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Hofstede and Hobbitses: Generational Evolution of Power Distance and Masculinity in UK in Popular Literature

Published: 27 December 2020 Publication History

Abstract

A knowledge of cultural values of users is implicit to developing personas for HCI research. Hofstede's dimensions have been a prominent model in tracing cross-cultural influences in HCI but there has been significant criticism for treating culture as monolithic and reducible to a few statistics. In this paper we investigate two of Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions, namely Power Distance and Masculinity. Is popular literature an accurate reflection of the cultural values of its intended audience? Through the viewpoint of the modern, English-educated Indian, we conducted a qualitative inquiry, with a focus on elements like characters, events and reflections that bring out the Power Distance and Masculinity in popular fiction from the UK, by authors Arthur Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling. We conducted workshops with expert readers familiar with the work of these authors and analyzed the data to formulate an evolution of power disparities and social predilections in the UK society over the past century. We gathered insights into the evolution of societal values and how authors contrast the mainstream with the exceptional to create a diegetic universe that is cogent with the life and times of the audience they are written for. As the first probe in a larger study, we reflect on the methodological learnings from this inquiry, reflecting on the mechanisms of conducting post factum inter-cultural studies and biases. Our conclusions discuss the feasibility of using popular literature as a barometer of cultural values of society, and its potential role in developing user personas.

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  • (2021)A Gender-Focused Prism on the Long-Term Impact of Teachers’ Emotional Mistreatment on Resilience: Do Men and Women Differ in Their Quest for Social-Emotional Resources in a Masculine Society?Sustainability10.3390/su1317983213:17(9832)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2021

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cover image ACM Other conferences
IndiaHCI '20: Proceedings of the 11th Indian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
November 2020
129 pages
ISBN:9781450389440
DOI:10.1145/3429290
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 27 December 2020

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  1. Cultural Values of Generations
  2. Masculinity
  3. Power Distance

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View all
  • (2021)A Gender-Focused Prism on the Long-Term Impact of Teachers’ Emotional Mistreatment on Resilience: Do Men and Women Differ in Their Quest for Social-Emotional Resources in a Masculine Society?Sustainability10.3390/su1317983213:17(9832)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2021

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