To
make sense of the world, we
all
create
patterns of meaning.In my youth it was a tripartite
division –
conservatives, socialists and liberals. Not for me the Manichean
approach of left/right or
insider/outsider
-
there
was always a third way. It
was only in 2000, however, that I became aware of the four
dimensions of grid-group theory which
anthropologist Mary Douglas introduced - consisting of four very
different “world views” (what she calls hierarchist,
egalitarian, individualist and fatalist)
which came to be known as
“Cultural
Theory”.
I came
across Mary Douglas’ theory thanks to public admin theorist Chris
Hood’s “The
Art of the State”
(2000)
Another
approach was that of
cultural
values
–
the work
of people such as de Hofstede; Ronald Inglehart;
Frans Trompenaars;
Richard
Lewis (of When
Cultures Collide fame)
and Richard
Nesbitt
a body of writing which emphasises the distinctiveness
of
national values
most
graphically
illustrated in the Inglehart cultural map of the world
and
best explained in
this brochure. Multinational
companies were
funding
a lot of this work as they tried to understand how they could weld
different nationalities into coherent and effective teams. Other
companies
had also
been
funding a
lot of this
work
to
try to get into the minds of their consumers - but international
charities suddenly realised a decade or so ago could also be used to
prise money out of all of us for their
more
altruistic purposes (see below) – a politicisation of which Adam
Curtis' documentaries have made us much more aware
Those
were the days when a body of literature called “path
dependency ”
was raising important questions about how “sticky” cultural
values were…viz how difficult national behavioural traits are to
change. And,
just the other day, I discovered Betti’s argument that there were
actually twelve ways of seeing the world (see list below)
Psychologists,
sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists have
approached this
question of perceptions
and values
completely separately and at different times - making few attempts to
engage one another in discussion It's such a critical issue that
it's time they reached out to one another - and
made the connection with the developing literature on world views
Recommended
Reading
BOOKS
- Management development through cultural diversity Ronnie Lessem (1995)
Lessem is a south african who uses the four lens of the compass to show how the
environment governs our ways of thinking.
- When Cultures Collide – leading across cultures; Richard Lewis (1996) The book
which introduced us to the field – and gave us marvellous vignettes of the strange
habits of almost all countries of the world
- Spiral Dynamics – mastering values, leadership, change; Don Beck and Chris Cowan
(1996) with crucial explorations of the very different levels of explanation needed
for discussions of behaviour and the values which underpin it.
- Riding the Waves of Culture – understanding cultural diversity in business Frans
Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner (1997) the Dutchman who took on de
Hofstede’s mantle
“The Art of the State” Chris Hood (2000) uses Mary Douglas’ grid-group typology
brilliantly to help us understand the strengths, weaknesses and risks of these
various world views.
- The Geography of Thought – how westerners and asians think differently and why;
Richard Nesbitt (2003) An American social psychologist gives a thought-provoking book
- “Way of life theory – the underlying structure of world views, social relations and lifestyles”
– a rather disjointed and abstract dissertation by Michael Edward Pepperday (2009) an
introduction to which is here
- Consumer Shift - how changing values are reshaping the consumer landscape (2011)
actually much more about values and world views than it is about consumers….
-The Patterning Instinct; Jeremy Lent (2017) how worldviews develop and can change
history
- Cultural Evolution – people’s motivations are changing, and reshaping the world ;
Ronald Inglehart (2018) a political scientist who has been at the heart of discussion
about cultural values for the past 50 years – and the book and this article summarised
that work.
- Twelve Ways of Seeing the World M Betti (2019 Eng – original German 2001) a
curious book based on the work of Rudolf Steiner
- The Web of Meaning ; Jeremy Lent (2021) an important follow up to his 2017 book
- Theories of International Relations ed R Devetak and J True (6th ed 2022)
- Foundations of International Relations ed S McGlinchey et al 2022
- The Battle for Britain – crises, conflicts and the conjunctures John Clarke 2023
ARTICLES
- Wicked Problems and Clumsy Solutions ; Keith Grint (2008) a short very useful article
by an academic
- Common Cause – the case for working with our cultural values (2010)
a useful little manual for charities
- Finding Frames – new ways to engage the UK public (2010) ditto
- A Cultural Theory of Politics ” (2011) a short article which shows how the
grid-group approach has been used in a range of disciplines
- Grid, group and grade – challenges in operationalising cultural theory for
cross-national research (2014) is a very academic article although its comparative
diagrams are instructive
- Britain’s Choice – common ground and divisions in 2020s Britain (More in Common
2020) a detailed picture of the british people and their values these days