Culture and Development

There are many notions of culture. During the course of its research Creative Exchange has found that the definition of culture will vary according to who is defining it. Places like the UK have a far narrower definition of culture as “the arts” than, for example, a developing country, where the term ‘culture’ covers who you are, what you believe and how you express it creatively.

As Raymond Williams noted in the 1950s:“We use the word culture in these two senses: to mean a whole way of life – the common meanings; to mean the arts and learning – the special processes of discovery and creative effort” (Williams, 1993).

Perhaps the most useful ‘official’ definition of culture is still from the UNESCO Mexico City Declaration on Cultural Policies,1982:

“In its broadest sense, culture today can be viewed as a set of distinctive spiritual and material, intellectual and emotional characteristics which define a society or social group. In addition to the arts and letters, it encompasses ways of life and fundamental rights of the person, value systems, traditions and beliefs.”

Culture is both about a sense of identity, as an individual and a group, and about the creative expression or response to life. To characterize it as either one or the other is to lose out on the very special opportunity presented by having such a diverse multi-dimensional space which helps connect and negotiate between different aspects of human life.