Transcript Seminar on Policy Studies

Studies in Multicultural
Societies
DIFFERENT PEOPLES,
ONE WORLD
Introduction
HARI SRINIVAS
ROOM: I-312 / 079-565-7406
Defining “culture”
 the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties
Intellect

Knowledge in
the arts


Belief and
behaviour
Values and
practices


especially by education
enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and
aesthetic training
acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad
aspects of science as distinguished from vocational and technical
skills
the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior
that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting
knowledge to succeeding generations
the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial,
religious, or social group; also : the characteristic features of
everyday existence shared by people in a place or time
the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that
characterizes an institution or organization
Levels of Culture
A “cultured” person: Culture at the level
of an individual
The Culture of a society: Understanding
culture as a part of a group of
individuals, a community, or a society
The Culture of a global society – of
humanity as a whole
Levels of Culture
Culture at the level of a single
individual defines that person’s
behaviour, values, ethics and
morality.
It is indeed the characteristics
of that person
Levels of Culture
Culture at the level of a
community or society is
defined by how the individuals
in that community/society
interact with each other, and
the media that they use for the
purpose.
Levels of Culture
Culture at the global level is in
fact the sum total of everything
that humans have created and
the common features that bind
us all together …
Some features that bind us!
1. communicating with a verbal language consisting of a limited set of sounds
and grammatical rules for constructing sentences
2. using age and gender to classify people (e.g., teenager, senior citizen, woman,
man)
3. classifying people based on marriage and descent relationships and having
kinship terms to refer to them (e.g., wife, mother, uncle, cousin)
4. raising children in some sort of family setting
5. having a gendered division of labor (e.g., men's work versus women's work)
6. having a concept of privacy
7. having rules to regulate sexual behavior
8. distinguishing between good and bad behavior
9. having some sort of body ornamentation
10. making jokes and playing games
11. having different forms of art
12. having some sort of leadership roles for the implementation of community
decisions
Cultural themes
Drama
Food
Arts
Dance
CULTURE
Architecture
Literature
Behaviour,
Ethics and
Morality
As the field developed
it began to combine
political economy,
communication,
sociology, social
theory, literary theory,
media theory,
film/video studies,
cultural anthropology,
philosophy, museum
studies and art history
to study cultural
phenomena or cultural
texts
Culture: Morality, Ethics and Behaviour
MORALITY
ETHICS
Morality:
Principles of how
individuals ought to
treat one another ..
BEHAVIOUR
Culture: Morality, Ethics and BEhaviour
MORALITY
The terms morals and
ethics are used
interchangeably ….
ETHICS
MORALS
MORALS
In principle, ethics is a
framework of morals that
help us to understand
what is right or good, and
what ir wrong or bad.
BEHAVIOUR
MORALS
MORALS
ETHICS
Culture: Morality, Ethics and BEhaviour
MORALITY
ETHICS
BEHAVIOUR
Human behavior refers to the range of
behaviors exhibited by humans and
which are influenced by:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Culture
Attitudes
Emotions
Values
Ethics
Authority
Rapport
etc …
Culture at Global and Local Levels
At the global level, we look at policies
that promote the preservation of
culture
For example, the work of UNESCO
At the individual level, we look at
policies that promote the
development of culture through
education, training and learning ^
essentially through interaction with
other people
UNESCO and Culture
 “UNESCO” is the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization
 It is the top UN agency for the preservation of
culture
 It carries out its activities through member
countries/national governments on a variety of
themes - education, science and culture.
 More information from its website:
www.unesco.org
UNESCO and Culture
 UNESCO’s work on culture is highlighted by a
number of global agreements between national
governments, including:
Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions
 Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
 Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage
 Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
 Fighting against the illicit trafficking of cultural property
 Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict
 Protection of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights

Why culture?
Why do we
need culture?
Or to study
culture?
Everything we are, our
identity, behaviour,
morality, ethics is defined
by the cultures we belong
to …
Thai
Myanmar
Japanese culture
Indian culture
American culture
Filipino
ASIAN
CULTURE
Indonesian
Cambodian
Laos
Chinese
Vietnamese
Why culture?
CULTURE
POLICIES
Problems
Solutions
Why culture?
Cultures and the
cultural environment
provides the
necessary context
and the tools to
develop and
implement policies
As policy researchers, it
helps us understand the
people towards whom
we are creating policies!
“Multi”Cultural Societies?
Cultures
Can “move”
Wars and conflicts
Migration
Cultures
come together
Mass Media
Different cultures
(defined by
different criteria!)
may co-exist in a
given geographical
area creating –
Multicultural
societies
Contact me …
gdrc.info/sms
Prof. Hari Srinivas
Room: I-312
Tel: 079-565-7406
Email: [email protected]