A World of Three Cultures: Honor, Achievement and Joy - Softcover

Basáñez, Miguel E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0190270373 ISBN 13: 9780190270377

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2015

Synopsis

In this book, Miguel Basáñez presents a provocative look at the impact of culture on global development. Drawing on data from governments, NGOs, the World Values Survey and more addressing over one hundred countries, he argues that values, as the "building blocks" of culture, are directly related to the speed with which social, cultural and economic development occurs. Basáñez utilizes quantitative survey data to delineate three cultural hyperclusters across the globe: cultures of honor, which prioritize political authority; cultures of achievement, which emphasize economic advancement; and cultures of joy, which focus on social interactions. According to Basáñez, these cultures evolved chronologically, mirroring the development of agrarian, industrial and service societies.

He argues that a country's developmental path is profoundly influenced by its people's values and culture, as crystallized through its formal and informal governing institutions. Culture is passed down over generations through families, schools, the media, religious institutions, leadership, and the law. Although culture and values are in a permanent state of evolution, leaders and policymakers can also push cultural change in order to promote desirable goals such as economic growth, democratization, and equality.

Over the course of the book, Basáñez introduces two new measures of development: the Objective Development Index (which blends rubrics such as health, education, income, gender equality, political rights and civil liberties, and economic inequality) and the Subjective Development Index (which uses responses to the World Values Survey to classify countries according to their values).

About this title

About the Author

Miguel E. Basáñez was named Ambassador of Mexico to the United States of America in 2015. Prior to serving as Ambassador, he was Adjunct Professor and Director of the Judicial Reform Program at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He is also a past president of the World Association for Public Opinion Research.

Review

"Miguel Basáñez has married his personal confrontations with cultural diversity with objective evidence to craft an original scheme of categories for societies that will provoke experts and those interested in the importance of a society's values to reflect on their current understanding. Every reader concerned with the inequalities among the world's nations will profit from this synthesis of fact and speculation."
-Jerome Kagan, Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Harvard University

"By making exceptional use of Inglehart's World Values Survey, Basáñez has very skillfully reasoned the impact of values on development. The three cultures he outlines - honor, achievement and joy - represent Atlantic culture, East Asian culture and Latin American culture. The book shows persuasively that the three cultures bloom each in their own way, vindicating the claim that the world experiences multiple modernities. Its beauty also lies in how well Basáñez exemplifies the three cultures!"
-Takashi Inoguchi, Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo

"In this very readable book Miguel Basa?ez presents a cross-cultural world view influenced by the data analysis and interpretation of the three founding fathers of the discipline: a European management researcher, an American sociologist, and an Israeli psychologist, but this he does from his own Latin-American point of view. Compared to us he is quite original in adding to his two main axes of Power and Achievement a third axis of Joy. It is a joy to read his work."
-Geert Hofstede, author of Culture's Consequences

"A World of Three Cultures is a book to be recommended in a time of cultural wars, because it helps the reader to give meaning to such conflicts through the use of statistical data and to give hope to global public opinion in a possible convergence scenario."
-Matteo B. Marini, Professor of Development Economics, Università della Calabria

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0190270373
• ISBN 13: 9780190270377
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 408