Musings of Rick Schweder

1. Key Points and Themes
1. The world has become more globalized since the fall of the Berlin wall and the countries that were trapped behind the iron curtain have adopted cultures more similar to the western ones of Atlantic Europe and the United States.
2. Shweder is a "confusionist" and believes that the knowable world will always be incomplete and there will always be an incoherence related to the knowledge of all the world's cultures.
3.  It used to be that trade could be done without caring about the culture of the trading partners where as nowadays countries are always trying to impress their beliefs onto their less cultured business partners.
2. Indicators of Global Change
1. A good indicator of the direction of global change is the number of trade partners and the amount of overall trade being done. This is because if countries are trading goods then they are probably trading cultural ideas and increased amounts of trade will lead to greater global, cultural change.
3. Cultural Shaping of Economic Outcomes
1. I believe that culture is very important in shaping economic outcomes. Some cultures preach isolationism and others encourage international interaction. Professor Shweder mentioned on good example of this. China had been one of the leading technological powers, but in the 15th century they withdrew from the world of global trade and when they rejoined in the 20th century they had fallen far behind the developed world. China's isolationist culture directly effected the economy of their country.