Callum: Hello and [bad word] to the eighth programme in our series ‘Who on Earth are
we.’ In the last programme Marc Beeby began an investigation into the
differences between cultures where the individual is seen as central –
individualist cultures – and those where the group is the most important unit –
collectivist cultures. Today he looks at more of these differences but to begin,
here’s Rebecca Fong a teacher of [bad word] at the
University of the West of England, with a summary of some of the main points
we heard last time.
Rebecca Fong
What does it mean to be individualist or collectivist? We've seen that within individualist
societies there's a social pattern of people being linked very loosely - people are independent
in these kinds of societies, whereas in collectivist societies they tend to be a lot more
interdependent - dependent on one another. In general individuals in individualistic cultures
value autonomy and their personal goals, as we’ve said, take precedence over group goals,
and their personal emotions, their personal happiness are very important. In the collectivist
societies the group goals are more important - the norms, the duties, the obligations of the
group are very, very important and these are the things which people are expected to behave
in accordance with.
Marc: Rebecca Fong, summarizing some of the main points from our last programme
on individualist and collectivist cultures. Last time, we also heard that it’s very
important to remember that cultures are not simply ‘individualist’ or
‘collectivist’. Rather, cultures tend to have either more individualist – or more
collectivist – characteristics. So, where does your culture fit on the scale
between extreme individualism and extreme collectivism? To help you decide,
Rebecca Fong guides us through some more of the main differences between the two, with help [bad word] from a group of people from around the
world. Rebecca begins with the things people value…
Rebecca Fong
Some of the values that are upheld by individualist societies are individual freedom and
choice, self-sufficiency, equality. And these tend to be associated with things like education
and affluence and social and geographic mobility.
Devon Krohn
I was brought up just outside London, and when I was 18 I went to university and I moved
away from home and part of the reason why I chose Exeter University which is where I went
was because it was a good distance away from home and that in our society that is part of the
point of going to university. So I left home at 18 and I was out of university and qualified by
the age of 22 and when I went to teach in Germany there were lots of surprised faces that I
was a teacher at the age of 22.
Rebecca Fong
Individualist societies tend to be more modern - people as a function of education have [bad word] more socially mobile and more geographically mobile as well and the emphasis is
perhaps a bit more on personal achievement, the affluence [bad word] with that, much more
than on family values or group spirituality.
James Keegan
In a society where you don’t have the hierarchies of royalty and [bad word] of that kind, you
actually do seem to produce another substitute. And that substitute is wealth and possessions.
In the United States, a great deal of value is placed on how you present yourself, what you
have achieved.
Rebecca Fong
Collectivist cultures on the other hand uphold tradition to a much greater extent. Security is
very important, and good social relationships are very important. And often religion and a
belief in the cycles of nature is important.
Rajni Badlani
Religion is extremely important in India even today, even among the very well educated.
...
Группа Learning English. Продолжение текста: [bad word] /downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/scripts/whoonearth/tae_whoonearth_08_080619.pdf