Developing cultural competence requires you to understand the way people relate to each other and how the process often, if not nearly always, has a political element to it.
Hegemony & representation
In this section, the following key ideas will be explored:
- The political nature of hegemonic relationships and the role they play in the shaping work environments.
- Representation as a political act that often perpetuates differences in power and access to resources.
We'll also look at some case studies to investigate how these ideas operate in practice. While we introduce the ideas here and suggest how they may be useful to you, you will need to follow the presentation here on the right to gain some of the detailed ideas about the issues we raise.
Hegemony
Hegemony is a word used to describe a relationship of power between two or more parties. Where one group has influence or power over another or others (usually in an exploitative way), the relationship is described as being hegemonic.
Hegemonic
relationships can be explicit and overt, such as the situation of an
occupied country after a war, or perhaps when someone is standing with a gun
to your head. They can also be implicit and covert. Relationships between
people often have hegemonic elements to them. Friends or partners may seem
to be quite open and equable, but sometimes it is easy to work out who it is
that is in control. Often one person has better access to resources than
another or thinks that their way of doing things is the right way and has
the ability to make sure it happens.
Resource implications
Hegemony is generally linked to resources and this is a key point to understanding the idea. In the circumstances described above, where some people consider themselves better than others, or perhaps more correct than others, it sets up a situation where people can be placed in situations of power and control over others. They may have wealth or access to particular resources and therefore the ability to distribute it when and where they please and under whatever conditions they consider to be useful (perhaps even to their own material benefit?).
Hegemonic relationships between people and groups of people are occurring around us and we participate in them all the time. Understanding hegemony helps us to understand the political nature of our lives and the importance that our access to wealth and resources has on how we relate to others.
Spend some time now to consider what key hegemonic relationships do or may exist within your workplace. How will they affect cultural safety and what might you do about it?
when thinking about your presentation on cultural safety in the workplace, you need to consider the role that hegemonic relationships inherent in your profession. Part of your presentation both individually and as a group ought to address how you identify and seek to redress the impact they could have on the development of a culturally safe environment.
Every profession brings with it some form of hegemony. The very nature of professions brings some form of power and privilege. You need to be thinking about what the nature of those relationships might be (the student-teacher relationship in a school, the patient-nurse relationship in a hospital or clinic, for example) and how they can exacerbate the inability for people from different cultures to access the services that profession provides.
Some of these are very obvious, others are more subtle, more implicit. Demonstration of an understanding of the way hegemonic relationships operate to prevent cultural safety is a key criteria in your Individual and Group Presentation assignment.
The politics of representation
Cultural baggage
When we enter the world, we come equipped with genetic information that helps us to survive. Survival of course is not guaranteed and one of the key success factors is the ability to adapt and learn to live in the environment in which you find yourself. Part of the survival strategy is to develop the skills – including social and cultural skills – that will enable us to get along.
The social and cultural skills we develop are so crucial to our survival that they are embedded deep within us and often we find it difficult to understand why other people (who have had different experiences and come from different cultural groups) don't think and act in the same way. Often we mistake our cultural experiences for things we think are part of everyone's life experience, not just us or our group.
Whenever we enter a new situation, we bring with us these expectations and experiences – our cultural baggage. It's impossible for us not to, because that is who we are.
Representation
When you talk about another group of people, you always talk about
them from your perspective – you can't do anything else. It is impossible
not to. Your only experience of people and their ideas is either through
the filter of your own experience or through the filter of both yours and
someone else's experiences (when you read a book or hear a story). When
you speak with authority about someone or a group of people, then there
is a sense in which you are representing their ideas and thoughts – but
representing them through the filter of your own experience.
So you can imagine that such a process can be fraught with political implications. If I'm speaking with authority about you, how does that make you feel? How can I possibly represent you accurately? What does it say about you and your ability to speak for yourself? Why would I be doing it and what benefits might I gain from doing so? These are all important questions that bear thinking about in relation to your work environment, particularly when there are cultural differences and different ways of expression ideas and emotions.
The politics of representation is such an important issue that in many ways we have only just touched on it here to alert you to it. The important point to consider here is the way in which representation impacts upon your workplace environment. How does the political nature of your interactions with people affect their (or your) ability to work?
Drawing on the ideas we have already discussed in this unit, it is crucial to understand how the politics of representation affects the workplace. here are a couple of scenarios that might help you to start thinking more specifically about your profession and the workplace.
If you subscribe to an 'externally referenced universe' model, then you think there are absolute right and wrong answers. This immediately creates a hegemon if you are the employer; You have the power and you have the frame of mind that probably suggests that you are right and others are wrong. Often the circumstances are very subtle, because most of us are far more reasonable than that, but don't forget the effects of stress and the way in which we often revert back to basics when we are under the pump.
Think about how powerful people within a workplace have the ability and sometimes the authority to ensure their way of seeing things is considered to be the most valid. Even unwittingly, people from different cultures can be locked out of decision-making processes because powerful employees or employers don't see how the differences in power or differences in ways of doing things excludes people.
Multicultural Darwin
The history of the places where we live is littered with example of
hegemonic relationships and the politics of representation. You may be
living in a place quite different from Darwin or the Northern Territory, so
you will need to be aware of the social and cultural history of your
locality. There'll be many examples, here are some from the Top End of
the Northern Territory. The readings on the right provide some background to
the history of settlement of some important cultural groups in the Northern
Territory.
The Northern Territory is renowned for being multicultural. So here an understanding of hegemony and the politics of representation is crucial. the activity below uses the readings to explore the complex way in which culture and power interact within society.
This activity incorporates the CAT4 exercise for Assignment Two.
Compulsory Assessment Task 4
Use the Activity Resource on the right to document some key events that have contributed to the cultural environment in the Northern Territory. You will need to:
- Familiarise yourself with the issues relating to hegemony and representation. The Powerpoint presentation above along with the included notes will assist you in developing an understanding of the concepts.
- Ensure you have read through both the article by Christie (2001) and the one by Reynolds(2003).
- Follow the instructions on the Word Document you can download on the right.
- Submit you final document to Grade Centre on the CDU Learnline site.
You may find the template linked at the right helpful is completing Assignment Two.
This is a task that forms a component of your assessment for Assignment Two in Northern Perspectives. Completion of this task will assist you in completing assignment two successfully.