Cultural change: A roadmap for the future

In Western societies, strategic planning is crucial before the state commissions any research related to social and economic issues. This is largely because, while social change can bring about opportunities, it can also present challenges and dangers, which is why such planning is important.

Role of culture

It was with this understanding that the UNESCO Culture 2030 Indicators was launched a few years back. This framework of thematic indicators measures and monitors "the progress of culture's enabling contribution to the national and local implementation of the Goals and Targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." It also introduces a roadmap that defines the role of culture in sustainable development action plans.

Culture is a collective body of observations that can be dismantled, contemplated, and scrutinised. The nature and weight of these observations are often complicated and presents a burden on researchers who, armed with basic tools, try to explain these complex observations rationally and objectively and examine the past, present and future in order to introduce plans that correspond with cultural privacy.

This is meant to help people know their own culture and how it relates to the world map of cultures, so that they can understand their own identities and the nature of relations that emerge from one's particular identity. This goes hand in hand with cultural global indicators that are better seen as shared integrative elements that contribute to one's own culture.

For example, there are some commonly used proverbs that carry cultural connotations and implications, which are mostly unconscious and reflect how certain societies perceive the world which is a result of accumulated wisdom. Two proverbs commonly found in different societies that come to mind are: "If it isn't broke, don't fix it" and "Give and spend, and God will send."

Importance of planning

It is crucial to set incremental goals and follow strategic planning with patience and prudence to achieve fruitful social change and sustainable development. However, anyone familiar with the reality of psychosocial studies in the Arab world, in general, knows that understanding the impact of social change often takes precedence over strategic planning.

Arab societies are still addressing long-term questions such as: how to get there, how to assess social impact, and what starting points should be used to measure these sub-processes, which is crucial to achieving sustainable development through a holistic process of strategic planning.

The nature of change is always difficult in the beginning, chaotic in the middle, and clear at the finish line. Similarly, it is important to view culture as a continuous process of self-creation and brick-by-brick building and steer away from stereotypical or exclusionary thinking. Labels such as white vs. black or East vs. West are no longer relevant.

On the other hand, individuals continue to be part of this world, interconnected with it and with others, which enhances global cultural diversity. Therefore, no change can occur without knowing and acting on the three elements of cultural change: the essence of the self, the positioning of the other, and a true understanding of the concept of culture and its components, considering the self and the other.

Culture is relative

Although cultural tendencies are conveyed through attitudes and interactions between institutions and individuals, cultural values, as expressed by Ruth Benedict in her book Patterns of Culture(1935), are relative and not absolute. At the same time, individuals are essential to the construction of culture. This is because they can adopt or reject different aspects of their culture.

Therefore, it follows that those who reject certain cultural tendencies can be stigmatised by society and viewed as rebellious.

This is why it is important to view the individual in a cultural context that does not reduce culture to just the sum of its members, and individuals that reject certain aspects of their culture should not be viewed as operating outside of the influence of the social and cultural system in which they live.

Planning begins with the individual and then moves to society, then to culture, and finally to the world at large, and from the world, it returns to serve the local and global individual.

Continuous process

All things considered, it is important to note that change, at its core, is a continuous process of transformation, and perhaps the best expression to explain this is: "No man ever steps in the same river twice."

This means that cultures inherently change, and the behaviour of individuals also change as culture evolves. What we know about people today might change tomorrow.

Therefore, it is necessary to plan and set goals to develop strategies that adopt change and foster it in a way, and at a pace, that does not suppress the fundamental characteristics of a specific cultural identity, while also letting society know the direction it is heading.