Subjective+culture

Text adapted from: Intercultural Resources Collaborative. (n.d.). //Understanding culture as concept//. Retrieved February 21, 2012, from IRC: @http://www.irc-international.com/content/understanding-culture-concept

** Subjective Culture (Culture with a little C) **
Every culture must create a system of shared knowledge if it is to survive as a group and encourage efficient communication among its members. These shared patterns of information are both objective and subjective (obvious and hidden). The sharing of these patterns encourages communication and helps members to function more efficiently together. (Jaime S. Wurzel, Towards Multiculturalism, IRC 2004)

//“Today we are going to the RAK Museum.” said the teacher in the bright sheyla. // //“Oh, an afternoon of culture,” responded the student, piercingly staring into her eyes, hoping she would change her mind. //

The less obvious aspects of culture are its subjective side. What we can call “culture with a little “c.”. It refers to psychological features, assumptions, values and needs, often expressed non-verbally or implicitly. "Little c" constitutes the processes that define a group of people. In the exchange about the museum, the student expressed her wishes non-verbally. She was most likely understood by the teacher in the bright sheyla, because they unconsciously shared the meaning of the student’s stare. The same stare, in a different cultural context, may create problems in interaction. People who share similar basic life experiences develop similar ways of thinking and feeling. This causes the cultural group to perceive the environments in certain and consistent ways. These subjective elements emerge naturally in human interaction. It causes problems when people assume that everyone shares the same assumptions about work, the same ways to communicate and the same styles of approaching a task or solving a problem. Consequently working effectively with people from other cultures involves understanding the unconscious hidden messages exchanged between people in the same culture. Subjective culture or “little c” is informally learned and unconsciously shared. It is a given group’s characteristic way of understanding its social environment. Consequently, it is the process, rather than the content, produced by a group of interacting team members attempting to solve a problem.