Thursday, June 02, 2005

Specific/Diffuse

<< Seven dimensions of culture index
A person who is part of a more specific culture has a large public sphere and a small private sphere. They will easily accept somebody into their public sphere, but will not easily allow anybody into their private sphere.
Each area or activity in which two people interact is understood to be completely seperate. A person's life is divided into many components, of which only one can be entered at a time.
Specific cultures consider everything to be made up of specific elements. They analyse each element seperately, and then recomposite them. It is understood that the whole is the sum of it's parts.
In a more specific culture, interaction between people is highly Purpose-Driven™. Facts, standards and contracts are highly valued.

A person who is part of a more diffuse will tend to have a large private sphere and a small public sphere. Strangers aren't easily admitted into either sphere. However, once a member of a diffuse culture does accept someone, they will give them access to every part of their life. Your friend is your friend in eevry area of life. Your boss is your boss in every area of life.
A more diffuse culture will see something as a whole, and see all the different elements as interdependant. The relationships between different elements are regarded as more important than the seperate elements.
Style, manners, trust and understanding are very important in diffuse cultures.

Do you think that your culture is more diffuse or more specific? Have you ever expeienced a culture that was the oppsite?
Please tell me if I've explained this dimension adequately, because it's probably the most confusing out of the seven dimensions.
<< Seven dimensions of culture index

5 comments:

Trav said...

That got me thinking....i dunno perhaps more specific

kelgell said...

I don't quite follow this one.

Tab said...

hey yeah! I'm totally getting it Chris! Thats an exciting concept to grasp - helps me understand things like Broken Hill culture a bit more. It's hard to get in (to the native culture) but once ur in, ur in for good, and it's a complete acceptance. I'd like to see this one played out a bit - I'll be looking 4 it now :)

John M said...

yeah get all that i think, sounds like there could be a bit more to them though, could you maybe elaborate a bit more?
i think yeah more specific is common in our society, lots of surface level relationships, few real ones, i think it's alot of hiding ourselves from people

Christop said...

Sure, I think I'll write up another post on this later today. I'm going to try and demonstrate the difference with an example of what I expect it's like in Broken Hill.