The Impact of Culture on Change

Posted by on August 13, 2006

New York Times columnist David Brooks writes today about the new book from Lawrence E. Harrison, "The Central Liberal Truth," that has Harrison contemplating the power of culture in shaping behavior. He concludes that cultural differences mostly explain why some nations develop quickly while others do not.

Although Harrison believes politics can change culture, it has its limits. According to Brooks, Harrison and a team of global academics studied cultural transformations in Ireland, China, Latin America and elsewhere. "They concluded that cultural change can?t be imposed from the outside, except in rare circumstances. It has to be led by people who recognize and accept responsibility for their own culture?s problems and selectively reinterpret their own traditions to encourage modernization."

The same seems true of cities. Last week, I interviewed Lou Glazer, co-founder of Michigan Future, who told me "culture trumps policy" when it comes to why cities are successful. He points to case after case of comparing two cities in a single state operating under the same state and federal policies, but one is successful and one is not. Lou believes Michigan's greatest challenge is to change the beliefs of its citizens about what leads to success.

My own work has led me to the same conclusion. Every city seems to have a dominant set of beliefs widely shared by its citizens (or at least by its leadership structure) that colors what can be done and how. Far more work needs to be done to understand the cultural differences that promote success in cities.