International
School of Information Management,
University of
Mysore
&
Centre for
Advanced Research on
Indigenous
Knowledge Systems, Mysore
Talk
on
By
Dr. Arnold Groh
Research
Center for Semiotics,
Technische
Universität Berlin.
Date and Time:
December 8, 2009 : 11:00 A.M.
Venue:
ISiM
Lecture Hall - 1
You are cordially invited
Prof. Shalini R. Urs
Dr.
Jan Brouwer
Executive Director, Member
–Secretary,
ISiM, Mysore. CARIKS,
Mysore.
For
more details log on
http://www.isim.ac.in/speciallecture/Development%20Dialogue.htm
Speaker’s Bio:
Dr. Arnold Groh received his M.A.
(Literature), M.A. (Linguistics) & Doctorate of Psychology from University
of Bielefeld, Germany and brings a total experience of about 22 years in
academics. He is the head of research unit “Structural Analysis of
Cultural Systems”, Technical University of Berlin; Lecturer at Humboldt
University of Berlin; He has extensive international professional experience in
Africa and Germany; He serves on the editorial board of many journals including
‘Psicologia e Saude’, European Journal of Psychological Assessment,
and Alexander-von—Humboldt Foundation; He has also served on different
United Nations Accreditations Committees and Councils such as UN Working Group
on Indigenous Populations, UN Human Rights Council and others; He was a
coordinator at the Training Institute of Practical Pedagogies; Consultant for
the University of Giessen; Field Research in New Guinea, South East Asia,
Central and West Africa; He was part of a Research Group of Prof. Wolfgang
Prinz (Bielefeld University / Max-Planck-Institute, Munich). Currently he is
Lecturer and a research scientist at Technical University of Berlin.
Abstract of the Talk:
A semiotic
perspective allows for the modelling of intra- and intercultural processes.
Cultures are understood as sign inventories, and cultural exchange can be
captured as sign transfer. Defining cultural elements as signs also allows to
analyse the relation of these elements and their respective context. When
transferred, cultural elements can be compatible or incompatible with their new
context.
The semiotic
approach implies the conceptions of cultural elements being units of information
and thus, also being cognitive entities. A culture’s knowledge system
therefore also represents the culture’s pool of information and, at the
same time, its sign inventory.
Globalisation is a phenomenon of
unification, by which cultures are affected to different degrees. The flow of
cultural elements across cultural borders does not occur in equal measure;
generally, they flow predominantly in one direction and only to a smaller
extent in the other direction. These are actually two different transfer types,
resulting from a bias of cultural dominance that appears when cultural systems
of different effectiveness meet.
In order to understand the
emergence of cultural dominance, the effects of cultural syntheses over time
can be modeled, starting with indigenous cultures converging, which results in
the synthesis of those cultures at a later point in time. The resulting
cultures can then again go into synthesis with each other etc.
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