Culture gap
Encyclopedia
A culture gap is any systematic difference between two culture
s which hinders mutual understanding or relations. Such differences include the values, behavior, education, and custom
s of the respective culture
s. The term was originally used to describe the difficulties encountered in interactions between early 20th century travellers and pre-industrial culture
s, but has since been used more broadly to refer to mutual misunderstandings and incomprehension arising with people from differing backgrounds and experiences.
Culture gaps can relate to religion, ethnicity, age, or social class
. Examples of cultural differences that may lead to gaps include social norm
s and gender role
s. The term can also be used to refer to misunderstandings within a society, such as between different scientific specialties.
for a more favorable legal framework or in libel tourism
, wherein speech that is protected in one jurisdiction may be actionable in another.
differ significantly from those of another. The world war
s contributed to generation gaps in several nations. The term first saw widespread use in contrasting the Baby Boomer
generation with their parents. The "Youth culture" of adolescents and teenagers seeking to stake out their own identity and independence from their parents often results in a cultural divide. Younger generations have experienced different technologies, freedoms and standards of propriety.
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s which hinders mutual understanding or relations. Such differences include the values, behavior, education, and custom
Convention (norm)
A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....
s of the respective culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s. The term was originally used to describe the difficulties encountered in interactions between early 20th century travellers and pre-industrial culture
Pre-industrial society
Pre-industrial society refers to specific social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution. It is followed by the industrial society....
s, but has since been used more broadly to refer to mutual misunderstandings and incomprehension arising with people from differing backgrounds and experiences.
Culture gaps can relate to religion, ethnicity, age, or social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
. Examples of cultural differences that may lead to gaps include social norm
Norm (sociology)
Social norms are the accepted behaviors within a society or group. This sociological and social psychological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit...
s and gender role
Gender role
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...
s. The term can also be used to refer to misunderstandings within a society, such as between different scientific specialties.
Modern era
As international communications, travel and trade have expanded, some of the communication and cultural divisions have lessened. Books on how to handle and be aware of cultural differences seek to prepare business people and travelers. Immigrants and migrant laborers need to learn the ways of a new culture. Tourists can also be confronted with variants in protocols for tipping, body language, personal space, dress codes, and other cultural issues. Language instructors try to teach cultural differences as well.Legal
A legal culture is a system of laws and precedents peculiar to a nation, region, religion, or other organized group. A culture gap occurs when incompatible or opposing systems might be applied to the same situation or assumed by the parties. Legal constructs such as contracts and corporations are not uniform across cultures. In some cases, such a gap is intentionally sought by one party, as in forum shoppingForum shopping
Forum shopping is the informal name given to the practice adopted by some litigants to get their legal case heard in the court thought most likely to provide a favorable judgment...
for a more favorable legal framework or in libel tourism
Libel tourism
Libel tourism is a term first coined by Geoffrey Robertson to describe forum shopping for libel suits. It particularly refers to the practice of pursuing a case in England and Wales, in preference to other jurisdictions, such as the United States, which provide more extensive defences for those...
, wherein speech that is protected in one jurisdiction may be actionable in another.
Generational
A generation gap occurs when the experiences and attitudes of one generationGeneration
Generation , also known as procreation in biological sciences, is the act of producing offspring....
differ significantly from those of another. The world war
World war
A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....
s contributed to generation gaps in several nations. The term first saw widespread use in contrasting the Baby Boomer
Baby boomer
A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom and who grew up during the period between 1946 and 1964. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve broad consensus of a precise definition, even...
generation with their parents. The "Youth culture" of adolescents and teenagers seeking to stake out their own identity and independence from their parents often results in a cultural divide. Younger generations have experienced different technologies, freedoms and standards of propriety.
Professional
Communication between and collaboration among scientific disciplines is sometimes hindered by use of different paradigms or competition between the desires to describe a simple explanatory framework and elucidate fine details. The framework of the questions to which each field lends itself may differ, leading to frustration and wasted effort.Education
The education culture is the different education people receive in their life. A culture gap occurs when the people who have different culture background sit together and take the same class. Different people behave differently towards the teacher in class and also after class. Basically, the differences can be noticed in assessment method and the direction method of the class. The Asian students focus on the books and exercises a lot while the European and American students are willing to raise questions in the classes. The cultural gap in education is due to the different education mode in different regions and places. For example, the Asian students receive a kind of “exam-oriented education in their countries and the European and American students’ education is comparatively free and the students are strongly encouraged to challenge the teachers in class, which makes a big difference between the Asian students and Western students. China and Japan both have a strict education system and usually the exams are used to show a student’s ability while in American and Britain, the instructors graded a student according to his/her multiple ability. The two totally different education ways all have their pros and cons. However, they form the cultural gap between people. They people receive different education have different ways of thinking and analyzing things, which makes the views completely differently towards one thing.”See also
- Cross-cultural communicationCross-cultural communicationCross-cultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavour to communicate across cultures.- Origins :The Cold War, the United States economy...
- Cultural identityCultural identityCultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics....
- Cultural diplomacyCultural diplomacyCultural diplomacy has existed as a practice for centuries. Explorers, travelers, teachers and artists can be all considered examples of informal ambassadors or early cultural diplomats...
- Culture shockCulture shockCulture shock is the anxiety, feelings of frustration, alienation and anger that may occur when a person is emplaced in a new culture.One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign country. Culture shock can be described as consisting of one or more distinct phases...
- Cultural biasCultural biasCultural bias is the phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one's own culture. The phenomenon is sometimes considered a problem central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology...
- Cultural dissonanceCultural dissonanceCultural dissonance is an uncomfortable sense of discord, disharmony, confusion, or conflict experienced by people in the midst of change in their cultural environment...
- National psychologyNational psychologyNational Psychology refers to the distinctive psychological make-up of particular nations, ethnic groups or people, and to the comparative study of those characteristics in social psychology, sociology, political science and anthropology....
- Cultural anthropologyCultural anthropologyCultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
- Cultural relativismCultural relativismCultural relativism is the principle that an individual human's beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual's own culture. This principle was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th century and...
- EthnocentrismEthnocentrismEthnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
- Generation gapGeneration gapThe generational gap is and was a term popularized in Western countries during the 1960s referring to differences between people of a younger generation and their elders, especially between children and parents....
- Intercultural competenceIntercultural competenceIntercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures.A person who is interculturally competent captures and understands, in interaction with people from foreign cultures, their specific concepts in perception, thinking, feeling and acting...
- Legal cultureLegal cultureLegal cultures are described as being temporary outcomes of interactions and occur pursuant to a challenge and response paradigm. Analyses of core legal paradigms shape the characteristics of individual and distinctive legal cultures....
- Red states and blue states, a political manifestation of a culture gap in the United States
- Us GirlsUs GirlsUs Girls is a BBC television sitcom about the culture gap among three generations of West Indian women.Freelance journalist Bev Pinnock was trying to live an independent life, which was being interrupted by her teenage daughter Aisha and her mother -- Grandma . They all shared a house in the...
, sitcom about the culture gap among three generations of West Indian women. - WOJBWOJBWOJB is a National Public Radio member on 88.9 MHz, and serves northwestern Wisconsin from the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation southeast of Hayward, Wisconsin, United States....
, a Wisconsin public radio station