Concept Of Cultural Diversity Research Articles

:Red Earth: Race and Agriculture in Oklahoma Territory.

Bonnie Lynn‐Sherow offers a revealing history of settlement in Oklahoma that is both ecological and cultural. Capitalism and race relations figure largely in a story of resource exploitation. “An elite group of native‐born white farmers,” she observes, “were eventually triumphant over all others in ordering those resources into pathways of production and personal prosperity, although the bold traces of black and Indian efforts can still be seen throughout the former territory” (p. 146). Her research base is wonderfully rich, her argument well made. Lynn‐Sherow is equally at home discussing political economy, historical ecology, and agricultural practice. This is a fine book, one worth arguing about. The period of study is 1889–1906, the territorial period of Oklahoma; the geographical scope is the counties of Logan, Blaine, and Caddo. “I wanted to learn how the ecology of Oklahoma Territory had changed after the land runs,” writes Lynn‐Sherow (p. 7). She assesses the impact of general factors such as markets and technology, but she is particularly interested in the factor of culture. She investigates whether the presence of black settlers in Logan County, and of Kiowa in Caddo County, made a difference in comparison with the Anglo‐American and German‐American stock in Blaine County. For Lynn‐Sherow, the concept of cultural diversity is related, at least by hypothesis, to that of biological diversity: “Was the ecology of Oklahoma Territory more diverse when farmers of different cultures and backgrounds worked side by side?” (p. 7).

Cultural Diversity, Cultural Networks and Trade: International Cultural Policy Debate

This article sketches some of the ways in which the language and concepts of cultural diversity are being taken up internationally. The debate has been driven in part by concerns about the treatment of cultural goods, services and knowledge in trade agreements. But it also involves larger questions about the role of the state, the role of non-state actors in domestic policy formation, and the shape and function of international policy communities comprising both state and non-state actors. The extent of the discussion of cultural diversity internationally is described through new formal and informal cultural networks and work towards an international instrument for cultural diversity to lay out ground rules for international trade, cultural exchange and policy principles to guide governmental responsibilities. The article concludes with analysis of some of these new networks, and investigates why Canada has been so prominent in these international efforts.

Danish cultural policy--from Monoculture towards Cultural Diversity

The discussion of the multicultural society has long been current in Danish social and educational policy, but it is only at the turn of the millennium that the issue has been placed on the agenda in a serious way in relation to the Danish national cultural policy. The transformation from a homogenous identity concept to the acceptance of a diversity of voices and interpretations is occurring only slowly in both the production and dissemination of art and culture. In the cultural policy discourse up through the 1980s there is an acute lack of discussion about the ethnic or multicultural. Far up into the 1990s, the cultural political contributions within the multicultural field are left to the social or humanitarian organs, with integration as the general goal. At the advent of the millennium we can identify greater openness and interest for the multicultural field. In the evaluation of The Ministry of Culture's Development Fund I have analysed the subsidized activities according to the strategies of ethnic revival , interculturalism and hybridisation , and in the article I discuss the problems of formulating criteria for artistic quality in an area new to members of the board. On this background I discuss the relation between multiculturalism and cultural diversity , where I find the concept of cultural diversity to be a better reflection of the new hybrid cultures, which not only transcend boundaries and traditional cultures but dissolve them and create new expressions across genres and cultural forms.

Afrocentricity

The concept of cultural diversity in higher education in the United States has been significantly restricted. Discussions and debates have focused primarily on enhancing the presence of students and faculty of color, with a special emphasis on recruitment and retention (Blackwell, 1987, 1988; Carter & Wilson, 1994; Epps, 1989; Oliver & Brown, 1988; Pettigrew, 1991). In other words, cultural diversity has been conceptualized primarily as the diversification of racial characteristics of students and faculty. A more important dimension of cultural diversity that has received scant attention is the diversification of the philosophical foundation of higher education. Although there appears to be considerable diversity in the knowledge base of higher education in the United States, the philosophical underpinnings of higher education are shaped primarily by one dominant worldview. That is, to the extent that a society's institutions of higher education reflect the predominant values found in that society, it is reasonable to assume that the predominant values undergirding the philosophical foundation of higher education in the United States are Eurocentric in nature. Eurocentric means that these values emanate exclusively from a European-American view of the world. Thus, by being Eurocentric, the philosophical base of higher education in the United States has become ethnocentric and uninclusive. This has resulted in the omission of worldviews of other ethnic groups found in the United States and, more specifically, in institutions of higher education. To diversify the philosophical foundation of higher education, alternative worldview or philosophical models' need to be consid-