Lesson 1.1: Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics: Some Key Observations

Concept

These are created and have been used to have a firm grip of phenomenon. It is the rational purport of a word or a conception.

Concepts as conceptual tools

They allow us to form other concepts, or relate concepts to each other, or even deconstruct old ones and replace them with something new.

Concepts as a heuristic tool

Concepts allow the discovery of new aspects of a phenomenon.

Sociality

It is defined by the very categories that we possess, the categories assigned to us by society at large.

Gender

It appears to be the most fundamental, intrusive, and limiting.

Values

These are a person’s or a collectivity’s principles or standards of behavior and are considered as judgement of what is important in life.

Belief

This is something one accepts as true or real.

Culture

It encompasses the complex processes and dynamics that characterize the great variety of “ways of living” practiced and observed around the world.

Culture Change

It is represented by new technological platforms, facilitation communication, self-expression, and interactions.