Brittany Benton
Paper #2

Cultural Diversity
Individuals acquire their sense of identity, their self-esteem and their core values and worldviews from the community in which they grow up and live. These aspects of an individual’s character and knowledge are acquired through the expression of their community’s culture, including: language, religion, music, visual arts, artisanal and traditional practices, theatre, poetry and song. “Culture is thus integral to individual and community stability, their sense of worth and their capacity to make sense of the world” (Melé & Sánchez-Runde, 2013). In the knowledge economy culture has emerged as an important (if not primary) site of the local, national and global struggle for leadership with respect to the ideas, beliefs, worldviews and values that shape our world.

Like culture, there is no one definition of development. Generally, though, development is a complex process that seeks to overcome the adverse social, economic and human conditions “left particularly by colonialism and discriminated in countries or communities affected by these” (Liam & O'Neal, 2003). Development aims to prep such countries or communities with the needed skills, technology, access to information, cash and other resources, “to enable them to be relatively self-sustaining now that they are self-governing entities” (Liam & O'Neal, 2003). Development impacts directly and indirectly on the way of life of a community. Education, technology, new skills, increased earning power and access to information, all of these affect the individuals and the communities who are the receivers of development. “As such, development may be viewed as a cultural process that may be hindered or facilitated by culture” (Liam & O'Neal, 2003). Development impacts upon the culture of those intended to be “developed” and in turn their culture impacts on