Culturalism. Social psychology of cultural difference

Abstract

The text offers a critique of ‘culturalism’, that is, the belief that cultures exist as given realities that define people. The author argues that this idea reproduces classificatory frameworks similar to those found in biological discourse and ultimately legitimises power relations, prejudices and discrimination. Rather than understanding culture as a natural framework within which social relations take place, he proposes viewing it as a historical social construct, emerging in modernity, which serves to order and classify individuals. Thus, culture does not explain society, but is a product of social and power relations, and for this reason its use in critical social psychology must be questioned.