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Cultural Literacy

Cultural Literacy Picture

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.

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 real lack in our skills to read other cultures.  One result is that our newspapers, media and websites carry numerous 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.


We have powerful reasons to overcome such negativity and to promote understanding in its place.  However, there has been insufficient examination of just how we can reach that understanding.   In early 2007, Demos released two pamphlets – Cultural Diplomacy, on the centrality of culture to International relations and As You Like It, on the implications of Global English.  They demonstrated just how important cultural interaction is and, at the same time, just how unprepared many in the UK are for that interaction.


In society and particularly education there is a problem. As Amartya Sen has put ti, there is a need to ‘help children to develop the ability to reason about new decisions any grown-up person will have to take’.  In Cultural Diplomacy and As You Like It, we identified what this might be: cultural literacy.


In this work, we will examine this idea in greater depth, developing recommendations about what it might mean for education and cultural provision.  Initially, this work will highlight and make the case for the real imperative to develop skills in cultural literacy in a changing and globalised world.  Some specific questions that the research would address are:

  • What are the key skills that we will need as cultures merge, meet and clash to a greater degree than ever before?
  • What can we learn from other disciplines and domains, like anthropology in how to approachthis new environment?
  • What does it mean for international cooperation like business initiatives in the future?
  • What exisiting models are there in the UK and elsewhere for developing the skills needed in this new envrionemnt?
  • What opportunities are created by new technologies?
  • How can existing practise (for example around language training) be developed to help build these skills?
  • What new models do we need?