questions

Posted by Prof David West on Mar 11, 2008; 1:28am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/questions-tp525926.html


suppose you are trying to grow a diverse community.

you want a shared culture for that community.

you want to respect existing sensibilities that subgroups (and
individuals) bring to the new community.

in many cases, gender and youth for example, a significant portion of
those sensibilities are not intrinsic to the group or to individuals
within the group, they are social constructs imposed on the group.
(feminism invests energy in challenging and changing many of the
sensibilities deriving from social construction, AARP does the same for
elders, relatively little is done regarding youth.)

in all cases, sensibilities are ethnocentric - there are no cultural
universals!  [I will be happy to discuss this with anyone who believes
otherwise.]

conflict (intensity varying along a continuum) is inevitable: between
the umbrella culture of the new community and the existing cultures of
its members; between and among member cultures.

question 1: how does the umbrella culture come into existence? (culture
IS a complex system)
question 2: to what extent does the umbrella culture trump the
ethnocentric sensibilities of its members?
question 3: should sensibilities based in social constructs be directly
challenged and/or ignored?
     corollary question 3a: if you want more women in your community
     should your interactions with them be constrained to
                                    socially constructed norms?
     corollary question 3b: if you want more youth in your community
     should they be constrained (in terms of exposure,
                                     participation, interaction, and
                                     communication) to that which is
                                     consistent with the social
                                     construction
                                     of youth?
question 4: how are the inevitable conflicts mediated?  (recognizing
that the patterns, procedures, powers, and sanctions required for
                 mediation must be "built into" the umbrella culture)