Understanding Cultures

Don’t fight culture, Listen to the right people, talk to the people who have the problem – and LISTEN to what they have to say -> Understand by observing the environment, infrastructure, culture and lives of people by being there.

How does this change the world?

One of the dangers in constructing potential innovations for social change is how we think about innovation and change. Suggestions for social changes stem from where people are geographically located, and cultural & social context. Prominient social issues vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood - from city to city - and from country to country. We must be careful not to generalize our needs and experiences to the rest of the world, or apply our own worldviews and idologies to the rest of the planetary population (social scientists refer to this as ethnocentrism).

There is an overarching global drive to make positive social changes in the world - but there may be different kinds of changes that need to be made. I see all innovation initiatives (where some may be simmilar and others different - say, between countries or cities) as puzzle pieces, part of the larger puzzle that is solved by everyone collectively - albeit perhaps in different ways with different foci.

We need to understand the communities we are trying to change for the better - but how can we do that without the input of the people who live in those neighbourhoods, towns, cities, countries? How can we - as outsiders - look upon their problems and offer help when we might not truly understand what the problem is? How can we possibly conceptualize effective social innovation without understanding the very people we want to help - the societies we want to make better for everyone? People are a wealth of knowledge, we need to listen and learn.

We muyst actively seek to investigate and research the people and cultures to truly understand the issues, and effectively work towards resolutions and innovations with those people; collaboration.