Chapter 7: Culture and Identity

Andy Baker, author of Shaping the Developing World: The West, The South, and the
Natural World, raises an interesting question: Is the culture of Baghdadis to blame for the citys
inability to achieve sustainable human development? (p. 159). As a city that used to be the
largest in the world, by standards of todays economies they are struggling. However, it is not a
question that applies solely to Baghdad. Many cities and nations across the world are considered
to be poor nations, given the title of a third world country. Since Europe began its role in the
Industrial Revolution and became a leading nation in the coal and metal industries, many nations
in the Middle East have had economic troublesthe real question that Baker is attempting to
answer, however, is in regard to whether or not ones culture plays a factor into the development
and stability of the economy in a nation, and to what extent, if any. The argument that Baker
presents claims that the prosperity and development of ones economy has much to do with the
cultural norms and behaviors of that nation. With that, Baker attributes cultural and social
divisions within a society to underdevelopment leading to the conclusion that ones culture does,
in fact, play a role into the stability, efficiency and development of a nation.
Culture, as defined in Shaping the Developing World, is a shared set of norms, beliefs,
and recurring practices of people in a society learned by individuals through a plethora of social
agents such as the media, religious institutions, family, friends, etc. (p. 160). Using Baghdad as
an example, Baker argues that the lack of advancement in technologies and sciences and the
advancements of culture are due to the conservative practices of the ruling religion of Islam in
the region. However, Baker also argues that perhaps the diversity within a culture is, in fact, its
reason for prosperity. He uses the example of the Sunni and Shia. Prior to 2003 and the invasions
by the United States, the Sunni and Shia populations were involved in violence believed to be

Chapter 7: Culture and Identity

caused by interethnic problems, causing a separation of the two groups. When vVillages began to
separate and reform, the reformed villages were segregated primarily into villages of strictly
Sunni and villages of strictly Shia, which have since lasted until today. The segregation of these
two separate culture groups allows for communication to dwindle between the two ethnicities
causing a divide in the nation.
Social identity holds much of the weight for the argument of human development and its
involvement in economic growth, especially in aspects that economists cant explain the
reasoning for. To understand social identity and its effect on the economy, we must be able to
understand what social identity is and the four traits that create it. Social identity is acclaimed to
be the part of a persons self understanding that stems from her or his membership in a group of
people that is larger than the immediate family and includes traits such as ones race, ethnicity,
nationality, and religion (p. 160). Each of these four traits of social identity play a part of how an
individual carries themselves within a particular community. One gains a social identity through
socialization in which they form ideas about themselves, the people around them, and the people
around the globe. Ones social identity, economists are now seeing, can greatly effect the
economy in nations all over the world, leading to international economic effects. The two
theories that Baker presents to try to explain this new idea are primordialism and constructivism.
The former supports the concept that one sees group identities as implanted into individuals
through socialization in early childhood claiming that ones development as a individual in
society is subsequent to change as they continue to grow (Baker, 160). The latter is a concept that
an individual never finishes adapting to their surroundings and the choices one makes may not
stay consistent (Baker, 161). Shaping the Developing World claims that scholars of

Chapter 7: Culture and Identity

primordialism often find that group attachments and intergroup conflict as revolving around
immutable and genetically determined physical differences such as skin color or in other words,
race (Baker, 160). To support the theory of primordialism Baker uses the example of Muslim
Palestinians and Jewish Israelis and, regardless of social status or construction, religions,
linguistic, or territorial identities.are also assumed to be imbued automatically into the
individuals born to the groups that hold them (Baker 160). Though history may claim that
Muslim Palestinians and Jewish Israelis are not allies, it would be difficult to prove that these
concepts are built into the genetics of a newborn baby. One of the strongest sets of constructivist
data that may combine both theories, and even counteract primordialism, comes from Bobbie
Harro in her concept of the Cycle of Socialization.
Bobbie Harro, a Professor of Education at Springfield College in Springfield,
Massachusetts, introduced The Cycle of Socialization in 1995 as a theory to help one to
understand that socialization is a learning process, beginning shortly after birth. She summarizes
it primarily as a socialization process that is pervasive, consistent, circular, self-perpetuating, and
has invisible traits forming a cyclical form that allows all factors of life to be taken into
consideration as to why an individual is a particular way. It goes to show that socializing agents,
such as people (parents, siblings, teachers, etc.), institutions (sports teams, churches, school, etc.)
and other daily messages (music, media, medicine, etc.) play a role into ones being. So is it
possible to say that Muslim Palestinians and Jewish Israelis are not allies due to the fact that they
are of different religions, due to the color of their skin, their nationalities, or their ethnicity? Yes,
it is possible to say that, most certainly. But, is it also plausible to claim that each of the groups
have raised their own to disregard and not cooperate with the other? Absolutely. Max Weber, a

Chapter 7: Culture and Identity

German sociologist claimed something similar to this when he argued that cultural and religious
attitudes of a country are determinants as to whether or not a nation is prosperous, but William
Easterly and Ross Levine claim it to be due to cultural diversity. Baker claims that cultures and
their diversity pay a role into the economic stability, instability and growth or deletion of a
nation. Harros Cycle of Socialization supports that claim. Each culture and its diverse nature
raise their own to inherit their ideas or the ideas of their culture, creating a social identity for an
individual as they grow up. In a nation such as Iraq, who used to hold the title as the worlds
largest city and flourished in technological advances, to now be an economy that we would
consider in todays society a struggling economy, its a huge dip. Baghdad, a city once united, is
now home to divided Shia and Sunni groups. Baker claims that, on average, nations who are less
developed also contain higher degrees of cultural pluralism than developed ones, showing that
a loose negative correlation between GDP per capita and cultural diversity does exist (Baker,
172). Though he explains that the connection is loose, i.e. correlation not leading to causation, it
would be difficult to deny the claim that cultural and social beliefs have no effect on the state of
the economy in any given nation.