Cultural Characteristics - Science topic

Dear Dr.Taher,

People today expect cities to be livable, cultural hubs with sustainable lifestyles. Interest in urban planning and development is growing in this setting. This curiosity has given rise to a new perspective on the goals and operations of cities. Cities should be enjoyed more as "culture havens" than as just places to live. To fulfill these desires, cities can be developed and renewed through cultural planning. Cultural planning has been a concept for more than 30 years, and many city planners are familiar with it. The goal is to involve locals in the planning process of how they want their cities to be, rather than just creating spaces where people can display art or host other cultural activities. Speaking with residents of the city or region where cultural planning will begin will help with this. In order to better understand the local cultural environment, this fosters cooperation between local residents and communities. Urban social innovation strategies, among other things. Interactions between citizens and cities are at the heart of everything. All members of a community will participate in the development of their city under this model, but the process will mostly be cultural rather than political. In order to improve living conditions, people from various political perspectives can come together. This actually occurs, and individuals have come together at the local level in their desire to better people's quality of life.

If you are interested in Innovation you must address human networks and the how ideas and collaborations flow and form through those networks. Human capital and social capital work together to create Innovation.

A good article to start with is: http://orgnet.com/IHJour_XII_No5_p38_42.pdf

Followed by a deeper dive on the Social Origins of Good Ideas: http://www.analytictech.com/mb709/readings/burt_SOGI.pdf

Clothing or creation of body covering probably correlates with the loss of body hair and the necessity of keeping warm. At the same time, perhaps, the use of fire began as a source of warmth. So the use of clothing and fire together perhaps sets humans apart.

Cory Cobb Thank you Dr. Cobb.

Abdelkader Mohamed Elsayed Thank you Proffesor.

STEM curriculum is not entirely reliable as a formal curriculum, but can be used it as an enriching curriculum that complements the formal curriculum.

"Every place on our planet affords its own unique experience ", Baatarzorig Batjargal

https://onartandaesthetics.com/2019/12/21/every-place-on-our-planet-affords-its-own-unique-cognitive-experience-baatarzorig-batjargal/

Dear Mr. Emery Patrick Effiboley ,

If I understand your inquiry correctly you might find the following websites useful in guiding your approach to preserving what may be called Traditional Cultural Properties (https://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb38/), and/or Cultural Landscapes (https://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-preserve/briefs/36-cultural-landscapes.htm)

“may be time consuming and would affect the response rate” - what supporting evidence do you have?

Hello Manisha,

We found the PPP-model based on TBL unworkable for the balance strived for is merely hypothetical and replaced it by the 'Dimensions of Sustainable Development', a tiered model that let's go of the intertwined relation between Society and Economy; it takes Earth (bio, eco, etc.) first, then Wellbeing and Welfare. Human Culture can be seen in both of these inner dimensions - Culture in the sense of the way how people live, express themselves, etc. is to be found more under Wellbeing, while aspects as commercial Art, architecture and fashion fall under Welfare. If you'd like to think along, I'll shortly publish a (working-)paper on the Dimensions of Sustainable Development.

Very best,

Jos

Dear Ritu

I believe that cultural research in the field of consumer behavior is having a lot of momentum. It is very important to define the cultural context of your study, it is useful for this the typology of Geert Hofstede (the most used typology in business and consumer research). For example it is very important in studies of high-contact services, if your society is collectivist or individualist, if the power distance is high or low and if there is a high or low cultural masculinity (among other dimensions). I believe the studies of this type, in cultural contexts poor studied, will benefit from qualitative approaches. Either way, your results should be compared with those obtained in other realities, for example in developed culturally individualistic countries (countries that have made most studies on consumer behavior and management).

Some journals that are very interested in such studies are among others, the International Journal of Consumer Studies, the Journal of Consumer Behaviour and the Journal of Business Research.

Have you thought about doing pilot interviews to check the cultural relevance with physicians (presumably of both genders)  familiar with and/or in the Lebanese context?

As a folklorist whose academic interests are often viewed as "lowbrow" or as the "detritus" of culture, I try to help my students by citing the distinction between the category "Religio Licita" (the communal expressive behaviors, institutions and traditions generated, modified and maintained by the official State, Church and Academy) -vs- "Traditio" (the communal expressive behaviors, institutions and traditions that are generated, modified and maintained outside that authority).

Religio licita, usually a powerful hegemony, protects its boundaries by purporting superiority (hence "high-ness") over traditio, sometimes with good reason, but not always.  Clearly, there isn't much logic to the idea that a highly difficult, perfectly executed fiddle tune is a failed symphony.  Nor does it make good sense to criticize the Native American belief that humanity sort of "shimmered" out of animal form, as a "savage" or lowbrow" belief, compared to the "civilized" highbrow notion that pain, travail and death came into the world because a woman was seduced by a talking snake.

As a taxonomy, the religio licita-traditio distinction might be helpful to accurately organize your "high" and "low" material.  Under religio licita we would find academy-taught arts, sciences and beliefs, including mainstream religions; under traditio, we would find vernacular or folk arts, sciences and beliefs, including folk religions.  Notably, as folklorist Don Yoder once put it, the difference between religion and folk religion is the difference between what is preached from the pulpit and what is believed in the pew--not always the same; sometimes unobtrusively parallel, and sometimes in direct conflict.  In any case, traditio will always be there, ready to roil up, and step in as needed, whenever the pulpit fails the pew.

For studies of the high/low juxtaposition in western civilization see:

Stallybrass, P.  and A. White. 1986.  The Poetics and Politics of Transgression.  London: Methuan.

Neulander, J. "Creating the Universe: A Study of Cosmos and Cognition" Folklore Forum 25: 1 (1992)  3-18 [I think this may be available through Researchgate]. 

Thanks Cameron. I'll reach out to Marco.

You are right in that there are many factors involved, and to have a significant impact one may need to influence several of the factors rather than just one.

Coleman should provide some general theoretical points of departure, but you probably know this. I also find Raymond Boudon's work surprisingly relevant when it comes to studies of social capital.

Dear All,

There are a lot of taboos of various origin and nature. The easiest way is to mention ancient or very old taboos. In Europe and in Hungary wolves (Canis lupus) were feared animals and are protagonists of many myths: Wererwolf (Werwolf, loup-garout, vérfarkas). The Hungarian equivalent of wolf is farkas it means an animal with a tail because one must have used only a circumlocution. The wolf itself was a taboo.

Throughout the colonial period, this region was inhabited by an ethnically diverse population, so several kinds of identity may be found in the literatures of New Spain. The indigenous peoples of much of this territory had an ancient literary tradition combining oral traditions with systems of visual notation, ranging from pure semasiography (the recording of ideas with a complex system of visual signs, straddling the fuzzy border between western categories of "art" and "writing") to mixed systems combining semasiographs with glottographs (in which linguistic units like morphemes and syllables are represented). This tradition continued throughout much of the colonial period, gradually loosing ground to alphabetic texts (in native languages, Castillian or Latin), in many of which we may find robust expressions of native identity, along with adaptations of western literary genres. Most of these texts existed only in manuscript form during the colonial period, some in conventual libraries where they were read and copied, others in native communal archives, where they were used to construct collective identities and as instruments in legal struggles. Many were published in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. For an overview of the native literatures of New Spain, see the appropriate volumes of the Handbook of Middle American Indians, including the more recent supplementary volumes. I have posted some studies on my ResearchGate page that relate to your question, especially regarding native literary traditions.

Literature produced by Europeans in New Spain and their criollo descendents is another story, interwoven with the latter. Some of the more famous texts have been mentioned on this thread. For early examples, see México en 1554 and Crónica de la Nueva España by the Spanish scholar Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, who came to New Spain to head the Royal University. By the mid-18th century many texts exhibit a strong sense of criollo identity, traditionally considered as a precursor of Mexican nationalism; see, for example, Bernabé Navarro B., Cultura mexicana moderna en el siglo XVIII (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1983).

Ayurveda believes that a persons physical and psychological traits are determined at the time of conception and even mother's diet, desires (pica), emotions all effects the psychic traits of the offspring. It is labelled as 'Prakriti' and is said that 'Prakriti Nishpratikriyaha' i.e. it cannot be changed. Again it is classified as psychological (Manas) and Physical (Kaya) Prakriti.

Your question is complex . It is like a Russian Puppet : it contains many internal/implicit questions.

What follows is not a game. It leads to a serious issue – Be patient

Has anyone come across (or developed) a team task/skill taxonomy (or set) that can be used to assess cultural aspects of team performance? A very puzzling question !

This question supposes that many prerequisites have been clarified, and not just this one : . What taxonomy is most appropriate & what for?

Has anyone come across a way to assess cultural aspects of team performance? i.e. What method to assess & what tools to assess those cultural aspects that might be relevant?

Then on the one hand :

Has anyone come across a way to assess team performance? i.e. What does it mean to assess team performance, having in mind its relation with culture…? Or What is the method to assess team performance? or What are the criteria to assess team performance ?

Has anyone come across “team performance”? i.e. What is team performance? Or What do we call “team performance”? What team?

Has anyone come across what a team is or what kind of a team is to be considered?

And on the other hand, for each of the three above questions:

Has anyone come across cultural aspects of team performance? i.e. How does culture interfere with team performance? Both inside & ouside views? How to identify both the relevant cultural “aspects” and their action mechanisms?

And also :

Do these questions address existing teams that are to be observed by an “entomologist”? –i.e. External observer

Do these questions address teams still to be created or further developed? Combined insider’s view (the actors themselves) & External observer’s view

So what? What then?

1 Your definition of Culture :” The term “culture” relates to the values, assumptions, preferences,beliefs, rituals, knowledge, skills, and behaviors that are shared at the level of the social group (or society).”

In other words, all what the individual has absorbed since he was born & converted into his self. Of course, all what we “learn”, we learn it from other people or from direct encounter with earthy reality. So, what we learn is always “cultural”. Scientists enjoy building up classifications : of course, what we learn when we were 6 months old or 5 years old might be more deeply buried inside ourselves than what we “learn “ at 15 or 50 !. But some encounters at 20 or 40 can also be decisive. We are Biological-cultural beings. We are historical beings. What we are here & now is the position on our trajectory or rather our network. We always act in the present. Some civilisations distinguish the “present” & the “imaginary” : the present is what triggers our immediate micro actions ( it involves the current situation & memories of similar situations- e.g. 20 years ago- that are relevant here & now; the imaginary is what is not relevant here & now in the past or the future : it can be an event that occurred yesterday or 10 years ago. In mid-Empire Egyptian, everything happened in the present: future & past were not embedded in the verbal form, but well, whether the action was under way or stopped – terminated, suspended, or not started yet- Past & future were indicated in a subtle way, similar to an interrogation mark

So culture is everything we make use of when facing a new situation. Well, not quite : there are the “productive” things, i.e. the one that belong to the material world, data, information, knowledge, science, technology … : this can be modeled & transformed into prescriptions; we just have to carry them on. But a new situation is also life, movement, changes ; to a large extent they are determined, but not pre-determined. So, what will really happen.=?? We have to rely, not on theory, mathematics or reductionist concepts, but on ourselves, or habits & experience. The ones that seemed to be most effective according to our past & the ones of people who are close to us & whom we trust. And also, on our capacity to find ways & means to survive in case our initial decision is wrong ….

A computer scientist attempted to design an expert system in pneumology. So, he carefully observed the behavior/ criteria of a top-physician. Then in order to make his system more robust, he wanted to combine what he had learned with a new observation : that of another expert physician. Complete failure : why? The first physician was more “aggressive” & the second one more “contemplative”; but each of them knew how to act in case his initial decision led to a failure. Mixing both approaches leads to chaos. MIT developed an expert system for a renal intensive care unit together with the best physicians of the Mass General Hospital. Then, they wanted the expert system be tested in the Mass Gen Hospital ( the “authors”), in a general I C U, & in a post surgical ICU. The system was rejected by everybody !!! the people in the Mass Gen Hosp ( “ we know more than what we told you : we told you what we can describe with our language, our concepts, …. Not our feelings of experienced professionals; in the general ICU : no ! if we apply the advices of the expert system & if something goes wrong , what do we do? We prefer to call a human referent: he will have the expertise to react & will have the “legal” responsibility; the post op unit : if things seem a bit abnormal, we immediately transfer the patient to a top ICU)

2- the definition of performance

I have no experience of aircrafts ! Only of the design of computer / telecom systems to support ICU & Anesthesia teams. Also creating & managing international R/D projects in Europe dealing with the new IT in medicine at large

In our Western world, we design what should be an ideal team, an ideal project, an ideal something, …. and we act to make it pass in the facts. ( actually , we repeat again & again the old myth of the « creation » : God wanted to build the Universe & did it ; we just try to do the same thing – with a lot of success as far as science & technology is concerned) We know that this team/project consists of people and machines. People ,-pilot, driver, physician, patient, sportsman, manager, …. You name them- do not limit themselves to their reason, their knowledge, know how, technical expertise or technical skills: this is their “production” dimension. It can be analyzed, reduced to schemes, to algorithms … The life / living being dimensions as well as the “external” circumstances cannot be modelled. Although we keep striving again & again. Is it more effective to keep trying or use an other approach. My view point). In addition, culture can be observed from two different points

To be practical :

A__you describe bipolar cultural dimensions – actually three of them, for all practical purposes, from Hofstede – Why ? because he is well-known and referred to by many people – full stop ; not because he is the best one – And then, you show that there is clear correlation between them & crisis management.

Why not turn things upside down.

When we had to design automatic systems for ICU’s (Intensive Care Units) we addressed three major topics =

1. The normative : data, information flows, alogorithms, sensors, …. The rôles of the people= what ought to be done

2. The practical : what was really done ( physician have two patient records : the official one; shared with the other professionals, on the computers; & their personal ones : “the patient is lying; he is drunk; he is fooling his family; he is hiding something, …. “ ; similarly, nurse exchange “confidential” notes on the patients, the physicians, whom to trust, …. ) We need to know that in order to make the automatic system more effective – to compensate for the human weaknesses

3. The crises/breakdowns : everything goes wrong = what to do

As we are not Anglo-Saxon, the priority is not the normative ( see the paper of Dawson , Cambridge) but the breakdowns : everything has to be organized from them.

B__Why not start describing/observing what is a catastrophy? What ought to be done? How to organize the automatic system accordingly? How to train the people as if breakdowns were just normal events : no reason to panic. In this respect, the impact of culture is minimized. And instead of checking whether Hofstede or Trompenaars dimensions are relevant and to what extent, just identify the qualities that people & the equipment need most to successfully manage a breakdown.

This being said, individuals are not equal. And some will learn faster than others and be more effective & more efficient.

So, understanding their cultural background is most important – as in dramatic situations, behaviours learned during childhood will be prominent !

BUT WHAT IS CULTURE ?

When I got interested in Culture as an issue worth considering ( +/- 1987-1990), I faced two approaches :

- That of Hofstede, Trompenaars, … = purely descripitive; you smile often, you talk a lot, … OK: you are put in class 1; you want to act on your own … OK, class 2; the past is important for you, class 3…. And so on : you prefer white wine or beer , a contract is just a piece of paper, ….class 4 … Important if you want to leanr a rôle : how to do business with a Japanese, a Chinese or a Frenchman

- That of Charles Hampden-Turner just when he began to work with Fons Trompenaars ( The Seven Cultures of Capitalism; later, he stopped trying to understand …) , Emmanel Todd ( INED, Paris), or to a certain extent, Steve Toulmin, & many others about “time”, also, H Maturana, Montaigne, & people who recently became interested in empathy …. = what are the roots of Culture, what is culture as seen from the inside of the individual; the way he behaves in society – i.e. the view point of Hofstede … - is another story

I have of course chosen the second viewpoint. Culture is what gives more “thickness” to your present. It has to be continuously elaborated. It has to evolve. But this implies that you are fully aware of what you have to “conserve” in order to remain yourselves.

But this an other story.