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The Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) project recognises that child health policy is determined to a great extent by national culture; thus, exploring and understanding the cultural influences on national policies are essential to fully appraise the models of primary care. Cultures are created by the population who adopt national rituals, beliefs and code systems and are unique to each country. To understand the effects of culture on public policy, and the resulting primary care services, we explored the socio-cultural background of four components of policy-making: content, actors, contexts and processes. Responses from the MOCHA Country Agents about recent key national concerns and debates about child health and policy were analysed to identify the key factors as determinants of policy. These included awareness, contextual change, freedom, history, lifestyle, religion, societal activation and tolerance. To understand the influence of these factors on policy, we identified important internal and external structural determinants, which we grouped into those identified within the structure of health care policy (internal), and those which are only indirectly correlated with the policy environment (external). An important child-focused cultural determinant of policy is the national attitude to child abuse. We focused on the role of primary care in preventing and identifying abuse of children and young people, and treating its consequences, which can last a lifetime.

Over the past two decades, wedding tourism has been booming. Despite this, very little research has investigated this phenomenon. This chapter discusses the findings of 15 in-depth interviews with Italian wedding planners, which were carried out to analyse their views on what a destination wedding is, and how frequently they are able to influence the final choice of a site. Further, it discusses four case studies of the most important Italian wedding destinations in order to analyse their offer and related marketing strategy. Findings revealed that wedding destinations can be considered as a complex cluster of interrelated stakeholders; hence, a high degree of coordination and cooperation is needed for destination competitiveness. Further, results suggest that wedding destinations are currently opting for a product/service-oriented strategy with very little attention to a more appropriate experiential and emotional approach.

Adolescents, because of the unique developmental stage they occupy, are particularly sensitive to their socio-cultural environment. Adolescents often define behaviors in light of prevailing attitudes, values, and norms (i.e. culture) established across primary social domains. Specifically, overarching social structures (e.g. economic, political, religious, etc.), working through the local landscape (e.g. neighborhood, school, peer networks, and family), play a vital role in shaping adolescent development and influencing psychological, behavioral, and social outcomes (Arnett & Arnett-Jensen, 1994; Greenberger et al., 2000; Grob et al., 1996; McArdle et al., 2000). For youth, definitions of normative behavior vary, yet socio-cultural context continues to be important in defining who they are and what they do. Culture defines accepted standards of behavior, lifestyles, and life chances. As such, socio-cultural influences have been particularly strong predictors of health-compromising behaviors for this population subgroup (Fitzpatrick, 1997; Fitzpatrick & LaGory, 2000; Gibbons et al., 1995; Graham et al., 1991).

India is a country of socio-cultural diversity. Every society and culture existing in India is full of values, ethics and morality regarding good deeds. The exhaustive survey of corporate social responsibility (CSR) literatures from Indian philosophical perspectives observes many studies based on the socio-cultural and religious aspects. It has been observed all these philosophical views and concepts covering socio-cultural and religious backgrounds have received attention in the field of CSR. It is observed that almost all views have been fully explored in the context of CSR. Therefore this chapter tries to detect the drivers of CSR with all these philosophies prevalent in the culture of Indian society. This study utilises the hermeneutics, a qualitative research methodology which involves an in-depth study, critical analysis, thoughtful understanding and explanatory interpretation of the concepts of CSR originated from diversified Indian society and culture. In a nutshell, from these viewpoints and philosophies of different cultures, CSR is seen from an inside-out perspective.

This study examines the decision process of household members in visiting local health care providers. It also explores the effect of various household level socioeconomic factors on motivating rural people to visit traditional versus modern health care providers in rural Bangladesh. I used the Population, Environment, and Poverty data collected from eight villages of rural Bangladesh in 1998 in addition to self-collected ethnographic survey information. The data suggest that a large majority of rural households attempt to visit locally available untrained health care providers first, and then trained doctors as the sickness worsens. The data also suggest that socio-cultural and economic factors are important in shaping their decision to visit traditional as opposed to modern health care providers. Training the traditional and untrained health care providers will be a wise option to ensure health care to the villagers.

It is argued that addicts, as people in general, are forward-looking and that they try to make the best of what they have got. However, this does not imply that they are fully rational. Cognitive defects, instabilities in preferences, and irrationalities in the form of wishful thinking and dynamical inconsistency play an important role in addictive behaviours. These “imperfections” in people's rationality may not have very large consequences in the case of ordinary goods, but their effect can be dramatic in relation to addictive goods. In the first part of the paper, the rational addiction theory and the empirical evidence that have been presented in support of the theory is reviewed. Regarding the conventional tests of the theory by econometric methods, it is argued that the tests are misguided, both theoretically and methodologically. Furthermore, it is claimed that the definition of addiction implicit in the rational addiction theory is unrealistic, and that the theory makes unrealistic assumptions about human nature. Some empirical evidence for these claims is reviewed. It is concluded that although the theory has its virtues, it faces serious problems and must be rejected in its original form. Secondly, the socio-cultural embeddedness of addictive behaviours, and the social roots of individual preferences, are discussed. These issues are more or less ignored in rational addiction theory. It is argued that we cannot expect to obtain a proper understanding of many addictive phenomena, unless they are seen in their proper socio-cultural context.

This chapter highlights the growing body of international research into the benefits of residence abroad for foreign language students, surveying studies from the past 35 years originating in both the U.S.A. and the U.K. It examines some of the problematic issues confronting researchers in this area and shows how these issues have contributed to a paucity of studies in the area and led to a diversity in research design. It reports on longitudinal study, the first of its kind in the U.K., which examined the linguistic benefits of residence abroad for a cohort of modern language students from a leading university. This 4-year study used repeated measures proficiency testing, involving a C-test, a grammar test and a range of qualitative measures, to chart the progress made by students on 6- and 12-month study placements in Germany. Findings confirm substantial proficiency gains on both of the main measures but fail to confirm gender and length of residence abroad as predictors of progress. Results also reveal strong differential individual performance during residence abroad. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future research aimed at exploring this key finding further.

The Coronavirus pandemic in South Africa resulted in negative effects with high infection rates, health care shortages, increases in death rates, plus a collapsing economy. There was an urgent need for precautionary health promotional campaigns to educate populations about the virus. However, with South Africa’s diverse population cultural beliefs, socio-cultural aspects needed to be catered for. Health literacy also had to be considered for effective positive behaviour change patterns to occur. Social barriers such as misinformation, stigma, myths, anxiety and prejudice resulted into infodemics emerging in the population. Media representation about the pandemic needed to ensure truthful and authentic information reached target audiences. Specific examples related to religious beliefs (the Chief Justice Mogeng Mogeng) and cultural remedies (Madagascar’s artemisia or “green gold”) are included in this chapter, to elaborate examples of such cases in South Africa, with no audience engagement analysed. Two health promotional campaigns, Count Me In and We will beat this are analysed via a qualitative multimodal analysis. Behaviour change communication theories are included to triangulate and validate the findings. Findings indicated that health campaigns need to cater for socio-cultural diversities and be audience specific in order for adequate behaviour change to occur, via clear health messages.

The chapter is devoted to analysis of the structure of regional identity. Topicality of this issue is caused by the processes of social differentiation of regions. The purpose of the research is to describe the factors of regional identity. Regional identity is predetermined by natural, geographical, socio-cultural, ethnic, and socio-political factors. Regional identity is viewed as a complex dynamic structure. It is analyzed on the basis of application of concepts of constructivism and symbolic capital. The authors come to the conclusion that dynamics of regional identity are determined by individuals’ evaluation of the conditions of the territory for satisfying the needs and implementation of life plans. This aspect is analyzed from the positions of the concept of constructivism. It is also concluded that dynamics of regional identity depends on attractive image of the territory and realization of its uniqueness. This aspect of regional identity is viewed as a symbolic capital, which stimulates the development of territory.