Glossary of terms

Cross-cultural competence is the ability to mobilise and deploy relevant psychological resources in order to respond appropriately and effectively to the demands, challenges and opportunities presented by intercultural situations. More specifically, it involves a combination of values, attitudes, skills, knowledge and critical understanding applied through action which enables one to:

• understand and respect people who are perceived to have different cultural affiliations from oneself;

• respond appropriately, effectively and respectfully when interacting and communicating with such people;

• establish positive and constructive relationships with such people.

Source:  https://www.coe.int/en/web/reference-framework-of-competences-for-democratic-culture/glossary

A cultural area, cultural province or ethno-geographic area is a  contiguous geographic area within which most societies share many traits in common.

Well-known examples of culture areas and their traditional residents are found on every continent except Antarctica and include Scandinavia, homeland of the Vikings; the North American Plains, home of the Plains Indians; and Africa’s Al-Sudd, the seasonal wetland that is home to the Nuer, Dinka, and other cattle pastoralists. Australia, home of the Australian Aborigines, is often treated as a single culture area despite its considerable cultural and geographic diversity.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/culture-area

Cultural globalization is a phenomenon involving the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities due to the diffusion of commodities and ideas. It brings increasing interconnectedness among different populations and cultures around the world.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/science/cultural-globalization

Discover more: https://helpfulprofessor.com/global-culture-examples/ 

Culture is the shared characteristics of a group of people, which encompasses , place of birth, religion, language, cuisine, social behaviors, art, literature, and music. 

Some cultures are widespread, and have a large number of people who associate themselves with those particular values, beliefs, and origins. Others are relatively small, with only a small number of people who associate themselves with that culture. However, the value of culture cannot be defined by its size. 

No matter if a culture is widespread or kept within a small region, is young or old, or has changed over time or stayed the same, every culture can teach us about ourselves, others, and the global community.

Source: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/resource-library-cultural-identity/ 

Culture is a set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group that encompasses not only art and literature but also lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs. 

A distinction may be drawn between material (physical artefacts such as food, clothing, housing, goods, tools, artistic products, etc.), social (language, religion, laws, rules, family structure, labour patterns, folklore, cultural icons, etc.) and subjective (shared knowledge, beliefs, memories, identities, attitudes, values and practices) aspects of culture. 

This set of cultural resources is distributed across the entire social group with each individual member appropriating and using only a subset of the cultural resources potentially available to them. This explains the variability within each cultural group and may result in contested or blurred group boundaries.

Under this view, any social group can have a culture and all cultures are dynamic and constantly change over time as a result of internal and external factors. All people belong to multiple groups and their cultures, and participate in different constellations of cultures. Cultural affiliations are also fluid and dynamic, having a strong subjective dimension.

Source: https://www.coe.int/en/web/reference-framework-of-competences-for-democratic-culture/glossary

Culture shock is an experience a person may have when one moves to a cultural environment which is different from one's own; it is also the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, a move between social environments, or simply transition to another type of life.

Discover more: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Culture_shock#Q268586