Culture and Development

Towards a conceptual framework for Culture & Development

There are many different definitions of culture. Creative Exchange research found that in northern development agencies there is a tendency to equate culture with ‘arts’; in developing countries, there is a more holistic view of culture as identity and an expression of values and ways of living.

During the Routemapping Culture and Development project Creative Exchange researchers found that, when asked about a cultural approach to development, London-based development professionals responded with information about projects that had some component of “arts or culture”, “popular communications methods and/or media” or “participatory processes”. Their counterparts in developing countries referred to a more holistic “cultural approach to development” and “cultural action” - there was a stronger sense of a mutable definition of culture and the need to engage with it at different levels according to the proposed purpose of the project or activity.

The Levels Model aims to place different understandings of ‘culture’ into one framework and enable them to co-exist. It aims to bridge both what an anthropologist and a Western artist would regard as culture, at two ends of the scale; but also includes cultural activities as a method through which development issues can engage with the culture of a place – either in a very instrumental way, as a tool, or a very empowering and liberating process emerging from the grassroots.

In reality, culture has a degree of complexity which cannot be fully captured just by applying a conceptual framework – culture is chaotic and dynamic and experiential. But in order to capture and evidence the value of culture to the development process we have to create some kind of organisational framework which acknowledges the different understandings of culture and how they relate to the development process.

Culture as context for development:
the socio-cultural factors specific to local life: beliefs, value systems, history, geography, social hierarchies, gender, faiths, and concepts of time. It may be that a programme or project will need to acknowledge how and why it will be challenging culture (e.g. in the context of female genital cutting or traditional gender roles), or it may be that a project will be embedded in (and drawing on) local socio-cultural dynamics in order to enhance the development process (e.g.by working with monks or traditional faith healers)

Culture as content in development:
the cultural content (or cultural resources) of a community which may include local languages, practices, object, rituals, clothing, artefacts, heritage sites or places of significance. They may be drawn upon in the development process, usually with consent and consultation with local people who ‘own’ these traditions e.g. a traditional dance, a traditional song, or other items with cultural significance, such as clothing or artefacts.

Culture as method within development:
the medium or cultural forms (traditional or otherwise) that programmes/projects may use in order to address development issues e.g. song, drama, dance, poetry, music, film, video, radio or photograph.

Culture as expression:
the intangible, dynamic and creative elements of culture that connect with our beliefs, values, attitudes, feelings, emotions, and ways of viewing the world - artistic expression can be an important means of sharing these world views. Expression is fundamental to self-determination, community engagement and to imagining futures.

Expression is important to development - Creative Exchange has found that development processes that foster expression and engagement with local communities, have greater socio-cultural relevance and create a sense of resonance with the lived experiences of local people – quite simply: they “connect”. As a result they stand a greater chance of contributing to improving quality of life and finding sustainable solutions.

Cultural approaches are being applied in the development arena in two observable ways:

As a tool: cultural approaches are used in an instrumentalist manner and are generally message-based. The tool-based approach is generally intended to inform, although it is sometimes used in such a way so as to allow or try to encourage some degree of participation, but ultimately its outputs are usually pre-determined by those controlling the development process.

As a process: cultural approaches are the basis of a liberationist approach that endeavours to explicitly address issues of shifting power and strengthening people’s control over the development process. It starts from people’s own experience and involves a participatory creative process, the output of which is not pre-determined.

 

Levels Model Checklist

Try out the Levels Model on a project or issue your are working on by applying these questions. Through this kind of cultural ‘mapping’ you will be able to start developing a cultural approach:

Exploring Context

• What are the cultural factors that underpin a community and its way of life?
• What are its traditional power structures, hierarchies and decision-making channels?
• What are its basic codes and ethics and how/why have they evolved?
• What is its cultural, political, economic and social history?
• How does the community relate to time, spirituality, nutrition, life/death, the natural world?
• How does it pass its context on through education and other mechanisms?
• How does it subsist and what modes exist for exchange/credit/support?

Exploring Content

• How does the community represent its cultural context through symbols and images?
• What aesthetic, elite, popular or ritual processes exist to link daily life to that context (ceremonies, traditional festivals)?
• What traditional or other knowledge and know-how does the community draw upon?
• What cultural resources does it have heritage, traditions, craft/artisan skills, cuisine, forms of expression?
• Who “owns”, participates in or develops these cultural resources?

Exploring Method

• What cultural forms are appropriate and relevant in the development process?
• For what purpose is the method being used?
• Is the approach message driven?
• Is the approach intended to be liberationist and empowering?
• Who has control of the objectives, inputs and outputs?
• Are control and implementation strategies appropriate to the context, content and purpose?
• Has the use and purpose of the cultural form been negotiated with the local community?

Exploring Expression

• What is being expressed?
• Who is doing the expressing – the agency, the participants, the beneficiaries?
• Who does the expression have resonance (meaning) for?What is the response to the expression?