Weekly Blog Post 2

Give three compelling examples of how cultural issues affect your project.

Filipinos are considered to be high context communicators. That is, confrontation is avoided as much as possible; instead of being direct and straight to the point, individuals will imply what they mean to say. When we are in the country conducting fieldwork we will have to learn to gauge this and understand what people are really trying to say

Filipinos’ concept of time is different than that of most western countries. They work on a polychronic schedule, meaning performing different tasks concurrently is normal. This means that they like to keep their schedules loose and open to change. We’re going to have to consider this when we are scheduling meetings, whether it be in person or over the phone, in the Philippines.

Filipinos have a strong sense of social propriety. They try to avoid doing anything that will cause any sort of shame to their bloodline. This entails conforming to society’s standards. Our project revolves around fundamentally changing the way people process their coconuts. Obviously, we will have to carefully maneuver this strong sense of social propriety when attempting to get people to use whatever solution we propose.

Have you experienced or observed any of these social situations at home? Describe at least three such situations. 

To some degree, I think everyone has some sense of social propriety. No one wants to be the odd one out; we all buy in and conform to society’s standards in some way. When smartphones became a mainstream product, it took my dad years to cave and switch from his flip phone to an iPhone. He waited so long to buy his first iPhone that when he did so he was already multiple generations behind. Regardless, he bought an iPhone because eventually it became outright embarrassing to have a flip phone in today’s society. It just goes to show that even my dad, whom I consider to be a very stubborn individual, has a sense of social propriety.

It’s tough to find a place in the United States where the concept of time is fundamentally different. I worked the last two summers in the remote wilderness of northern Maine. People up there have a very skewed sense of time; they work on their own clocks and have very fluid schedules that are always subject to change. It can be incredibly frustrating to plan meetings with individuals like this.

People avoiding confrontation is something I see nearly every day – at school, at work, or in social situations. Saying “no” to someone can be difficult or awkward, and instead of saying it outright, we often attempt to soften the impact; most people seem to practice it in some way. Saying “No” to people can be difficult and instead of saying it outright, attempting to say it in a softer way is only natural. 

Give three examples of cultural practices that can be leveraged to address community / market problems.

Educated individuals are highly respected in the Philippines. They see education as a way to greatly improve their status in life and their social standings. Though age and experience is more highly valued, this respect indicates a willingness to learn from and work with individuals who have been educated. I think that this will become very important when it comes time to introduce whatever solution we present. How we propose implementing our discoveries and recommendations will be a crucial part of generating sustainable impact, and gaining their respect as students will go a long way toward getting them to consider and hopefully accept our ideas.

Filipinos value their work highly. Just like in the United States, Filipinos take pride in a job well done. Given that our project is focused on streamlining the process of coconuts (essentially maximizing the production of well processed copra), perhaps individuals will be more open to our ideas. The hope is whatever solution we come up with will appeal to them due to the scope of our project.

Coconut farms in the Philippines are often small to medium sized, which should work to our advantage. It would be more difficult to communicate with and persuade large corporations, who produce in bulk and are set in their ways, to change how they process their most profitable product. Dealing with small, family owned farms should, in theory, be much more reasonable. It’s our hope that they will be more open to hearing and then implementing our ideas related to efficiency.