Kim Woods (only)

Learning is enhanced when you take time to reflect on the process. Please think about the various learning activities you engaged in during this unit and write 1 page summarizing the following:

In the Assignment this week you examined your co-cultural identity. What was the most significant thing you learned about yourself from this Assignment?

I forgot to add this to the other assignment that you have done. Do you need me to add the other paper to it so that you can fully answer the question? Please and thanks 

CO-CULTURES 1

CO-CULTURES 4

Co-cultures

Brittany Salley

Kaplan University

Co-culture

A co-culture is a group whose behaviors, beliefs and values, separate from the broader culture in the society that is part of and probably shares several similarities. In a nutshell, the beliefs and behavior of a co-culture separate it from the broader culture that it is part of. A co-culture differs from the culture in the sense that it is broken down into several small groups of people who share common beliefs. On the other hand, a culture is a large group with which everyone associates with. In simple terms, the people who are like and behave like me would be referred to as a co-culture whereas people with whom I have some things in common but not so much would be identified as my culture. Everyone in the society belongs to several co-cultures that play an essential role in shaping one’s cultural identity (Maschmeyer, Lorenz, Schimek, Hasenberg, Ramme, Hübner & Sambo, 2015). This paper identifies some co-culture that the author identifies himself with such as religion, generation, gender, race and social class, explains which co-culture is the most dominant that the author would use to describe himself most, why the author would or would not be comfortable to limit himself to one co-culture as a description and how the co-cultures might influence the author’s communication with those outside his co-cultures.

There are various co-cultures that the author would identify himself with. Some of them include religion, generation, gender, race, social class, African-American and a multi-racial father. The author is an African-American whose religious orientation is Catholic and a father with a good income that surpasses $150,000 anaully. The most dominant co-culture for the author to describe himself as is a father or a parent. The co-culture identified plays a significant part in shaping the author’s identity as America. Being a parent is a fantastic experience in a person’s life because children are a blessing and a gift from God. Moreover, parental life comes with a feeling that cannot be quickly taken away or taken for granted. Children play a vital role in inspiring people to work hard in life and have a better experience as well as guarantee them a good future. Children play an important part in shaping how we relate to others because as a parent you would not wish to demean other people especially when they are walking around with their children. More importantly, children in a family influence a couple in planning for the future because one would not wish to have children who do not have a promising future.

It is not a good move to limit one to only one co-culture because after all, all the mentioned co-culture plays an integral essential part in shaping and molding a person into what he or she is. Everyone in the society belongs to several co-cultures that are important in developing his or her identity (Plummer, 2015). For instance, apart from being a father, I am a brother, a son, a nephew and above all, a husband. Therefore, if I limited myself to only one co-culture which is being a parent, I would be locking out several people, and that implies that I will not have time for them. Moreover, different co-cultures have different values and beliefs that help in shaping a person, therefore, limiting on to only one co-culture is a disadvantage because some values that shape a person would be left out because they might not be found in a person’s chosen co-culture.

Attempting to communicate with other people who do not belong to my co-culture might prove difficult because it is very little or no knowledge at all about which co-culture they pertain or relate to. For instance, someone who refer to a culture of young boys would have a lot to talk about or share about young boys. Similarly, a person who is a father like me would find it quite easier to communicate with people of the same caliber; that is fathers like he is. Therefore, despite being male, different people would have different experiences in different co-cultures thus making it difficult to effectively communicate with each other. Elsewhere, being a parent of two little girls, I might find it hard to communicate with a father like me but who has boys based on what the children like doing (Castle Bell, Hopson, Weathers & Ross, 2015). This is a factor is brought about by the fact that the experience I have with girls is different from the experience another father somewhere would have with boys. Having said that, co-cultural communication with outsiders is affected by the fact that dominant groups or cultures label or mark some co-cultures as outsiders. This labeling makes it difficult to communicate because one would find it hard to associate with a co-culture or a culture that he or she has never had interactions with before.

In summary, a co-culture is a group whose behaviors, beliefs and values, separate from the broader culture in the society that is part of and probably shares several similarities. Everyone in the society belongs to several co-cultures that play an essential role in shaping one’s cultural identity. Some of the co-cultures to identify with include religion, generation, gender, race, social class, African-American and a multi-racial father. The most dominant co-culture for the author to describe himself as is being a father or a parent. It is not advisable to limit one to only one co-culture because since several other co-cultures influence in shaping a person’s identity. Communicating with other people who are outside one’s co-culture is sometimes difficult because of very little knowledge about their culture.

Reference

Castle Bell, G., Hopson, M. C., Weathers, M. R., & Ross, K. A. (2015). From “Laying the Foundations” to Building the House: Extending Orbe’s Co-Cultural Theory to Include “Rationalization” as a Formal Strategy. Communication Studies, 66(1), 1-26.

Maschmeyer, I., Lorenz, A. K., Schimek, K., Hasenberg, T., Ramme, A. P., Hübner, J., … & Sambo, N. S. (2015). A four-organ-chip for interconnected long-term co-culture of human intestine, liver, skin and kidney equivalents. Lab on a Chip, 15(12), 2688-2699..

Plummer, E. (2015). ” Create-A-Culture: An Experiential Approach To Cross Cultural Communication Dynamics. Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association, 2014(1), 3