Cultural knowing as practicing - Extending our conceptions of culture

A program of research designed to provide understanding of effective cross- cultural interaction in international joint ventures led to anomalous findi ngs. Through a grounded theory process, consideration of the anomalies led to exploration of alternative conceptions of the constructs of culture and cultural knowledge. Contemporary conceptualizations of culture and of cultu ral knowledge represent individual cognitions about broad cultural assumpti ons underlying behavior. Drawing on anthropological literature, the authors suggest that culture in such joint venture settings is in the making. Borr owing from Anthony Giddens's ideas of practical consciousness, the authors call for new concepts of cross-cultural knowing, portraying cultural unders tanding as locally situated, dominantly behavioral, and embedded in mundane and evolving social practices that are jointly negotiated by actors within specific contexts, constituting situated learning. This emergent perspecti ve recognizes the fragmented, improvisational, and contested nature of cult ure and the increased overlapping and intermixing of people from diverse so cial settings around the globe. Consequently, cultural knowing can be conce ptualized as socially produced, dynamic, practical, and locally situated.