Values in conflict in cross-cultural architectural encounters

Abstract

In an international development assistance context, in which representatives of higher income countries and global institutions meet with people of very different cultures, values can conflict. My experience working on a Community Based Building Program in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea in the 1980s introduced me to the thinking styles, beliefs and values of another culture with traditions very different from my own. Evaluators experience this conflict when they work alongside members of another culture, while at the same time adhering to established methods and values from their own culture or professional practice. To help with this, evaluators can identify the benefits in local knowledge, and assist all parties to build an awareness of both explicit and tacit values employed – including those of the evaluators themselves – while in the process of undertaking an evaluation.