Conflicts occurring in the clash of cultural values captured the modern world. This includes large-scale anti-religious persecution in the USSR, Islamic fundamentalist political movement based on religious beliefs, which did not cause almost any international reaction, the occupation by China of independent Tibet, and so on.
Broad definition
Jonathan Turner, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of California, defined the term “cultural conflict” as follows: it is a confrontation that occurs due to differences in cultural beliefs, elements of a worldview that give an individual or social group confidence in their outlook on the world. Conflict arises when expectations from people of a certain behavior, due to their origin, are not met.
Conflicts of cultural property are difficult to resolve because the parties are convinced of the correctness of their worldview. All problems of this kind are especially aggravated when it comes to the political sphere. An example here is the debate around the moral and legal status of induced abortions.
The current cultural conflict is ethnic cleansing. Conflict can result in armed clashes. The most famous example of armed conflict of cultural property is the controversy surrounding the problem of slavery that led to the US war. Another difficulty appears here. It is about protecting cultural property in the event of armed conflict.
Narrow definition
Daniel Bell, an American sociologist and publicist, author of the theory of informational (post-industrial) society, outlined interesting ideas in his essay Crime as an American Way of Life, which was released in 1962. The author describes the dangerous consequences of a clash of values. Another researcher, W. Kornblum, emphasizes that as soon as state authorities begin to impose cultural values on people who do not share them (as a rule, the majority forcefully imposes their opinion on a minority), illegal organizations, markets and ways to circumvent these restrictions are created.
Conflict as a social process
Cultural conflict is defined as one of the main types of social processes. A social process is a set of interactions or phenomena that change the relationship between people or entire groups. This is a regulated form of social interaction. An important feature of such processes is scale, because nothing in society can happen outside of social interaction. The main varieties are competition, adaptation, cooperation, conflict, amalgation (mutual cultural penetration), assimilation (the loss by a certain part of society of its distinctive features).
Prohibition in the interwar period
An example of the emergence of illegal organizations, markets and ways to circumvent government restrictions is the prohibition in the United States between the First and Second World Wars. The cultural conflict between the adherents and opponents of this law has led to the development of illegal activities in the field of alcohol trade. Attempts to circumvent this law were very active, so that in the end there was only an increase in the number of criminal organizations, the mafia and other criminal groups that were engaged in bootlegging - the illegal production and distribution of alcohol. Mass neglect was also associated with the corruption of politicians and law enforcement officials.
The war on drugs in the US
A similar example of a cultural conflict is the fight against drugs. This refers to the long-term US state campaign to combat drug trafficking and use. According to The Economist weekly, the “war on drugs” proved futile: the destruction of plantations in Peru led to an increase in the production of a narcotic coca plant in Colombia, and after the destruction of Colombian crops, production in Peru increased again. Other campaign results confirm this:
- After curbing smuggling through the Caribbean, drugs in the United States began to be transported across the border with Mexico.
- A short-term shortage of traditional drugs led to the spread of surrogates, which turned out to be even more dangerous to health.
- In Latin America, the “war on drugs” has intensified local crime, corrupt governments and law enforcement agencies. At the same time, the main task of reducing supplies to the United States has not been resolved.
Influence and perception
Culture is a powerful unconscious factor that affects conflict and attempts to resolve it. It is multi-layered, that is, what can be seen on the surface does not always reflect the essence and is constantly in motion. In addition, most cultural conflicts, rooted in the deep past, are usually based on the traditions, myths and beliefs of a certain people, therefore, even in modern conditions they are practically impossible to transform. Ways to resolve conflicts are different, but as a rule, only avoiding the conflict (ignoring problems) or trying to find a compromise solution (negotiations) are used.
Other conflict examples
The author of the concept of ethnocultural separation of civilizations, American political scientist and sociologist Samuel Phillips Huntington, in the philosophical and historical treatise "Clash of Civilizations", dedicated to the world after the Cold War, argued that all wars in the future will occur between cultures, and not between countries. Already in 199, the author unequivocally claimed, for example, that Islamic extremism would become a significant security threat throughout the world, and in general, this idea was proposed at a university lecture in 1992, and then developed in more detail in Huntington's article “Foreign Affairs of 1993”.
Among modern socio-cultural conflicts, one can name not only Islamic fundamentalism, which seeks to influence the process of social development based on religious norms, although this movement has become so widespread that in fact it has turned into a global opposition to religion from the rest of the world. Cultural conflicts are the religious confrontation in Ireland, the revolution that took place in Iran, the war that unfolded over the Holy Land of Palestine, the religious persecution of the last century in the USSR, the Chinese occupation of Tibet, religious wars in Africa, the confrontation between Islamists and Hindus, the feud between Serbs and Croats, "theology of liberation" and so on.
Franco-Flemish conflict
An example of a cultural-linguistic conflict is the Walloon-Flemish confrontation that arose on the basis of the linguistic factor in the mid-nineteenth century. The conflict goes back to antiquity. The border of the Roman Empire passed through the modern territory of the conflict. Some lands underwent Romanization, while other villages prevented massive German colonization, which allowed the population to preserve their speech and culture. In modern Belgium, the Franco-Flemish conflict is understood as a whole complex of differences of ethnic, political, linguistic, economic and ethnic character.
The cultural conflict in recent history has caused a political crisis in Belgium in 2007-2011. A long period of tensions between the subjects of the kingdom increased the economic and political instability of the country. This crisis has become the most protracted in the history of the kingdom since its foundation in 1830. It is not ruled out that against the backdrop of yet another aggravation of relations, Belgium may split into two parts: French-speaking Wallonia and Brussels-Capital District and Flanders. By the way, such an outcome is predicted by more than 65% of the inhabitants of Flanders.
Theology of Liberation
In the seventies of the last century, a powerful religious movement was activated in Latin America, which became known as the "theology of liberation." Gustav Gutierrez, Sergio Mendeles, Leonardo Boffa and other ideologists of the concept literally challenged the existing capitalism in the world, based on a special interpretation of the principles of Christianity. Within the framework of the “theology of liberation, ” the life and teachings of Jesus Christ represent a social rebellion against the Roman Empire. This is a kind of Catholic "jihad", a religious war against capital. In fact, the appearance of such a concept was only another evidence in favor of the fact that in the twentieth century religions are becoming more politicized, including in the socio-political confrontation.
But the phenomenon of "theology of liberation" is very interesting. For example, for many followers of Ernesto Che Guevara, who in the sixties proposed a union of leftists and Catholics, is a legendary person. Comandante, many compare with Christ. In some parts of Bolivia, for example, in every family they pray to Saint Che Guevara.
