Category: Thoughts

“If people “of different cultures” are to meet, it must be as people, as persons, for it is only thus we can meet. And then the stage is set for something that can fister mutual respect and udnersatding – or struggle. Talk of “culture”, and the picture that springs to mind is one of difference, divergence, and distance. Talk of “people” or “persons” instead, and the picture is one of humans who struggle with some of the same compelling concerns and who therefore-despite all difference-can resonate across time and place”.

Unni Wikan (2002: 84)

“If people were not different, they would have nothing to say to each other. And if they were not the same, they would not understand each other”. (Hanna Arendt, 1958: 155)

“Schools usually neglect to examine how the structural forces of institutionalized racism and transnational ties of identities of immigrants are often tied to contexts of learning and teaching that are connected to diverse localities, cultures, and contradictory conceptions of identity. The focus is usually on minority students’ lack of motivation, academic disengagement, and how low literacy skills rather than examining the role of the complex processes of identity formation that shape radicalized minority and immigrant populations” (Sunil Bhatia, 2011: 77)

“Whatever any ‘Asian’ informant was reported to have said or done was interpreted with stunning regularity as a consequence of their ‘Asianness’, their ‘ethnic identity’, or the ‘culture’ of their ‘community’. All agency seemed to be absent, and culture an imprisoning cocoon or a determining force”.

Gerd Baumann (1996). Contesting Culture.

“The noble and elevating search for amity among people seen as amity between civilizations speedily reduces many-sided human beings into one dimension each and muzzles the variety of involvements that have provided rich and diverse grounds for cross-border interactions over many centuries, including the arts, literature, science, mathematics, games, trade, politics, and other arenas of share human interest”.

Amartya Sen (2006: 12)

“Culture is sometimes nothing more than a convenient and lazy explanation” (Piller, 2011: 172)