Development and Modernity in Hofstede's Culture's Consequences: A Postcolonial Reading
(2007) In Journal of Multicultural Discourses 2(1). p.1-19- Abstract
- This paper studies the discourse deployed in Hofstede´s Culture's Consequences (1980, 2001), the international best-seller that introduces a model classifying national cultures according to four (later five) supposedly universal dimensions. Noting that this management-oriented scholarly discourse has had a huge impact in both the business world and academia, we take a critical stance towards the Western-based, ethnocentric perspective that characterises it. Our aim is not to merely repeat the already formulated objections to the model, concerning its ontology, epistemology and methodology, but rather to focus on the very words of Hofstede himself in his second edition of Culture's Consequences (2001). With a broadly postcolonial... (More)
- This paper studies the discourse deployed in Hofstede´s Culture's Consequences (1980, 2001), the international best-seller that introduces a model classifying national cultures according to four (later five) supposedly universal dimensions. Noting that this management-oriented scholarly discourse has had a huge impact in both the business world and academia, we take a critical stance towards the Western-based, ethnocentric perspective that characterises it. Our aim is not to merely repeat the already formulated objections to the model, concerning its ontology, epistemology and methodology, but rather to focus on the very words of Hofstede himself in his second edition of Culture's Consequences (2001). With a broadly postcolonial sensibility, drawing on authors such as Said and Escobar, we contend that Hofstede discursively constructs a world characterised by a division between a 'developed and modern' side (mostly 'Anglo-Germanic' countries) and a 'traditional and backward' side (the rest) and discuss the cultural consequences of such colonial discourse. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1386890
- author
- Moulettes, Agneta LU and Fougère, Martin
- organization
- publishing date
- 2007
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Multicultural Discourses
- volume
- 2
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 1 - 19
- publisher
- Routledge
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 11660e1a-45d3-4ba2-bed8-6a96d6e8fd64 (old id 1386890)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 10:59:04
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:01:57
@article{11660e1a-45d3-4ba2-bed8-6a96d6e8fd64,
abstract = {{This paper studies the discourse deployed in Hofstede´s Culture's Consequences (1980, 2001), the international best-seller that introduces a model classifying national cultures according to four (later five) supposedly universal dimensions. Noting that this management-oriented scholarly discourse has had a huge impact in both the business world and academia, we take a critical stance towards the Western-based, ethnocentric perspective that characterises it. Our aim is not to merely repeat the already formulated objections to the model, concerning its ontology, epistemology and methodology, but rather to focus on the very words of Hofstede himself in his second edition of Culture's Consequences (2001). With a broadly postcolonial sensibility, drawing on authors such as Said and Escobar, we contend that Hofstede discursively constructs a world characterised by a division between a 'developed and modern' side (mostly 'Anglo-Germanic' countries) and a 'traditional and backward' side (the rest) and discuss the cultural consequences of such colonial discourse.}},
author = {{Moulettes, Agneta and Fougère, Martin}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{1--19}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Journal of Multicultural Discourses}},
title = {{Development and Modernity in Hofstede's Culture's Consequences: A Postcolonial Reading}},
volume = {{2}},
year = {{2007}},
}