Cultural Literacy
What skills do we need to read a changing world?
Our identities comprise different senses of belonging to different groups at different times. These are the cultures of which we are all a part, and our world is one of many cultures. The problem is that there is a real lack in our skills to read other cultures. One result is that our newspapers, media and websites carry numeorus stories about hostility between people, breeding a cycle of fear, insecurity and ultimately violence and prejudice. To overcome this, we need a new skill: cultural literacy.
- Ever so Hidden Dragon Literature, the arts and cultural production are one of the most crucial means by which we learn about norms, behaviours, outlooks and attitudes. In Cultural Diplomacy, we argued that we need to start thinking about cultural literacy, and how we build not only greater awareness of the many cultures that we encounter, but also to take that beyond simply informing of facts to providing skills to accommodate and respond to them in every situation, everyday or institutional, in which... continue reading on 17th January 2008
- Museums and Cultural Literacy On 26th and 27th June, I'll be at a conference on Museums and International Collaboration. I'll be delivering a paper on museums, and their role in 'Building Cultural Literacy'. You can find out more, and read a synopsis of the paper here. continue reading on 13th June 2007
- The Mad-for-it Hatter's Tea Party What did that handshake with Noel Gallagher really mean? continue reading on 16th May 2007 Comments (1)
- Cultural Literacy We’re currently developing some work around the idea of cultural literacy. Both Cultural Diplomacy and As You Like It raised the need to focus on a new skill. Mass communication enables us to express and focus on individual interests to a greater degree than ever before and culture has come to the fore as a means by which, and space in which, we relate to each other. But do we have the skills with which we can make the most of this? Historians offer an insight onto what these skills might be. continue reading on 17th April 2007