Culture-based Development Research Articles

Review of 'Subjective Well-Being in the Indian Context: Concept, Measure and Index': A Culture Based Development (CBD) perspective

“Subjective Well-Being in the Indian Context - Concept, Measure and Index” by Tithi Bhatnagar is a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted nature of wellbeing within the modern Indian socio-cultural context. The book starts with an overview of the theoretical cornerstones and measurement approaches in studying wellbeing and it ultimately offers a unique index for measuring happiness tailored to the Indian context. This structure helps the book deliver a significant multidisciplinary contribution that is of interest not only to psychology but social sciences more broadly. This review will focus on the book's contribution to specifically social, regional, and cultural economics.

Emotion, Cultural Valuation of Being Human and AI Services

This study alerts that successful AI services depend not only on the improvement of the ability of AI to understand customers’ emotions but also on whether the utility function of the customer allows for the perfect substitution between an AI-delivered service and a human-delivered service. We argue that the utility function of customers includes the subjective valuation of being human, which AI services cannot meet by nature. A culture-based development (CBD) model for the transformation of emotions into feelings and order of preferences is offered to explain the cultural valuation of being human as a component of customers’ utility function. Using primary data from an experimental survey and employing two alternative machine learning algorithms (Lasso and Random Forest), we operationalize our CBD model to show that the estimation efficiency of the AI algorithms cannot compensate for the omission of the cultural valuation of being human from the modeling of the utility function of the customer.

Culture Based Development in the Regions of China

Is culture a relevant factor for the development of the Chinese regions and is this culture different from the institutional settings of China? The Culture Based Development (CBD) paradigm has been collecting evidence from the Western world about the impact of local cultural capital (a quantitative expression of culture) on the productivity of places throughout the EU and United States. The current article aims to replicate the CBD approach for the first time for the institutional setting of China. It does so by using a unique panel dataset for Chinese provinces over a seven-year period (2013–2019), which contains over sixty cultural indicators and employing factor analysis, 3SLS, and k-mean clustering estimation techniques. The main contribution of the article is the distinction that it draws conceptually and empirically between culture as a proto institution and the rest of the institutional settings in a country. Revealing part of the differences and the interaction between culture and institutions, this study sheds light on many important, still-unanswered-in-the-economic-literature questions about culture and local development in China.

The Belt and Road Initiative and Cultural Bias in Bilateral Trade with China

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a blanket term used to describe China’s ambitious plans to create an economic belt consisting of overland and maritime infrastructure projects. Despite being marketed as a win-win partnership, assured to pilot both economic and development opportunities, many scholars are skeptical, with concerns regarding the initiative’s real intentions and benefits. Applying a trade gravity model, augmented with a Culture Based Development (CBD) element, and combined with a difference in differences empirical approach, I evaluate the impact from an ongoing BRI project in Haifa, Israel. There were two main sources of data in my study: The World Bank and the French CEPII institute (Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales), with special data on linguistic proximity. My findings suggest that investment into the maritime port in Haifa has no positive effect on bilateral trade between Israel and its international trade partners. Interestingly, however, I find effects of linguistic proximity persist after the new construction of the BRI infrastructure.

Tea for Two: Language and Bilateral Trade with China

The article assesses the importance of cultural discourse in economics by exploring the extroversive cultural link between language use frequency and bilateral trade flows. Using linguistic data from Google n-grams and data on bilateral trade flows with China over the 1821–2008 period, we test whether the frequency of use of the word “tea” in a Chinese trading partner’s language is associated with the nominal value of its trade flows with China. Our findings suggest that the frequency of use of the word tea predicts current and future trade flows with China, and trade flows affect the frequency of use of the word tea albeit to a lesser extent. The frequency of use of the word tea is influenced by the overall size of the Chinese economy irrespective of the size of the economy of China’s trading partner, but smaller countries use the word tea more and increase its use faster. We conclude that the creation of a cultural discourse is endogenous to economic power, and cultural discourse amplifies trade flows. These findings validate the importance of narrative economics and the Culture-Based Development perspective.

„Semmi különös? A Bakony ékkövei” társadalmi innováció és hálózatos együttműködés a VEB2023 programban

What is it about villages in East-Central Europe that makes them attractive for residents as well as visitors? How can they become communities that are able to keep up with the vast changes and challenges of our times whilst maintaining their best cultural assets and communal cohesion? These were the fundamental questions that drove our interest in conducting an interdisciplinary research project in the Bakony Mountains of Hungary, financed and supported by the Veszprém-Balaton 2023 European Capital of Culture Programme. Through the capitalization of those methodologies associated with the KRAFT (‘creative cities-sustainable regions’) program, the overall aim was to study four villages and their potential for endemic, culture-based development. As the four villages are geographically close to one another, with plenty of interaction and networks of cooperation. The research team aimed at uncovering patterns and dynamics of economic, social, cultural and environmental subsystems that have been influential in connecting these places and making them ‘a distinct region’ and highlighting these patterns. Furthermore, researchers and experts were also interested to discover and collect important cultural heritage elements –material and immaterial, natural and human alike– that might serve as fertile grounds for economic, social, or development strategies, those that locals can relate to, find familiar and those that resonate with their communities and cultural narratives. The proposed study will describe and analyse this piece of fieldwork, which was conducted in interdisciplinary teams, combining desktop research, a set of empirical methods, a diverse array of academic, artistic and practical competencies, and creative ways of cooperation with locals.

Narrative Economics, Public Policy and Mental Health

General public’s mental health can be affected by the public policy response to a pandemic threat. Britain, Italy and Sweden have had very distinct approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic: early lock-down, delayed lock-down and no-lock-down. We develop a novel narrative economics of language Culture-Based Development approach, and using Google trend data for seed keywords, death and suicide, we reach two main conclusions: (i) while countries had a pre-existing culturally relative disposition towards death-related anxiety, the sensitivity to the public policy towards COVID-19 was also country specific; (ii) however, significant spillovers from one specific national lockdown public policy to another country’s mental health are identified.

A culture-based development of mathematics learning: A case on the Muhammad Cheng Hoo Mosque of Surabaya

Learning mathematics in schools aim to make students able to make mathematics as a solution or approach in simplifying or solving daily problems. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to have a culture-based mathematics learning which expected to be able to help students understand and master mathematics better. The purpose of this study is to identify the mathematical elements contained in the ornament and architecture of the Muhammad Cheng Hoo Mosque in Surabaya. This research is qualitative research with an ethnographic approach. Data collected by using a literature study, observation, documentation, and interviews. Data analysis is classified into several stages, namely domain and taxonomic analysis, componential analysis, and cultural theme analysis. The results showed that there are mathematical elements in the ornament and architecture of the Muhammad Cheng Hoo Mosque in Surabaya included the concepts of plane geometry, solid geometry, and transformational geometry. Mathematical elements in this mosque may be used as material for the development of culture-based mathematics learning at the primary and secondary school levels.

Narrative resilience in the cross-regional support of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak: The Chinese experiences of cultural input

The healthcare staff who supported Wuhan's rescue work were the first batch of cross-regional supporters during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. To determine the cultural factors that affected their mental health and resilience, as well as the processes that organizations and individuals underwent to transform cultural resources into benefits. This study collected narrative materials in the form of national and individual statements and used Social Ecology of Resilience theory to analyse them. It identified and analysed the cultural factors of resilience in macrosystems, mesosystems, and microsystems according to four themes, namely: cognition, emotion, will, and behaviour. Altogether, it was found that the national voice adopted an optimistic narrative tone reminiscent of that used during the context of war and that the personal or public voice approved of it. The study revealed that the party and government's use of moral narration derived from its heritage culture and its belief in its continuity in new China's culture served as a mechanism of cultural resilience and mobilisation. The above is the experience of the operation of living culture (LC) and cultural heritage (CH) mentioned in Culture Based Development (CBD). In light of this, it was concluded that the predominant form of cultural input during China's national public health crisis has been storytelling with narrative resilience.

Factors Affecting Internal Auditor Performance: The Moderation Role of Papuan Culture-Based Development

This study aimed to analyze the impact of locus of control, task complexity, and organizational commitment on internal auditor performance. The population of this study included all auditors at 4 (four) Inspectorate Offices in Papua Province (Jayapura City, Jayapura Regency, Keerom Regency, and Sarmi Regency). The research samples were collected using a purposive sampling technique. The collected data were the processed using the Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) technique. The results showed that locus of control had a significant effect on inspectorate internal auditor performance. Task complexity had a negative effect on internal auditor performance. Organizational commitment did not affect internal auditor performance. Papuan culture-based development moderated the effect of locus of control on internal auditor performance. Papuan culture-based development did not moderate the effect of task complexity on internal auditor performance, and traditional Papuan culture based-development did not moderate the effect of organizational commitment on internal auditor performance. The finding implied that locus of control affected auditor performance, while tax complexity and organizational commitment did not affect auditor performance

FI RA WALI: CULTURE-BASED STRATEGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SENTANI COMMUNITY

This article intends to explain how Fi Ra Wali (read: my sago my life) can be used as a culture-based community development strategy in defending the sago forest as a local community commodity from the threat of a global crisis. Interviews and literature studies were used to obtain data. Fi ra wali as a self-concept of the Sentani community has local values that are used to strengthen the existence of socio-culturalism in the face of modernization. This article reveals that in Fi Ra Wali some social norms and rules are built spontaneously to create a culture of obedience, discipline, respect, and social awareness in maintaining their local wisdom. Fi Ra Wali is a manifestation of hidden rationality, as a manifestation of hidden knowledge that shows the strength of a traditional society that is resistant. This article concludes that Fi Ra Wali is a culturally specific strategy that has a safety value in every activity, to maintain the continuity of life, not only in the present but also in the future. Keywords—Cultural Development, Modernization, Fi Ra Wali, Sago Forest, Safety Value

Geographies of Flowers and Geographies of Flower Power

The world is changing under the pressure of environmental and health crises, and in this context, location choice and political choice become of even more poignant importance. Following a Culture-Based Development (CBD) stand, our paper highlights the link between political voting and the cultural and ecological valuation of a place. We start from the premise that the individual utility functions of the urban inhabitant and the urban voter coincide, since they both express the citizen’s satisfaction with the life in a place. We suggest that the unified citizen’s utility function is driven by a trade-off between the availability of virtual and physical spaces for interaction. We expect that this trade-off can lead to dissatisfaction with the place and consequent political discontent if the incumbents’ access to green areas and artistic environment in a place is simultaneously hampered for a long time. Our operational hypothesis is that the political sensitivity of citizens is related to the local availability of green areas (geographies of flowers) and cultural capital endowments (geographies of flower power). Using individual-level data from the WVS from the period close before the pandemic—2017–2020, we test empirically this hypothesis. We use as an outcome of interest the individual propensity to active political behaviour. We explain this propensity through the geographies of flowers (i.e., green areas) and geographies of flower power (i.e., cultural and creative industries). We compare the effects for urban and for rural areas. We find strong dependence of politically proactive behaviour on the geographies of flowers and geographies of flower power, with explicit prominence in urban areas. We find a more pronounced effect of these two geographies on the utility function of incumbent than migrant residents. We also crosscheck empirically the relationship of this CBD mechanism on an aggregate level, using data from the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor. The findings confirm the Schelling magnifying effect of micro preferences on a macro level.

A Behavioral Cultural-Based Development Analysis of Entrepreneurship in China

This paper deals with local cultural capital as a motivator for entrepreneurial behavior in China. Following the Culture-Based Development paradigm (CBD), the current study approaches local cultural capital as an entity that can be temporarily segmented into living culture and cultural heritage and can be further differentiated type-wise into material cultural capital and immaterial cultural capital. The main hypothesis of this paper is that living culture and cultural heritage have different roles in the direction of effect on entrepreneurial behavior in China. To test this hypothesis, a quantitative research method is utilized and data is collected from China Statistical Yearbooks, the website of Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage as well as the third and fourth China Economic Census Yearbooks, covering the period from 2010 to 2019 and regarding all 31 provinces of mainland China. This dataset provides indicators for both material and immaterial living culture, respectively represented by the total book circulations in public libraries and performances at art venues, while historical cultural heritage is approximated by intangible cultural heritage (such as the number of folk literature, traditional music, traditional dance and so on) and historical sites. For data analysis, an OLS regression is used to assess the roles of each kind of cultural capital on regional entrepreneurship development. Findings suggest CBD is applicable for analyzing entrepreneurship behavior and the result of the application of model shows a notable impact of culture on entrepreneurship activities in China.

Voting with your feet or voting for Brexit: The tale of those stuck behind

AbstractThis paper promotes the idea of a culturally‐sensitive Tiebout–Hirschman–Rothschild mechanism underpinning the UK's 2016 Brexit result. Our culture‐based development (CBD) model asserts a trade‐off between two rival types of voting: voting with one's feet or voting in a radical way due to being unable to vote with one's feet, akin to a protest vote. We explore the effects on the Brexit vote of shares of public spending on culture and a particular type of migration dynamic that triggers social closure. Our findings reveal that strong support for the Leave campaign was encountered in areas with lower local government expenditure on culture and in areas with higher outflows of UK residents. Previous literature had found that left‐behind places and places with concentrations of highly educated commuters are the pro‐Brexit nests. Our CBD mechanism of perceived relative deprivation offers a reconciling explanation of these seemingly controversial findings.

MENGGAGAS DESA WISATA PLUNTURAN BERBASIS KEARIFAN LOKAL DI KABUPATEN PONOROGO JAWA TIMUR

Plunturan is one of villages in Ponorogo, East Java Province. The prime product of Plunturan Village is a cultural heritage that is still maintained by the local village community. The various cultural products are Reyog (Reyog Anak, Reyog Perempuan dan Reyog Taruna); Gajah-Gajahan; Jathilan; Ganongan; Tledekan; Karawitan; Wayang Kulit; Coke’an; Metik Desa; Metri Desa; Metri Tandur; Campursari; and Sego Angkruk. Artists come from across generations, passed down through village elders and art groups. Artists today do not consider the potential of art in their village as their main source of income. They have other livelihoods such as farmers, traders, civil servants, government officials, teachers, health workers, private employees. This condition causes a lack of initiative from artists to attract tourists from outside the region. The role of stakeholders in Plunturan Village is very important in developing cultural tourism. The Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis) which is the driving force for cultural tourism development activities must develop a strategy to make Plunturan a tourism village. Therefore, this service uses a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and treath) to find out what strategies should be taken to initiate Plunturan Tourism Village based on local wisdom. So that culture-based development is not only aimed at improving culture, but also in carrying out development it is necessary to base on the culture that is owned, especially regarding value systems, attitudes and customs.

Value-Free Analysis of Values: A Culture-Based Development Approach

Recent literature in the fields of Political Economy, New Institutional Economics and New Cultural Economics has converged in the use of empirical methods, offering a series of consistent quantitative analysis of values. However, an overarching positive methodology for the value-free study of values has not yet precipitated. Building on a mixed systematic-integrative literature review of a pluralistic variety of perspectives from Adam Smith’s ‘Impartial’ Spectator to modern moral philosophy, the current study suggests the Culture-Based Development (CBD) approach for analyzing the economic impact of values on socio-economic development. The CBD approach suggests that the value-free analysis needs: (i) to use positive methods to classify a value as local or universal; (ii) to examine the existence of what is termed the Aristotelian Kuznets curve of values (i.e., to test for the presence of an inflection point in the economic impact from the particular value) and (iii) to account for Platonian cultural relativity (i.e., the cultural embeddedness expressed in the geographic nestedness of the empirical data about values). The paper details the theoretical and methodological cornerstones underpinning the proposed CBD approach for value-free analysis of values.

Inner Archipelagos in Sicily. From Culture-Based Development to Creativity-Oriented Evolution

When Covid-19 arrived in Europe from the far East, the media and experts in economics and social sciences noticed that it was the expected discontinuity in the socio-economic development process. Really, the current phase has spread since the 1960s, when the application of econometric worldwide-spread development model was going to produce social inequalities, and consumption of physical, social, and cultural resources. Some places in Italy, far from the erosive and urban context and erosive metropolitan areas, are currently isolated seeds of a new cycle of life, because of the local community identity and the strong link between human, cultural, and natural components are currently working together towards a new development model. Starting from a 20-year research about Local Cultural Systems in Sicily, the research group has defined and tested the cultural dimension of development, and affirmed that the transition to a culture-based growth, as defined by UNESCO, should be the solution for overcoming the erosive Anthropocene era. In western Sicily, the Belice Valley is working on cultural transition thanks to relationships between cultural heritage, identity, and settlement network, that we have designed as a Territorial Archipelago. The research demonstrates that local communities will innovate if they rethink the development model and reshape spatial patterns and economic networks focusing on the creativity-driven vision.

PROFESSIONALISM OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATOR TO SUPPORT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 4.0 BASED ON LOCAL CULTURE

Professional educators are expected to be one of the efforts to realize quality human resources, especially towards the industrial revolution 4.0. However, the concept of professionalism, especially for early childhood educators, has very complex coverage especially with regard to the characteristics of their students and the competencies that educators must possess. Local culture based early childhood education is expected to be an effort to implement educator competencies where later the role that is raised will still maintain the peculiarities of early childhood education by not forgetting the preparation of students to recognize technology as one component in the 4.0 industrial revolution. Changes to this will be done by educators by first preparing their students in accordance with the conditions of their respective socio-cultural environment so that the concepts that children have remain meaningful in accordance with the stages of child development. This qualitative descriptive research method was carried out in TK Negeri Pembina Kediri City with a group B research object, the results of local culture-based development activities can be obtained if the professionalism of educators continues to be improved especially in handling according to revolution 4.0. The results obtained are the implementation that has been carried out by TK Negeri Pembina Kota Kediri through the development of themes that contain local culture, innovation required by teachers to master technology.

The role of local government in rural communities: culture-based development strategies

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses local development and various governance strategies that local governments can use to engage actors in rural communities and resources from a broader environment to achieve desired socio-economic outcomes. We ask: How can local governance vary in rural communities? How can governance arrangements lead to contrasting socio-economic outcomes? Our conceptual framework combines a typology of local governance roles with socio-economic outcomes associated with neo-endogenous development theory. We explore culture-based development projects from three rural communities. We find that local governance strategies vary between relatively similar rural communities and that they represent compromises in terms of socio-economic outcomes. Local government in rural communities can act strategically through use of local networks. Local governance here is best understood as an emergent quality of the local context, history, institutions, culture, and, power relations. Therefore, governance strategies in rural contexts should be based on careful reflection on potential roles, trade-offs and desirable outcomes.

Culturally Sustaining Leadership: A Pacific Islander’s Perspective

Social justice in educational settings can be advanced through culturally sustaining leadership development programs for indigenous students, faculty, and administrators. The state of Hawai‘i has been a fertile ground for culture-based development experiences for emerging leaders from islands throughout the Pacific. These opportunities arise from the recognition of dissonance created by customary leadership programs which often give little or no attention to native cultures of the Pacific islands and prioritize other models. This essay highlights elements of my Chamoru culture that form the foundation of a culturally responsive leadership praxis within the context of American educational institutions. I offer this as an example that may help others develop their own culturally sustaining practices and inspire creation of leadership development programs which honor native cultures while facilitating effective professional practices in mainstream settings.