Halcyon Identifies

 

Today we speak with one another in c.7000 languages; but it’s estimated that 90% of these will be gone by 2050.

 

Measuring societal well-being is complicated by widely varying definitions of the good life across cultures.

As border conflicts account for much of the world's military-industrial spend, it is argued that we need to understand better how people, money, power, religion, culture  interact to change the map of the world, and thereby better anticipate future geopolitical changes.

New research suggests that culture is at least as important as "character" in determining people's values and how they behave in different contexts.

Development strategies sensitive to cultural values can promote human rights, including gender equality and women's empowerment.

• Culture - despite the extraordinary diversity of the world's ethnosphere of indigenous cultures, languages and lifestyles are disappearing at an ever-increasing rate.

Problems - 06/11/07

• Culture/Identity - will local cultures inevitably fall victim to a global "consumer" culture? Will consumer values overwhelm peoples' sense of community and social solidarity?

Problems - 05/10/07

• Migration - a new global attitudes survey suggests that, in rich countries and poor, people are most concerned about inequality, threats to their culture, threats to the environment and threats posed by immigration.