Cultural conflict arises when different cultures interact and their behaviors and values conflict. It can occur between individuals, within a culture, between a culture and itself, or between different cultures. Examples include conflicts between ethnic groups in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Northern Ireland. Cultural conflict is expressed through instrumental conflicts over goals and practices or expressive conflicts regarding emotions. While culture is a source of conflict, understanding cultural differences can help resolve or prevent conflicts, though cultural conflicts cannot always be avoided since culture influences all relationships where conflict occurs.

1. CULTURAL CONFLICT
PRESENTED BY;
SIAH-ARMAH EDMUND
FH Kärnten
International Business Management
FH-Prof. Janet Brown, MA

2. WHAT IS CULTURE?
Cultures are the sets of inherited answers to questions posed by
life, providing information about whether, how, and when to act.
We draw on these inherited answers for common sense, for
what to do, and what not to do.
In short, Culture is,
“the way things are done around here.”
CULTURAL
CONFICT
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Conflict Across Cultures A Unique Experience of Bridging Differences; Michelle LeBaron, Venashri Pillay (2006)

3. WHAT IS CONFLICT?
[As a Noun]….a state of disagreement or argument between
people, groups, countries etc.
[As a Verb].…if two ideas, beliefs, opinions etc. conflict, they
cannot exist together or both be true
CULTURAL
CONFICT
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Longman dictionary of contemporary English 5th edition

4. CULTURAL
CONFICT
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....Hence cultural conflict may be defined as;
The conflict of behavior patterns and values that results when different cultures are incompletely assimilated.
Especially; the conflict that may find expression in high rates of criminality and delinquency.
Merriam Webster dictionary
CLASSES OF CULTURAL CONFLICT
• Inter-Personal cultural conflicts
• Intra-Cultural conflicts
• Conflict with culture itself (ones own culture or that of
others)
• Inter-Cultural conflicts

5. 5
CULTURAL
CONFICT
Popular examples of cultural conflicts;
-Cherokee vs. US government: Trail of Tears
-Bosnia Genocide - 1992-1995 - 200,000 Deaths
- The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 involved the mass killing of hundreds of thousands
of ethnic Tutsis by extremist ethnic Hutu militia groups
- The conflict between the Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants
- Tatami mat misunderstanding between Japanese and US production crew. (tatami
mat is a tightly woven grass floor-covering)
TYPES OF CULTURAL CONFLICT
Expressive conflicts: Related to feelings and the release of emotional
tension (emotions, love, desires, etc.)
Instrumental conflicts: Related to tasks to be completed, and, thus, to
goals, practices, resources, and so on. (logic, forced relocation, society,
laws, culture itself and so on)
Bridging differences: Effective intergroup communication 4th edition; Gudykunst, W. B. (2004)

6. 6
CULTURAL
CONFICT
A series of large billboards that were displayed in one of the main traffic hubs of Vienna by Sandercock in 2003,
depicting people from diverse backgrounds and viewpoints.
There was an angry man with a raised fist, with the caption,
“Go back to where you came from! Why don’t you go home?”
And, in another billboard, a dark-skinned girl with a sad face, with the caption,
“I don’t want to go home, Mommy.”
Further along is a billboard with an Asian man whose caption rages,
“You call this home? This ain’t no goddam home.”
And finally a woman in a headscarf who confesses,
“I’ve never been made to feel at home here.”
The billboards end with a wide-eyed girl, presumably a tourist, with the caption,
“I really like it here. I don’t think I ever want to go home!”
CULTURAL CONFLICT IN AUSTRIA

7. 7
CULTURAL
CONFICT
RHETORICAL
QUESTION
Our cities in the 21st century. To whom do they belong, whose identity is associated with
them, and who are outsiders and insiders?
….Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a
disaster.
- Dr Geert Hofstede

8. 8
THE VILLAGERS WHO
WANTED TO BUILD A TEMPLE
CULTURAL
CONFICT
Our cities in the 21st century. To whom do they belong, whose identity is associated with them,
and who are outsiders and insiders?

9. 9
CULTURAL
CONFICT
>18 years - Here, we decide to either;
(a)Honor/Adhere to the unseen culture, (b)Alter
the unseen culture, (c)Forge our own behaviors
and practices
~8-18 years – Influenced by the society, our
environment and the communities in which we
live and the people living in these communities.
~0-7 years – Defined by our family, friends
school, place of worship, etc.
Beyond Culture; Edward Twitchell Hall, Jnr. (1976)

10. 10
CULTURAL
CONFICT
...Cultural conflict with ones self

11. 11
CULTURAL
CONFICT
All forms of cultural conflict first and foremost begin with internal conflicts our hearts and minds
Mental conflict is when a mind is divided against itself, and becomes a battleground of opposing beliefs
or desires
...Cultural conflict with ones self
Mental Conflict; A. W. Price (1994)

12. 12
CULTURAL
CONFICT
...Cultural conflict with ones self
Mental Conflict; A. W. Price (1994)
Interpersonal relations are reflected internally by intrapersonal ones, so that the mind becomes
the scene of a quasi-social drama
The mind constitutes itself according to a model in our language. Our ways of speaking are its ways
of being (Here, there’s is no easy demarcation between metaphor and reality)

13. 13
CULTURAL
CONFICT
► Culture! Does it make sense?
HOW DO WE BUILD OUR INDIVIDUAL ROOFS?
-Culture is learned, we are not born with culture; we are born into a culture.
-At some point we define our own culture. (What is relevant and what is irrelevant)

14. 14
CAN CULTURAL CONFLICTS BE COMPLETELY
AVOIDED?
ANSWER
QUESTION
CULTURAL
CONFICT
Culture is essential to an understanding of conflict.
culture is a part of every relationship and conflict only arises in
relationships.
....[Relationships are organic, evolving, and
dynamic, and do not automatically follow a linear path.]
Conflict Across Cultures A Unique Experience of Bridging Differences; Michelle LeBaron, Venashri Pillay (2006)
CONCLUSION

15. 15
All said and done, Culture causes conflict but yet again,
Conflicts can be methodically resolved/prevented with culture.
CULTURAL
CONFICT
"Preventive defence“ IS SUGGESTED
CONCLUSION

16. CULTURAL
CONFICT
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REFERENCES
- Primitive Culture; Edward Burnett Taylor (1871)
- Conflict Across Cultures A Unique Experience of Bridging Differences; Michelle LeBaron, Venashri
Pillay (2006)
- Beyond Culture; Edward Twitchell Hall, Jnr. (1976)
- Mental Conflict; A. W. Price (1994)
- Bridging differences: Effective intergroup communication 4th edition; Gudykunst, W. B. (2004)
- Longman dictionary of contemporary English 5th edition
- Merriam Webster dictionary