Andreea and I are now meeting weekly to establish a solid theoretical body for CultureSofa. We came across this extremely interesting book, which seems exactly to put into words what we had in mind, but couldn’t quite formulate:

Seeing Culture Everywhere, from Genocide to Consumer Habits by Joana Breidenbach and Pál Nyíri

Last night, we had a brainstorming session, where we have attempted to identify existing trends in the public, media and academic discourse on culture. The major trend, still dominating the conversation seems to be cultural relativism. While considering the impact of cultural relativism on public discourse and understanding of culture, the one name that came up all the time was Samuel P. Huntington and his highly contested but also highly influential “Clash of Civilisations” argument. His reductive understanding of cultural relativism impacted not just the politics but also policy, shaping the way different states understand culture institutionally and education.

The question that arises is, why does a mind set that promotes tolerance for different “cultures” leads to a clash of the same. Trying to work with the idea “different cultures, different customs” actually facilitates miscommunication through seeing differences everywhere and through thinking in terms of “different” vs “familiar”; “us” vs “them”. We end up organizing the world into a bento boxes, where each “culture” is ascribed one clearly defined compartment.

If we understand something as radically different we cannot engage in a conversation, if we understand something as being familiar, we are usually not able to distinguish nuances. In order to get out of this cul de sac we need to change the terms of the conversation. And in doing that we should attempt to get discourse on culture in tune with a changing world.

Today people come together from different places, especially on the Internet. You can stay in your own private space, for example sitting on your sofa, and talk to someone else, who is also in their personal space while simultaneously being in a different cultural context than yours, on the other side of the world.

The Internet simply cannot be put into a bento box!

Here are two interesting quotes from Seeing Culture Everywhere:

Cultural identification is situational, dynamic, and multivalent. (p. 322)

[...] we believe that the freedom of individual choice should always enjoy priority over group cohesiveness. Cultural diversity is valuable not per se but as a vehicle to enable as many human beings as possible to live their lives in a way they find good and right. (p. 346)

post written by Andreea and Grit