Introduction. Sharing of information across cultural boundaries does not always live up to expectations. Information behaviour is an underlying factor, which can contribute to poor use or non-use of the information or information services at the disposal of indigenous people in a development context. Method. A literature study of information behaviour, cultural contexts and information technolo...

This paper examines the main theoretical frameworks for analysis of comparative cultural attitudes. A critical discussion of the work by Kluckholm and Strodtbeck, Hofstede and Trompenaars leads to a new theoretical approach for study of the national cultural attitudes and norms of behaviour. A methodology based on action research is designed to compare the ‘internalised’ norms of behaviour with...

BACKGROUND Assessing the cultural competence of medical students that have completed the curriculum provides indications on the effectiveness of cultural competence training in that curriculum. However, existing measures for cultural competence mostly rely on self-perceived cultural competence. This paper describes the outcomes of an assessment of knowledge, reflection ability and self-reported...

An important form of cultural evolution involves individual learning of behaviour by the members of a population of agents and cultural transmission of learned behaviour to the following generations. The selection of behaviours generated in the process of individual learning requires some "guiding criteria". As with behaviour, guiding criteria can be innate or originate from individual or socia...