Pragmatic dismissal

Review of Frameworks for the Representation of alternative Conceptual Orderings as Determined by Linguistic and Cultural Contexts (Part #13)

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In the previous sections attention has been focussed on the determination of modes of information processing in different cultural and language contexts. Some of the implications may be considered quite striking. They raise questions about the assumptions under which international information policies are developed. It is however possible to set such questions aside by adopting the attitude that the differences are really only significant as inter-cultural curiosities to be savoured when exploring the artistic heritage of exotic cultures. In the 'real world' after all, commerce can be successfully conducted by using a highly simplified form of English in which subtleties of interpretation can be ignored, provided there is no misunderstanding concerning the goods being exchanged. International trade has been successfully carried out over the centuries with just such a pragmatic attitude. The pressure has always been on the exotic cultures to learn to function at an adequate level in one of the trade languages. 

When misunderstandings arise they are handled on a case-by-case basis, possibly guided by the experience of an 'old hand at the business' of dealing with culture in question. 

This pragmatic approach has been carried over into the exchange of telex messages. With the rapid development of telecommunications and data networks, dominated by hardware and software with manuals and operating systems in English, a similar pragmatism has been necessary. Those who failed to adapt their thinking and methods of operation to such systems found themselves at a disadvantage. Similarly in the case of international air traffic control, mastery of an English-based jargon is obligatory for pilots. For reasons of cost, most international databases use English language thesauri for search purposes, even those designed within multilingual organizations such as those of the United Nationssystem. Partial remedies for any problems are increasingly sought, with some success, in machine-assisted translation, as in the case of the EEC. 

With this experience in overcoming intercultural and interlinguistic problems, it can easily be argued that the kinds of problems evoked in the preceding sections can simply be ignored or handled on a case-by-case basis when they create special difficulties. And clearly this is a viable approach for a significant proportion of information processing. 

The purpose of this paper is to argue that, at least for some forms of information processing, the above attitude is facile and suspect. It conveniently obscures issues which may help to clarify the problems of information overload and information underuse when, and if, they become of concern. The ease with which cultural differences can be dismissed in the short-term, obscures the longer terms problems which emerge as a consequence. This lesson has been repeatedly learnt at great cost by multinational corporations and by international agencies with aid programmes. But whilst cultural factors are now taken more seriously by such bodies with respect to their operations, there is little suggestion that similar lessons remain to be learnt by those concerned with information policies. The main signals on this question come from the cultures claiming they are subjected to 'cultural imperialism'. 

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