Strong together: Building partnerships across cultures in an age of distrust

Group Submission Type: Book Launch

Description of Session

Based on interviews with 90 American and Majority World leaders who work in international development, this book project delved into the challenges of working cross-culturally and the unique assets that both Westerners and people from the Majority World bring to international development work. It also explores, from the perspective of Majority World leaders, how American cultural norms in particular often fight against development of key global competencies in our students. It challenges the reader to consider strengths that, according to Majority World leaders, Americans and other Westerners often hold as well as key assets that individuals from the Majority World are far more likely to possess.

What about the American culture fights against achieving global competencies such as interdependence, global awareness, and seeing the world from multiple perspectives? According to Majority World leaders interviewed for this study, several issues are at play:
• The speed at which we move and work
• Our focus on individual achievement/independent work
• Our tendency to operate at a distance from those we seek to help
• An emphasis on innovation rather than restoration
• Our environment which emphasizes our many assets and can presume superiority:
• International students and foreign-born faculty come to the U.S. to study/work
• When studying in a Majority World country, we often bring our faculty to teach rather than learning from local faculty
• Media portrayal of U.S. superiority

As we educate students in the West, are we encouraging them to ask questions about what they lack as well as what they have to offer our world? Are we also posing questions about the assets that others uniquely possess and how unique synergies might be achieved?

Majority World leaders in my research emphasized that Americans typically have many things to offer people in Majority World countries including efficient use of time, technological skills and expertise, ability to access financial capital, entrepreneurial expertise, and access to powerful global markets. But to become globally competent, Americans and others from the West must also recognize what we typically lack – and what people from the Majority World often possess, including social capital within a culture, patience, knowledge of local resources, understanding of what it means to live in poverty, and knowledge of how to effectively empower vulnerable people within their culture.

Drawing from research in economics, psychology, anthropology, management, and sociology, this book employs a wide-angle lens to consider how cultural differences influence international development work. Relying on Majority World voices from around the world, this book also takes a personal look at both the pain and the potential of cross-cultural collaborations and how to best prepare our students for these opportunities.

Sub Unit

• Pre-Conference Workshops, Book launches, and Visual Art Exhibits / Book Launch

Chair

• Melissa M Chiappetta, USAID

Book Launch Presenter

• Andrea Nelson Trice, Catalyst Research LLC