain capacity. According to this background, the main point of this study is to postulate during next millennia the development of improved neocortex II or "intuitional brain" with neural networks prevailing human noble qualities and subtle essential unity among beings. Today neurological studies reveal that network design of interconnected neurons varies with selfish and non-selfish thoughts. Recently Dr Richard Davidson, a well-known and famous American psychiatrist who also practices meditation techniques, has demonstrated that network neurons of human depression are completely different from those in tenderness. He concludes that "goodness is the base of a healthy brain". Suddha Dharma Mandalam (SDM) is a sacred Spiritual Order which pre-eminent philosophical system contains the most vital principles about life and conduct, aimed at achievement of the material and spiritual progress of humanity.