This chapter intends to respond to how we relate to each other in cross-cultural encounters both as researchers and more generally, particularly within an organizational setting connecting to discussions within cross-cultural management. It follows the development in the field and takes its point of departure in a non-essentialistic understanding of culture where questions such as “what do people do when they relate to culture?” and “how do they use the concept of culture?” are central. To contribute to similar research, the chapter draws on the first section of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra where a spirit is transformed to Camel to Lion to Child. The Camel appreciates the complexity and infinity of culture trying to learn everything about it, the Lion destroys the concepts about culture because of its biased or simplified nature, and the Child takes on a creative and novice perspective on cultural differences, starting with an open attitude to the world. Apart from being a first attempt to use these concepts to address cross-cultural encounters, I also modify the concepts by problematizing any clear-cut normative assessment of the three metamorphoses, by presenting perversions of each of the metamorphoses, and present novel trajectories between the different metamorphoses. By doing so, my aim is to give a conceptual device, a mnemonic or artifact, for researchers and others to think about relating to cultural differences, and also showcase the conceptual device throughout the text.

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The Camel, the Lion, and the Child: Metamorphoses, Perversions, and Trajectories in Cross-cultural Encounters

  • Thomas Taro Lennerfors

摘要

This chapter intends to respond to how we relate to each other in cross-cultural encounters both as researchers and more generally, particularly within an organizational setting connecting to discussions within cross-cultural management. It follows the development in the field and takes its point of departure in a non-essentialistic understanding of culture where questions such as “what do people do when they relate to culture?” and “how do they use the concept of culture?” are central. To contribute to similar research, the chapter draws on the first section of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra where a spirit is transformed to Camel to Lion to Child. The Camel appreciates the complexity and infinity of culture trying to learn everything about it, the Lion destroys the concepts about culture because of its biased or simplified nature, and the Child takes on a creative and novice perspective on cultural differences, starting with an open attitude to the world. Apart from being a first attempt to use these concepts to address cross-cultural encounters, I also modify the concepts by problematizing any clear-cut normative assessment of the three metamorphoses, by presenting perversions of each of the metamorphoses, and present novel trajectories between the different metamorphoses. By doing so, my aim is to give a conceptual device, a mnemonic or artifact, for researchers and others to think about relating to cultural differences, and also showcase the conceptual device throughout the text.