Through
the Lens of Culture:
Building Capacity for Social Change and Sustainable Communities
By Patricia St. Onge, Breonna Cole, and Sheryl Petty
What is a culturally-based approach to capacity building
for social change?
The
world is a rapidly changing place and with this, the illusion
of separateness is diminishing under the same force of change
as that which originally gave power to the notion of the
"melting pot." We now have the opportunity to
think differently about how we engage with one another,
and we have the opportunity to be intentional about building
a worldwide neighborhood that reflects the strengths of
all of its members, and works together to overcome the challenges
that we all face.
"Cultural
competency" has become a buzz-phrase in the nonprofit
sector as well as in corporations and government. Traditional
definitions of culture have focused on various components
of cultural identity, with some authors describing culture
as representing "the values, customs, beliefs, heritage,
and norms of a particular group of people from a particular
society." For many communities, culture is more diverse
than race or ethnicity. It incorporates a host of perspectives
that include language, gender, class, age, religion, and
disability to name a few. Thus every understanding of cultural
reality comes from a unique point of view based on an individual's
life experiences in the context of the cultural groups in
which s/he moves.
The
mission of the National Community Development Institute
(NCDI) is to provide customized capacity building services
that promote community building and social transformation
in diverse, low-income communities. Our compelling vision
is to build strong, healthy, resilient communities of color
with the leadership, infrastructure, and civic participation
to effect social change, shape public policy, and influence
the political economy in a diverse society.
NCDI
understands that individuals, organizations and communities
experience the world through the lens of culture, whether
or not we recognize it or name it as such. The cultural
lens, as we at NCDI use this term, has multiple dimensions,
including race and ethnicity, language, gender, sexual identity,
socio-economic status, religion, etc.
The
"iceberg" is often used as a metaphor to describe
how culture plays out in the world: above the surface are
the external dimensions of culture including food, dress,
music, art, dance, literature, language, celebrations, etc.
Below the surface are the more subtle areas where culture
impacts our worldview: notions of modesty, conceptions of
beauty, relationship with nature, engagement patterns (e.g.,
competitive vs. cooperative), patterns of emotional response,
non-verbal communication (e.g., eye contact, hand gestures),
relationship to time and space, and many more. A focus on
only the tip of the iceberg limits our ability to be aware
of and to deeply engage with individuals and communities.
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