Role of Culture in Influencing Social-Economic Growth of People

Role of Culture in Influencing Social-Economic Growth of People

Introduction

There have been several correlational studies that have been done to establish the role of culture in the social, economic growth of a given people or society. Most of the studies that have been done have stated that positive cultural underpinnings have a key role in the promotion of social, economic development of people hence the need to understand how vital the culture is in spurring economic and social growth of the people. There have been cases where cultural practices have been described as limiting. There have been several countries that have relied heavily on their socialistic cultures which have certainly ended up lagging when it comes to the social-economic development. In such societies, people try to do things as a society as opposed to individual success (Pudianti et al., 2016). This is to mean socially, they may perform quite well, but when it comes to the other aspects, it may surely have been indeed different in the capitalist society. A huge number of people in the case of East Germany were living in poverty after the second world war when their counterparts in West Germany were experiencing speedy growth all because of their capitalist culture. It is the same case with American society. Before the industrial revolution, American society was very socialistic in that the Indian Americans worked together and did things in a societal way. It was about the good of the people as a whole, and in the long run, the people lagged for there were less growth and development even though there were massive resources such as fertile lands and great ports.

Research objectives

The objective of this research is to establish if there any form of relationship be it positive or negative between culture and social-economic development of people.

Research Variables

The paper will be based on two variables. The independent variable will be culture, whereas the dependent variable will be social, economic development. This simply means that the study will seek to find out the level at which culture influences social, economic development. The research outputs with regards to social, economic development will be measured with regards to the level of literacy of the people, the living standards, the number of people living in poverty as well as the level of gender equality in the society. Under the variables, there will be direct variables which form the basis of the equation, and then there will be supporting variables. The main variables will be culture and social-economic variables (Pudianti et al., 2016). Apart from that other dependent variables will include:  literacy of the people, the living standards, the number of people living in poverty thereby making the total number of both dependent and independent variables to be five. Even though these aspects may not be quantified numerically, they can be rated as through the use of Likert chart where they will be classified on a scale of one to five. If the society in question is doing so well on a given aspect of the variable of social-economic development, then someone will simply be rated five as strongly agree one that is good but not so perfect will be regarded as agreed, the moderate one will simply be rated as neutral with a score of three and the bad one will be rated two with a rating of two as disagreeing. In contrast, the final will one will disagree where there is any form of congruence between the facet highlighted on this variable.

Hypothesis:

The paper will be based on a positive hypothesis that states that Culture has a direct impact on the social-economic development of the people. The research will validate or disapprove the hypothetical claim that culture is indeed a direct influencer of social, economic development in that when the culture is retrogressive. There will be no social, economic development.

Theoretical Model

The two theories that will be applied in this study will be the socioecological theory and social, cultural theory.  The socioecological theory holds that the beliefs, as well as the cultural practices that are endorsed within the cultural group, are key in shaping the social as well as cognitive functions of the children. It also holds that culture may be regulated by development through organizing various social setting which may be done through community services as well as social and daycare conditions. On the other hand, the social, cultural theory focuses on the internalization of the systems that are external and symbolic to the people such as the language and symbols that carry along with the symbolic meanings from the interpersonal level to the intrapersonal levels (Pehoiu, 2018). An important mechanism that is used during the internalization is usually the collaborative as well as the guided learning.  The more experienced persons are the ones that given the mantle of training those that are less acquainted with matters to do with culture. In such a manner, the children are trained on how best to solve their problems through the application of culture. The social activities that are engaged in, therefore should be in a position to promote the social-economic development of the people.

Since the ranking of the theories is very important, it is clear that that the first theory will be socioecological theory and the second theory will be sociocultural theory. The reason for the hierarchy is that the socioecological theory highlights the direct relationship between the people and the culture and the environmental outcomes (Petronela, 2016). On the other hand, the sociocultural theory is mainly about the link between the culture and the things that happen between the two. The role played by the two theories in explaining the model and how the model works with regards to the two variables. The paper will be guided by the below theoretical framework illustrated below. There will be a direct relationship between culture and social development with regards to the poverty level, living standards, as well as the level of literacy of the people. On the culture variable, there will need to look at the social interaction level in the society as well as the cultural norms, which in this case will include the language used by the people.

Theoretical framework

Importance of the relationship displayed in the theoretical framework

The relationship is very key in that the cultural norms of the people are key in influencing their definition of development. This means if the cultural norms are laid back, then there is a huge possibility that things will not be able to work out effectively. In the long run, there will be a case of people seeing no reason to progress hence the justification for having social norms as one of the intervening aspects of the relationship between these two key variables. The relationship is also key because it plays a key role in stating the reason and nature in which these two variables are related. It is clear that the variables highlighted in the theoretical section, as displayed in the theoretical model, are all measurable. This is because one can simply measure social-development, literacy level, the living standards as well as poverty level. For the section of culture, it is simply able to text through the use of the qualitative approaches mostly factor analysis. These methods will be able to tell how much one survives to a given culture. Through the use of a questionnaire, one will be able to state their level of commitment to their culture.

Conclusion

It is clear from the above review that there is a need for a study to understand the level and nature of the correlation between culture and social-economic development. The research will indeed be effective based on the fact that the factors or the variables being addressed be it the main two variables or the whole list of the five variables are indeed measurable. The study will add much value to this area of learning; hence it is justified to carry it out.

References

Pehoiu, G. (2018). Education and culture. Cultural consumption among young people aged 18-35. Postmodern Openings, 9(1), 165-181.

Petronela, T. (2016). The importance of the intangible cultural heritage in the economy. Procedia Economics and Finance, 39, 731-736.

Pudianti, A., Syahbana, J. A., & Suprapti, A. (2016). Role of culture in rural transformation in Manding Village, Bantul Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 227, 458-464.