The Concept of Culture in Political Science
Culture is the whole range of learned human behavior patterns. It includes all of the symbols, heroes, traditions, languages and codes of behavior. It also encompasses all of the values and beliefs that a society holds to be true and right. In addition, it refers to all of the capabilities and habits that a society has developed over time. For example, it refers to the development of language and politics in a group of humans, and it also refers to all of the ways that people think about life and how they react to different circumstances.
The concept of culture was first introduced by the pioneer English anthropologist Edward Tylor in his book Primitive Culture, published in 1871. The term is used widely today by anthropologists and other behavioral scientists. However, it is much less well understood by the general public. People often use the word to mean something very different from what is meant by a behavioral scientist, and this can lead to confusion and misunderstanding of what the concept actually means.
For many people, the idea of culture seems to be a very broad and fuzzy one that can include anything from an appreciation for literature, music, food or other things to an entire system of values and beliefs. Those who have studied the concept of culture know that it is not something that can be defined in any way that would be unambiguous or objective. In fact, it is a very difficult concept to define because it relates to something that is learned.
Cultural history is a new area of historical study that has developed from a combination of several other disciplines. This new approach to history involves the analysis of cultures and cultural phenomena through interpretive and comparative methods. The discipline combines elements of social, cultural, feminist and postcolonial history to create a unique approach to the study of the past. This approach to history has risen in popularity as it reflects the collapse of traditional disciplinary boundaries within academic research.
Attempts to apply the concept of culture as an explanatory variable in political science have become increasingly common, but these attempts have not been matched by any meaningful findings that locate culture as a central component of causality or explanation. In this paper we aim to question the way that the concept of culture has been utilised in this sphere, identify some of the weaknesses of current attempts at operationalising it for purposes of empirical enquiry and suggest avenues that could be pursued in order to free the concept from some of the more inappropriate routes down which it has been driven.
The emergence of the cultural turn in politics is a response to the perceived limitations of existing explanations of behaviour and to the lack of any clear link between individual level variables and societal outcomes. In this context the concept of culture may appear to have some explanatory value, although it is important to distinguish between its use as a contextualising variable and its utilisation as an explanatory construct.
Culture is the whole range of learned human behavior patterns. It includes all of the symbols, heroes, traditions, languages and codes of behavior. It also encompasses all of the values and beliefs that a society holds to be true and right. In addition, it refers to all of the capabilities and habits that a society has developed over time. For example, it refers to the development of language and politics in a group of humans, and it also refers to all of the ways that people think about life and how they react to different circumstances. The concept of culture was first introduced by the pioneer English anthropologist Edward Tylor in his book Primitive Culture, published in 1871. The term is used widely today by anthropologists and other behavioral scientists. However, it is much less well understood by the general public. People often use the word to mean something very different from what is meant by a behavioral scientist, and this can lead to confusion and misunderstanding of what the concept actually means. For many people, the idea of culture seems to be a very broad and fuzzy one that can include anything from an appreciation for literature, music, food or other things to an entire system of values and beliefs. Those who have studied the concept of culture know that it is not something that can be defined in any way that would be unambiguous or objective. In fact, it is a very difficult concept to define because it relates to something that is learned. Cultural history is a new area of historical study that has developed from a combination of several other disciplines. This new approach to history involves the analysis of cultures and cultural phenomena through interpretive and comparative methods. The discipline combines elements of social, cultural, feminist and postcolonial history to create a unique approach to the study of the past. This approach to history has risen in popularity as it reflects the collapse of traditional disciplinary boundaries within academic research. Attempts to apply the concept of culture as an explanatory variable in political science have become increasingly common, but these attempts have not been matched by any meaningful findings that locate culture as a central component of causality or explanation. In this paper we aim to question the way that the concept of culture has been utilised in this sphere, identify some of the weaknesses of current attempts at operationalising it for purposes of empirical enquiry and suggest avenues that could be pursued in order to free the concept from some of the more inappropriate routes down which it has been driven. The emergence of the cultural turn in politics is a response to the perceived limitations of existing explanations of behaviour and to the lack of any clear link between individual level variables and societal outcomes. In this context the concept of culture may appear to have some explanatory value, although it is important to distinguish between its use as a contextualising variable and its utilisation as an explanatory construct.