How to cope with cultural dilemmas in an increasingly globalized world?
The concept of culture and the concept of dilemma.
Culture:
- religion
- Traditions and norms
- Habits
- Languages
- Values
- Moral
- Diversity
- Identity
- History
- Rules /laws
Text: Body Ritual among the Nacirema / American! Funny...
The evolutionary concept of culture:
- Some cultures are better and more right that others.
- Some cultures rank higher than others on a "developing ladder"
- The goal (at least from those on the top of the ladder) must be always to move up the ladder- to become more and more developed towards Western standards.
the relativistic concept of culture:
- all cultures are equal
- culture as homogenic islands
- Cultural relativisim is the principle that an individuals human beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual's own culture.
It's not useful to say all cultures are equal, why is this a bad idea?
problems:
- problems with the evolutionary and the relativistic concept of culture are:
- individual differences are ignored
- the local context is ignored
The complex concept of culture:
- Culture is not something that you have
- Culture is created among people, when they interact
- culture is the tacit knowledge, the meanings and values that we share - but we do not know it beforehand
- Everyone in a culture share the same values
- Culture may not be seen as fx national culture ( homogenic cultures)
- there are always differences wothon a culture - there can be certain dominating logics, but not everyone agree about that logic.
- The cultures are constantly moving- and there will always be negotiations
- we are moving between several different cultures
We worked with cases and how we would react in different situatuons.
To me the cases are about having respect for other cultures and people, but try to inspire and share knowledge.
To me the cases are about having respect for other cultures and people, but try to inspire and share knowledge.
