Acknowledging participation

4. If you are not planning to teach, how do issues of language and power apply in the field you plan to enter? Does Delpit offer relevant insight?

The field i plan to engage in is that of Socio-Economic Development, a field that is inherently cross-cultural. Not only do i believe that Delpit offers relevant insight in this field but in all fields. But i digress. While i was reading the Delpit article and thinking of how her sentiments may apply to my field of research, i came across this passage. "In my work within and between diverse cultures, I have come to conclude that members of any culture transmit informations implicitly to co-members. However, when implicit codes are attempted across cultures, communication frequently breaks down. Each cultural group is left saying. "Why don't those people say what they mean?" as well as, "What's wrong with them, why don't they understand?" The reason i believed, and still believe, that this applies to not only education but economic development is because as an agent of socio-economic development a person is charged with understanding the plight of a different culture. One example would be the inconsistency in environmental values between developing nations and industrialized nations. How can an educated individual from a comparatively wealthy background tell someone who struggles with life and death every day of their life that they cannot continue to practice time honored traditions because they are endangering the life of an endangered species. In increasingly integrated societies we are all faced with the task of understanding people or concepts that are foreign to us. "...acknowledging personal power and admitting participation in the culture of power is distinctly uncomfortable."