2.1. Definition of culture

Definition: What is culture?

Imagine you have to leave your country because you are politically persecuted or because of war. After a long journey you finally arrive in a foreign country. How would you feel? What would you do to find your way through new surroundings?

You may feel at a loss and will probably try to find some landmarks, some points that seem familiar to you and that help you to find your way. These points that seem familiar to you are elements suggested by your cultural imprinting. Over time the process of adaptation and understanding will enable you to accept and eventually integrate the elements of culture that suit you personally.

There are numerous definitions of culture. As early as 1952 Kroeber and Kluckhohn counted over 150 definitions of the term ‘culture’ (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952). Here are some of the most popular ones. Culture is…

…the human-made part of the environment (Harry Triandis)
…a collective programming of the mind (Geert Hofstede)
…the way in which a group of people solve problems (Fons Trompenaars)
…an orientation system defining our perception of normality (Alexander Thomas)
… a fuzzy concept (Jürgen Bolten)

Culture as an orientation system

According to Alexander Thomas, culture provides us with an orientation system typical of a specific nation, society, organisation or group. We need this system to intuitively find our way through the world because the system defines and influences our perception, our thinking, our values and actions. It is based on specific symbols (language, gestures, dress-code, greeting conventions etc.) and is passed on from generation to generation, creating a sense of group identity and giving meaning to what we see, perceive and do.

The orientation system provides us with behavioural motivators and opportunities but it also sets the “conditions and limits” to our behaviour (Thomas, 2010). For migrants arriving in a new country this means the challenge of dealing with a new orientation system, new explicit and implicit rules, new communication styles, which can be a stressful process, especially because often people unconsciously expect migrants to assimilate to the main culture.

Fuzzy cultures

Due to globalisation and the new migration phenomena, many modern societies are no longer comparable to the homogeneous ones of the past. One of the characteristics of these modern societies is a strong orientation towards processes and networking (Bolten, 2013). Culture is defined over a network of reciprocal relationships between people and group-cultures. In this sense culture is ‘fuzzy’ (Bolten, 2013). It hasn’t got defined limits. People are members of more than only one group i.e. people participate in more than one group-culture. This is why they constantly bring different elements from other group-cultures into each new group they are in contact with. The result of this is a heterogeneous structure as we can observe in modern societies.

However, culture can be perceived as more or less homogeneous/heterogeneous depending on how closely we look at it. The closer we look at it, the more differences we will notice in a society.