essay about culture and society

Essays About Culture and Society: Top 5 Examples

Culture and society are complicated topics that can’t exist without each other. See our essays about culture and society examples and prompts for your writing.

Writing essays about culture and society is common among those taking social and cultural studies. As its name suggests, this field explores past and present customs and beliefs within society. This area offers career opportunities in education, medicine, human resources, and others. Creating an essay about this subject requires cultural and social knowledge gained through reliable sources and personal experience.

5 Essay Examples

1. the concept of culture and society by alex adkins, 2. native american culture and society by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 3. society, culture, and civilization essay by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 4. cultural norms and society by lucille horton, 5. the impact of culture & society on the children’s development by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 1. defining culture and society, 2. the importance of culture and society, 3. culture and society: the medieval era, 4. the american culture and society today, 5. the influence of korean culture on today’s society, 6. how media influences culture and society, 7. culture and society: lgbtqia+.

“Culture, as often defined in most sociology textbooks, is the way of life of a society. It is the sum of the ideas, beliefs, behaviors, norms, traditions, and activities shared by a particular group of people. According to Giddens (1989), any society cannot exist without a culture.”

Adkin’s essay contains several passages explaining the concept, role, and importance of culture and society. He describes culture as a vital aspect of society, referring to it as the one that binds its citizens. To further discuss the role of culture in society, Adkin mentions Japanese and Chinese cultures to prove that culture sets the difference between societies.

As for society, Adkin says that culture builds and facilitates social institutions to interact with each other. These include family, religion, government, etc., which are responsible for the development of an individual and the type of society. He explains that society changes because of culture. As a person grows up, they are exposed to different situations and realizations that give them new perspectives affecting their cultural heritage.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about culture shock .

“Native Americans are the native people of the North, Central, and South America. There are many types of Native Americans such as Arikara, Iroquois, Pawnee, Sioux, Apache, Eskimo, Cree, Choctaw, Comanche, etc. Cherokee people have a diverse society and culture.”

While the author lists various types of Native American societies, they focus on one prominent tribe from the Iroquoian lineage, the Cherokee. The author shares fascinating facts about the tribe.

The author describes why the Cherokee refer to themselves as cavemen, and Cherokee women are powerful but still equal to men, explaining their matrilineal society. As one of the civilized tribes in America, the Cherokees are a diverse society that accepts other tribes, but they cannot marry someone from the same clan. Cherokee culture includes the Booger mask dance and the Iroquoian language.

“Society can comprise people groups that have not developed civilization yet, as it concerns any relationship of the individuals. Culture is prior to civilization since it shapes the communities, making them highly adaptive to the specific conditions in which they live. Civilization is dependent on both concepts because it absolutizes societal norms and traditions and elevates material culture and virtues to the most complicated stage.”

To understand the concept of man, the author describes society as a group of families conforming to a particular set of customs and practices known as culture. On the other hand, civilization results from prolonged and continuous changes in culture and society. The writer believes that although they are different from each other, these three constructs are interrelated and essential to complete the whole sequence of the modern human experience.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about globalization .

“Different countries have different cultures. This is because different countries are composed of multitudes of different norms. Norms are commonly established when a majority of the society’s population practice a particular or common habit of living.”

In this essay, the writer defines society as an association, culture as a collection of characteristics, and norms as standard practices. Since society is defined by culture, historical events, and norms that define culture, and culture is the most potent aspect of civilization, Horton views cultural norms as the primary support of society. 

The essay also includes examples that explain the topic, such as comparing East and West cultures. Horton believes that while everyone has a different culture, understanding a person’s culture before making a comment or judgment is essential.

“Culture plays an essential job in affecting this improvement, and what is viewed as ‘typical’ advancement change incredibly starting with one culture then onto the next. The general public and culture in which one grows up impact everything from formative developments and child rearing styles to what sorts of hardship one will probably confront.”

In this essay, the author uses their personal experiences to show the real impact of cultural traditions and values ​​on the thought process and worldview as a child grows. As a Muslim, the writer was introduced to various rites and rituals at a young age, such as fasting. They believe this ritual teaches them to control their desires and care for the poor. Ultimately, society significantly impacts youth, but learning about social and cultural differences helps people, especially parents, to guide their child’s developmental process. 

7 Prompts for Essays About Culture and Society

The Oxford Dictionary defines culture as a group’s customs, beliefs, and way of life, while society is people living in a community. Use this prompt and be creative in explaining the meaning of culture and society. Explore and use various dictionaries and add quotations from studies and books such as ” Culture and Society, 1780-1950 .” Then, define culture and society by picking the common ideas gathered through this compiled knowledge. 

Culture is vital to society because one cannot function without the other. For this prompt, delve into the specifics of this connection. Depending on your approach, you can divide the body of your paper into three sections to separate and discuss their importance: culture, society, and culture and society. In the third section, explain the possible impact if one of them does not work correctly. Conclude your essay by summarizing and answering the question, “what is the importance of culture and society?”.

Culture and society constantly change for various reasons, including new technological inventions. For this prompt, identify and discuss the main features and significant influences of the medieval era. Explain the reasons for its changes and why society evolved to new societal norms and cultural changes. Consider whether there’s a chance to bring the positive parts of old cultures and societies to the modern day.

Today, culture in the US is a diverse mix of practices, beliefs, and traditions. This is due to the large number of people immigrating to the US from different countries worldwide. As a culturally diverse country, use this prompt to discuss America’s social and cultural characteristics, such as language, cuisine, music, religious beliefs, and more. Then, explain how Americans keep up with these changes in their normal culture.

Are you interested in writing about diversity? Check out our guide on  how to write an essay about diversity .

If you love music, you’ve probably heard of KPOP or BTS . Korean pop music is just one part of South Korean culture that has traveled globally. In this prompt, discuss the aspects of Korean culture that are prevalent today worldwide. Research when and where these cultural trends began and why they became popular in other parts of the world. To create an engaging essay, conduct interviews with your classmates to ask if they know anything about Korean culture.

Do you want to write about music instead? Check out our  essays about music topic guide !

Any form of media, such as print media, music, and the internet, dramatically influences culture and society. For example, streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+ are hugely influential in today’s society, particularly among young people. In this essay, discuss today’s most popular forms of media and look at how they can influence culture and society. This could be as simple as influencing slang language, fashion, or popular careers such as becoming an influencer.

Recent studies show that the US has shifted its attitude toward the LGBTQIA+ community. With a rise in Americans who embrace new perspectives and now recognize same-sex marriage and parenthood. To effectively discuss the topic, including current issues within the LGBTQIA+ community, such as violence and bullying, and research the steps taken by government organizations to combat it.

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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2.2: Culture and the Sociological Perspective

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Learning Objectives

• Describe examples of how culture influences behavior.
• Explain why sociologists might favor cultural explanations of behavior over biological explanations.

As this evidence on kissing suggests, what seems to us a very natural, even instinctual act turns out not to be so natural and biological after all. Instead, kissing seems best understood as something we learn to enjoy from our culture, or the symbols, language, beliefs, values, and artifacts (material objects) that are part of a society. Because society, as defined previously refers to a group of people who live in a defined territory and who share a culture, it is obvious that culture is a critical component of any society.

If the culture we learn influences our beliefs and behaviors, then culture is a key concept to the sociological perspective. Someone who grows up in the United States differs in many ways, some of them obvious and some of them not so obvious, from someone growing up in China, Sweden, South Korea, Peru, or Nigeria. Culture influences not only language but the gestures we use when we interact, how far apart we stand from each other when we talk, and the values we consider most important for our children to learn, to name just a few. Without culture, we could not have a society.

The profound impact of culture becomes most evident when we examine behaviors or conditions that, like kissing, are normally considered biological in nature. Consider morning sickness and labor pains, both very familiar to pregnant women before and during childbirth, respectively. These two types of discomfort have known biological causes, and we are not surprised that so many pregnant women experience them. But we would be surprised if the husbands of pregnant women woke up sick in the morning during their wives’ pregnancies or experienced severe abdominal pains while their wives gave birth. These men are neither carrying nor delivering a baby, and there is no logical—that is, biological—reason for them to suffer either type of discomfort.

And yet anthropologists have discovered many societies (most of which are industrialized) in which men about to become fathers experience precisely these symptoms. They are nauseous during their wives’ pregnancies, and they experience labor pains while their wives give birth. The term couvade refers to these symptoms, which do not have any known biological origin. Yet the men feel them nonetheless, because they have learned from their culture that they should feel these types of discomfort (Doja, 2005). And because they should feel these symptoms, they actually do so. Perhaps their minds are playing tricks on them, but that is often the point of culture. As sociologists William I. and Dorothy Swaine Thomas (1928) once pointed out, if things are perceived as real, then they are real in their consequences. These men learn how they should feel as budding fathers, and thus they feel this way. Unfortunately for them, the perceptions they learn from their culture are real in their consequences.

The example of drunkenness further illustrates how cultural expectations influence a behavior that is commonly thought to have biological causes. In the United States, when people drink too much alcohol, they become intoxicated and their behavior changes. Most typically, their inhibitions lower and they become loud, boisterous, and even rowdy. We attribute these changes to alcohol’s biological effect as a drug on our central nervous system, and scientists have documented how alcohol breaks down in our body to achieve this effect.

This explanation of alcohol’s effect is OK as far as it goes, but it turns out that how alcohol affects our behavior depends on our culture. In some societies anthropologists have studied, people drink alcohol until they pass out, but they never get loud or boisterous; they might not even appear to be enjoying themselves. In other societies, they drink lots of alcohol and get loud but not rowdy. In some societies, including our own, people lose sexual inhibitions as they drink, but in other societies they do not become more aroused. The anthropological evidence is very clear: alcohol as a drug does affect human behavior, but culture influences the types of effects that occur. We learn from our culture how to behave when drunk just as we learn how to behave when sober (McCaghy, Capron, Jamieson, & Carey, 2008).

Culture Versus Biology

These examples suggest that human behavior is more the result of culture than it is of biology. This is not to say that biology is entirely unimportant. As just one example, humans have a biological need to eat, and so they do. But humans are much less under the control of biology than any other animal species, including other primates such as monkeys and chimpanzees. These and other animals are governed largely by biological instincts that control them totally. A dog chases any squirrel it sees because of instinct, and a cat chases a mouse for the same reason. Different breeds of dogs do have different personalities, but even these stem from the biological differences among breeds passed down from one generation to another. Instinct prompts many dogs to turn around before they lie down, and it prompts most dogs to defend their territory. When the doorbell rings and a dog begins barking, it is responding to ancient biological instinct.

Because humans have such a large, complex central nervous system, we are less controlled by biology. The critical question then becomes, how much does biology influence our behavior? Predictably, scholars in different disciplines answer this question in different ways. Many sociologists and anthropologists would probably say that culture affects behavior much more than biology does. In contrast, many biologists and psychologists would give much more weight to biology. Advocating a view called sociobiology, some scholars say that several important human behaviors and emotions, such as competition, aggression, and altruism, stem from our biological makeup. Sociobiology has been roundly criticized and just as staunchly defended, and respected scholars continue to debate its premises (Freese, 2008).

Why do sociologists generally favor culture over biology? Two reasons stand out. First, and as kissing and the other examples illustrate, many behaviors differ dramatically among societies in ways that show the strong impact of culture. Second, biology cannot easily account for why groups and locations differ in their rates of committing certain behaviors. For example, what biological reason could explain why suicide rates west of the Mississippi River are higher than those east of it, to take a difference discussed in the previous chapter, or why the U.S. homicide rate is so much higher than Canada’s? Various aspects of culture and social structure seem much better able than biology to explain these differences.

Many sociologists also warn of certain implications of biological explanations. First, they say, these explanations implicitly support the status quo. Because it is difficult to change biology, any problem with biological causes cannot be easily fixed. Consider evidence that women do worse than men on the math SAT exam and are less likely to be mathematically gifted. Some researchers attribute this difference to women’s lower testosterone levels or to their brain structures (Halpern et al., 2007/2008). Suppose either explanation is true. What, then, can we do to improve women’s math SAT scores? Operate on their brains? Give them more testosterone? Obviously either option is morally unethical and practically impossible. If these are the only options, then there is little hope for improving women’s math ability, and gender inequality in math (and in high-paying jobs requiring good math ability) will continue.

Suppose instead, as many educators think, that the gender math difference stems from social and cultural factors, including the way girls and boys are brought up, the amount of attention teachers pay to them, and gender stereotyping in children’s books (Penner, 2008). None of these factors will be easy to change, but at least it is more possible to change them than to change biological conditions. Sociology’s perspective on gender and math performance thus promises at least some hope in reducing gender inequality in math performance.

A second possible implication of biological explanations that concerns some sociologists harkens back to an earlier time. This was a time when perceived biological differences among races and religions were used to justify forced sterilization and mass violence, including genocide, against certain groups. As just one example, in the early 1900s, some 70,000 people, most of them poor and many of them immigrants or African Americans, were involuntarily sterilized in the United States as part of the eugenics movement, which said that certain kinds of people were biologically inferior and must not be allowed to reproduce (Lombardo, 2008). The Nazi Holocaust a few decades later used a similar eugenics argument to justify its genocide against Jews, Catholics, gypsies, and gays (Kuhl, 1994). With this history in mind, some scholars fear that biological explanations of human behavior might still be used to support views of biological inferiority (York & Clark, 2007).

• Culture refers to the symbols, language, beliefs, values, and artifacts that are part of any society.
• Because culture influences people’s beliefs and behaviors, culture is a key concept to the sociological perspective.
• Many sociologists are wary of biological explanations of behavior, in part because these explanations implicitly support the status quo and may be used to justify claims of biological inferiority.

For Your Review

• Have you ever traveled outside the United States? If so, describe one cultural difference you remember in the nation you visited.
• Have you ever traveled within the United States to a very different region (e.g., urban versus rural, or another part of the country) from the one in which you grew up? If so, describe one cultural difference you remember in the region you visited.
• Do you share the concern of many sociologists over biological explanations of behavior? Why or why not?
• Doja, A. (2005). Rethinking the couvade . Anthropological Quarterly, 78, 917–950.
• Freese, J. (2008). Genetics and the social science explanation of individual outcomes [Supplement]. American Journal of Sociology, 114, S1–S35.
• Halpern, D. F., Benbow, C. P., Geary, D. C., Gur, R. C., Hyde, J. S., & Gernsbacher, M. A. (2007/2008). Sex, math and scientific achievement. Scientific American Mind, 18, 44–51.
• Lombardo, P. A. (2008). Three generations, no imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Kuhl, S. (1994). The Nazi connection: Eugenics, American racism, and German national socialism . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• McCaghy, C. H., Capron, T. A., Jamieson, J. D., & Carey, S. H. (2008). Deviant behavior: Crime, conflict, and interest groups . Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
• Penner, A. M. (2008). Gender differences in extreme mathematical achievement: An international perspective on biological and social factors [Supplement]. American Journal of Sociology, 114, S138–S170.
• Thomas, W. I., & Thomas, D. S. (1928). The child in America: Behavior problems and programs . New York, NY: Knopf.
• York, R., & Clark, B. (2007). Gender and mathematical ability: The toll of biological determinism. Monthly Review, 59, 7–15.

The Importance of Culture

11 January, 2019

11 minutes read

Author:  Richard Pircher

Culture can be defined as “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.” It can also be understood as the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society. Therefore, it’s the shared patterns of our behavior and interaction which are learned through socialization. People of the same culture share a group identity that is fostered by social patterns unique to the group. Culture encompasses for example values, beliefs, symbols, norms, and patterns of behavior. It has a far-reaching impact on our everyday actions, on how we talk and think, what we wear, what we believe, how we sit at the table, and how we behave among other people. But what is the importance of culture in our society? And which components constitute our conception of culture?

Components of culture

• Patterns of behavior

What defines culture?

All cultures are characterized by constant change. As a dynamic phenomenon, cultures are under constant change and they must adapt to environmental changes. This is one of the universal features of a culture. After globalization, the world became more interconnected and today most societies consist of ethnically diverse populations. This has given rise to conflicts associated with ethnicity, religion, and ethical beliefs which are all central concepts in cultures. More than ever before, culture is no longer fixed but rather in constant motion. At a time when cultures adapt and become more fluid, a need has been identified to protect and preserve the past. There are organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) whose objectives include conserving and protecting cultural and natural heritage along with the promotion of international cooperation, peace, and security.

To answer the question about the importance of culture, one has to consider its role in people’s everyday lives. Because culture affects how people behave and interact with each other, it helps you build relationships with others when you understand other cultures and perspectives. It’s also good to understand how much in common we have with other people even if at first glance their cultures might seem completely different. We are all humans and have similar needs, hopes, fears, and things that make us happy. It doesn’t mean, however, that our cultural differences don’t matter at all. A better strategy is to acknowledge that differences exist and to fight against discrimination. The world is becoming more and more diverse as different languages, religions, economic and cultural groups blend together. We need to appreciate and understand different cultures and establish relationships with people from other backgrounds. This is the only way to build successful communities, improve our living conditions, and solve problems.

If we take a closer look at the characteristics of culture, we can identify five basic traits that define the concept of culture.

Five characteristics of culture

• Based on symbols

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Culture is learned

Culture is learned because it’s not biological or ingrained in our DNA. Children don’t inherit culture from their parents. Instead, they learn it and much of this learning occurs subconsciously without us paying any attention to it. We learn our culture not only from our families but also from institutions, other people, and the media. This process of learning is called enculturation. All humans share the same biological needs, for example, food, water, sleep, shelter, and sex, but the way we choose to fulfill those needs varies across cultures.

Culture is shared

Culture is shared because we share our culture with other members of our group. We know how to interact with these other members and we can predict their behavior based on our knowledge and expectations. The shared nature of culture doesn’t mean, however, that cultures are homogenous.

Culture is integrated

Because the various parts of a culture are interconnected, culture is also integrated. All components of culture are connected to one another and to gain a comprehensive understanding of a culture, one must learn about these different components.

Culture is dynamic

Culture is dynamic because cultures interact with each other. Cultures share ideas and symbols and they adapt to changes in the environment. Since cultures are also integrated, it means that if one component of a culture changes, it will affect all the other components, too, forcing the entire system to adapt.

Culture is based on symbols

Symbols are an integral part of every culture and they vary across different cultures. Cultures not only use symbols but they are also based on them. Symbols get their meaning when people in the same culture agree on how they should be used. Language is the most obvious example of the use of symbols within a culture but other things such as art, clothing, and money can also be defined as symbols.

It should also be pointed out that not all cultural adaptation is positive. Not all cultural practices are adaptive, and there are many examples of cultural adaptation that have been detrimental such as fast food, pollution, and climate change. But due to their dynamic nature, cultures have the ability to adapt and find solutions to these problems.

How does geography affect culture?

What influences our cultures then? One of the most profound of these factors is geography. The development of a culture is largely dependent on its geographical location. For example, locations that are ideal for hunting influence that culture by encouraging people to teach their descendants to hunt, tell hunting stories, and organize ceremonies that celebrate hunting skills. A factor such as hunting can thus become a defining characteristic of that culture. Another good example is the Japanese culture which relies heavily on the attribute of water. The fact that Japan is an island surrounded by water has influenced its culture from its creation myth to natural resources such as fish and growing of rice. Even more so, Japan as an island has historically been limited because of its geography, and this has given rise to art forms such as haiku poems and bonsai trees which are characterized by their limitations. Geography affects cultures from the number of languages spoken in a given area to the clothes people wear, their political ideas, and even religions. For example, on the island of Guinea, people speak more than 800 languages. This is because New Guinea is mountainous and it’s difficult for people from one area to come into contact with people from other areas. These different groups, therefore, learned to keep to themselves and developed their own languages. Culture also has its impact on the clothes that people wear, and this has historically been determined by geography, too. People in the Arctic whose culture relies on hunting whales and seals wear several layers of warm clothes, usually manufactured from animal skin. In contrast, tribes in the rainforests wear very little clothing and their economies are centered around plant life. In terms of government and religion, the ancient Greeks, for example, developed a political culture centered around city-states because their geography was mountainous and it was thus difficult for large kingdoms to arise. The Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions, on the other hand, differed in the fact that Mesopotamian gods were considered less kind than the Egyptian gods. This is believed to be the result of unpredictable floods in the Mesopotamian rivers and rather consistent and predictable floods in the Nile.

How does culture affect business?

When looking at modern cultures, we can see the many effects that cultures have, for example, on business. During a business meeting where people from different cultures are communicating with one another, cultural differences have to be taken into account. There is more than merely a language barrier that needs to be overcome. These differences can concern people’s sensitivity to time, the way of communicating, risk-taking, decision-making, and thinking of others, all of which need to be addressed. Cultural differences can often impact the success or failure of multicultural business negotiations. When segmenting target groups for a product or service, businesses have to spend time on examining the cultural expectations and values of different groups. Culture influences people’s tastes and preferences, and the same strategies will not work for all audiences. Americans, for example, have very different expectations from advertising and marketing than Asian consumers. Business owners must account for differences throughout the product’s life cycle, from its design to marketing and beyond.

Culture affects our every facet of life. Most societies these days have become multicultural as more and more people migrate across countries and continents. We live around, socialize and work with people from different cultural backgrounds and different parts of the world. While their values and beliefs might be different from ours, we should accept these differences and broaden our own views in order to attain harmony in these culturally diverse environments. We should acknowledge the importance of culture in communication and in contributing to our identity and sense of belonging as part of a social group. Culture can be seen as a uniting force that is part of our daily lives and an integral part of our being, defining the way we treat other people and ourselves.

• Caplan, L. (2018): “What Factors Influence Culture? What are the Characteristics of Culture?” eNotes. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-factors-influence-culture-98429
• Community Tool Box (2018): “Understanding Culture and Diversity in Building Communities.” The University of Kansas. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/culture-and-diversity/main
• eNotes (2015): “How Does Geography Affect Culture?” https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-does-geography-affect-culture-474205
• Nowaczyk, J., (2018): “The Five Basic Characteristics of Cultures.” Study.com https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-five-basic-characteristics-of-cultures.html
• OpinionFront (2018): “Why is Culture Important and How Does it Influence People?” https://opinionfront.com/why-is-culture-important
• Oxford Dictionaries (2019): “Definition of Culture.” Oxford University Press. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/culture
• Zimmermann, K. A. (2012): “What is Culture.” Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-culture.html

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Culture vs Society: Similarities, Differences, Examples

Key Points:

• Culture: Culture refers to shared norms , values, symbols, traditions and artifacts among a group of people (Meek, 1988).
• Society: A society is a group of individuals who socially interact with each other. While these two concepts often interact, they have important differences from each other (Billington et al., 1991).

Members of a society usually have a common, shared culture and have social ties to the same territory. Meanwhile, a culture is not always confined within a single territory.

In contrast with cultures, which consist of customs, traditions, norms, values, symbols, and artifacts, societies feature a population that is organized around political and economic power.

While both cultures and societies can share elements such as a language, religion or faith, societies mostly refer to the populations while culture refers to the values and traditions that populations hold.

A society can include multiple cultures at the same time: Contemporary migration and human movements lead to increased mobility of cultures. As a result, some societies living in immigrant-receiving countries are described as multicultural, referring to the coexistence of multiple cultures within the same society.

An example of a multicultural society is the Canadian society, where different cultures of various immigrant communities are present alongside with Indigenous, British, and French cultures (Cumming, 2020).

Summary: Culture vs Society

Definition of culture.

According to sociology, a culture is composed of people with shared norms, values, symbols, traditions and artifacts (Meek, 1988).

Cultures have both material and non-material components (Vecco, 2010):

• Material cultural elements include artifacts such as art, cuisine, architectural works, language, and institutions .
• Non-material aspects of a culture, on the other hand, include values, norms, faith and religion (Cumming, 2020).

While material cultural elements usually have a physical presence, non-material elements are abstract and transferred to the next generations through oral history or socialization  (Vecco, 2010).

It is important to remember that cultures are not fixed and stable. Despite usually protecting their main characteristics, cultures are subjected to changes over time due to social, political, religious, and historical reasons.

Due to power inequalities and colonialism, some cultures influenced others more strongly, a phenomenon which is defined as cultural imperialism , cultural erasure, and in extreme cases, cultural genocide (Cumming, 2020).

Examples of Culture

In many instances, cultures are associated with an ethnicity, folk group , nationality, or religious group. Below are some examples.

1. French Culture

French culture refers to the common norms, values, traditions, symbols, and artifacts of people of French ethnicity. Architectural works such as the Eiffel Tower, or parts of the cuisine such as the croissant or baguette are well known examples of French cultural elements.

2. Jewish Culture

Another example is the Jewish culture, which is associated both with Judaism, Jewish ethnicity, and Israeli nationality. The Star of David is one of the main symbols which represent the Jewish culture.

Unlike French culture which is dominant in territories with a significant French population (e.g. France, Quebec) or former French colonies (e.g. Senegal), the Jewish culture is present across the globe through communities of various sizes who practice Judaism or have Jewish ancestry.

3. Organizational Culture

Another example is the concept of organizational culture, which refers to norms and values shared by individuals who work under the same organization (Keyton, 2010).

4. Subculture

Subcultures and countercultures are cultural groups that fit within and emerge from a dominant culture .

A subculture is a group of people who fit within a culture, but develop their own unique niche ideas, values, customs, traditions, and hobbies. They still are part of the main culture, but have chosen to develop the culture in a new way.

An example of a subculture is punks. Punks in England, for example, are unequivocally part of English culture (their accents, behaviors, eating practices are still emergent out of English culture). However, they are also unique in their musical tastes and dress codes.

Countercultures emerge out of a culture but reject the culture. They’re often a threat to the main culture. For example, hippies emerged out of 1960s American culture but rejected a core premise: capitalism. They position themselves as against and even a threat to the main culture, and therefore are more than a subculture – they’re a counterculture

Go Deeper: Culture Examples

Definition of Society

A society can be defined as a population, consisting of individuals who socially interact with each other through a network of social organizations and institutions.

Members of a society often live under the same political power and economic power systems, such as the same modern nation-state, or tribal hierarchy.

For example, individuals living under the French nation-state rule, and being subject to the French legal, political, and economic authorities can be referred to as the French society.

But notably, there are people in French society (within the political jurisdiction of France) who don’t fit into French culture, such as immigrants who have not assimilated.

In addition, societies at times share the same political or social territory, such as France as a political territory or Europe as a social territory, referring not only to the continent but also to the shared culture.

While multiple cultures can often coexist in a single society, each society usually has a dominant, mainstream culture.

For example, while tens of different cultures exist in the United States, American society is mostly subject to Anglo-American Protestant norms, rules and values (Kaufmann, 1999).

Societies can also be formed around a non-political group, such as if you join an ‘Architectural society’ for architects, who come together to discuss architecture, but are not associated with a nation-state and its laws.

Examples of Society

The term society is often used to specify a population who comes from a particular culture or heritage, or who shares the same value system (Billington et al., 1991).

1. French Society

In many cases, a society is defined according to its economic or political power system. For example, France is a society that holds many different cultural groups, but are all governed by shared norms.

Of course, within France, we have people of a wide range of cultures. Nevertheless, they share a healthcare system, education system, and democracy, which holds them together as a social group.

2. Agricultural Societies

Most nations and regions have agricultural societies. These are societies that may have regular meetings to discuss how to progress agricultural practices or set basic rules of how to go about farming within a region.

This is not a culture, however, because it’s not oriented around customs and traditions. Anyone who wants to become a farmer may enter the society. The glue holding this society together is not cultural but social – a shared way of making money.

Read Next: Types of Societies

Similarities between Culture and Society

Some features of culture and society heavily overlap. Indeed, any time that we talk about the presence of a society, we can also talk about the presence of a culture.

This is because each society requires social interactions between individuals, and cultures are created and reproduced through these social interactions.

Most societies have a dominant, mainstream culture which is the source of its norms, values, and traditions, as well as its common language and dominant faith or religion (if any).

In addition, both the concept of society and culture are associated with ethnicities, nationalities, territories or religious groups.

Examples include French culture and French society, or the Western culture and the Western society.

Similarly, both cultures and societies often have their own gender roles , kinship organizations, shared norms, values, and traditions.

Often, societies and cultures appear to be synonymous is because cultures influence societies, and the dominant culture may impose its values upon the whole society.

Both cultures and societies are dynamic concepts. In other words, they constantly change and evolve throughout history.

Cultures refers to shared norms, values, customs and traditions, symbols, and artifacts between a group of people (Meek, 1988). Society refers to a population which has continuous social interactions, who share the same territory and a dominant culture.

Therefore, culture and society are two different concepts, as the former refers to a set of norms and values while a society refers to a population or a large social group.

However, many features of cultures and societies overlap. These include the ways that both are affected by social institutions (such as faith or religion).

Also, culture is often present when there is a society, since both heavily rely on the functions of social interactions.

Finally, despite often having historical main elements, both cultures and societies are dynamic concepts that are subject to change and evolution.

Billington, R., Strawbridge, S., Greensides, L., & Fitzsimons, A. (1991). Culture and society: Sociology of culture . Bloomsbury Publishing.

Cumming, S. (2020). Sociology Unlocked . Oxford University Press.

Kaufmann, E. (1999). American exceptionalism reconsidered: Anglo-Saxon ethnogenesis in the “universal” nation, 1776–1850. Journal of American Studies , 33 (3), 437-457.

Keyton, J. (2010). Communication and organizational culture: A key to understanding work experiences . Sage Publications.

Meek, V. L. (1988). Organizational culture: Origins and weaknesses. Organization studies , 9 (4), 453-473.

Vecco, M. (2010). A definition of cultural heritage: From the tangible to the intangible. Journal of cultural heritage , 11 (3), 321-324.

Sanam Vaghefi (PhD Candidate)

Sanam Vaghefi (BSc, MA) is a Sociologist, educator and PhD Candidate. She has several years of experience at the University of Victoria as a teaching assistant and instructor. Her research on sociology of migration and mental health has won essay awards from the Canadian Sociological Association and the IRCC. Currently, she is am focused on supporting students online under her academic coaching and tutoring business Lingua Academic Coaching OU.

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Introduction

Issue 1: the long history of globalization and cultural interactions, issue 2: the legacy of methodological nationalism, issue 3: the overly complex and easily contested concept of culture, issue 4: values as systems and imprints, issue 5: the triad of identity, memory, and heritage, issue 6: culture and the economy, issue 7: cultural policy and soft power, cultures, values, and identities: what are the issues.

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Helmut K. Anheier; Cultures, Values, and Identities: What Are the Issues?. Global Perspectives 11 May 2020; 1 (1): 11755. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/001c.11755

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This article reviews the state of the social sciences with respect to the study of culture and cultures. It also examines the closely related concepts of values and identities. It does not attempt to be comprehensive—a task that would be daunting given the diverse and rich literatures that quickly come into focus. Rather, the purpose is to highlight a limited number of issues central to moving an international, comparative, and interdisciplinary agenda forward, in the hope that Global Perspectives will become a recognized and central address for current and future research in this field.

Even limiting oneself to key issues is no easy task, as various disciplines regard culture as their terrain. Anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, history, and the humanities, including cultural studies and the arts themselves, all lay some claim to the topic. Diverse and dispersed literatures complicate matters. Frequently divided by methodology and a split between quantitative and qualitative approaches, disciplines function too much as closely guarded silos, discouraging inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue of the kind that Global Perspectives encourages.

Moreover, there are strikingly contrasting presuppositions within the social sciences toward culture: Too often, culture is treated as a residual once the “hard” economic, political, and sociological factors are considered. Alternatively, it can become the all-encompassing construct that supposedly explains everything. Similarly, culture is seen as something that either prohibits or accelerates progress, or it becomes a politically innocent reference category to paint over increasingly absent shared values and common narratives.

There are also deeply rooted clashes of national cultural interest that have been set in motion as globalization has advanced. Is the world moving toward cultural uniformity or toward tensions and conflicts? Or are there signs of an alternative set of outcomes rooted in a more polycentric system of cultures in terms of meaning and identity, production or consumption? What is the meaning and validity of a Western or an Asian “cultural imperialism” thesis, or a “clash of civilizations” between East and West?

In contemporary society, there is a deepening intersection between the economic and the cultural, as Singh (2011, 2017) demonstrated in his analysis of globalized art markets and North-South trade relations. The media presents one dramatic illustration of this intersection: that is, commercially produced cultural artifacts. At the same time, culture has come to be seen as an instrument of economic development and urban revitalization—a view encapsulated in terms like creative class, creative cities, and the creative economy.

Yet culture is also about the arts. Notions of l’art pour l’art, or “art for art’s sake,” in the sense that culture is first and foremost about creative expression, are challenged by the deepening intersection of culture with economics and politics. Interpretative frames for what counts as art, what can be regarded as cultural innovations, and who “owns” or represents art imply many changes for how works of art are appreciated, collected, presented, bought and sold, and preserved.

The concepts of culture, value, and identity are as intricate and multifaceted as their relationships are to each other. Anheier and Isar (2007, 3) write in their introduction to the five-volume Cultures and Globalization Series “that globalization has a profound impact on culture, and that cultures shape globalization may seem like a truism. Yet the two-way interaction involves some of the most vexed and at the same time taken-for-granted questions of our time.” This interaction challenges previously more stable cultural systems, forms of everyday life, and identities, and it does so in very uneven and diverse ways. The triangle of collective heritage, identity, and memory, long assumed a foundation of societies, has become uncertain and is being transformed (Anheier and Isar 2011) .

Globalization is both a process and an outcome that involves economic supply and distribution chains, financial flows and investments, international law and institutions, and communication and mobility. Castells (1996, 1997) uses the apt imagery of “decentralized concentration” to describe this phenomenon. He argues that a multiplicity of interconnected tasks that take place in different sites results in people and organizations forming a metanetwork at the transnational level. Held (2002) argues that the 1990s globalization spurt reached an extensity and intensity that went beyond previous phases, and with greater impact on different cultures and societies.

Globalization evolved over time and continues to change, as Baldwin (2019) demonstrates. The “old” globalization, driven by the Industrial Revolution, involved two phases: from the early nineteenth century to the start of World War I, and from World War II to the fall of the Soviet Union. The “new” globalization had a first phase, fueled by financial deregulation, transnational supply chains, and information technologies, and lasted until the global financial crisis of 2008–9. It was in this phase that countries outside the northern industrial sphere—namely, China and other Asian countries—joined the globalized core. The second phase, still emerging, is based on digitization and is likely to expand the extensity and intensity of global networks further.

Each globalization phase brought societies into contact with each other, be it through trade, colonization, proselytizing religions, or domination. It was often an unequal contact. Not all cultures survived, as some merged and new ones emerged. The important point is that for centuries, most of the world’s cultures have been in contact in some form or another, and increasingly so over time. They have been in contact ,and continue to be, in a context characterized by mutual understandings and misunderstandings, cooperation and conflict, domination and submission, and affection and aversion. The current globalization phase, given its reach and impact, certainly adds another layer to the complex web of intra- and intercultural relations, bringing about value changes and challenges to collective and individual identities.

Globalization can retreat, as it did after the Great Depression; it can accelerate and slow down, as it did before and after the 2008–9 global financial crisis. To put it another way, since about 1820, the world has known only a few episodes of “non-globalization.” This means that the world’s diverse cultures, peoples’ values, and their identities have been exposed to the “other,” as have collective memory, cultural heritage, and forms of cultural expression. Cultures past and present are the co-production of “domestic” content and developments and exposures to (and interactions with) other societies and their respective cultures.

Therefore, the first issue is to get a better historical understanding of how cultures interacted in the context of globalization phases, what the drivers of cultural flows were, and how values and identities changed over time. Historical perspectives are as important as contemporary analyses.

Envisioning cultures, values, and identities as the product of past exposures and interactions also means that the notion of national cultures and national society is historically highly questionable. Yet the social sciences, which emerged during the end of the “old” globalization phase—when the nation-state was naturalized—engaged in an epistemological framing of cultures, values, and identities close to the notion of the nation-state. This framing was sometimes explicit: an early example is Aaron’s influential book on German sociology (1935); much later examples include Lipset’s American Exceptionalism (1996) or Huntington’s Who Are We? (2004). But mostly the framing was implicit, almost taken for granted in the sense that students of the social sciences in the United States read and studied American society just as the British or the French did theirs. For a long time, anthropology developed along a different path, with its emphasis on the “other”—that is, non-Western, nonstate societies and cultures.

The nation-state framing is still dominant today, referred to as methodological nationalism. This term refers to the intellectual orientation fortified within each social science discipline that treats the nation-state as the primary unit of analysis and the primary reference point, ascribing agency to it as the given container for social processes. For Wimmer and Schiller (2002), methodological nationalism is built on the assumption that the nation-state is the seemingly natural social and political form of the modern world.

The implied reification of nation-states as actors sui generis in a transnational cultural space can be very misleading. For example, the United States does not “act” in a cultural sense, organizations and people do. It is US corporations like Microsoft, Facebook, Google, or the Walt Disney Company, missionary societies, art museums, and the people who work there that act, as do artists, activists, and robots. Of course, the nation-state plays an important role, but when studying culture in a globalizing and changing world, it cannot be the assumed primary unit of analysis (see Anheier 2007, 336). The upshot is that the social sciences have to overcome the twentieth-century legacy of methodological nationalism if we want to get a fuller understanding of culture, cultural flows, and developments.

Most definitions are neither true nor false; they are ultimately judged by their fruitfulness in advancing our understanding of a phenomenon. Following Deutsch (1963), a fruitful definition must be parsimonious and focus on the truly critical characteristics of the phenomenon. It also must have organizing power in the sense that it helps to establish relations with other concepts and adds value overall. Parsimony and added value, however, never seemed to have much currency among students of culture, who proudly point to the many attempts to define what culture is, and they reference Kroeber and Kluckhohn, who identified 281 definitions in their 1952 book  Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. Kroeber and Kluckhohn then organized these diverse concepts of culture into eight categories, including topical (the cultural economy), historical (heritage, tradition), behavioral (learned human behavior, a way of life), normative (values, norms), mental (ideas), and structural (symbols).

Yet none of these categorizations, or others that followed, made much progress in bringing greater clarity in terms of parsimony and value added. The classical nineteenth-century definition of culture by anthropologist E. B. Tylor is still being referenced (“that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired” (Tylor 1920, 1). The same is true of UNESCO’s definition of culture in the Preamble to the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity as the “set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional features of society or a social group… it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs.”

In the face of such general statements, most analysts define culture in a broad and a narrow sense. Broadly, culture is a system of meaning, its social construction, articulation, and reception, including religion, ideologies, value systems, and collective identity. More narrowly, it refers to the arts—that is, what artists create and what is regarded, preserved, exchanged, and consumed as cultural artifacts. Straddling both notions are concepts such as cultural diversity, cultural expression, and the creative or cultural economy.

So it is no wonder that in his seminal Keywords, Raymond Williams (1976) famously stated that culture is one of the most complex words in the English language. The same statement could be made today. Why are we holding on to an imprecise term, especially as it is being deeply implicated in diverse and contested disciplinary discourses in the social sciences today? Yet the word does hold some meaning. Appadurai (1996) and Crawford (2007), among others, have observed how culture is being mobilized in a politics of recognition and representations. The divisive debates about migration worldwide and fundamentalist reassertions in all major world religions are just two examples that show the instrumentalization of culture. Achieving greater clarity and precision in terms of definition and classifications is a major challenge ahead.

Like culture, the concept of values carries different meanings and is used rather loosely. For individuals, values act as an internal moral compass and are “evaluative beliefs that synthesize affective and cognitive elements to orient people to the world in which they live” (Marini 2000, 2828; see also Hitlin and Piliavin 2004, 360). Values typically form a value system as a relatively consistent orienting framework. Ideologies are relatively constant sets of beliefs that explain the world, usually in terms of cause-and-effect relationships.

Even though values are unobservable directly and often conflated with other phenomena such as norms or attitudes, much progress has been made in recent decades to measure value systems cross-nationally and over time. The most prominent effort to do so is the World Values Survey ( www.worldvaluessurvey.org ). The resulting Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map plots countries along two major dimensions: traditional versus secular values and survival versus self-expression. Of course, here we encounter the unit-of-analysis problem we confronted above, and innovative approaches are needed to show how and when what values matter, change, and the like.

Yet who has agency in such maps? They offer useful markers and reveal persistent patterns as well as shifts over time. But a larger question looms regarding how the values they present are produced and reproduced. Of course, psychology and sociology have answers, mostly at the micro level, through socialization processes. Emphasizing the link between value systems and ideologies, social institutions and organizations, and groups and individuals, however, could offer one way forward to accommodate agency. We live in societies made up of institutions and organizations, as Perrow (1986) pointed out long ago, and as North et al. (2009) pointed out: institutions are the rules of the game and hence the embodiment of value systems, whereas organizations are the tools of enactment.

In sociology, Stinchcombe (1965) introduced the concept of “imprinting,” whereby the institutional conditions prevalent in the founding environments of organizations continue to have lasting effects on organizational culture and behavior. Following up on this suggestion, Marquis and Tilcsik (2013) use the term “value imprinting” to describe how the values of founders or equivalents implicitly or explicitly shape the organization and its culture. With a focus on organizational culture and values, including professional value systems, one could at least partially circumvent the limitations of methodological nationalism. This focus would link organizational and management studies to the study of cultural values, and the history of business to the history of values and ideologies.

Such an approach could rekindle the kind of macro-meso-micro studies that characterize some of the seminal works on the interplay between value systems, institutions, and organizations and individuals. Max Weber’s ([1904] 2016) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is a study of the interaction between religion and economic behavior. In response to Marx, Weber argues that the world of ideas has its own logic, independent of material interests and property relations. In Elias’s (1997) seminal work on the process of civilization, he analyzes behavioral transformation in the sixteenth century as a reaction to demands for greater political and communicative stability as commerce expanded. Bourdieu’s (1979) analysis of the French class structure and the link between culture and habitus is also a particularly illuminating work. We need more such studies.

Sociologically, identity is a person’s learned notion of self, combined with a sense of belonging expressed and experienced through values, ethnicity, language, nationality, locale, and the like, and is closely related to a sense of “we-ness.” There is a striking disconnect in research on identity: empirical studies based on population surveys show that identities are remarkably stable over time, as the European Commission (2012) found when it summarized the results of several large-scale research projects on the relationship between regional, national, and European identities. Hoelscher and Anheier (2011, 364–86) reviewed different facets of identity (geographical, cyber, citizenship, cultural, economic, and religious) and reached a similar conclusion.

This stability contrasts with two other strands of inquiry: the nuanced debate about the relationship between identity, collective memory, and heritage, on the one hand, and the vehemence of the political meaning of the term (in particular regarding identity politics), on the other. As to the first, Isar et al. (2011) suggest that in the process of globalization, the “triangle” of identity, heritage, and memory has become more unstable and, in some parts of the world, even unhinged. Contradictory developments are taking place: there is a trend whereby cultural heritage assumes a “museal sensibility” (Huyssen 1995, 14) , supported by international conventions (Isar 2011, 39--52) and by a cultural heritage industry (Winter 2011) . There are also powerful economic forces that undermine cultural heritage by eliminating entire peasant cultures and traditional crafts and skills.

The “cult of heritage” comes with a certain “memory boom,” as Isar et al. (2011, 5) put it. Collective memory is “remembrance of the past grounded on more durable carriers of external symbols and representations” (Assmann 2008, 55) . It is an archival memory constructed through a discourse that relies heavily on media institutions and communication (Huyssen 1995, 6) . This memory discourse makes it vulnerable to political and cultural entrepreneurs, and Assmann (2008, 54) calls for “critical vigilance and develop[ing] criteria for probing the quality of the memory constructions, distinguishing more ‘malign’ from more ‘benign’ memories—that is, memories that perpetuate resentment, hatred and violence from those that have a therapeutic and ethical value.”

Yet, irrespective of the quality of collective memories, they are implicated in how we think about identity and how identity politics comes about. The cultural responses to globalization open opportunities for groups and individuals to deploy the notions and resources of heritage and memory in certifying identity. It is a way of coping with the uncertainties about the “us versus them” attitude that globalization frequently brings with it (Appadurai 2006, 6).

Next to scholarly attention to the nexus of heritage, memory, and identity, there is a highly contested debate that links identity to the fate of Western civilization. Four books illustrate the depth of the disputes. First, Huntington’s 2004 book “ Who Are We?: America’s Great Debate ” explores the nature of American identity, taking issue with the idea that the United States is a “nation of immigrants.” Instead, Huntington observes that the founders were settlers who brought with them the cultural kernels of what became the American creed, a unique creation of a dissenting Protestant culture based on the principles of liberty, equality, individualism, representative government, and private property. He argues that American identity began to erode beginning in the 1960s, as a result of, among other factors, the rise of globalization, explicit political appeals to specific identity groups, and changing immigration patterns.

Contradicting Huntington, particularly his civilization thesis, Sen’s 2006 Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny argues that the false notion of a unique identity sustains conflict and violence. He criticizes “solitarist” theories that ignore shifting and multiple identities. In his view, identity is changing and multifaceted; there is no fixed identity, and people comprise many identities related to ethnicity, nationality, gender, religion, and the like. By better understanding identity, societal rifts can be alleviated, resulting in a more peaceful society and world.

Fukuyama’s 2018 book Identity argues that people have clung to identity as a result of economic and social dislocation—for example, job losses due to globalization, economic crisis, or the relative status decline of white males. This focus on identity results in conflict and political dysfunction. Ultimately, Fukuyama views identity politics as a threat to the foundations of liberal democracy and a distraction from real issues. Focus on identity politics has become a convenient and effective substitute for a more in-depth analysis of how to address the trend toward greater socioeconomic inequality in most liberal democracies.

Appiah’s 2018 The Lies that Bind argues that people and their leaders keep making the same mistakes when it comes to the main Cs of identity: creed (religion as a set of immutable beliefs instead of as mutable practices and communities), country (suggesting a forced choice between globalism and patriotism), color (race is constructed, not biological), class (entitlement and resentment, rather than greater equality of opportunities), and culture. As for the latter, he proposes a greater openness and no longer equating individualism, liberal democracy, tolerance, rationality, and science with Western civilization as such.

Clearly, these and other works make for rich opportunities to debate assumptions; to challenge hypotheses, data, and their analysis; and, above all, to bring better and especially comparative evidence to bear.

The relationship between the economic and the cultural has a long history, from Adam Smith’s moral sentiments, Marx’s dichotomy of structure and superstructure, Thorstein Veblen’s conspicuous consumption, and Baumol and Bowen’s (1966) cost disease theorem to today’s discourse about the creative city and the cultural economy. Cunningham et al. (2008) propose four models for the relationship between the wider and the cultural economy, defined as a system for the production, distribution, and consumption of cultural goods and services through market as well as nonmarket mechanisms, or, in the words of Scott (2008), as all forms of economic activity that produce outputs with significant aesthetic or semiotic content or symbolic outputs.

The negative model assumes that cultural activities are either public or semipublic goods and therefore inherently deficit making. They rely on public subsidies, voluntary contributions, and philanthropy to compensate for lacking revenue. The negative model views the culture economy as a “welfare case.” The competitive model treats it as just “another industry,” yet one with high demand uncertainty and cost disease tendencies. Alternatively, the positive or growth model highlights the capacity of the creative segments of the cultural economy to initiate growth in the aggregate economy. Finally, the emergent or innovation model views culture as an innovation system that infiltrates the entire economy, promoting “creative disruption” to established practices in business and society at large.

These models are propositions well worth exploring, and they provide a frame for Landry’s “creative city” concept (2000, 2012) as well as for Florida’s “creative class” (2005, 2018). For Landry, cultural resources are the raw materials of the city and its value base. He emphasizes both the “hardware” (physical infrastructure) and the “software” (relationships and atmosphere) for designing successful cities. Florida popularized the concept that cities exhibiting a higher level of economic development tend to be those that attract members of the creative class. Florida’s work gained a great degree of attention due to its simple and catchy argumentation and methodology. The “three Ts” (talent, technology, and tolerance) as the key to economic development were supported by especially designed indicators (e.g., a “bohemian index”).

Florida has been criticized (Glaeser 2005; Peck 2005) for elitism by separating the world into “creatives” and “noncreatives.” Methodologically, scholars have challenged Florida’s indices and quantification of causal factors (Glaeser 2005) . The argument that creativity begets growth has been identified as circular. Furthermore, Florida and Landry’s focus on creativity as a path to economic growth has been criticized for operating within “neoliberal” development agendas, framed around interurban competition, gentrification, middle-class consumption, and place marketing (Peck 2005) .

Despite such criticism, there are clearly important insights here, which are also supported by sociologists studying the relationship between innovation and diversity. Globalization creates more diverse networks among people and organizations and generates many more changes for weak-tie configurations to materialize. Exposure to multiple and heterogeneous contacts and circles encourages creativity and opens new opportunities. This is one reason that geographers like Scott (2008) argue that globalization is leading less and less to cultural uniformity. Markedly more polycentric systems of cultural creativity and production are emerging, suggesting that conventional cultural imperialism arguments seem to be losing some of their force. Yet these are propositions in need of further reflections and, especially, empirical tests to find out if the world is indeed becoming more diverse, even eclectic, in its modes of cultural production and consumption.

Central here is the role of the artist as creator. Within the Western canon, the cult of the artist as the “seer,” the genius who is both inside (and understands) and outside (and questions) a given community or society, is still strong, stemming from Enlightenment notions of individual achievements. Yet how does this notion of the artist, which ties creativity to individuality, fit into the globalized opportunity structure? Will the precarious economic position of many artists change? How can it match non-Western constructions (e.g., of art as expressions of communal creativity and imprinting), and how can it relate to the concept of art whose recognition and legitimacy enhances rather than breaks traditions? Do global art markets, and the speculation that increasingly drives them, favor Western notions over others, or play on some sort of speculative arbitrage? Likewise, are major art exhibitions like Documenta, Frieze, or Art Basel mostly about market making or about art appreciation, or perhaps both?

The final issue is that of cultural policy and the role of governments and international organizations like UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and increasingly also the European Union. Traditionally, the main purpose of cultural policy was to support the arts and appreciation thereof, as well as heritage. In recent years, the creative economy has become a new focus, as have the issues of creativity and innovation more generally. These trends are in line with the fourth model that Cunningham et al. (2008) propose.

Yet countries differ widely with respect to how broadly and in what manner they engage with culture and the arts. The United States shows a very limited involvement throughout, and most activities are at the local and state levels. Other efforts are largely left to private philanthropy and nonprofit organizations. By contrast, cultural policy in France is very much a matter of the central government and public budgets, whereas in Germany a decentralized system prevails that mixes public and private funds under a pattern of cooperative cultural federalism. The United Kingdom is somewhere in between, using arm’s-length institutions with a growing focus on the cultural or creative economy.

The outcomes of different policy approaches are also different dynamics and possibilities for artistic potential, creativity, and economic growth in terms of the models Cunningham et al. (2008) have outlined. It remains an open question how emerging market economies and autocratic regimes position themselves in this triad of cultural policy options (a minimal role of government, a pronounced and centralized role, and a devolved one). Most likely, forms of control will be a critical element, putting cultural policy under state tutelage.

Finally, cultural policy is also foreign policy in the context of soft power and cultural diplomacy. Hard power refers to military power and coercive capacity in terms of deterrence and potential for inflicting violence (Nye 2004) . By contrast, soft power is the ability to persuade others to do what a country wants without relying on force or coercion. Soft power is based on attraction, created by a country’s policies and political ideas. Cultural policy as a tool of soft power is becoming more relevant in a geopolitical sense. Language programs, student exchanges, book tours, exhibitions, and media are examples of the ways in which countries use external cultural policy to wield soft power abroad. With the partial retreat of the United States from cultural diplomacy, countries as different as France, China, Russia, Qatar, and Turkey have taken increasingly prominent positions in this field. With substantial investments, they combine cultural and economic—and increasingly also security-related—objectives. Again, this avenue of study is a wide-open field for research.

Author Biography

Helmut K Anheier (PhD Yale) is editor-in-chief of Global Perspectives , professor of sociology at the Hertie School, member of the faculty of the Luskin School of Public Affairs, and visiting professor at LSE Ideas. He has published widely in the social sciences with an emphasis in civil society, organization, and governance, and received several national and international awards for his academic achievements. Previously, he was president of the Hertie School, and professor at the Max-Weber-Institute of Sociology at Heidelberg University, where he directed the Center for Social Investment and Innovation. Before embarking on an academic career, he served the United Nations as a social affairs officer.

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Published: 2020/11/02

Introduction

Culture refers to beliefs, features and behaviors that are common to a particular group of people in the society. The components of culture include language, norms, rules, institutions and values. Some of the common institutions in the society are educational institutions, family and religious institutions. This book is important because it will enable me and other in the society to understand my own culture and the culture of others. It will also enable us to know the importance of culture in our society and also compare with that of other people. For the future generation, it will act as a reference for those who may not be familiar with their culture. This will ensure that the society at large preserves its culture. The book gives an insight on how culture influences the economic systems adopted by different people in the society. Some may adopt a social system while on the other hand others may prefer a capitalist system. The kind of system chosen will determine whether those adopting either of the methods will climb the economic ladder or not. The book also discloses that people tend to marry people of their culture because they share some common characteristics hence making it easy for them to interact. Many societies in the world have also adopted an educational system of their colonial masters. Economist argued that religion has an impact on economic output. The Protestants adapted an aggressive work ethics compared to the Catholics hence leading to higher productivity among the Protestants. It is similar to my culture because of common characteristics found in my culture that are similar to those in this book. They influence how people behave in the society and how they interact with each other. Culture has a great impact on human behavior and character and human beings tend to adapt to different cultures. This book is interesting to me because it has increased my knowledge on culture. The perception of people about culture has changed. People are now ready to do away with cultures that have been overtaken by events and embrace new cultures that are beneficial to them.

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Cultural Diversity Essay & Community Essay Examples

If you’ve started to research college application requirements for the schools on your list, you might have come across the “cultural diversity essay.” In this guide, we’ll explore the cultural diversity essay in depth. We will compare the cultural diversity essay to the community essay and discuss how to approach these kinds of supplements. We’ll also provide examples of diversity essays and community essay examples. But first, let’s discuss exactly what a cultural diversity essay is. 

The purpose of the cultural diversity essay in college applications is to show the admissions committee what makes you unique. The cultural diversity essay also lets you describe what type of “ diversity ” you would bring to campus.

We’ll also highlight a diversity essay sample for three college applications. These include the Georgetown application essay , Rice application essay , and Williams application essay . We’ll provide examples of diversity essays for each college. Then, for each of these college essays that worked, we will analyze their strengths to help you craft your own essays. 

Finally, we’ll give you some tips on how to write a cultural diversity essay that will make your applications shine. 

But first, let’s explore the types of college essays you might encounter on your college applications. 

Types of College Essays

College application requirements will differ among schools. However, you’ll submit one piece of writing to nearly every school on your list—the personal statement . A strong personal statement can help you stand out in the admissions process. 

So, how do you know what to write about? That depends on the type of college essay included in your college application requirements. 

There are a few main types of college essays that you might encounter in the college admissions process. Theese include the “Why School ” essay, the “Why Major ” essay, and the extracurricular activity essay. This also includes the type of essay we will focus on in this guide—the cultural diversity essay. 

“Why School” essay

The “Why School ” essay is exactly what it sounds like. For this type of college essay, you’ll need to underscore why you want to go to this particular school. 

However, don’t make the mistake of just listing off what you like about the school. Additionally, don’t just reiterate information you can find on their admissions website. Instead, you’ll want to make connections between what the school offers and how you are a great fit for that college community. 

“Why Major” essay

The idea behind the “Why Major ” essay is similar to that of the “Why School ” essay above. However, instead of writing about the school at large, this essay should highlight why you plan to study your chosen major.

There are plenty of directions you could take with this type of essay. For instance, you might describe how you chose this major, what career you plan to pursue upon graduation, or other details.

Extracurricular Activity essay

The extracurricular activity essay asks you to elaborate on one of the activities that you participated in outside of the classroom. 

For this type of college essay, you’ll need to select an extracurricular activity that you pursued while you were in high school. Bonus points if you can tie your extracurricular activity into your future major, career goals, or other extracurricular activities for college. Overall, your extracurricular activity essay should go beyond your activities list. In doing so, it should highlight why your chosen activity matters to you.

Cultural Diversity essay

The cultural diversity essay is your chance to expound upon diversity in all its forms. Before you write your cultural diversity essay, you should ask yourself some key questions. These questions can include: How will you bring diversity to your future college campus? What unique perspective do you bring to the table? 

Another sub-category of the cultural diversity essay is the gender diversity essay. As its name suggests, this essay would center around the author’s gender. This essay would highlight how gender shapes the way the writer understands the world around them. 

Later, we’ll look at examples of diversity essays and other college essays that worked. But before we do, let’s figure out how to identify a cultural diversity essay in the first place. 

How to identify a ‘cultural diversity’ essay

So, you’re wondering how you’ll be able to identify a cultural diversity essay as you review your college application requirements. 

Aside from the major giveaway of having the word “diversity” in the prompt, a cultural diversity essay will ask you to describe what makes you different from other applicants. In other words, what aspects of your unique culture(s) have influenced your perspective and shaped you into who you are today?

Diversity can refer to race, ethnicity, first-generation status, gender, or anything in between. You can write about a myriad of things in a cultural diversity essay. For instance, you might discuss your personal background, identity, values, experiences, or how you’ve overcome challenges in your life. 

However, don’t feel limited in what you can address in a cultural diversity essay. The words “culture” and “diversity” mean different things to different people. Above all, you’ll want your diversity essays for college to be personal and sincere. 

How is a ‘community’ essay different? 

A community essay can also be considered a cultural diversity essay. In fact, you can think of the community essay as a subcategory of the cultural diversity essay. However, there is a key difference between a community essay and a cultural diversity essay, which we will illustrate below. 

You might have already seen some community essay examples while you were researching college application requirements. But how exactly is a community essay different from a cultural diversity essay?

One way to tell the difference between community essay examples and cultural diversity essay examples is by the prompt. A community essay will highlight, well, community . This means it will focus on how your identity will shape your interactions on campus—not just how it informs your own experiences.

Two common forms to look out for

Community essay examples can take two forms. First, you’ll find community essay examples about your past experiences. These let you show the admissions team how you have positively influenced your own community. 

Other community essay examples, however, will focus on the future. These community essay examples will ask you to detail how you will contribute to your future college community. We refer to these as college community essay examples.

In college community essay examples, you’ll see applicants detail how they might interact with their fellow students. These essays may also discuss how students plan to positively contribute to the campus community. 

As we mentioned above, the community essay, along with community essay examples and college community essay examples, fit into the larger category of the cultural diversity essay. Although we do not have specific community essay examples or college community essay examples in this guide, we will continue to highlight the subtle differences between the two. 

Before we continue the discussion of community essay examples and college community essay examples, let’s start with some examples of cultural diversity essay prompts. For each of the cultural diversity essay prompts, we’ll name the institutions that include these diversity essays for college as part of their college application requirements. 

What are some examples of ‘cultural diversity’ essays? 

Now, you have a better understanding of the similarities and differences between the cultural diversity essay and the community essay. So, next, let’s look at some examples of cultural diversity essay prompts.

The prompts below are from the Georgetown application, Rice application, and Williams application, respectively. As we discuss the similarities and differences between prompts, remember the framework we provided above for what constitutes a cultural diversity essay and a community essay. 

Later in this guide, we’ll provide real examples of diversity essays, including Georgetown essay examples, Rice University essay examples, and Williams supplemental essays examples. These are all considered college essays that worked—meaning that the author was accepted into that particular institution. 

Georgetown Supplementals Essays

Later, we’ll look at Georgetown supplemental essay examples. Diversity essays for Georgetown are a product of this prompt: 

As Georgetown is a diverse community, the Admissions Committee would like to know more about you in your own words. Please submit a brief essay, either personal or creative, which you feel best describes you. 

You might have noticed two keywords in this prompt right away: “diverse” and “community.” These buzzwords indicate that this prompt is a cultural diversity essay. You could even argue that responses to this prompt would result in college community essay examples. After all, the prompt refers to the Georgetown community. 

For this prompt, you’ll want to produce a diversity essay sample that highlights who you are. In order to do that successfully, you’ll need to self-reflect before putting pen to paper. What aspects of your background, personality, or values best describe who you are? How might your presence at Georgetown influence or contribute to their diverse community? 

Additionally, this cultural diversity essay can be personal or creative. So, you have more flexibility with the Georgetown supplemental essays than with other similar diversity essay prompts. Depending on the direction you go, your response to this prompt could be considered a cultural diversity essay, gender diversity essay, or a college community essay. 

Rice University Essays

The current Rice acceptance rate is just 9% , making it a highly selective school. Because the Rice acceptance rate is so low, your personal statement and supplemental essays can make a huge difference. 

The Rice University essay examples we’ll provide below are based on this prompt: 

The quality of Rice’s academic life and the Residential College System are heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What personal perspective would you contribute to life at Rice? 

Breaking down the prompt.

Like the prompt above, this cultural diversity essay asks about your “life experiences,” “cultural traditions,” and personal “perspectives.” These phrases indicate a cultural diversity essay. Keep in mind this may not be the exact prompt you’ll have to answer in your own Rice application. However, future Rice prompts will likely follow a similar framework as this diversity essay sample.

Although this prompt is not as flexible as the Georgetown prompt, it does let you discuss aspects of Rice’s academic life and Residential College System that appeal to you. You can also highlight how your experiences have influenced your personal perspective. 

The prompt also asks about how you would contribute to life at Rice. So, your response could also fall in line with college community essay examples. Remember, college community essay examples are another sub-category of community essay examples. Successful college community essay examples will illustrate the ways in which students would contribute to their future campus community. 

Williams Supplemental Essays

Like the Rice acceptance rate, the Williams acceptance rate is also 9% . Because the Williams acceptance rate is so low, you’ll want to pay close attention to the Williams supplemental essays examples as you begin the writing process. 

The Williams supplemental essays examples below are based on this prompt: 

Every first-year student at Williams lives in an Entry – a thoughtfully constructed microcosm of the student community that’s a defining part of the Williams experience. From the moment they arrive, students find themselves in what’s likely the most diverse collection of backgrounds, perspectives, and interests they’ve ever encountered. What might differentiate you from the 19 other first-year students in an Entry? What perspective would you add to the conversation with your peer(s)?

Reflecting on the prompt.

Immediately, words like “diverse,” “backgrounds,” “perspectives,” “interests,” and “differentiate” should stand out to you. These keywords highlight the fact that this is a cultural diversity essay. Similar to the Rice essay, this may not be the exact prompt you’ll face on your Williams application. However, we can still learn from it.

Like the Georgetown essay, this prompt requires you to put in some self-reflection before you start writing. What aspects of your background differentiate you from other people? How would these differences impact your interactions with peers? 

This prompt also touches on the “student community” and how you would “add to the conversation with your peer(s).” By extension, any strong responses to this prompt could also be considered as college community essay examples. 

Community Essays

All of the prompts above mention campus community. So, you could argue that they are also examples of community essays. 

Like we mentioned above, you can think of community essays as a subcategory of the cultural diversity essay. If the prompt alludes to the campus community, or if your response is centered on how you would interact within that community, your essay likely falls into the world of college community essay examples. 

Regardless of what you would classify the essay as, all successful essays will be thoughtful, personal, and rich with details. We’ll show you examples of this in our “college essays that worked” section below. 

Which schools require a cultural diversity or community essay? 

Besides Georgetown, Rice, and Williams, many other college applications require a cultural diversity essay or community essay. In fact, from the Ivy League to HBCUs and state schools, the cultural diversity essay is a staple across college applications. 

Although we will not provide a diversity essay sample for each of the colleges below, it is helpful to read the prompts. This will build your familiarity with other college applications that require a cultural diversity essay or community essay. Some schools that require a cultural diversity essay or community essay include New York University , Duke University , Harvard University , Johns Hopkins University , and University of Michigan . 

New York University

NYU listed a cultural diversity essay as part of its 2022-2023 college application requirements. Here is the prompt:

NYU was founded on the belief that a student’s identity should not dictate the ability for them to access higher education. That sense of opportunity for all students, of all backgrounds, remains a part of who we are today and a critical part of what makes us a world class university. Our community embraces diversity, in all its forms, as a cornerstone of the NYU experience. We would like to better understand how your experiences would help us to shape and grow our diverse community.

Duke university.

Duke is well-known for its community essay: 

What is your sense of Duke as a university and a community, and why do you consider it a good match for you? If there’s something in particular about our offerings that attracts you, feel free to share that as well.

A top-ranked Ivy League institution, Harvard University also has a cultural diversity essay as part of its college application requirements: 

Harvard has long recognized the importance of student body diversity of all kinds. We welcome you to write about distinctive aspects of your background, personal development, or the intellectual interests you might bring to your Harvard classmates.

Johns hopkins university.

The Johns Hopkins supplement is another example of a cultural diversity essay: 

Founded in the spirit of exploration and discovery, Johns Hopkins University encourages students to share their perspectives, develop their interests, and pursue new experiences. Use this space to share something you’d like the admissions committee to know about you (your interests, your background, your identity, or your community), and how it has shaped what you want to get out of your college experience at Hopkins. 

University of michigan.

The University of Michigan requires a community essay for its application: 

Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong and describe that community and your place within it. 

Community essay examples.

The Duke and Michigan prompts are perfect illustrations of community essay examples. However, they have some critical differences. So, if you apply to both of these schools, you’ll have to change the way you approach either of these community essays. 

The Duke prompt asks you to highlight why you are a good match for the Duke community. You’ll also see this prompt in other community essay examples. To write a successful response to this prompt, you’ll need to reference offerings specific to Duke (or whichever college requires this essay). In order to know what to reference, you’ll need to do your research before you start writing. 

Consider the following questions as you write your diversity essay sample if the prompt is similar to Duke University’s

• What values does this college community have? 
• How do these tie in with what you value? 
• Is there something that this college offers that matches your interests, personality, or background?  

On the other hand, the Michigan essay prompt asks you to describe a community that you belong to as well as your place within that community. This is another variation of the prompt for community essay examples. 

To write a successful response to this prompt, you’ll need to identify a community that you belong to. Then, you’ll need to think critically about how you interact with that community. 

Below are some questions to consider as you write your diversity essay sample for colleges like Michigan: 

• Out of all the communities you belong to, which can you highlight in your response? 
• How have you impacted this community? 
• How has this community impacted you?

Now, in the next few sections, we’ll dive into the Georgetown supplemental essay examples, the Rice university essay examples, and the Williams supplemental essays examples. After each diversity essay sample, we’ll include a breakdown of why these are considered college essays that worked. 

Georgetown Essay Examples

As a reminder, the Georgetown essay examples respond to this prompt: 

As Georgetown is a diverse community, the Admissions Committee would like to know more about you in your own words. Please submit a brief essay, either personal or creative, which you feel best describes you.

Here is the excerpt of the diversity essay sample from our Georgetown essay examples: 

Georgetown University Essay Example

The best thing I ever did was skip eight days of school in a row. Despite the protests of teachers over missed class time, I told them that the world is my classroom. The lessons I remember most are those that took place during my annual family vacation to coastal Maine. That rural world is the most authentic and incredible classroom where learning simply happens and becomes exponential. 

Years ago, as I hunted through the rocks and seaweed for seaglass and mussels, I befriended a Maine local hauling her battered kayak on the shore. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I had found a kindred spirit in Jeanne. Jeanne is a year-round resident who is more than the hard working, rugged Mainer that meets the eye; reserved and humble in nature, she is a wealth of knowledge and is self-taught through necessity. With thoughtful attention to detail, I engineered a primitive ramp made of driftwood and a pulley system to haul her kayak up the cliff. We diligently figured out complex problems and developed solutions through trial and error.

After running out of conventional materials, I recycled and reimagined items that had washed ashore. We expected to succeed, but were not afraid to fail. Working with Jeanne has been the best classroom in the world; without textbooks or technology, she has made a difference in my life. Whether building a basic irrigation system for her organic garden or installing solar panels to harness the sun’s energy, every project has shown me the value of taking action and making an impact. Each year brings a different project with new excitement and unique challenges. My resourcefulness, problem solving ability, and innovative thinking have advanced under her tutelage. 

While exploring the rocky coast of Maine, I embrace every experience as an unparalleled educational opportunity that transcends any classroom environment. I discovered that firsthand experience and real-world application of science are my best teachers. In school, applications of complex calculations and abstract theories are sometimes obscured by grades and structure. In Maine, I expand my love of science and renourish my curious spirit. I am a highly independent, frugal, resilient Mainer living as a southern girl in NC. 

Why this essay worked

This is one of the Georgetown supplemental essay examples that works, and here’s why. The author starts the essay with an interesting hook, which makes the reader want to learn more about this person and their perspective. 

Throughout the essay, the author illustrates their intellectual curiosity. From befriending Jeanne and creating a pulley system to engineering other projects on the rocky coast of Maine, the author demonstrates how they welcome challenges and work to solve problems. 

Further, the author mentions values that matter to them—taking action and making an impact. Both facets are also part of Georgetown’s core values . By making these connections in their essay, the author shows the admissions committee exactly how they would be a great fit for the Georgetown community. 

Finally, the author uses their experience in Maine to showcase their love of science, which is likely the field they will study at Georgetown. Like this writer, you should try to include most important parts of your identity into your essay. This includes things like life experiences, passions, majors, extracurricular activities for college, and more. 

Rice University Essay Examples

The Rice University essay examples are from this prompt: 

The quality of Rice’s academic life and the Residential College System are heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What personal perspective would you contribute to life at Rice? (500-word limit)

Rice university essay example.

Like every applicant, I also have a story to share. A story that makes me who I am and consists of chapters about my life experiences and adventures. Having been born in a different country, my journey to America was one of the most difficult things I had ever experienced. Everything felt different. The atmosphere, the places, the food, and especially the people. Everywhere I looked, I saw something new. Although it was a bit overwhelming, one thing had not changed.

The caring nature of the people was still prevalent in everyday interactions. I was overwhelmed by how supportive and understanding people were of one another. Whether it is race, religion, or culture, everyone was accepted and appreciated. I knew that I could be whoever I wanted to be and that the only limitation was my imagination. Through hard work and persistence I put my all in everything that I did. I get this work ethic from my father since he is living proof that anything can be accomplished with continued determination. Listening to the childhood stories he told me, my dad would reminisce about how he was born in an impoverished area in a third world country during a turbulent and unpredictable time.

Even with a passion for learning, he had to work a laborious job in an attempt to help his parents make ends meet. He talked about how he would study under the street lights when the power went out at home. His parents wanted something better for him, as did he. Not living in America changed nothing about their work ethic. His parents continued to work hard daily, in an attempt to provide for their son. My dad worked and studied countless hours, paying his way through school with jobs and scholarships. His efforts paid off when he finally moved to America and opened his own business. None of it would have been possible without tremendous effort and dedication needed for a better life, values that are instilled within me as well, and this is the perspective that I wish to bring to Rice. 

This diversity essay sample references the author’s unique life experiences and personal perspective, which makes it one example of college essays that worked. The author begins the essay by alluding to their unique story—they were born in a different country and then came to America. Instead of facing this change as a challenge, the author shows how this new experience helped them to feel comfortable with all kinds of people. They also highlight how their diversity was accepted and appreciated. 

Additionally, the author incorporates information about their father’s story, which helps to frame their own values and where those values came from. The values that they chose to highlight also fall in line with the values of the Rice community. 

Williams Supplemental Essay Examples

Let’s read the prompt that inspired so many strong Williams supplemental essays examples again: 

Every first-year student at Williams lives in an Entry—a thoughtfully constructed microcosm of the student community that’s a defining part of the Williams experience. From the moment they arrive, students find themselves in what’s likely the most diverse collection of backgrounds, perspectives and interests they’ve ever encountered. What might differentiate you from the 19 other first-year students in an entry? What perspective(s) would you add to the conversation with your peers?

Williams college essay example.

Through the flow in my head

See you clad in red

But not just the clothes

It’s your whole being

Covering in this sickening blanket

Of heat and pain

Are you in agony, I wonder?

Is this the hell they told me about?

Have we been condemned?

Reduced to nothing but pain

At least we have each other

In our envelopes of crimson

I try in vain

“Take my hands” I shriek

“Let’s protect each other, 

You and me, through this hell”

My body contorts

And deforms into nothingness

You remain the same

Clad in red

With faraway eyes

You, like a statue

Your eyes fixed somewhere else

You never see me

Just the red briefcase in your heart

We aren’t together

It’s always been me alone

While you stand there, aloof, with the briefcase in your heart.

I wrote this poem the day my prayer request for the Uighur Muslims got denied at school. At the time, I was stunned. I was taught to have empathy for those around me. Yet, that empathy disappears when told to extend it to someone different. I can’t comprehend this contradiction and I refuse to. 

At Williams, I hope to become a Community Engagement Fellow at the Davis Center. I hope to use Williams’ support for social justice and advocacy to educate my fellow classmates on social issues around the world. Williams students are not just scholars but also leaders and changemakers. Together, we can strive to better the world through advocacy.

Human’s capability for love is endless. We just need to open our hearts to everyone. 

It’s time to let the briefcase go and look at those around us with our real human eyes.

We see you now. Please forgive us.

As we mentioned above, the Williams acceptance rate is incredibly low. This makes the supplemental essay that much more important. 

This diversity essay sample works because it is personal and memorable. The author chooses to start the essay off with a poem. Which, if done right, will immediately grab the reader’s attention. 

Further, the author contextualizes the poem by explaining the circumstances surrounding it—they wrote it in response to a prayer request that was denied at school. In doing so, they also highlight their own values of empathy and embracing diversity. 

Finally, the author ends their cultural diversity essay by describing what excites them about Williams. They also discuss how they see themselves interacting within the Williams community. This is a key piece of the essay, as it helps the reader understand how the author would be a good fit for Williams. 

The examples provided within this essay also touch on issues that are important to the author, which provides a glimpse into the type of student the author would be on campus. Additionally, this response shows what potential extracurricular activities for college the author might be interested in pursuing while at Williams. 

How to Write a Cultural Diversity Essay

You want your diversity essay to stand out from any other diversity essay sample. But how do you write a successful cultural diversity essay? 

First, consider what pieces of your identity you want to highlight in your essay. Of course, race and ethnicity are important facets of diversity. However, there are plenty of other factors to consider. 

As you brainstorm, think outside the box to figure out what aspects of your identity help make up who you are. Because identity and diversity fall on a spectrum, there is no right or wrong answer here. 

Fit your ideas to the specific school

Once you’ve decided on what you want to represent in your cultural diversity essay, think about how that fits into the college of your choice. Use your cultural diversity essay to make connections to the school. If your college has specific values or programs that align with your identity, then include them in your cultural diversity essay! 

Above all, you should write about something that is important to you. Your cultural diversity essay, gender diversity essay, or community essay will succeed if you are passionate about your topic and willing to get personal. 

Additional Tips for Community & Cultural Diversity Essays

1. Start Early

In order to create the strongest diversity essay possible, you’ll want to start early. Filling out college applications is already a time-consuming process. So, you can cut back on additional stress and anxiety by writing your cultural diversity essay as early as possible. 

2. Brainstorm

Writing a cultural diversity essay or community essay is a personal process. To set yourself up for success, take time to brainstorm and reflect on your topic. Overall, you want your cultural diversity essay to be a good indication of who you are and what makes you a unique applicant. 

3. Proofread

We can’t stress this final tip enough. Be sure to proofread your cultural diversity essay before you hit the submit button. Additionally, you can read your essay aloud to hear how it flows. You can also can ask someone you trust, like your college advisor or a teacher, to help proofread your essay as well.

Other CollegeAdvisor Essay Resources to Explore

Looking for additional resources on supplemental essays for the colleges we mentioned above? Do you need help with incorporating extracurricular activities for college into your essays or crafting a strong diversity essay sample? We’ve got you covered. 

Our how to get into Georgetown guide covers additional tips on how to approach the supplemental diversity essay. If you’re wondering how to write about community in your essay, check out our campus community article for an insider’s perspective on Williams College.

Want to learn strategies for writing compelling cultural diversity essays? Check out this Q&A webinar, featuring a former Georgetown admissions officer. And, if you’re still unsure of what to highlight in your community essay, try getting inspiration from a virtual college tour . 

Cultural Diversity Essay & Community Essay Examples – Final Thoughts

Your supplemental essays are an important piece of the college application puzzle. With colleges becoming more competitive than ever, you’ll want to do everything you can to create a strong candidate profile. This includes writing well-crafted responses for a cultural diversity essay, gender diversity essay, or community essay. 

We hope our cultural diversity essay guide helped you learn more about this common type of supplemental essay. As you are writing your own cultural diversity essay or community essay, use the essay examples from Georgetown, Rice, and Williams above as your guide. 

Getting into top schools takes a lot more than a strong resume. Writing specific, thoughtful, and personal responses for a cultural diversity essay, gender diversity essay, or community essay will put you one step closer to maximizing your chances of admission. Good luck!

CollegeAdvisor.com is here to help you with every aspect of the college admissions process. From taking a gap year to completing enrollment , we’re here to help. Register today to receive one-on-one support from an admissions expert as you begin your college application journey.

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Essay on African Culture

Students are often asked to write an essay on African Culture in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on African Culture

African culture: an overview.

African culture is vast and diverse. It is not just one culture, but many. There are 54 countries in Africa, each with its own unique traditions, languages, music, and art. This makes African culture rich and varied.

In Africa, over 2000 languages are spoken. These include Swahili, Amharic, Yoruba, and Zulu. Each language tells a story about the people who speak it. It shows their history, their beliefs, and their way of life.

Art and Craft

African art is famous for its bold colors and unique designs. It includes masks, sculptures, paintings, and textiles. Each piece of art tells a story or represents a belief.

Music and Dance

Music and dance are important in African culture. They are used to celebrate, to tell stories, and to honor ancestors. Instruments like drums, xylophones, and the kora are often used.

African food varies by region. In North Africa, you will find dishes with couscous and spices. In West Africa, dishes often include rice, yams, and fish. Each dish reflects the local environment.

Religion and Beliefs

Religion is a big part of African culture. Many people follow Christianity or Islam. Others follow traditional African religions. These often involve respect for ancestors and nature.

African clothing is colorful and varied. It often features bright colors and bold patterns. It can also show a person’s status or role in society.

In conclusion, African culture is rich and diverse. It is a blend of many different traditions, beliefs, and practices.

250 Words Essay on African Culture

Introduction to african culture.

Africa is a large continent with many different people and cultures. Each group has its own unique way of life, but there are some things that they all share.

African art is famous around the world. It is very colorful and often tells a story. People use different materials like wood, bronze, and clay to make sculptures and masks. They also make beautiful jewelry and clothes using beads and shells.

Music and dance are very important in African culture. They are used to celebrate, to tell stories, and to show respect to elders. African music uses many different instruments like drums, bells, and flutes. The dances are often very energetic and involve a lot of movement.

Food and Cuisine

African food is tasty and diverse. In many places, people eat a lot of grains, vegetables, and meat. They also use many different spices to give their food a unique flavor. Some popular dishes include jollof rice, couscous, and injera.

Traditional Clothing

In Africa, traditional clothing is often bright and colorful. Many people wear clothes made from fabrics like kente cloth and mud cloth. These clothes are often decorated with beautiful patterns and designs.

African culture is rich and diverse. It is full of beautiful art, music, food, and clothing. It is a culture that values community, respect for elders, and celebration. It is a culture that should be respected and appreciated by all.

500 Words Essay on African Culture

African culture is rich and varied, just like the continent itself. Africa is the second largest continent in the world, and it is home to many different countries, each with its own unique culture. When we talk about African culture, we are talking about the traditions, languages, art, music, and social habits of these different countries.

Traditions and Customs

One of the most important parts of African culture is its traditions and customs. These are the ways of life that have been passed down from generation to generation. In many African societies, elders are highly respected, and their wisdom is valued. Storytelling is also a big part of African culture. Through stories, important lessons and history are shared.

Language is another key aspect of African culture. There are over 2000 distinct languages spoken across the continent. Some of the most widely spoken languages include Swahili, Amharic, Yoruba, and Zulu. Each language is unique and reflects the culture of the people who speak it.

Art and Music

Art and music are central to African culture. African art is diverse and includes sculptures, paintings, pottery, and textiles. It often tells a story or represents spiritual beliefs. African music is also diverse and varies from region to region. It plays a key role in celebrations, ceremonies, and storytelling.

Social Habits

African societies value community and family. Many African cultures believe in the concept of “Ubuntu”, a Zulu term meaning “I am because we are”. This philosophy emphasizes the importance of community and caring for each other.

Food in African culture is more than just sustenance. It is a way to bring people together. African cuisine varies greatly across the continent. North African food, for example, is influenced by Arabic culture, while West African food is known for its bold flavors and hearty stews.

In conclusion, African culture is a vibrant and diverse tapestry of traditions, languages, art, music, social habits, and food. It is a culture that values community, respect for elders, and the sharing of stories. By learning about African culture, we can gain a deeper understanding of the richness and diversity of the human experience. Remember, Africa is not a single country, but a continent with many unique cultures. Each one has its own beauty and value, contributing to the rich tapestry that is African culture.

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The Effect of Globalization on a World Culture Essay

Introduction, globalization and culture.

Scientific innovations and inventions have accelerated the growth of globalization. Nations can easily trade, socialize, share ideas, and assist each other in different spheres of life.

Improved international relations have enabled the movement of factors of production among nations with minimal barriers to trade. The cooperation has led to social, political, and economical globalization; although neither of the above three classifications of globalization have been fully attained, their effects can be felt in economic, political, and social spheres of life.

Critics of globalization appreciate that it has positive effect on economic wellbeing of countries. However they are quick to point out that globalization has high culture and identity loss/costs (Sheila 56). They are of the opinion that modernization has the potential of running roughshod over the world’s distinctive cultures and creates a single world which resembles a tawdry mall. This paper discuses the effect of globalization on a world culture.

Culture is the identity of people that any member adheres to. It has some defined attributes, some of them are written and others are not. The set way of operation that is governed by some cultural, communal, and societal goals assists in holding people together and creates a norm in the community.

When people trade, socialize or interact with each other in a way it has been enabled by globalization, there is the tendency that they will lose their identity and inherit a system of operation or a certain mode of conduct that is generally accepted by the community (in this instance, the word community has been used to refer to the larger global community created by globalization).

According to Tyler Cowen, modernization and cultural globalization have resulted into the growth of creativity, innovation, and invention among communities. When people interact, they tend to learn the other parties’ way of operation and the difference is likely to trigger some creative mind for the benefit of the two parties.

The above observation by Tyler Cowen can be interpolated either negatively or positively; from a positive angle, modernization has created a room for invention and innovation. On a negative note, the world is utilizing the differences it has as failing to create more differences that future generation is likely to run out of creative mind, as there will be lack of motivation in the form of current culture differences.

For example, in the 1950s, Cuban Music and Reggae was produced in Cuba with the target consumers as American Tourists who visited the country. In Cuba, the style of music was part of their tradition that the Americans loved to sing along. With diffusion of culture and more exposure, the style of music has been adopted by the Americans, and today it is played in modern clubs and bars.

Today, if a Cuban was to visit the United States, he or she was likely to feel accommodated by the structures as there are some similar attributes that he/she gets. In either French or German restaurants, a shopper is able to buy Sushi (Japanese foods consisting of cooked vinegared rice (shari) combined with other ingredients (neta)). Such a move shows how Japanese have been accommodated in both European countries (Sheila 256).

With cultural globalization, people of different cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, and values find themselves in the same atmosphere where no one has the freedom to fully adhere or practice his culture. With such kind of setting, the most probable thing that can happen is people to develop a set of culture that will assist them transact business despite their differences.

The net result is a global culture; the effect and extent that global culture has gone in the world varied among nations and continents; developed countries have their culture more diffused and uniformity can be seen from their way of operation. In developing countries, there is a tendency of resistance to change the culture, but the force therein is strong. Efforts to change the culture of people are not deliberate, but they are necessitated by the prevailing condition in the world.

In contemporary business environments, organizations hire employees of different nationalities, ethnic backgrounds, cultural believes, intellectual capacity, and age. The nature and mix of employees calls for management to develop policies and management mechanisms that will gain from the differences in their human capital; to manage the diverse personnel, business leaders need to adopt international human resources management strategy (IHRM).

The policies that organizations embark on should entail policies that address diverse human resource issues; organization stands to benefit from diversity if the right management policies are set in place, but there is the risk that the differences create uniform business practice. With diffusion of cultures, management can enact some common human resource policies that cut across its diverse human capital. However, care should be exercised since chances of repellence in the event policies seem to be confronting with culture of people.

When managing human capital of different nationalities, businesses leaders should make policies that can assist in tapping their organization’s personnel’s intellectual capacity, as it grows their talents and skills. Culture is likely to affect people in different spheres, thus when companies have diverse human resources, they have to ensure that their programs are sensitive to the differences in culture and beliefs.

When working in different countries, management should never assume that the human management style adopted in the country is fully-effective and applicable to another country; they should take their time, understand what the other country’s employee value and consider best. Management gurus continue to offer insights of how culture and ethnicity of a people affect their performance in their works; they have suggested culture intelligence to assist organization handle their employees effectively regardless of their nationality.

When making business decisions, the culture and exposure that someone has is likely to affect the kind of decision that he is going to make; people who are exposed to the right materials through televisions, the internet, and print media are likely to make more informed decisions. With culture globalization, there has been exposure to different settings and information is available through the assistance of communication channels; the resultant community is an informed community that can make quality decisions for the exploitation of available resources effectively.

Differences in norms and culture among different ethnicity, nationalities, and communities has been a hindrance to effective trade, to some extent, the differences have acted as non tariff barriers that has hindered the development of trade.

When people interact and change their cultural beliefs to adopt a uniform set of beliefs, they are breaking the unseen barriers of trade and create a room for more business, ideas, equality, and economic development. For example, among the Muslims, Women had been regarded as inferior to men and they could hardly be allowed to take leadership positions.

With the interaction with Christians and getting their take on the same, there has been a wave in the community that has enabled them to seek leadership positions like men have. The above case has shown how culture globalization has created opportunities to different people and enabled women to get more opportunities. In the developed worlds, the state and position of the woman had been respected long before the same was done in developing worlds.

As the developed and developing countries trade among each other, the developing countries are getting into the system and women have started to have their positions in the communities. Gender differences has been minimized by globalization, there has been the reduction on gender differences among communities were human beings can now relate more as people not on gender grounds as the case had been when culture globalization was not adhered to.

The rights of girl child campaigns have gained roots in different countries as culture diffuses to reinforce and create awareness to the need to protect women and reduce gender differences that have prevailed among communities for a lengthy duration.

When people of different cultures interact, they develop the sense of togetherness and there are shared common interests that are developed; globalization has enabled the interaction, as well as sharing of ideas, opinions, view points and ways of doing things in a way that facilitates trade. Trade prevails better when the trading partners have some common values, attributes, and beliefs.

Culture globalization has enabled people to have the same perception and attitude towards similar products; with the similarity, peace and harmony in doing and handling issues have been developed. When there is peace and harmony, business and trade prevail effectively.

When people share culture, it means that when someone is in a geographical location different from his or hers, coping will be easy as there will be likelihood that the person will get something that is the same with what he or she beliefs.

For example, although the Chinese food is different from American food, a Chinese visiting the United States only need to establish the restaurant selling Chinese food as the nature and the diversity has been accepted by both the communities. Sales and marketers have much to benefit from globalized world, they can easily develop new formats and marketing strategies developed can be similar and message passed remains the same.

According to Benjamin Barber, one of the main challenges that have been brought about by globalization is culture borrowing and culture mimicry; with the borrowing and mimicry people have lost their sense of identity that someone can manage to treat his brother wrongly and hide under the new system of global culture.

Although culture globalization has not been fully attained, there are moves that indicate that its full operation cannot happen. In areas like religion (religion is an aspect of culture), changing people’s religious believes have been a challenge. The existence of some elements that can hardly change results to the notion of global culture being a mere statement by advocators of the integration, the situation cannot be attained.

Some industries in the globe exist because of differences in culture of people, for example, the tourism industry is much dependent on the cultural differences of people in different places. With culture diffusion, the industry is likely to suffer a huge blow.

In Kenya, the East African country whose tourism is the second earner of the foreign exchange has multicultural where the tourisms from different countries visit to enjoy and learn the diversity of the country’s population.

The move to global culture is thus likely to injure some industries while supporting others. Culture within communities is supported by generally agreed attributes that passes from one generation to another. The “nature of passing” of modern global culture is challenging as people or the global community has not set mechanisms to pass the culture, reinforce, or even punish offender.

To pass the global culture, the materials that young generation become exposed to modern methods of passing information like television, radio, the internet, peers, and written materials. When such materials have been used to pass culture, there are high chances that young generation will get reinforcement of culture which is not good. Global culture is more likely to be for the larger global community benefit, but rarely does it address issue of an individual.

With the structures and development of global culture, there cannot be said to have an effective method of culture reinforcement or a system to punish offender. This means that the culture is vulnerable to changes and hicks ups. Any small attribute or change in the global world is likely to shake the culture of the people since it’s not based on a strong foundation.

With globalization, companies can work in different parts of the world as multinationals; however they have to be sensitive to the nature of products, services, and structure of employees they deploy. Multinationals generally have three main methods to get their employees on board, they use a localization approach, expatriates approach, and a third country approach.

To maintain quality and quantity workforce, the management should ensure that they are aware of the culture of people and manage them effectively. The challenge that multinationals have is putting the notion that with culture globalization, there is uniformity, thus there is no need to have culture intelligence and culture awareness programs.

For example, Pepsi has been a major competitor in the American industry as its style is more American, however the brand has not maintained strong competitiveness in African countries since its style of marketing and sales fails to meet the needs of the continents culture. The above example shows how the notion of global culture has been mis-interpolated (Sheila 256).

Other than human resources, department maintaining qualified and efficient human capital at the most affordable cost possible, they have the role of ensuring they combine their human capital in a manner that will benefit the entire organization.

Diversity and difference in culture by itself offers an organization rich knowledge, opinions, values, and experience, with culture globalization such important attributes to business competitiveness are lost; before an organization decides to fill a certain vacancy in its system, the human resources should liaise with the departmental heads to know exactly the kind of qualification that are sort for, in some instances, the management may advice for some age gap, nationality, gender, and experience.

It is through effective recruitment that an organization can build an effective team that meets its personnel requirement needs. When enacting empowerment and motivational policies or schemes, the management should ensure that the diversity of its employees has been considered.

There are people who are generally team-players, others prefer individualism, and others are charismatic leaders. When making decision, it is important to consider the diversity. Management gurus has continually advised companies to have culture coaches when operating in a country they are not very sure of the nature and the culture of the people; with the coaches, they can develop orchestrate teams and make products that meet the requirement of customers in the country.

Diverse human resource can be biennial to an organization is managed effectively; failure to manage diversity effectively means exposure to risks. Management gurus have continued to support the use of culture intelligence and culture awareness programs to support the culture awareness within organizations; those companies that have undertaken the advice are doing better than those who have not.

Although cultural globalization has build strong operating base through which trade can prevail, it has brought some challenges to the world and the people in general. The lack of identity has resulted into sharing of values likely to dilute societal values and norms.

When the community lacks strong values that are maintained with a certain mechanism, the result is a disintegrated society were social evils are the order of the day. For example, in developed countries, one of the vises that the countries are dealing with is use of drugs and substance abuse by young people.

Although this is taken as a normal condition or social evil, psychologists have suggested that lack of strong values and low behavior standards by young people can be to blame. When the blame is further analyzed, it is seen that parents are not able to raise morally upright children as they have less regard to their cultural beliefs and practices which they consider to have been eroded by globalization.

With diffusion of cultures, there is less emphasis on family and societal values, parents and the community in general seem to ignore the need to maintain, pass and transfer culture to younger generations. When culture is not transferred, children are exposed to new global culture that might be different from the norm.

The results are the families that have low moral standards and which values are questionable. Generally, organizations require physical, human, and informational resources for their operation; business-leaders should realize that human capital is the most crucial capital their organizations have.

In a modern globalized world, organizations have diverse human capital; to manage the capital effectively, companies need to adopt international human resources management strategy. The strategy assists an organization benefit from its personnel diversity as it mitigates risks associated with a diverse workforce. With culture globalization the workforce seems to have the same ideologies an attributes that hinder creativity, innovation, and invention (Sheila 56-78).

Globalization has resulted into culture diffusion, culture sharing, and multiculturalism; the uniformity in culture facilitates trade among nations and promotes international relations and understanding.

However, multiculturalism has been blamed of dilution of people’s cultural values, norms, and virtues. Multiculturalism has also been challenged as a mere statement by business philosophers that will not be attained in the near future as family structures vary among different parts of the globe.

Sheila, Lucy. Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity in a Changing World . London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.

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