Culture’s centrality in knowing: an editorial

Citation

Woodside, A.G. (2010), "Culture’s centrality in knowing: an editorial", International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 4 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijcthr.2010.32704daa.001

Culture’s centrality in knowing: an editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Volume 4, Issue 4

Cultures are configurations of mostly unconscious and sometimes conscious knowing, emotions, and behavior about the way-things-get-done-here and how events get-interpreted-here – in this local, regional, and national context.

Culture comes first! The influences of culture are pervasive, powerful, but easy-to-misperceive – because unconscious interpretations of individuals within a culture drive all behaviors before explicit thinking about one’s own actions and explicitly recognizing such influences is difficult to accomplish (Wegner, 2002; Wilson, 2002; Woodside, 2004, 2006).

Replacing ignorance of ignorance with explicit knowledge is a two-step process. First, the researcher has to become aware of her ignorance – especially ignorance about knowledge of how culture and unconscious thinking affect actions and participants’ implicit interpretations of actions. Second, the researcher must go beyond seeking answers to questions from participants. The researcher must shift her gaze to observing behavior, testing participants’ behavioral responses in different contexts, asking participants to interpret their own behaviors-in-context; and asking participants to interpret the researcher’s interpretations of the participants’ behaviors-in-context. Research asking only for participants’ self-reports on their own behavior is insufficient for replacing ignorance of ignorance with useful explicit knowledge.

The eight papers in this issue are useful readings for explicating implicit cultural meaning. Marianne Bickle and Rich Harrill lead the issue with a special section of five papers on cultural-identity misconceptions. Bickle and Harrill’s collection shows the great value of explicit interpreting via comparing behaviors and thinking across two or more cultures within one research context. The editors and authors of this special section provide important readings for achieving deep understanding of cultural meanings.

The additional three papers expand on the theme of explicating cultural meanings. A.M. Ogaboh Agba, Moses U. Ikoh, Antigha O. Bassey and Ekwuore M. Ushie describe how explicating cultural meanings is useful for creating national and local cultural policies. Hiroko Yasuda presents evidence supporting the proposition that the terms, “world” and “global” are synonyms for the terms, “Western” and “Europe” for the Japanese. The issue closes with the award winning paper by E. Wanda George on intangible cultural heritage and its relationships to ownership, copyrights, and tourism.

As a collection of original work on accurately explicating cultural meaning, this issue of the IJCTHR offers exceptional reading value. A treasure of observations, theory, and practical applications! If behavior in your culture permits such actions, take this issue home with you for bed-time reading and further unconscious thinking. Good reading!

Arch G. WoodsideDepartment of Marketing, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA.